Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[MrsDeb]

By all means, do whatever you please!

I was just letting you know why farmers and small hobbyists
don't raise livestock for what I would consider a winter harvest (yes middle of Nov is considered winter)......It's the same way with
pigs, the ideal situation is to get them in the spring and butcher right about now before they lose all their fat.

hubby added that its not so much that they are using all their fat...Raised in the fall they will put on more fat and less meat to get
ready for winter. Raised in the spring they put on the meat and then the fat. No different than a bear, his hair grows longer
in the fall and grows fat for the winter, he is not expanding all his energy to put on muscle (meat)....maybe that makes more sense......
It's not so much about the heat lamp and keeping them warm, its all about genetics this dictates more fat for the winter, which in return means less meat......

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Mrs. AKBB here... Iwouldn't start now either...

Not unless I had a heated barn to raise them in. They will spend too much energy staying warm, even with a heat lamp until 8 weeks. But it's your choice.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Ok, I know I've only done 2 batches of these critters, but I have to ASK!!! (not trying to dis anyone....)

It's been COLD this summer! At least here it has been... most days no warmer than 60/65 with (as you know) TONS of rain that makes it feel colder. Plus temps down to at least 50 at night. If kept in a controlled coop, would it be so different as what I've raised in an outside open PVC tractor??

Debate please! lol

 

[MrsDeb]

We're talking 36 degree's roughly or lower. An animal starts using his fat to supplement his food to stay warmer. That's why as a rule of thumb
you butcher your pigs right after the first frost in the fall. Anything after that you're just pouring food to them and not gaining anything in return.

We would ALL love to have new little chicks everyday of the year, at least I would....I'd be hatching and ordering chicks left and right if I lived somewhere like
Florida. But its the sad reality that we live in the greatest state in the United States but we have the shortest growing season of them all....

Heck I got my
first homebred BCMs egg yesterday, do you know how hard it was not to stick that baby in the incubator? LOL!!!

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

We have 10 birds left, and since the temps started kissing freezing their growth has dropped way off... Financially it doesn't make sense because you're going to spend more on feed. No one is going to want to buy a $30 cornish. But if someone has a controlled envronment, it might work. But he said he doesn't have A house/coop for them? It's not that you can't do it, it's just not recommended.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Points well taken

All makes sense to me, but talking about it is enlightening to some that may not know too.

Now, what about hatching? If you hatched chicks say in... November and kept them inside until 6 weeks or so, what is the issue there? I would assume it's the introduction to the coop that may NOT be as warm?

 

[MrsDeb]

Yep, exactly Bonnie, they wont have time to get acclimated to the weather outside. You take them from 65-70 degree house or warmer since they have been in a brooder and put them
outside where the temps are much lower...even with a heat lamp you can kill them. The heat lamp can only do so much if you don't have a controlled environment like a house where there
aren't 30 degree drafts when you open the door etc.....Now if you kept that trailer they are in heated and closed up for the winter like you would your house, then you could possibly get away
with it. Remember that a heat lamp is direct heat and not radiant heat....if that makes sense? LOL!.......

 

[Wolfwoman]

If we had the extra money I would definitely heat the trailer and the house, but that's not happening..lol

Now I am worried about the lil guys I'm hatching right now... if these two make it... I'm looking at - mid October or so before they can go in the coop right? Isn't it about 6 weeks before they can go out?

 

[MrsDeb]

I hear ya, I have this little one here to worry about as well. I have an inhouse brooder and then I have a brooder in the coop where
I can isolate little ones while the bigger ones run around. It has solid sides so it will cut down on any drafts but Im still concerned.....All those guys I ordered
a few weeks back are already outside running around in and out of the coop. They are doing great, but they also had warmer weather to go outside in so that
they got used to the temps on their own.

 

[Wolfwoman]

I can get my kennel in a good corner... what age is best for putting them out?