Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Fred's Hens]

Merry Christmas and a blessed, Happy New Year, Al.

Check with you later.

 

[al6517]

And to you as well Fred..................

 

[Fred's Hens]

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In the winter, there is no algae issues and such here, as it is just too cold. I swap out one gallon pails from heated dog dish bases. Easy. I am not fussy with any kind of waterer in zero weather. The swapping of pails means no messing with water outside.

In the summer, I use the typical 2 1/2 gallon plastic waterers. I don't care for them as much as the quality metal waterers we had years ago, but at least the plastic doesn't rust like the cheapo metal ones made today. I tried a metal version a year or so ago, made in China, and returned in a week. The quality simply isn't there.

I sanitize the plastic waterer once a week. A good cleaning with mild bleach solution. I find that keeps away any crud or algae type growth.

 

[southerndesert]

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Thank you Al, and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours as well. Happy new year and may your flocks prosper!

 

[scottcaddy]

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Al,I would say a lot of the folks on BYC don't know how to buy hay. I've had to explain the difference between straw and hay many, many times. Not to mention explaining what a "flake" is. So, how to buy quality hay is probably a skill that many folks here do not have.
Would probably be a very good discussion, since many here don't come from a general livestock background.
I've been helping with hay since I was about 5 years old and when I married my second husband ( a city boy) I was actually surprised to realize that people from the city aren't just born knowing this stuff. I dont remember ever not knowing about hay and other feedstuff. Like what a flake is, the difference between Bermuda and alfalfa, moldy vs fresh hay, square bale vs round bale, 1st, 2nd, 3rd cutting ( or 10th cutting here in AZ). Just trying to teach a city boy how to put up a fence or tarp a stack of hay can be " interesting". And, my husband is an engineer who actually has some common sense from being a mechanic first.
I never realized I spoke such a foreign language until I spent time with a city boy. Taking my husband to Gainesville, TX during horse breeding season was an education for him.

,

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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And from my family to yours....

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a great day.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Fred's Hens :

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In the winter, there is no algae issues and such here, as it is just too cold. I swap out one gallon pails from heated dog dish bases. Easy. I am not fussy with any kind of waterer in zero weather. The swapping of pails means no messing with water outside.

In the summer, I use the typical 2 1/2 gallon plastic waterers. I don't care for them as much as the quality metal waterers we had years ago, but at least the plastic doesn't rust like the cheapo metal ones made today. I tried a metal version a year or so ago, made in China, and returned in a week. The quality simply isn't there.

I sanitize the plastic waterer once a week. A good cleaning with mild bleach solution. I find that keeps away any crud or algae type growth.

Amen to that. I have a few that belonged to my grandfather that are still in use, a little bent and dark with age, but work fine. These new ones will start rusting within a month and I've had several get a split seam from rough handling.

I personally hate the plastic ones, but I use some of those too. I'm currently going to every esate auction I can find looking for the old heavy wall galvanized waterers though.​

 

[so lucky]

If no chemicals are used on a K-31 fescue lawn, is there any reason why grass clippings couldn't be dried and used for hay?

 

[emvickrey]

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I am in Northern Texas, and that was my biggest concern this summer. Got our chicks in mid May to the first week of June, then the heat hit. I was out at the run at least 4 times a day, misting them down, could not install a mister, because we were under water restriction.
So I just froze bottles of water each night, kept a fan going in their coop at night, and set the frozen water bottles in the water containers during the day. Knock wood, I did not lose a chicken to the heat, but I only have a small backyard flock, so I know that helped.

Now we just have to get through our first winter, and I will at least know what to expect for the next season. Now if I can only find a heat hearty lemon tree. I so want to have some fruit trees, but I need to work out the logistics of what will grow in my area, and what watering system will work for the tress I plant. Because I know we will have water restrictions again this summer, need to get a few more rain barrels, have two, want at least 4 more.

I also use frozen water bottles. For those I could put a larger water container in their pen i did and froze the large gatorade bottles and gallon milk jugs filled with water and frozen. I put it out in the morning after I changed their water and cleaned their water containers. I was back with fresh frozen water bottles to switch for the thawed ones around noon and then back out again in the afternoon to do the same. Then at night I took up the now thawed bottles and back to the freezer they went. I have quail that I use the rabbit bottles for and I can't get even an ice cube in so I was refreshing their water with cold water. I kept a gallon jug of it in the fridge. I did find some rabbit bottles at TSC with a wide mouth so now this next summer I can at least fill them with icecubes. I may just buy up a bunch of them and just put them in the freezer. In the winter I use hay for bedding and on the floors pretty deep and I just take up the water containers in the evening as they go to bed and put them back out in the morning. Next winter we'll have it so we can use the heated water dog bowls instead. The quail will have heat lamps on their water to keep them from freezing. We just moved to this place and didn't have time to get everything the way we wanted it for the birds for winter. DH will be making a few more pens this weekend for the sizzles and white silkies so the younguns can have the big pen for winter. It's pretty warm in there concidering it's so cold outside.

So thats how I deal with the extreme weather. Spring rains is a big deal here too. I was out in it digging trenches to drain off the water it rained for 2 weeks straight. Then had a few days break then more rain. The ground was so wet we could hear the water running off when it wasn't raining. I put in a drain in one of the runs because there was so much water it wasn't running down the hill fast enough and was turning one pen into a pond. I dug under the coop to drain the water out and built a barrier to keep it from coming in from the run then made a drain out of pvc pipe to make the water drain out and away from the coop. They stayed dry after that. Well, as long as they didn't go out in the rain.

 

[scottcaddy]

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Thank You Al. I also would like to wish all of you peeps a very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy Flock New Year