Chat N Chicknfun Thread

[chickadoodles]

Wow Bama, I hate mold, yuck....lots of work, but it will be so lovely when it is done.

Chickadoodles, eek! A chicken fest! How many little chicks are you gonna have? I can't imagine!

I am winding down for the year already. Not enough heat for little chicks anymore. Those five in my bathtub...I am not sure about putting them outside...I am worried they will get too cold. The blasted turkey is five weeks old, and was too cold in my roofed duck shelter, tarp over all the chicken wire etc., but it was still too cold for him, so he is in the coop (insulated, glass windows, can shut down almost all vents to get it warmer).

I have over 40 chicks coming or hatching! I have brooders on my porch and in the shed. I am selling off quite a or have sold off. So I needed some more. I will make a little area in my coop fenced in so they can get used to the others before I turn them loose with the other birds. Your turkey should be feathered out at a month old but will still need some place warm to bed down. My turkey did not touch the ground till they were two months old. I did not want to risk loosing them.

 

[Alaskan]

I had the turkeys with two heat lamps (one over their bed, one over the food) and wind breaks around the food and the nest, and they still shivered a lot.

After the one died, I put tarp over all of the chicken wire, so the only air/wind was able to come into the shelter through the wire door.

The turkey was STILL cold and shivered.

So, I put him in the chicken coop. I am hoping in two more weeks I can put him back in the duck coop.

The problem, is that if we are not hot and sunny (so 65) we are in the 40s and low 50s. With wind.

 

[chickadoodles]

I had the turkeys with two heat lamps (one over their bed, one over the food) and wind breaks around the food and the nest, and they still shivered a lot.

After the one died, I put tarp over all of the chicken wire, so the only air/wind was able to come into the shelter through the wire door.

The turkey was STILL cold and shivered.

So, I put him in the chicken coop. I am hoping in two more weeks I can put him back in the duck coop.

The problem, is that if we are not hot and sunny (so 65) we are in the 40s and low 50s. With wind.

Hopefully they will be able to go in your duck coop soon. I don't know how they do it in the wild? But they used to live in snow everywhere! Now we baby them and give them heat? It seems a little crazy to me. I am going to have to give each of my turkey pens a turkey house to keep them warm also! lol

 

[Tinybabes]

Am back this will teach me to stay off the computer for a week I had like 19 pages to read. Good reading so no real complaints on that score. Thanks for the kind posts. Nice to see new members. Welcome!!
My baby chicks have grown up--- we got our first eggs from them this week. My young cochin banty rooster has fallen in love with our one wyndot hen she is the biggest hen in the coop and he looks so silly courting her.Not sure how to spell wyndot we just call her big blue we have a little blue cochin. The two little jap/cochin hens are now in the main coop and tho 3 months old are more 4 week size. They are fearless and fast and fly like rockets. I see them run up to a big barred rock, steal food right from its beak before the hen even knows its happened be on the other end of the pen. Watching chickens is better than watching movies.

Am hoping the new coop will be done soon so the big chickens will not be with the little guys.
. When big blue went broody she set 4 of the banty eggs. When the first one hatched she took it and left the nest for good so the other eggs died. Has been an excellent mom for the one chick but next time she gets broody she gets one egg. DH insists on keeping the mixed hens.So much for having a pure cochin coop. Its almost pure.

Its his flock too so ah well.
My DH's initials are D.H. And with that tid-bit I will go read my last7 pages of catch up

 

[Alaskan]

Hehe, that is cute.. DH and D.H. Actually, I loved all of your chicken stories

I like DH, DW, DS etc. since the D could be dear, darn, uh, or other D words

 

[chirpingcricket]

Hehe, that is cute.. DH and D.H. Actually, I loved all of your chicken stories

I like DH, DW, DS etc. since the D could be dear, darn, uh, or other D words

 

[chickadoodles]

Good morning everyone!

 

[chirpingcricket]

Good morning everyone!

Top of the morning to you as well. We like to have flooded away yesterday, incredible amount of rain in just a few hours!! Haven't seen the like of anything like THAT in 8 years. Got within 15 feet of pens....means apprx about 100 feet of our property, from the branch, that is 15 to 18 feet below the level of our land. Saw a coon swimming across our property towards the main road, only saw his head. Roads, bridges everything everywhere flooded in Baldwin county....had a lot of folks trapped, landlocked for a few hours. Receded quickly thank God!!! Spent a couple hours out there in it, getting our shed ready to house chickens, with cages and make shift cages. Was a great test run for really bad weather, such as the big H etc. Cold, wet, exhausted. DH couldn't get home until water receded. By then, everything was under control here. Felt like a real pioneer woman. Told DH he was going to have to build another shed since that would would be perfect for our chickens, etc. He wasn't impressed! I reminded him he said he would not build another chicken pen any time soon, he didn't say anything about building another shed.....I WON'T be holding my breath. haahaa Good thing...I guess that's OK to say.... the folks up the branch from us who have been lazy about keeping their bottom land picked up and clear so water flows well and clean, got a real good spanking yesterday....mother nature swept their "water front" clean....bad news, caused alot of it to overflow our branch and low area, making it rise on up into our mid low land areas. (Gotta a bit of debris to pick up now.) Then there are 2 additional "lifts" on our property. The chicken pens are on the next lift of land, and then our house the last. Quite a ways up, but it would have put 3 to 4 inches of water in the bottom of our pens, and with snakes, I made sure to have a plan B for the shed. Need to run to the feed store and pick up shavings to dry out pens, etc. Talk to ya'll soon. Chirp

 

[Alaskan]

Wow, that sounds like lots of work, but I am VERY GLAD your buildings didn't get flooded!

 

[chickadoodles]

So sorry you had to be out in all that rain! Glad your pens did not flood!
Our back yard flooded nearly into our shed... I put down a whole bag of pine shavings yesterday but it is not enough! The pen is so flooded that my chickens are full of mud! But hopefully it will dry out some!