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

[Beekissed]

It's tough to keep up...most folks log on every day so they won't miss something important. It's so easy to miss something that you really need to know around here that I kick myself if I miss when Fred, Walt, Al, Ridgerunner, MississippiFarmBoy, etc. pops in here.

 

[Missa Chickabee]

How long have you had that twitch?

from the womb

 

[Missa Chickabee]

Back to the bulb/brooding/heating issue. I also have looked around for a plain red light bulb and couldn't find one more than 25 watts in the stores. Flukers has a red bulb for 5 or 6 bucks.

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-Red-Heat-Bulbs-watt/dp/B001B4Z79I

But the one I ended up ordering is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255OUE/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

Wanted red because I think that the subdued light versus white/yellow gives them a more natural sleep cycle. It's that way with humans, at least it is with the human writing this. I don't sleep well if a light is left on. Sleeps studies prove this proves this for humans BTW, but I don't think there's much money in it for them to run sleep study on chicks or chickens.

In the natural they would sleep in the dark (except for full moon clear nights and under a broodie they would be in the dark, too. That's why I opt for the red. More subdued.

Still new at this but never saw any pecking going on in the daylight when my flock were chicks. (Maybe the red bulb sellers promote that idea.)

 

[Missa Chickabee]

And one more I just found....100 watts, but also 40 and 60. Not painted. Reptile supplies.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=6534&Ne=40000&R=12276&N=2006+113056

I think it may be back on this thread somewhere, but some folks are checking out the ceramic reptile heat emitters, too. But I think they may not put out enough heat.

 

[Briezeechicks]

Hello, all. Bryan here. Brie keeps me updated on this thread, and she thoroughly enjoys it. I haven't had time to read it all through, but I do have a comment on your red light problem..I agree that the red light helps the sleep cycle, but they are hard to find these days. But you can take a gallon sized glass pickle jar, and paint the inside of it red. Next, wire it like you would a lamp, threading the cord through the lid. You can get lamp kits at any hardware store. You can't use over a 60 watt bulb in such an enclosed space, but it gives off a lot of warmth. A 40 watt is ideal. Just set the jar on the bottom of your box or tub or what have you. Easy to clean, easy to change the bulbs, inexpensive, reusable. I used this once when I was raising a nest of little 9 banded ground squirrels, and it worked well.

 

[al6517]

You could say I'm cured of that where Salatin is concerned. I guess I was expecting his place and animals to be like he describes in his books and I was expecting him to have the values that he professes to have...not saying he doesn't for sure, just saying it wasn't real obvious to the casual observer on that day.

Years ago Bee I had some friends who were salatin zombies, did everything he did went on internship at his farm to learn and become little Salatin groupies, even back then I had serious reservations about this cult leader. So they started his doctrin, I saw their farms and operations and just never saw where this was the new way, and they were extremely unprofitable and ineffiecient. This guy has made a boatload of $$ off this ruse with the books and lectures and such, and yes I will go out on a limb and say he is the biggest hack I have ever come across, My relationship with my longtime friends is fractured beyond repair because of this idiot, my friends still won't listen to what I say, but pretend to be all kiss the earth tree hugger animal kissy type posers, it's sickening.

 

[stonykill]

Years ago Bee I had some friends who were salatin zombies, did everything he did went on internship at his farm to learn and become little Salatin groupies, even back then I had serious reservations about this cult leader. So they started his doctrin, I saw their farms and operations and just never saw where this was the new way, and they were extremely unprofitable and ineffiecient. This guy has made a boatload of $$ off this ruse with the books and lectures and such, and yes I will go out on a limb and say he is the biggest hack I have ever come across, My relationship with my longtime friends is fractured beyond repair because of this idiot, my friends still won't listen to what I say, but pretend to be all kiss the earth tree hugger animal kissy type posers, it's sickening.

I've often wondered if this guy was all he claims to be.

 

[galanie]

Years ago Bee I had some friends who were salatin zombies, did everything he did went on internship at his farm to learn and become little Salatin groupies, even back then I had serious reservations about this cult leader. So they started his doctrin, I saw their farms and operations and just never saw where this was the new way, and they were extremely unprofitable and ineffiecient. This guy has made a boatload of $$ off this ruse with the books and lectures and such, and  yes I will go out on a limb and say he is the biggest hack I have ever come across, My relationship with my longtime friends is fractured beyond repair because of this idiot, my friends still won't listen to what I say, but pretend to be all kiss the earth tree hugger animal kissy type posers, it's sickening.

They missed the real lesson! It's just the same as these "I'll teach you how to make money" ads. The way to make money is to charge people to teach them how to make money. LOL

 

[al6517]

I slaughter birds in front of the other birds as well. They have no negative reaction whatsoever and will push and shove to drink the blood. They are blessed with a lack of cognitive understanding of death and are unable to anticipate or reason about such things. They even chase and fight over the choice pieces of offal....after doing this for 36 years, I can only conclude they are singularly unaffected by the death of their flock mates.
.

I think the folks on the Oprah chicken therapy type threads would disagree, I do as you do because my processing set-up is right next to the chicken houses and the water and tricity hook-ups, it's just convienant. They hear the commotion, see the processing part and like yours do wait for their treat of butchered leftovers which I gladly offer. You are right they are unaffected by this and many other things the huggers claim as tramatizing doctrin.

 

[al6517]

Sure and if you see his chicken Zombie followers their meat & egg operations are identical, and the worst thing is the huge losses that go with it, how do you make margins with losses you know you can prevent, but in their minds it's cost to much and is too much work to prevent than to except accepatable loss figures, how dumb is that.
I guess all cult leaders need to spin it some way in their favor, To be honest folks have been doing the same methods the right way for generations, then this guy comes along and makes it sound like it's the new wave of farm effieciency, but you have to line his pockets first before you find out that his methods drain yours. They spend so much wasted time trying to analize ways to decrease labor with whacky ideas and designs, that they could have just gone & done the work and then go lay on the couch LOL. Call me stupid but I don't get it.