Canadians check in here....

[Kueken]

Thanks, very happy

We do have 14/1 Sex Sale Link Brown - got them last October as day old chicks.

Yesterday we got day old Barred Plymouth Rock 5/1 and Ameraucana 10 (unsexed)

Hi everyone! It's good to find a thread with other Northerners. This was my first winter with chickens in 20 years. I was amazed with how well they did. I have a small insulated coop and was all ready to put in a heat lamp. But I decided to wait till the hens looked unhappy or too cold. They seemed to do just fine, so I never did put it in. It was usually about 10 degrees warmer in the coop than outside. But we had a long cold stretch where they couldn't go outside and now they have started picking at each other. I think there might be one that's doing it the worst, so I'm thinking of isolating her for awhile. Have any of you had experience with this after a long winter? I think I will try to have a bigger building for them for next winter. I've put in a cabbage from time to time and throw sunflower seeds in the straw to keep them busy. I have a light in the barn on a timer, so they have been laying well all winter.

Tonight the wind is howling and the temperature dropping. I guess I shouldn't complain - it is March, after all

.

I do not have the problem that they pick each other they actually pick me! Especially when I enter the coop without food And they can get pretty mean if they do not get anything.

But I try to keep them busy during the day, because we do not got ready before winter so I had to come up with some Ideas. We can't let them outside with out a fence, and this is the first thing what gonna happened when the snow is finally gone. I did seed some Cat Grass and Wheat so they sprout and covered the pot with chicken wire that keeps the chicks from scratching it but they still can eat it. Also I do have kind a swing where I do hang Cabbage, Apple, Pumpkin, any kind of Veggie or Fruit I just have, so it keeps them busy to get to it because it moves away, they need way longer to eat it up. Than I do Boredom Buster Blocks and hang them in the coop and lot of things like that.

Here are some pictures

first are the Sex Sale Link or at least some of them


These are my new chicks I got yesterday, I keep them in the Brooder in the Basement, works great



And this is one of the Boredom Buster for Chicken just before it went in the oven




If you like I can take some pictures from the Cat Grass, just started some a couple days ago, so you can see how I did it, it works great and I rotate everything so they are not bored. And the grass always has some recovering time.

 

[Kueken]

Oh and just an other Idea for you if you don't mind. I saw many Ideas how to cover parts of the run for wintertime, so they can go outside without being bothered by the wind and snow. They did a tarp roof and tarp on the walls of the fence and it kept snow and wind out, and than temperature is not such a big factor anymore. Need to dig in to it again I guess I saved the link. If I find it I will post it here for you.

We will build a second coop too, actually my hubby wants to get started this weekend, and due to the fact that this one will be raised from the ground like the first one it will work out even in the snow. So we will build the coops beside each other and cover the run between the coops so we can enclose it for winter. At least this is the plan for now, it may change on the way ;-)

 

[PrairieChicks]

Those are good ideas. What kind of a swing do you hang your veggies from? I baked my first boredom buster block on the weekend - it made 2. The chickens ate one in a few hours. I would like to think of something to keep the wind out of the outside fenced area. Heavy plastic may work - but we don't have any shelter from the south, so the wind can blow quite hard at times. I would need to find a way so it wouldn't get shredded right aways.

 

[Kueken]

I have a metal rod and my hubby got me a chain on each side I just punch the rod through the veggie and than hang it in the coop.

Sorry it's a little hard for me to explain in english. I will get a picture for you of it so you can see it tomorrow, ok?

