Recent content by DuluthHomestead

Here's a video I took last year of my chicks eating dandelion fluff.

Since this thread is active again, I will add that my three Australorps started laying at 26 weeks, 28 weeks and (FINALLY) at 44 weeks. But now that it's spring and all three are laying, we're getting 15-18 eggs a week from the three of them.

How would it work with sand? Would it make the sand underneath too hot?

Not locally available where you are, but for anyone else reading this thread, I use Lola's Layer Mix. Not organic, but it is non-GMO, and my girls love it.

Current temp is -21F with a windchill of -46F, and last night the low (without the windchill) was around -25. The coop is partially insulated and I have a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter pointed right at the roost to keep them warmer at night (it does nothing for heating the rest of the coop). I...

One of my Australorps is 34 weeks now and still hasn't laid yet. I feel like she's been "close" for weeks and am hoping she'll start laying soon now that the days are getting longer.

I don't know if it would help, but you could probably lower the wattage on the light bulb in the water heater. We're using a 25 watt bulb in a cookie tin to heat a one gallon waterer. During the really cold weather (-20 F) the reservoir would freeze but the tray that they drink out of would...

That sounds brilliant. Does the pepper bother the chickens at all? I seem to remember hearing that birds can't taste spicy things, but I imagine the pepper dust would hurt if they got it in their eyes.

Mine get sunflower seeds, which is one of their favorite treats to begin with, and since it's been so cold and they've been cooped up so much, they seem to really enjoy scratching for the sunflower seeds in the litter. In the afternoon they get rolled oats and sometimes flax seed as their...

I resisted putting any heat in the coop because I didn't want them to be reliant on it, but when the current cold snap hit I relented and got a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter to put in the heat lamp. It's aimed at the roost so it keeps them warmer at night, but the coop is so big that it doesn't...

I don't have anything helpful to add except that of my three Australorps, who are nearing 30 weeks now, only two are laying. My non-layer still has small, pink wattles and comb and is still very skittish about being touched, while the two layers have big, deep red wattles and combs and are...

I remembered that I have a heated birdbath in the basement, not the submersible kind but a large, shallow bowl kinda like this. I set it on a small plant stand (for stability and to get it up off the bedding) and put the plastic one gallon waterer on top of it. The weather's warmed up to the...

I'm trying to find a solution to keep my chicken's water from freezing. We're in the process of building a new, bigger coop where we can have the waterer inside and be able to keep the cord safely off the ground and away from the elements, but for now the chickens are in a "tractor style" coop...

Bumping this thread because I'm having the same issue here. Today was the first really cold day this year, temps around 20-25 and windy. I checked on my girls several times over the course of the day to make sure they were doing okay and that their water wasn't frozen. One of my girls has...