Colorado

[wsmith]

Our rain was sporadic, and only lasted for about an hour total; not a whole lot of water fell. We got lots of wind, lightning and thunder though. Looks like we might get some more this afternoon.as well!

All of our 4 week old chicks are 95% feathered. If our chicken pen progress continues, we'll have them outside this weekend........

Beth says the garage stinks because of the brooder. I told that's cuz chickens poop.....

We haven't had a heat lamp on them for a week. All are doing great. The other morning when I checked on them in the brooder, all the chickens were sitting next to each other, not huddled or piled, and the turkey poults were off in another area sitting next to each other. They are eating about twice as much as last week, and seem to be increasing their intake exponentially. Can't wait to get them grazing........

 

[mynamesjenelle]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking on these forums for months and finally decided to join this morning. I got my girls as day-old chicks from the feed store in mid-April, and they just recently transitioned to outside-only birds.
I miss having them in their brooder box in the dining room but it's best for them.

We got a light brahma and a welsummer, and then a week later an easter egger and barred rock. The easter egger is my little sweetie pie (and the one in my picture on the left) but they are all quite nice since we handled them often as chicks. My mom came to visit this last weekend and was SO impressed that they would just walk over to me in the morning. A few weeks ago we got a three-month old silver-laced cochin to add to the flock. My dear boyfriend told me three chickens, only THREE, and now we have five! Is this what they mean about chicken math?

We waited too long to get the coop/run started. The coop is done so they sleep there at night, but during the daytime they are in a (very sturdy) chicken tractor until we can get the run finished. We have coyotes and dogs in our neighborhood so we're cementing the hardware cloth underground for protection. I will probably have a million questions for you all here. This is a great forum!

 

[wsmith]

Welcome Jenelle!

 

[coloradochick]

Hey Jenelle

And yes Congrats! You've passed the "chicken math" final exam. Which means you've gotten more girls than you intended on to start your new adventure/addiction.

 

[wsmith]

All that is left for the two largest pens, is the wire fencing, and painting the shade trim. We are on schedule to put the chicks outside on Saturday.

 

[larca83]

Welcome, Jenelle! Chicken math happened to me too. I got my chicks last month and meant to get 3, but I ended up with 5.


I haven't posted anything about my coop progress yet...here's an update on what's been going on at our house in the past three weeks:

Husband starts coop construction, dog supervises:




Friends help out on Memorial Day:




The next day...STILL windy:





Today out in the yard. Ready for windows and red paint! We also need to finish the nesting box and the roosts.




The chicks are 4 weeks old and we haven't even THOUGHT about a run yet. But considering the speed that we got this coop together, I think we'll be okay. I adore those little girls but I can't wait to get them outside. Pine dust everywhere!

 

[wsmith]

Nice!

 

[Minchi]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking on these forums for months and finally decided to join this morning. I got my girls as day-old chicks from the feed store in mid-April, and they just recently transitioned to outside-only birds.
I miss having them in their brooder box in the dining room but it's best for them.

We got a light brahma and a welsummer, and then a week later an easter egger and barred rock. The easter egger is my little sweetie pie (and the one in my picture on the left) but they are all quite nice since we handled them often as chicks. My mom came to visit this last weekend and was SO impressed that they would just walk over to me in the morning. A few weeks ago we got a three-month old silver-laced cochin to add to the flock. My dear boyfriend told me three chickens, only THREE, and now we have five! Is this what they mean about chicken math?

We waited too long to get the coop/run started. The coop is done so they sleep there at night, but during the daytime they are in a (very sturdy) chicken tractor until we can get the run finished. We have coyotes and dogs in our neighborhood so we're cementing the hardware cloth underground for protection. I will probably have a million questions for you all here. This is a great forum!

Welcome, and congrats on the Chicken math. My Husband said 1 and I told him no way they need a friend so we got three.

 

[dennarahl]

I could use some advice from some the locals.

On Saturday we had the huge storm roll over. It was like all hell broke loose. At first it was just sprinkling and the chickens were all hiding in/under the coop. Then the wind and driving rain came and we decided to lock them up because we wouldn't have time later if it didn't let up quickly (which it did). We got everyone put away and realized part way through that one of the girls wasn't acting right. According to the hubby she was under the coop, when I used our butt poking stick to get everyone out she flopped over and he grabbed her and put her in the coop. Once in she stayed on her side. We left her there while we gathered the rest of the chickens and then took her inside. She absolutely refused to stand on her feet. If I set her down on them she would push hard with her legs and the first time it was a jump and flop on her side kind of thing. At first I thought her legs were injured buy as the minutes went by, she was breathing harder and twitching. She died about five minutes later. From everything I can find, we think it was heat stroke. The speed of her death just doesn't seem to fit with any diseases. She was fine not even 6 hours earlier. We also haven't seen any other problems from the rest of the flock.

So I guess the advice I need is what do you do to keep your chickens cool? We check/replace the water often, there is a mister that runs all day, they can go in the coop with all of its windows open, they hide under the coop (about a foot tall), they go in the geese hut, there's a little lean-to for them. We're making more lean-tos tomorrow. We're terrified of the hot temps this weekend that are supposed to come while we're gone camping. Our run isn't secure enough to leave the pop door open when the night time predators come out, and we have one derpy silkie who can't get back in the coop on her own. We're also having trouble finding anyone who can watch them while we're gone. I'd hate to cancel our trip, but I am so worried about our babies.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I'm sorry for your loss...its never good to loose an animal.

Unless you can find a trusted person to care for your animals while you are gone...leaving for any extended time frames becomes an issue. My wife and I just got back from a nice long weekend to the family condo in Estes Park and while we were gone my daughter and her fiance' took care of our animals. I also have a pair of neighbor kids that cannot wait for us to go away again so that they can watch our flock for us.

That is the ideal situation. Barring that as an option, then your choices become very limited. And your trips amount to short trips of a couple of days.

Water has a very large heat capacity...so use a container that has a large volume. This will keep the water cooler for a longer period of time during the day. I have a pair of ducks so we bought them a 15 gallon stock pan/tank for them to play and splash in, the water in this container stays cool for a longer period of time, and the chickens drink from it often.

Place your waterer so that it is out of the sun, and is constantly in shade. This will keep the water nice and cool. If there is not a shady location for the waterer, then locate the waterer so that the sun will not reach it until as late in the day as possible.

Remember that during periods of warm weather, chickens will consume almost twice what they normally consume. Make sure that your flock has multiple sources of water. That way if one gets knocked over or for some reason a water source dries up and is not functioning, then they can still get the water that they need.