Do you have a picture of it? Maybe if you would run some wire through it like an "X" to make the tarp stronger and than use heavy plastic and also try to way it down or nail it on a 2x4 wrap the tarp around it maybe twice so you do have weight to keep it down, and then before your do staple or nail the tarp to the fence use tuck tape to make the tarp stronger. And put the tarp on so the wind pushes it agains the fence and does not blow it up like a balloon. Or … .well I don't wanna sound like I know everything how to do, these are just ideas which pop into my head

Yes I do have lots of Ideas, and the problem is I wanna do many of them, but now we can get lots done, we are in the process to build up a little homestead for us, and are on the long way to get more self-sufficient. The Chicken are just one of the many projects we work on in moment, there are plans for getting Rabbits, maybe a couple Nigerian Dwarf Goats, Bees, Geese, Turkey, Ducks. And also I will have a big Garden for Veggie, Berry's, Fruits and Herbs this Year. I already do a lot of things myself, like Laundry soap and I always bake my own bread and make soap and lots more. I learned how to smoke fish and meat and sausages from my grandparents way back than, also how to make them myself. I truly believe that this is a way to live a healthier life and it might be costly in the beginning because many thinks need to be purchased and build but in the long run when things are up and running it will be a great reward when you exactly know what you bring on the table.

Anyway, this is not the purpose of this thread it belongs somewhere else ;-)

 

[Shesinthebarn]

Your first egg!!! How awesome! I am living through all of you right now...I can not wait to get my chicks!!! Kueken, our family hopes to lead a very similar lifestyle eventually. We. Have a five-year-plan, lol! We currently do a lot of gardening and composting. We hope to utilize all of our lot this season. Ordered MORE seeds this week!

 

[Kueken]

Your first egg!!! How awesome! I am living through all of you right now...I can not wait to get my chicks!!! Kueken, our family hopes to lead a very similar lifestyle eventually. We. Have a five-year-plan, lol! We currently do a lot of gardening and composting. We hope to utilize all of our lot this season. Ordered MORE seeds this week!

OhOh if you are the same inpatient person like me, than you for sure have a hard time. But it is so worth to wait and than get what you really want.
Like us, we bought 1.5 Years ago our 1 acre property and now turning it step by step into a Homestead. We are lucky that we found this place without being in a subdivision. Just Forest, Wetlands and Wildlife. One Neighbour across the road, but that's it. And the next once nearby are Farmers so they don't care. Actually we can go and ask for Hey and Straw, or so.

Did you get your seed out already? We turned the one room in the basement into a plant nursery and chicken brooder location until we do have a heated building outside to do so. And I like to have the very little chicks close by for the first 3-4 weeks, this way it is easier to check on them. I did saw the seeds indoors last year too, and it worked out great because of the short summer we have here and it still could snow till June. So this way the plants are a little bigger and ready to go when it warms up. A greenhouse is on our plan as well. But … everything step by step.

I also started a few years a go a Worm Compost that works great. This is an other supply for animal protein for the chicken beside Mealworms and cheese, and it is amazing how they go through the scraps pretty fast. Also great for Fishing ;-) I have so many of these Red Wiggler already that I have to dump some out in summer they multiplay so quick, I don't like it so much to do because they had been quite expensive when I started but what else should I do with them?

 

[ABChicks]

Hi All!

I wanted to drop in and say hi! We are very new to this whole chicken thing but are so excited to get our coop built and get some little chicks in there!!! We live just outside of Cochrane, AB near Calgary. I'm already a bit nervous about chickens in the winter but hopefully I'll have gotten all the kinks out before we swimming in snow again.

Kim.

 

[Kueken]

Hi Kim welcome

we just went through our first winter so and got our chicks (day old) October 29th last year, so we had been very nervous too. But I need to say that we made it and Yesterday we got the first egg. So we must have done something right

We live in the Parkland County area so just a few hours away from you.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

When our family first moved to Manitoba I asked my neighbour "where do you keep your chickens in the winter?" Her answer: "the freezer of course!" We live in Southern Ontario now. I miss the big prairie sky but not the big prairie cold.

 

[PrairieChicks]

You live in a beautiful area, Kim! We've driven through there a number of times. Enjoy your coop building! It's exciting to get ready for chickens and when the little chicks come it's so much fun! Mine were mailed to me last spring through Canada Post. I was worried if they would survive, but they all did fine. We've been getting eggs since late fall. They got through the winter quite well. They're very hardy animals!