Alaskan neighbors come on out

[alaskanhenhouse]

best thing i can recommend is having birds with pea combs or plan to heat their coop. if they frost bite they wont lay very well if at all.

this warm early spring has had me hatching chicks for over a month now. Of course the parents are all mixed together still but the mixed chicks are just as cute. Anyone else hatching already?

 

[Mrs MIA]

Hi Terrisa~
My DH posted earlier, but I wanted to say Hi, too. Your name was given to me by someone that I'm getting some quail from there in the Valley next weekend, and I recognized your "handle".

Hi, from the Kenai Peninsula!!

 

[Jayare's Chicks]

Hello Alaskans,
I moved up to Anchorage in 1981 when I was still in high school (West High 1983) and just left the state last summer when I retired and moved down here to Alabama. I joined the military in 1987 from Anchorage and spent my first 10 years in Seattle and down in Mississippi before I got to go back home to Alaska for my last 10 years. I was stationed in Homer, Cordova and Kodiak (twice). I sure do miss it. I am comming back up to Kodiak the end of May for my daughters graduation and will be bringing her back down here so she can go to college here. I didn't have chickens till I got down here but my buddy in Kodiak has them and he got me hooked on them. I just picked up 6 more EE's yesterday at the feed store so I am up to 47 chickens on my 8 acres now and a broody hen sitting on 10 eggs also.

Jayare

 

[Chickending]

I am envious of you all who live in Alaska. I have visited many times and it is so beautiful. I am in Minnesota but would love to have a chance to live there. Curious how do your hens lay throughout the long winter with little daylight? Do you leave lights on? Someone said electric fence to keep the bears away, must be a powerful electric fence to keep a big bear away...

 

[alaskanhenhouse]

Hi Mrs ak bird brain. welcome. You must be speaking of Misty who was here picking out some more chicks. she mentioned someone southern was coming for her bobwhites. is that you?

Jayare- i've never been to cordova or kodiak but do spend a lot of my summer in Homer. Have even considered moving that way a few times. Bet you're enjoying some decent warm weather this winter down there in alabama. I'm an 84 Bartlet grad.

chickending- there is nothing strong enough to prevent a bear from claiming a few meals. I know folks who have had bears come right through electric and barbed wire and snag a goat or foal. I've never had a problem with them in my area, it's mostly from overhead with eagles and ravens.
The hens will continue laying a little throughout the winter but do lay better if given the traditional 14 hours.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Hi there! Yep, that's me.

Thank you for the lead on the brahma... I'm going to see if I can nab her this week.

She's a gorgeous girl, and I'm looking for more light brahmas. You don't happen to have any right now, do you? LOL! No, wait... scratch that. I have enough errands to do when I make that drive up! Picking up quail, chicks, windows for the new coop, the chicken...

I think I have enough!

We have an electric fence around our pens... hooked up to a car battery. It sure works on the dogs... haven't had the need to test it on bears yet.

And I have lights on a timer for the girls, so they get their full days worth of light.

 

[Jdek]

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on here for a while and thought I'd post. I have about 24 or so assorted chicken eggs on day 19 now. They are coming along pretty good in a Little Giant still air bator. I've had a problem keeping the bator at a steady temp but all the eggs are coming along well (As far as I can tell). They started (the eggs) jiggling around inside the bator today. I assume that's a good sign eh? I'll post some picks of my flock if they end up hatching.

 

[alaskanhenhouse]

welcome aboard. so what breed are you hatching? huh? huh? how exciting!

i love hatching chicks.

so your in valdez i take it. are you in an area that really gets loaded with snow too? what do you use for netting over your runs that holds up down there? or do you just keep them inside in the winter? i would imagine you have a lot of issues with snow there.

 

[Jdek]

Good question about the breeds hatching... Funny, It's a mixed bag of sorts I guess you could say. I have a couple blueish green eggs, some white, others brown.

I got the eggs from a local farmer who has a bunch of different chickens.

I'm planning on building an elevated hen house to keep it above the snow in the winter time. I figure the hens can use the underside as a run in the summer. I'm not quite sure how a run would work in the winter due to the 300 plus inches of snow. I haven't figured out a good solution to that yet. The farmer I got these eggs from has his chickens in a large shed so maybe I'll go that route.

 

[Mrs MIA]

We certainly don't get as much snow as Valdez, but we just have an open wire pen for the birds so the snow gets in there. We set up a series of sawhorses with plywood on top to create a covered run for them between the pens. It allows them to get out in the pens without having to wade through too much snow.

I go out and shovel it out every now and again, too, which helps with the melt at breakup. Maybe an A-frame covered run, or quonset hut type run would help keep them out of the snow.