Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[okieinalaska]

Is that a Tuesday? What time? I work at Providence till 4pm. Would love to work it out though to save me a trip.

What is the chicken train?

 

[Wolfwoman]

If anyone wants to see the rest of them, they are on my Facebook page.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
The Chicken Train is what we call it when someone comes up from the Peninsula, or someone from the Valley comes down, and transports chicks back to the Valley. Last weekend someone from the Valley came down, and brought other people's chicks up with them. The 19th is a Tuesday, and I'll be coming up then, meeting people at the Walmart at noon there in Wasilla. They usually try to chip in a little extra to help with gas, and everyone gets their babies!

It's a meet and greet, too, for people that haven't met before.

Is there someone there that you can send to pick them up? I could probably wait until 4pm to leave town, but that's the latest I'd want to hit the road with traffic. Think about it, and let me know.

 

[okieinalaska]

Went to work on my chicken coop and couldn't find my plans anywhere. Come to find out I left them at Home Depot yesterday!! I called and they found it luckily and put it behind the counter for me to pick up tomorrow.

I got a lot of work to do this weekend. I want to be done by Sunday night. Hopefully the wind will die down, holy moly it's windy!

 

[okieinalaska]

ugh, woke up to heavy snow this morning again. At least it's not blowing like yesterday.
Supposed to turn sunny this afternoon though and high 40's!

 

[incubatingisfun]

yeah at least it should melt fast

.Well I think my silkie is a rooster

I hatch way to many roos hahaha

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
We got way over a foot from that storm

 

[Spring Flowers]

Hello everyone! First off I want to thank-you all of you for your "Random Ramblings". I've read through the majority of this thread and I have learned so much excellent information, especially excellent as it all pertains to Alaska! I started looking around the BYC forum a bit back and boy...things got confusing really fast when I was reading posts from places like Florida and Arizona.

I have lived in Homer for 10 yrs. We have 18 acres of view property swamp. I'm a stay at home mom, probably until my last kid hits kindergarten. I have a great Husband who works construction so he is gone from home about 8 months of the year. My three year old daughter and I spend quite a bit of time traveling to where ever he is working and exploring that area of the state. There is another bun in the oven, due in October . We are on the "build our house for 25 years" plan, same goes for the road into our property. Would all of you Valley, gravel-lucky, souls find it believable that it costs us close to $100 a foot to build just a gravel road (it's the trucking, round trip 50 miles)? Whenever I drive north I am so envious that you can practically sweep off your topsoil and find gravel!

Okay, onto the good stuff: I am going to get my first chickens this summer! Granted they are the Cornish Crosses

but hey, it's a safe start and I am really excited! I plan to order 25 chicks in June. As soon as this last foot of snow melts I am going to build a chicken tractor. Similar to the picture below, but quite a few modifications: larger- 4'x12', metal conduit instead of PVC, a platform to keep the food and water off the ground, removable wheels, handle for towing with the 4 wheeler. (www.instructables.com/id/Chicken-Barrow/step5/Cover-Your-Barrow-With-Wire/ ...gotta give credit where it's due).

I’ve done quite a bit of research and I am pretty confident that raising and butchering the chickens will go well this summer but I do have a few questions that I would like to ask:
What kinds of problems might come up if we have a really rainy, cold summer? I realize I’ll need to tarp off the entire tractor. I’m concerned that moving the chickens to a new wet spot everyday might cause problems with their feet, bottoms, or…I am not planning on building any sort of coop for them to hide out in.

Because this breed produces “fat, lazy hogs” does that mean if I let them free range, under close supervision, I’ll actually be able to catch them? Do they tend to stray in opposite directions or stick together? This probably isn’t even an option as we have no less than 5 bald eagles circling the house on a daily basis, I swear that sometimes I think they are sizing up my daughter. And another 3 or so huge Owls.

I am planning on building a feeder in the style of- 5 gallon bucket with a planter tray screwed to the bottom. This means it will have a 40” circumference. Is that enough room for the 25 chickens to all get their faces into or should I build 2? Same goes for the waterer.
Can I paint the tractor or will the chickens peck at it, thus ingesting the paint?

I know most of this probably should’ve gone in the meat section of BYC, but dangit, you’re all so friendly on this thread!

Thanks!
Julia

Blah I can't post picts because I am new, and BYC has spam problems....or even a full link to the website with the pict

 

[Eveil]

Quote:
I have not had cornishX yet I was planing on getting sum this summer so I cant help you out on what they will be like But I do have my chicken coop painted and the chickens do not peck at it. So long as you stay away from the color red I don't think there will be a problem. I all ways have two feeders and waterers just so that the is no problem with the low man on the pecking order getting pushed out or chased off. I lived in Honer for 10 years tell I moved up to Eagle River. I can tell you now that letting you chickens run around with out a cover will lead to lost chickens. I have seen Bald Eagles take off with small dogs and cats a chicken is not going to be anything but lunch for them. You could all ways build a covered play area for them.

 

[okieinalaska]

Hi there! It's great to read all the great tips from other Alaskans I agree.

That's a great looking tractor. I would think the tarp would keep the rain off them from above. Are there roosts in it? I don't know if meaties use roosts?

But seems like if the ground was wet and flooded they might need to get up off the ground. Could you put a small plastic dog crate or something in there?

I am building the city biddy and then the double wide city biddy. http://www.ubuilderplans.com/node/60 Why two? Because I realized already one isn't big enough and chicken math has got the better of me already.

Wasn't it in Homer an eagle carried off a chihuahua puppy while being walked by it's owner on a leash? Yikes!

As for scraping off the topsoil and hitting gravel, I don't have any topsoil, LOL. It's all gravel in the back!

At least my yard drains really good.

Best wishes,

Oh, here is a photo my first arrivals. I bought a few pullets (I hope) off craigslist this week. They are bantam gold laced cochins. About 3 months old.