Colorado

[TracieJS]

Hope everyone done in the Wetmore area is okay!

I am thinking of buying a couple more metal trash cans and filling them with feed (in hopes to get it before the prices increase). Does the feed store well outside of the bags, I.e. in the trash cans? I have been buying my feed from big r ( I live in Colorado Springs). Does anyone have a cheaper source?

Whishing for less wind and more moisture to knock the fire down!!!!

Thanks tracie

 

[elbertchick]

Speaking of springs though, what about Pagosa Springs?

Pozees,
I lived in Pagosa springs area many years ago. It is one of the prettiest areas in Co. They have Williams Creek Reservoir, and I know there used to be an outfitting group of cabins on the same road. I am not sure if it is still there. Wolfcreek pass is a favorite of mine, of coarse the springs have been updated since I lived down there and the town has grown, I was there in 1971 and my husband had worked at the sawmill, it's gone now. There is also a very pretty orchid that grows on wolf creek saw it only once a mid the ferns. great picture taking area, red mountain pass is close to there as well. Whatever your choice, Colorado is full. Of pretty places.

 

[coloradogal]

Sounds like late lockdown hasn't hurt anything, really - placement may have made the difference, but my best guess is they will be fine and wonderful

Glad to hear your little frizzle-frazzles are getting feathers finally!

I am completely ignorant of kombucha, scoby, and kefir, can you enlighten me or point me to a good resource to learn about them?

How is your Mom?

I think we'll be ok on the hatch. I have 5 little guys. So far, the 5 ee crossed eggs I put in there have either pipped or hatched. The marans eggs are still coming along. Not great but they still have a whole other day.

I'm not sure where to send you online for kefir or kombucha information. I think the best for kefir and kombucha is doms site out of austrailia. he does an incredible job of putting lots of information for the rest of us. http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kombucha.htm

Mom is loving it. I make her a nice strawberry shake everyday and give her lots of time to just do things she wants to do like Angry Birds.

Way off any current topic, does anyone have other-than-white leghorns? I have been looking into the silver and browns a bit lately, and the more I look the more I like. Clearly not a dual purpose breed, but they are really pretty (I know, not the best reason to get a new breed, but they are generally good layers too). Still love my Speckled Sussex and feel pretty sure they are nearing POL, have the new coop almost finished but given the forecast I probably won't be ready to move my girls into their new digs for another week - have to address some pretty significant gaps around the human access doors, then after that it's just a matter of hanging roosts, snugging it up to the run, cutting access, and removing the two coops and runs from the run. As I have often said, when I type it, it goes so fast! Then when I start doing the work, it goes so s-l-o-w-l-y!

i'm surprised that I've enjoyed dominiques as much as I do and the yokahama. The yokahamas are much less flighty than my phoenixes and just as pretty. The doms seem to just be gentle and sweet tempered. the yokahamas are small breeds... the other bantam breed that seems to be very sweet is the d'uccle.

 

[marlo1968]

OK guys, I have a non-chicken question. I'm trying to get my family together for what will probably be the last chance to spend a week together as a family with my 86 year old mother.

I had found a place in CA, which is where they ALL are from that they said would be fine. Well, now my brother wants me to find a place in CO. I'm actually quite pi**ed off cuz I don't want to drag my mother from CA to CO WITH her dog, which she won't leave, but if it's what my brother wants, that's what my mother will do. Anything to please my brother, SIGH.

Anyway, although I have lived in CO for 20 years, I'm a real home body, was a real workaholic and usually broke, so I haven't done much 'tourist' kind of stuff.

I'm looking for a place in the mountains that I can rent a cabin. Preferably by a lake or nice river/stream. If a lake, preferably one small enough that it won't be overrun with motorboats, jetskis and waterskiers. Would be nice if it was by a campground as my brother has already said he doesn't like to stay in cabins and will probably go off by himself and camp (go figure, plan a family vacation and it's too much trouble for him to actually join in). I'm not trying to restrict suggestions, just letting you know preferences. Please suggest anything you can think of.

I would like it to be a pretty, picturesque place for my mother's sake. She and my father spent 15 years traveling the states as he was a photographer and she has a great love of nature. Heck, it's CO, how bad could the scenery be? Anyway, if any of you have vacationed around the state and have suggestions, I'm taking any that are offered.

Well, I'm off do start googling.

Hope everyone around Wetmore Fire is safe and they will be home soon.

Try Sylvan Lake, near Eagle. A few Cabins to rent, camp spaces also, a small lake only non-motorized small boats and canoes allowed. in the mountains and very pretty Used to go there with the Boy Scouts. It's a state park.

 

[gardendufus]

OK guys .Thanks for all the ideas. Off to search out the Pagosa Sprgs area. I actually may be getting info overload. Google drives me crazy. I once did a search for motels in Blackhawk, CO, clicked on a link, made a reservation. Drove to Blackhawk, couldn't find motel. Turned out it was a blackhawk in a different state. (Insert smiley with gun pointed at my temple.......DOH)

 

[dennarahl]

She just emailed me and said it was the Mountain Shadows Resort in Estes Park.  I think they went early spring, though I wouldn't swear to it.  I swear at lots of things, just not that

i went there about 3 years ago and loved it.

