Recent content by mechanic57

  1. mechanic57

    Are 2 Gallon Ziploc Freezer bags Sufficient for Broilers?

    Stromberg's looks to cost a little less. How thick are Stromberg's bags? I didn't see it on their website. Texas Poutry site says their bags are 65 micron thick. They also come with the tube to let you vent air without having to cut a vent hole in the bag. This was more appealing to me...
  2. mechanic57

    Are 2 Gallon Ziploc Freezer bags Sufficient for Broilers?

    I've been using the Texas Poultry shrink bags and they have worked great. They claim to be the thickest bags for shrink wrapping whole chickens. I got a pack of 50 of the 10"x 16" bags which are good for up to about 7lb birds. They have different size bags for chickens, turkey, etc... Mine...
  3. mechanic57

    I have a few quick quail questions

    I've had chickens for years and recently I've been doing research about quail. I have a couple of questions that I have not been able to find answers to, but I'm sure you guy know the answers. I noticed a lot of people use a cage or coop of some kind with a wire mesh floor, so apparently it...
  4. mechanic57

    Leg Bands

    Good to know. I see there are metallic bands and plastic bands. Is there a significant advantage of one over the other?
  5. mechanic57

    Leg Bands

    What he said. I have some meat birds that are 7 weeks old and are nearly as big or bigger than my 2 year old laying hens. Problem is, they are all the same color and one of my free ranging layers got in the pen with the meat birds while I was going in to top off the water and now I can't tell...
  6. mechanic57

    Kibble as a predator deterrant?

    The only thing that will "distract" a predator is if it sees or senses a bigger predator. Outside of that, you need to figure out what predators are in your area and secure you coop and chicken run against their method of attack. Hawks will fly right down into a chicken run that's not fenced...
  7. mechanic57

    Help idk what to do

    Usually, when your youngest ones stop chirping like baby chicks and start chirping/squawking like mature birds, they can be merged together. They should be close enough in size at this point that one group won't seriously injure the other if/when they fight to establish pecking order (which they...
  8. mechanic57

    Winter watering

    Without electricity you may have to carry water out there a couple of times a day so they can drink before it freezes during the colder parts of the winter. How far is the coop from your house? I run a 100ft extension cord from an outlet on the outside wall of my house to the chicken run. The...
  9. mechanic57

    When to start layer feed?

    When raising a new flock of laying hens, I switch to layer feed when they start doing the mating squat.
  10. mechanic57

    Broiler Feed and Cost Spread Sheet

    If you click on his name, a window will pop up and show you his stats. You'll see he has not logged on to this site since June 5th of 2017 :(
  11. mechanic57

    10 pound hens?

  12. mechanic57

    Question re: Meat bird products?

    All great advice here for dealing with the mental part of butchering your chickens. It's ok to have emotions about it. If you had no emotions about it, you'd probably be a borderline sociopath. With my meat birds, I do what other said, I usually refer to them as chicken nuggets or some other...
  13. mechanic57

    Tick control

    I found the same works for me. Ticks were not the primary reason we got chickens but we did notice we find way less ticks on us if we spend time in the yard. I live in the woods with a little over 1.5 acres cleared around the house and hundreds of acres of woods (not all mine) surrounding me...
  14. mechanic57

    How do I keep the coop and run clean??

    I built a litter box under the roosting bar and filled it with PDZ so the birds poo lands in that. It keeps the smell down which keeps the flies down. It takes 5 or 6 of the 25 pound bags to fill the box which is 8 feet long and maybe 30 inches wide. I have about 20 birds in this coop. I use...
  15. mechanic57

    Some naive questions about coops!

    Pre-build coops and/or coop kits seem to be very expensive compared to buying the material to build it yourself, so you seem to be ahead of the curve there, but the caveat to that is you have to have the right tools and skills to build one yourself. You don't sound quite as confident in this...
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