2018 Newbie Chat!

[CannedMonster]

BBZZZZTT's Mom here. So Anna is now Kristoph...I always thought he had awfully big feet, I called them turkey feet, lol.
Now I get to raise my own from the start! I'm leaning towards bantams. I have a picture of my Mom when she was young holding her pet bantams. My aunts would always laugh about them, saying that they didn't know enough to come out of the rain unless she went out and took them to the coop. So in memory of her, I'll get bantams. Probably EE bantams. I like how their final appearance is such a surprise.
My coop is coming along, we have all the hardware cloth up on the run and buried around it. The window for the coop came in a few days ago. So we're ready to finish as soon as it stops raining long enough. It is amazingly hard work to build a coop!
Welcome to everyone new, I sure do love being here. There is sooo much information and great advice.

Welcome! So glad you’re here!
It’s a great community. I’m jealous that you have family members that love and keep chickens too.
My family thinks I’m weird lol.
I’m happy that you like bantams. I’d love to breed them but I don’t know if I can find that many people interested around here.
Although we do have a lot of 4H kids...
Coops are very hard work.
Ours is almost done too.
My poor DH has done all the work...I only did some painting

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Scored myself a fun part time job due to my chickens! They’ve been eating so much lately that I’ve been having to make a weekly trip to our feed store. My feed store needed an extra hand for five hours a week and asked me if I’d be interested! Now I’ll be getting my chicken feed dirt cheap!

 

[CannedMonster]

Scored myself a fun part time job due to my chickens! They’ve been eating so much lately that I’ve been having to make a weekly trip to our feed store. My feed store needed an extra hand for five hours a week and asked me if I’d be interested! Now I’ll be getting my chicken feed dirt cheap!

Yay! Cheaper feed is always good.
And you can help customers with your chicken knowledge.
Is it a locally owned store or a chain?

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Yay! Cheaper feed is always good.
And you can help customers with your chicken knowledge.
Is it a locally owned store or a chain?

It’s locally owned, I can’t wait to share knowledge and talk with my local experts. They just got in 120 chicks so I don’t doubt that I’ll end up with another coop and flock sooner rather than later.

 

[CannedMonster]

It’s locally owned, I can’t wait to share knowledge and talk with my local experts. They just got in 120 chicks so I don’t doubt that I’ll end up with another coop and flock sooner rather than later.

Hopefully some NN!
Do you know what hatchery they get their chicks from?

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Hopefully some NN!
Do you know what hatchery they get their chicks from?

No NN! I was so disappointed but I’m in farm country so just production breeds. Australorps, Red Stars, & Buff Orps. I’m pretty sure they go through either Cackle or Meyer. Now that my feed is so cheap I’m quite tempted to have a Red Star group that free ranges.

 

[CannedMonster]

No NN! I was so disappointed but I’m in farm country so just production breeds. Australorps, Red Stars, & Buff Orps. I’m pretty sure they go through either Cackle or Meyer. Now that my feed is so cheap I’m quite tempted to have a Red Star group that free ranges.

Yeah we have a lot of farms out here too which is great but the only reason I got the NN is because the TS opened here two years ago.
But I do know there’s a least one if not two hatcheries that have them.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Yeah we have a lot of farms out here too which is great but the only reason I got the NN is because the TS opened here two years ago.
But I do know there’s a least one if not two hatcheries that have them.

I know cackle has them, so I may just need to get me some come next spring.

 

[Blooie]

@Spryght The Mama Heating Pad thread is still actively helping folks with this more natural way to raise chicks! Yes, it's a huge thread, and no, you don't have to wade through all of it! Everything you really need to know is on the first post, and at the bottom of that post is a link directly to another page in the thread with an alternate way to set up your heating pad. It is fun to just randomly chose a section and read....then go on to another section and read. Lots of innovations and photos!

Temperatures. Ah, yes, those pesky temperatures! I only measured it once in answer to a question on the thread. It was 82.5 under there in a 69 degree room. What?? My chicks should have been dead!! But nope, there they were, all quite happy and content and growing like crazy. So much for thermometers and charts! MHP doesn't work by heating the space - it works by warming the chicks, exactly as a broody hen does! So you want it right at the level of the chicks' backs.

When I started the thread, I had just decided after my last batch of chicks that I was never ever using a heat lamp again, and I was never raising chicks indoors again either. And there had to be others who felt the same way, looking for another way to do it. After watching our broody hen Agatha with her chick, I wondered why we do it so differently and think we're doing it better! So I figured I'd post what I was doing while I was learning and adjusting it. It didn't start out as a tutorial for MHP - it started out just documenting what I was doing, what worked, what didn't, why, and how any issues could be corrected. It sorta grew after that!

What I'm going to do is give you the link to the thread, (remember to look for the link at the bottom of the first post) then post a photo of Silkie chicks under MHP and a video of little tiny chicks outside using it. Here's the link and the photo:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update



There are two things to note in the video. The most important one is how secure the chicks feel when they can get away from perceived danger. In the beginning I'm crouched between them and the cave. They want desperately to get away from me and are doing their "help me" cheeping. Then I stood up and changed my position slightly. They immediately see their chance and scurry away from me. The second they reach the safety of "mom", they calm and quiet down. The second thing is the temperature. It was 38 degrees and raining that day just as it had been for the last 3 days. So it had been a lot colder than that (and snowing) when they went outside to live. I hope all of this information puts your mind at ease. Watch your chicks. They'll tell you what they need.

 

[BBZZZZTT]

Yay! Kristoff found a home!
A bunch of friends shared his picture on Facebook and someone is coming to pick him up tomorrow

She's going to send me a picture of him when he has all his adult feathers!