Have to share. Found out today that I am going to be a great grandmother!
Oh my gosh! I absolutely adore this!
° Thanks! None of the keyboard shortcuts for it seem to work with my keyboard but I can copy and paste it from the character map!That's a lot of birds in the spare room. I feel you though. I always lecture people that chickens don't get cold - actually they do but they have sophisticated mechanisms to deal with it, not to mention they're wearing a new down jacket they just got finished sewing together.
In spite of excellent ventilation, my big combed roosters tend to get varying degrees of frostbite. Last year, I was prepared and had them all in a bachelor pad where I kept the temp above 20. This year I wasn't so prepared and the evening below zero temps were coming, I started putting all roosters in one building but got tired of trudging across the tundra carrying a boy that was trying to eat my hands. I got 5 put together but left the last 2 in the building with the best ventilation.
I also broke down and covered one open wall of that building with 90% shade cloth to cut the 35mph gusts.
I had 2 POL pullets in their own apartment. Monday they braved the snow and walked to the next building to coop themselves with a bunch of strangers. When I went to lock them up for the night one was missing. I looked all over and found her roosting on the gutter at the eave sitting on 10 inches of snow in below zero temps. She squawked when I put her in on the roost with the rest but I felt better about it. By the way one of them laid their first egg the next morning. I think it was the snow roosting pullet since she has the biggest comb.
Jungle fowl do live in tropical rainforest but their home range also encompasses the Himalaya foothills, so they readily adapt to a variety of climates.
I doubt very much that European chickens in the mIddle ages or those in the Andean highlands 500 years ago were provided heat
Just keep in mind that if you mimic what a hen does, you won't need to actually measure temperatures. Hang a heat lamp (or 2 if young chicks in cold weather) and the chicks will choose how close to sit to it so they're comfortable. It may be providing more heat than necessary but if they can get away from the heat, it simplifies the worry about temperature.
That deal about lowering the temperature 5° (see how I did that?) each week is for the commercial industry where they have 10s of thousands of chicks in a controlled environment. They don't have the ability to allow the chick to choose their comfort zone. If a chick is too hot or too cold - too bad. They're not going to live that long anyway and their method is based on cost/benefit.
Lovely. My first several losses were to opossums. Dogs and raccoons are now tied for first.
Try Alt, 0, 1, 7, 6 You may have to toggle the numlock key
Windows also has a character map tool in Accessories.
Horrible way to go.
I was fortunate one night when I didn't get home by dusk. I hadn't collected eggs and the 'possum was content with an egg dinner rather than climb up to the roost.
'Possums are the scavengers of our world and scour for scraps, waste grain, feed, crop residue, etc.. Excellent sense of smell and can find any morsel.
I've even trapped them just using scratch grain as bait.
If they can't find anything else, they have no qualms about eating a chicken.
People don't realize how many predators are afoot because they don't go out at night. A game cam is a real eye opener.
They usually move slowly but I've seen them really scramble. With chickens, they don't have to be fast after nightfall. The chicken won't move in the dark.
X2 Outside tray is the way to go. Saves a lot of feed.
Thank you. IME, most chicks with problems don't make it.
I had a chick with its foot stuck to the small end of the shell in a curved position and couldn't straighten it out. I splinted its foot but then the other leg became unusable. I spent all day fashioning a chair jail out of two big sponges with an opening for his head and one for the vent. He hated not being able to move but if he was let out he just scooted across the floor, being unable to walk. My plan was to hand feed him for a couple days to see if the legs improved but he didn't make it. It was probably genetic, nutritional or incubation related.
Anyway it is usually a waste of time.
Sandhill preservation has all kinds of frizzles. I received a few different varieties in a package from them. They do a lot of projects, some including frizzles.
Good idea. When it's wet they don't bill it out. I started fermented feed and it's amazing how much farther feed goes. I still have bulk feeders for dry feed with a catch tray underneath.
The fermented feed also takes care of the fines that the chickens avoid. The fines is where a lot of the vitamin and mineral supplements are and become suspended in the FF.
A polar vortex like no other. Get ready, we're about to send it back to you. By Thursday we'll almost be as warm as you. At least we only have to hunker down for one or two weeks a year.
I was wondering why this vortex seemed so extreme. I did a Google search along with the search term 'polar magnetic shift' and found only one news article. Apparently I'm not the only one thinking outside the box. (there's 2 of us).A fun read and food for thought.
http://www.standard.net/stories/2014/01/06/what-are-we-utahns-make-deep-freeze-east
Esti had a big advantage in SA with all those pretty flowers for the chick to walk through.
At least she was kind enough not to rub it in that she's having a heat wave now.
X2
I still haven't figured it out. I can't access size or color.
Congratulations everyone and thank you very much for all your nice comments.
You're all so kind.
Ron, you did an amazing job. Great patience and encouragement.
~~Whenever a friend of mine calls, she tells me to get off of BYC and get back to work. I told her of this honor and now I feel vindicated.
I could talk about chickens all day. Oh, I forgot, I do talk about chickens all day.
I teach chicken classes at area community colleges, civic centers, The botanical garden and other green/sustainable living venues.
Along with others in our chicken meetup group, I also go to city council meetings in support of people trying to change their local ordinances to allow chickens.
We have had great support from local television, radio and newspapers backing our efforts.
Our record is 7 and 1.
St. Louis is unusual in the fact that the county is made up of 92 contiguous cities besides the city of St. Louis(which allows 4 without a permit). Each one has different rules. It's possible for one person to be allowed 3 chickens, their neighbor across the street may be allowed any number including roosters and someone at the end of the street can have none. Oddly enough, it's my experience that the more affluent or larger a community, the more likely they are to have few or no restrictions. The poorer or the smaller the city, the more likely they are to ban chickens.
Out of the 100 largest cities in the US, 92 allow chickens.
I went out to remove the eggs from under Mama this morning and to my surprise ~ TWO (not one!) Babies!!!!!!!!!!!!I'll post pictures later since Mama wanted to chase me out of the room when I was peaking. I think they just hatched a few minutes ago - time to check the Chicken cam!!
Awesome! I hope to have the broody experience someday. I think watching a momma chicken would be fun!I went out to remove the eggs from under Mama this morning and to my surprise ~ TWO (not one!) Babies!!!!!!!!!!!!I'll post pictures later since Mama wanted to chase me out of the room when I was peaking. I think they just hatched a few minutes ago - time to check the Chicken cam!!
wow finally caught up 300 post laternew chicks
