ALABAMA!!

[Peanutsmomma]

glad you are lovin them - my older group is so dang spoiled I can't walk for them sooooo good luck with that!

I am looking forward to spoiling some of your chicks in the future too Kim!

I have a question about the BBS Orps, do yours have crop issues? I saw on the Buff Orp thread where someone was talking about their Buffs always having crop problems and they wanted to know if that was a problem with the breed. Most of us said no as they had not experienced too many problems in that area but a few said that their BBS Orps have always had crop emptying issues. Just curious what your experience has been?

 

[Tomtommom]

My poor babygirl got so cold last night. Her little face was ghostly pale this morning, purple hands, pale blue lips. I had her in a fleece sleeping sack too.

She's all warmed up now, but man that scared me. Poor thing. Tomorrow we go shopping for warmer clothes. May move her to the big kid room and run a heater in there at night. Craziness. Crazy state. Tanktop two days ago, turtleneck today... and next week we'll be back in a t-shirt.

Apparently Oneonata (did I spell that right?) had 33F temps according to WBRC. We were in the 40s.

 

[Razadia]

It was way too cold for me this morning.

 

[BexB]

I read it here last winter about giving the chickens warm water to drink when it's cold out,I had never thought about it before but man do they love it, I say they are all gathered around their giant coffee mugs.

 

[Peanutsmomma]

Oh, warm water is a good idea. I need to tuck that one away for when it gets cold down here.

 

[Tomtommom]

I buy crumble and pour one canister of crumble and one canister of warm water into a large feed bowl, it soaks it up real fast and turns into a porridge like consistency. I do that twice a day. The birds eat less now and they enjoy their warm meal.

I used to have a feeder hung up, but they just ate more and more, some hanging their head in the darn thing all day long. I've got a few really fat hens and a couple skinny ones.. clearly, they weren't sharing.

Now everyone eats their fill and that's it. Top hens eat first, then the lower ranked birds. The ducks are an utter mess though

They get in there and shake their heads and there's mash raining all over the place. The younger birds enjoy picking the bits off the other birds while they wait for the hens to get done eating.

The ducks also get soaked oats, which is less messy. I'm thinking about sprouting oats for fodder as well, since they're not really free-ranging yet (they're finally coming out of the pen, which is an improvement haha. They're awfully chicken, for ducks

)

 

[kimberly35042]

Tom -- that is too funny! Chicken ducks *lol*

In our climate, you don't have to go to the trouble for fodder. Oats will sprout on top of the ground, no tilling necessary. I've already overseeded our front lawn with oats, wheat and rye grass for the geese to graze this winter.

 

[Mister B]

For cold weather, I started feeding them a suet block (99cents from Walmart) once a week or so. I gave them one this weekend since it was really cold, but I probably won't this weekend. I also started mixing a small bag of BOSS (black oil sunflower seed) in the 50lb bag of scratch. I give them a little more scratch when it gets cold, about a half to 3/4 pound per day.

 

[Tomtommom]

Tom -- that is too funny! Chicken ducks *lol*

In our climate, you don't have to go to the trouble for fodder. Oats will sprout on top of the ground, no tilling necessary. I've already overseeded our front lawn with oats, wheat and rye grass for the geese to graze this winter.

The area they all live in is bare (because chickens are really hard on anything green with all their scratching). I've got 'grass' next to the area, but the duckies are still very hesitant of going there. They've been doing very well living with the chickens so I think we'll keep it that way. I had planned to get them their own area which has grass, but I think they'd freak out if I even tried. Maybe when they're older

They are poop machines, it gets a little slippery on solid compacted dirt

Pics are from last fall, but shows the chicken run. The green area behind it is where the ducks would find a home, the dogs live in it (and by live I mean they lay in the same spot all day

). It's 100 ft by about 30 ft, plenty large enough to split in half

I need to take a new pic of the ducks, they're getting so big! I am 90% certain we have one fellah and three ladies.

 

[Orps]

The area they all live in is bare (because chickens are really hard on anything green with all their scratching). I've got 'grass' next to the area, but the duckies are still very hesitant of going there. They've been doing very well living with the chickens so I think we'll keep it that way. I had planned to get them their own area which has grass, but I think they'd freak out if I even tried. Maybe when they're older

They are poop machines, it gets a little slippery on solid compacted dirt

Pics are from last fall, but shows the chicken run. The green area behind it is where the ducks would find a home, the dogs live in it (and by live I mean they lay in the same spot all day

). It's 100 ft by about 30 ft, plenty large enough to split in half

I need to take a new pic of the ducks, they're getting so big! I am 90% certain we have one fellah and three ladies.