building paradise for the birds

[birdman55]

Silver golden pheasant

 

[birdman55]

Ganoi pluckers to a new good home from a family from Burma Thailand from the Mizo clan.

My Malay hen from cally I will sure miss her I miss her already she was so peaceful. And a pair of red goldens. So happy to make another person happy with my birds.

 

[birdman55]

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

[birdman55]

Well -24 today. Water froze n four flat as a pancake great day for sure. Got water back tho ina good note

 

[birdman55]

This is not to be used in winter. Obviously I am putting a roof and some sides on it after winter. I made over ten of these and they are lightweight, cheap, and quick to build. U can use them for pairs., bantams, single roosters, quarantine pens, or emergency pens. Build one Ull thank me later and u can also see the top. An easy access door to get ur birds

Parents Christmas trip

Remember not all birds will take extreme cold or heat well. U may only gain this experience thru trial and error in ur mini climate.

U can see the tips some being black and some being white that’s called frostbite. He is kept in a fully wrapped enclosure out of the elements with the exception of no heat

Mortal combat raiden attacking the snow flakes

Redquill hens the wet look to them is bc of water

This guy is like hoodini always getting out of the cage

Pumkin hulsey
So today was a day to have follow the last. Kitchen sink line still frozen. Spent 5 hours with Microsoft to figure out the issues with windows movie maker. And btw Microsoft doesn’t support n assist windows movie maker. So got nothing accomplished. Then go out n see a couple more birds cold I’m sure they will be dead in The morning. But hey I guess natural selection when temps went from 60 to below freezing in a couple of weeks I lost close to 30 birds over night in one night btw. In the garage n out of the elements . Was also told by someone that I don’t know how to take care of my birds. Funny it actually got me worked up cause I spend a lot of time n effort on the care of my fowl. I educate people. I speak the truth most farmers are afraid to speak of. (Problems, issues, and possible solutions on why it’s happening and if they can be treated) my thought on the cold climate deal. When u have -45 below temps don’t try n tell me some of ur birds are not going to get sick or freeze to death. Don’t make me feel guilty that I should spend more time n energy to make my farm better cause I will. Even tho it’s not to shabby. U guys have seen my jouney been thru it all right with me. But I will never bs any question even if it’s sometging u not wanna hear. I will collect n show u what cold does to birds. Hot is nothing compared to cold temps. I will educate u guys thru videos soon. Lol I promise. So be prepared next couple of days are going to be about learning. Oh yeah to top it off I had a peach golden female pheasant fly right out the coop and been puking for two days. Don’t slow me down -45 or not this train is moving. Stay positive n don’t let others drag u down. It only fuels their fire, it’s counterproductive, and will drive u nuts. Hopefully 2018 is better then the last part of 2017.

 

[FLKYZach]

how do you keep your water unfrozen?

 

[birdman55]

So this bird should be on the farm within the month just making some pens space

If u spend enough time with ur birds and really get to know them u can enjoy them a lot more u can just look at the bird or any bird and just know somethings wrong

U can see how cold it can be and the water on her back actually froze the feathers. This is actually fully enclosed and still frostbite happens

The black tips is frostbite I will post a closeup of a more damaged comb and wattle in a few days.

Now the subject on birds tolerances to cold or heat. Some will do better then others plain and simple so u will have to find out for yourself because everyone’s micro climate is different

So this is my only freeranger out front but she or the Hmong type chicken I breed is for super cold climates. They do great and are not effected by cold as u can see. These two hang out everyday next to each other. The ayam cemani I personally think is a junk bird I don’t like it I don’t care how rare it is. It is not cold friendly. They are weak, and don’t lay a lot of eggs. Anyone says different then they don’t have an ayam cemani.

So I was standing by the window and all of a sudden smash and this grouse falls dead on the back porch. Just that quick

Random lady Amherst that will be replaced. I am replacing him on Wednesday.

So the Hmong chicken in the above two pics was simply an experiment to see how much extreme weather on bird can actually handle and as u can see she is in the wide open elements only a top for protection. And I tell u what she has taken -25 without windshield like no problem. As u can see her dust bathing in her corn. Silly girl. But she has no sign of cold damage on her which I am very impressed with.

Another side of the grouse that hit the window. I was told it was a grouse I really don’t know.!? Spruce grouse maybe?
Anyways hope this encourages people to not be so afraid to free range chickens or other birds but u will have to spend the time effort and money to figure this out yourself and it will be frustrating especially if they are expensive birds. But it is what must be done no way around it. U can get recommendations from local breeders but that goes back to his or her environmental aspects that they have on the farm. With that being said I will go I split wood all day and I’m exhausted also bad news on the videos. Microsoft did a full reboot on the computer and crashed my computer so it won’t even turn on. I sure hope they fix it for free. Another lessons learned. Anyways good days and good nights and hope is all well on your farms. Be back in a flash.

 

[birdman55]

how do you keep your water unfrozen?

I put only a small enough amount for them to finish in less then five minutes in the morning u will have a clean and empty bowl. There r some rubber non breakable bowls for five bucks u can use that work well but at -25 it freezes in less then an hour. Learn your birds and how much they require food or water u don’t want food leftover in the morning or u will get fat birds. In the winter I Feed more then I do in the summer and I Feed more towards the night time like an hour or so before dark so the bird can use more energy at night while it is colder. If the bird has no food in its crop at night it cannot process the energy to keep it warmer. Hope this helps

 

[FLKYZach]

Thats what I'm doing now learned that lesson the hard way with the water I let them have water for 10 minutes while i'm cleaning the rabbit hutches. Same with food 10 minutes sometimes 20 minutes for both but after that it gets removed so they dont scratch it everywhere or spill the water all over themselves.

 

[birdman55]

Getting into fly tying so I picked up some new birds (trio of mature silver goldens and a pair of silver goldens and an adult male lady Amherst) and a bunch of peacock feathers. Be back with some pics of the new Birds