Recent content by modernsettlers

Coop looks great! We use corrugated metal for the roof on our coop too - you aint lying! It will cut you like you snitched. Are those pool floats covering the sharp ends? That's genius!

Awesome! I'm watching 'em rocking, now. @buff goose guy try this link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/22353402

Wow! Your coop + run look great. I'm thinking of building a PVC feeder like that, and have about the same number of chooks in our run at the moment. How long does it take your birds to eat all the feed / how often do you fill it? Also LOL @ your screen name. I can't believe it wasn't already...

Pretty sure baby turkey are called "poults" - "keets" are young Guinea Fowl. No?

We're new to keeping and breeding turkeys too! Our Bourbon Reds were 31 weeks when we got our first egg, but I had observed "breeding" type behavior a few weeks before that. I use quotes, because the male really doesn't look like he knows what he's doing. Mainly our Jake seems to just stomp on...

We keep Bourbon Reds. Here's our hens checking out their new lay box. And here's our jake looking handsome: Turkeys are so much fun. We love their personalities, so curious and silly.

I guess you just have to do what works for you. Most likely you'll never have a problem, but even professional operations with strict biosecurity are susceptible to disease. The price of eggs didn't jump last year for no reason -...

I think it's a good idea to "quarantine" any new birds at least for a time. I would definitely recommend for ANY hatchery birds. Do you disagree? If so, why?

We've been trying to do the sustainable meat thing. Building a plucker was the best idea we've used since getting chickens! Seriously, processing day is pretty laborious, so every other month sounds like the best option. It's taxing in more ways than one, so NOT having to pluck by hand is a HUGE...

We've had to help shrink-wrapped chickies before, but more often than not they pop the rest of the way out during the night with no problem. If it hasn't been a day (or at least over night), I would keep an eye on it and wait. For incubating and hatching, a humidity gauge can be a huge help...

Time and treats is what works for us. We just feed and care for the rest of our flock as usual, throwing lots of treats out for them, and new or nervous birds tend to fall in line and join the rest once they get used to the routine. They start associating our presence with food and treats...

@copper2 - Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it! I went ahead and added Red Hard Wheat. For nutrition, I found two types listed on the gov site which had fairly different numbers, so I included both the "Spring" and "Winter" varieties. I added hard white wheat too - not sure how it had...

Hey all! I work in tech (I'm a front-end engineer - I make Web apps) and in my off time I always try to find ways to merge technology and my hobbies/interests (aka chickens!). Anyway... I haven't found many/any poultry keeping related apps and was wondering if anyone here had used any that they...

With the help of some posts here and some youtube videos, I made our version of an epinette. Just finished testing out the feed trough placement. Looks like this will work! And truly, the birds do seem calm and relaxed. Not at all stressed out about the new digs. I want to post more pics of...

**Update** I've added new ingredients (like oyster shell), and made a few tweaks to the interface to make things a little more straight forward. I'm thinking maybe a video (just a narrated screen capture or something) might help explain this tool better. Any thoughts? I recently used this...