***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[NanaKat]

Since I'm leaving Tuesday morning to join my siblings for a six day get together in Santa Fe, I've been hard pressed to finish my to-do list to make things easier for Roger to tend my birds.

Two Cochin hens decided to help me out. They started brooding eggs just in time to adopt all the newest hatchlings. Each hen hatched a couple of their own, but have ample plumage to cover the full 33 chicks! I moved them into a floor pen yesterday with their babies and added the few days old chicks. I'll hang a 40 watt bulb at one end of the pen, but I really think they will do nicely.
This way, only one brooder to keep fed and watered...about 50 chicks one and two weeks old. Then there are still 35 three to 4 weeks old with brood hens on the floor in the brood room.

I moved 27 juveniles 5 and 6 weeks old with one of the brood hens from the barn to an outside pen...they are loving it!

Rearranged the Bantam cages so the hens sitting on nests won't be in cages with roosters and laying hens. Makes collecting eggs easier.

Removed 5 wheelbarrows of deep litter in the hen house to the garden and added pelleted lime to the remaining dirt level. Added a top dressing of wood shavings. Sweetened to dirt floor and helps cut any ammonia smell.

I scrubbed and sanitized all feeders and water containers.....

Tomorrow I will clean and rearrange the duck brooder. They have been separated by a screen, but I'm going to try putting all 10 together and see if the older two are "nice" to the 8 youngest. If not, back comes the divider.

And Monday, I'll go get the feed to refill all the cans so he won't have to worry about running out of anything.

Whew!

 

[faerielady]

I PM'd you some contacts.

Thank you so much! Sorry I got sidetracked - trying to get through this last week of my MS.

 

[faerielady]

I just realized that my signature has my old chicken breeds in it - I need to change that. *sigh*

Anyway! My husband and I got the top of the run wired up - put wire across the top to keep intruders out from the top, and tightened the chain link around the sides. The coop & kennel are under the gigantic elm so it has plenty of shade from the brutal mid-afternoon sun in the summers. On Thursday I'll build a new bucket feeder and figure out what to do for a waterer - will probably going digging through the DIY and see what I can find. I hope to have chickens again by the beginning of next week.

My husband used to have chickens many years ago with his ex-wife, so he's pretty stoked at having them again. He say he didn't want guineas again - but that was easy for me because we can't free range here (so there's no place for them) and I'm not fond of them

 

[faerielady]

Just a little scoping and I found the horizontal/side mount poultry nipples for waterers - anyone here use those? They look like a huge improvement on what I had in the past!

 

[dunnmom]

I don't know if it's exactly what you mean, but I use a Tap N Drink attached to an Igloo type 2 gal. water dispenser. It's nice on hot days because I can put some ice in it and it stays cool for a long time.

Edit: I looked it up, and no, mine is not the same. Didn't realize those existed. Neat!

 

[Elbert Garrett]

Just checking in....

 

[dunnmom]

Hello to our new members! Those ants I was having problems with did end up nesting in my coop. I cleaned it really well and sprayed the heck out of it with Poultry Protector. Sprayed the swarm of ants too just to see if it would kill them, and it did. We'll see if they try to recolonize in there. Also discovered a problem with my watering system. I use an Igloo water cooler with a nipple attachment. Well, earwigs are all over the place here, and a couple wedged themselves into the vent at the top. It pulled a vacuum and the water wouldn't flow out. Luckily I caught it before my girls got too thirsty. Something I'll have to watch for as it gets hotter, Even though I give them water in a flat storage tub to stand in, I'd rather them drink the non-poopy water. Is it normal for chickens to eat less this time of year? They haven't been clearing their feeder by the end of the day, so I've been giving them slightly less feed, BOSS, and greens.

 

[ashtree]

Woo! Found this thread again. I'm just posting to make sure I'm subscribed. hope everyone's well. My allergies are out of control this year. All birds are good though. Way too many Broody hens. The muscovies are the absolute worst. I know I should get them eggs or babies but we are at our coop limit.

 

[NanaKat]

Hello to our new members! Those ants I was having problems with did end up nesting in my coop. I cleaned it really well and sprayed the heck out of it with Poultry Protector. Sprayed the swarm of ants too just to see if it would kill them, and it did. We'll see if they try to recolonize in there. Also discovered a problem with my watering system. I use an Igloo water cooler with a nipple attachment. Well, earwigs are all over the place here, and a couple wedged themselves into the vent at the top. It pulled a vacuum and the water wouldn't flow out. Luckily I caught it before my girls got too thirsty. Something I'll have to watch for as it gets hotter, Even though I give them water in a flat storage tub to stand in, I'd rather them drink the non-poopy water. Is it normal for chickens to eat less this time of year? They haven't been clearing their feeder by the end of the day, so I've been giving them slightly less feed, BOSS, and greens.

Yes, mine eat less feed this time of year as they freerange more.

 

[jrjoplin]

Trying to navigate the new site and was happy to see I get an alert with this thread. I don't with the other threads I follow but I could find them easily.

@ashtree my allergies are so bad this year I had to stop my yard work yesterday due to uncontrollable sneezing. I hope none of the neighbors saw.

I lost a rooster last week. He must have hurt himself because he was walking with a limp in the morning. My other two roosters took advantage of the situation and by the time I heard something going on and got out there they had him down and pecked a hole in the back of his head. There wasn't anything to do but finish off the inevitable. I've never seen roosters team up like that, it was a little scary.

I've got two broody hens with about 10 eggs each. I'm hoping for a hatch with some extra roosters as the freezer could use topping off and I'm down to 1 capon who I affectionately call Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone is staying safe with the storms.