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

[real_redhead]

Quote:
Thanks Beekissed, in the past I did put the older one in a cat carrier at night so everyone would come in then I eventually let her roost. Didn't think about trying that again. Tonight I went out when it was time to roost and put all the younger ones in first, then the teenagers and the oldest was the last to go in...she wasn't happy about it and when she went in she started trying to peck. I had a stick and poked her every time she tried to peck (I don't hit her I just use the stick to keep her from pecking) she doesn't like that but it kept her in check. I guess I will either get the cat carrier back out! I wonder what my neighbors think of the crazy chicken lady!

 

[Fred's Hens]

How cold is the temperature in the area you use them? It is possible that the temperatures in our area during brooding could, on occasion, get in the 20's (F) at night, but it will most likely be no lower than 28 degrees or so.

I've not yet used a ceramic device to brood, but it does seem within the possibility of being the way of the future. We shall see. I just use the standard 250 watt red bulb, but I have added a 150watt bulb to that amount, during exceptional cold nights of brooding in March. Yes, 20F is not all that uncommon.

 

[thedragonlady]

They have those with radiant heat that, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name.

I've been playing around with an idea the past few years I'd like to try with a small group of chicks like that...been thinking about making a loosely stuffed fleece "hen" with a wire rectangular or oval-shaped structuring that could be bent to simulate a mother hen huddled over chicks. The fleece would/could radiate their own body warmth back to them and they could come and go under it as they please. It would have folds and lumps that hang down and loosely brush the ground to provide pockets where chicks could huddle together. The whole thing would be removable from the wire and be washable.


Still wanna try it to see if it would work.....

Bee,


Have you been reading my mind?

 

[Beekissed]

You know? I think we could market them if we made them look like real hens. The heavy fleece they use in blanket throws would be perfect for it. I got to thinking of it when someone on another forum was wanting to know how to brood chicks when you live off grid. That fleece is super warm. You could do it with feather down but it wouldn't stand up to repeated washings, so the fleece came to mind.

Remember those old toaster covers that looked like a hen with a dress on? Well, I was thinking along those lines, with the edge of the wire hoop having some fleece fringing to allow coming and going but still holding in the heat underneath. Sort of like a big, fat and fleecy feathered hen, with a real looking hen's head, eyes and all, on the top.

I think they'd sell like hot cakes...

 

[thedragonlady]

Bee,


Have you been reading my mind?

Maybe I'd better clarify that. For years I have hatched chicks in the incubator. They all look slimy, greasy, etc., for a day or two. They don't hatched under a mother hen. Why? Under mama, they run back and forth , the right way,
and the wrong way against her feathers. This gets rid of the tubules that surround their down, and they fluff out.Left alone, incubator chicks will look stuck together for a week or more. That first week is crucial to their survival. Fluffed down insulates those chicks, plastered down does not. I started years ago fluffing my incubated chicks with an old tooth brush. I tried half of a hatch first, and left the other hatch as they came. Big difference in the 2 groups. The fluffed chicks spent much less time huddled under the heat, while the plastered chicks stayed under it, and did not eat as much.

I've been thinking about a big mop of fleece with some sorce of heat in the top.The fleece would help fluff the down, and without a light source ,those chicks would sleep, just as mother raised chicks do. Now we just have to make it cluck Bee!

 

[Beekissed]

A fluff scrubber! Ingenious! You could make it a pocket and slide a heating pad inside the mop, set on low level, with the wire stays in it to keep it arched up and off the chicks...sort of like a heated chick car wash without the water.

Don't know how to make it chuckle to the chicks but we could record a hen doing that, put it on replay and play it for them...sort of like a lulla-bye.

 

[Seslar]

There are teddy bears and such for human babies that have little electronic boxes in them that play recordings of human heart beats for them.

 

[Beekissed]

Maybe we could get one that plays the voice of Al cussing at roosters so that the young cockerels will grow up proper.....

 

[thedragonlady]

Maybe we could get one that plays the voice of Al cussing at roosters so that the young cockerels will grow up proper.....

Great idea! We could make a fortune!

 

[thedragonlady]

Great idea! We could make a fortune!

Just had a light bulb moment...I have all sorts of old lampshade frames in the attic, and I have fleece. I'm going to try this. Then I'll call briiliant son for a low heat source.Poor guy just loves his mother's crtitter projects. He'll love the clucking requirement too!