 

[wsmith]

Watching the smoke from the Wetmore fire, and listening to the news this morning about how it was 0% contained, I thought again about the fires we had earlier in the year, and the evacuations etc that had to take place. During the Waldo Canyon fire period, Beth and I felt terrible that we didn't have our facilities set up yet to accomodate evacuated fowl. So, that being said, As of next weekend we will be able to accomodate any chickens evacuated in two pens/runs; each run is 24 X 8 feet, each has a 4'X6' elevated coop with shade. By next April, I will have an additional 4 pens the same size as the others, but with 4' X 3' coops. One of these will be occupied by my breeding group, and possibly one or two will be being used for brooding. The others will be available should we have any more disasters like last summer, or now in the Wetmore area.

 

[wsmith]

".......
I am thinking of buying a couple more metal trash cans and filling them with feed (in hopes to get it before the prices increase). Does the feed store well outside of the bags, I.e. in the trash cans? I have been buying my feed from big r ( I live in Colorado Springs). Does anyone have a cheaper source?
.......
Thanks tracie"

Tracie,

Feed (for this discussion I think you mean pellets or crumbles?) doesn't have a long shelf life, per the mills/maunfacturers. That being said, what is "long"? ( I wonder sometimes if they say that to keep us buying it at regular intervals...) If the feed is kept dry and in a cool place, it should last for several months at least. I open the bags and put the feed into large plastic garbage cans with locking lids and store them outside. It lasts about a month, and by time I get to the bottom of the can, I have noticed that it smells a little different than when new, but the chickens seem to eat it fine with no ill effects. Un-ground grains will last a LONG time (several years) if kept dry and free of bugs. Cracked or coursely ground grains last a while, but eventually loose some nutritional value. If the chickens are grazing, I personally feel that they easily make up for any nutrisional losses eating fresh vegetation and bugs.

MY plan for next year is to buy at least 6 months or more worth of feed and store it in the shed I will be building. It will be dry, and pest free. Sweeny's in Pueblo will sell feed from their mill at bulk prices, if purchased in bulk quantities. The last time I checkes they were about $2 cheaper per bag, but the cost of driving to Pueblo and back wasn't worth it unless buying in bulk. That is what I plan to do. If I can swing a year's worth of grains, I will, but the layer pellets will probably be limited to 6 month's worth or so. I haven't convinced mysefl that it will last that long..... That may change, who knows. I also don't buy scratch grains that are pre-mixed. My chickens were wasting too much of it, so I mix my own, about 2/3 cracked corn and 1/3 whole wheat. I may add some oats and or some rye if I can get rye cheap enough. My chickens eat all of it with no waste. They do pick out the wheat first though....

Keeping the feed dry in metal cans is good, and they are also impervious to mice and rats, etc. Make sure the lids can be secured. In my shed I will be using mouse traps and bar poison. The bar poison can't be moved to the chicken pens like pellet poisons, and can be placed in wood boxes that prevent pets and chickens from getting to them. The traps that prevent the mice from getting out of the boxes are also good.

Just my 2 1/2 cents worth.

 

[Pozees]

Watching the smoke from the Wetmore fire, and listening to the news this morning about how it was 0% contained, I thought again about the fires we had earlier in the year, and the evacuations etc that had to take place. During the Waldo Canyon fire period, Beth and I felt terrible that we didn't have our facilities set up yet to accomodate evacuated fowl. So, that being said, As of next weekend we will be able to accomodate any chickens evacuated in two pens/runs; each run is 24 X 8 feet, each has a 4'X6' elevated coop with shade. By next April, I will have an additional 4 pens the same size as the others, but with 4' X 3' coops. One of these will be occupied by my breeding group, and possibly one or two will be being used for brooding. The others will be available should we have any more disasters like last summer, or now in the Wetmore area.

It sounds like you have spent a lot of time on your plans! I have never had a broody hatch chicks before so this question might sound silly, but if you brood in an elevated coop, can the chicks get down the ramp okay?

I admire your concern for chickeners faced with evacuation. Every year we hope it won't happen to us, but this last year especially was scary, at times it seemed as if the whole state would burn.

 

[wsmith]

It sounds like you have spent a lot of time on your plans! I have never had a broody hatch chicks before so this question might sound silly, but if you brood in an elevated coop, can the chicks get down the ramp okay?

I admire your concern for chickeners faced with evacuation. Every year we hope it won't happen to us, but this last year especially was scary, at times it seemed as if the whole state would burn.

Yes. These will work for either a broody hen hatch, or, with the addition of a heat lamp, chicks hatched in an incubator. For incubator brooding, the door is kept closed until they are big enough to go outside on their own, usually a couple of weeks. With both, the ramps are built so they can easily go up and down. When the incubated chicks are old enough, you simply open the door. They will go out when they are brave enough. You still check on them, and don't leave them unsupervised at first. They know where it is warm and where the food and water is. With a broody hen it is easier: you let her deal with it.

There were chicken evacs during the Waldo Canyon fire, and unfortunately, my place (Chicken compound..."they're organized"......) was still under construction and I didn't have things in place for additional chickens.