Colorado

[Ashdoes]

You might try tin foil 

Lol!

 

[trsturself]

We just started feeding whole grains again. We used to by a grain mix but I found there was a ton of waste. The container of food used to last the girls a week on pellets and only 2-3 days on the grain mix. So we stopped. Now I ordered a bunch of grains from Azure (best organic prices I could find) and mixed my own. No barley this time though. I ferment it for them and they absolutely love it. I always throw kitchen scraps out in the morning and they used to ignore their pellets until those were gone. Now they will leave the pile of scraps as soon as I put down the fermented food and not leave until that stuff is gone. I feed egg shell on the side for calcium.
I just ran some of the grain through my mill and put it in the chicks food. I just don't know if it has enough protein for them so I'm mixing it with the crumbles for now. And only for the 5-6 week olds.

I think our little MaranX from Suncatcher is a boy. In the last 2 days it's comb has grown tremendously. It went from barely there to you can't miss it. He's 3 weeks old today. We weren't planning on getting land for another 1 1/2 - 2 years because we were thinking we would need to do a conventional loan with 20% down since last time we looked for property everything in our price range was fixer uppers that VA wouldn't approve. And we would have to pay taxes on the profit of our current house since we've only lived here a year. BUT... I've been looking at properties and realized everything I was looking at was in good enough shape for a VA loan so we could put less down. And doing the calculations on the tax it would only be ~$3K. I'll pay $3K to be able to get land now! So we are scrambling to fix up our current house. Lots of projects that were on the someday list that are moved up to the "do now" list. And clearing out all the clutter (how does that much accumulate in just one year!?) so we can get this house on the market. We're not going to put it on the market until we find another house but it is a little overwhelming how much needs to be done all of the sudden!

 

[suncatcher]

I am going to start with the FF now that the weather is warming up some, my chickens sure would gulp it down as soon as it was fed last year. I am going to start with mixing some oats, corn, and pellets, and then switch over to only grains, is what I used last year and they loved it. Since they free range most days, this seems to work best for me and my flock.

Darn, I was hoping the Marans cross would be a pullet so you could add the darker eggs to your eating egg basket.

Congrats on your house buying plans being moved up, always exciting to buy a new place and make it yours. I think the market is picking up some now that the weather is getting warmer.

Clutter has a way of multiplying on its own, at least that has been my experience with it.

As to adding fake eggs to cause them to go broody, well, it won't hurt! Michaels hobby store has wooden eggs that work just as well as ceramic eggs, and they don't break if you drop one by accident. I took a picture of one by mistake, yep, they look that real! lol Is in my album.

 

[jime]

I feed grains, I make my own mix.
- One mix for fermented grains. 17% protein (every other day)
-One mix with 19.7 something % protein (every other day) alternate with the first.
-Barley fodder every day.

I get the grain in two places Golden Organics and Elizabeth Country Corner.

I have about 60 birds (chickens and ducks) and I spend about 300 every 4 to 5 months.

 

[wsmith]

My brooder heat plates arrived today!

 

[suncatcher]

wsmith, how many Dom chicks have you hatched so far this year?

 

[samsr]

I have 20 little chicks in the brooder now and one more in the incubator drying off at the moment. My last silkie americauna egg has pipped but there are still 3 more of wendles eggs that havent pipped yet. I will update more with some pics in the morning. I hope my phone will let me post. It has been giving me fits today. Maybe it is the mobile site acting up.

 

[trsturself]

Congrats on the chicks. We only have 3 eggs in the bator. Tomorrow is day 21. No pips yet. Hopefully tomorrow. I saw a lot of movement on day 18 from 2 of them. I'm going to be really disappointed if they die at hatch again. The only thing I can think of is someone said hatch them at the same height in the incubator as they incubated at because there can be too much change in temp. I can't really do that since my turner is pvc pipe that holds the cartons and is off the bottom a couple inches so it can rotate. They would fall and hurt themselves if I left them on the turner. Even if I made something to sit in there at the same level they would be too close to the lights. I'd also have to figure out cages to keep them away from the lights. I think I'll be done hatching if these don't hatch. At least until I have free eggs to try on.

 

[duchess]

Hi all!

New to BYC and chickens in general. I have a quick question, and I apologize if its already been answered, I haven't read through all 1900 pages of this thread Do you all have insulated coops? I live in the high country, so temps are a bit colder than in the metro area, but I am not sure if we should add insulation to our coop? We have 6 day old chicks and our coop is half built, so we definitely have time to add insulation if necessary. I appreciate any input! Thanks!

 

[trsturself]

Hi all!

New to BYC and chickens in general. I have a quick question, and I apologize if its already been answered, I haven't read through all 1900 pages of this thread Do you all have insulated coops? I live in the high country, so temps are a bit colder than in the metro area, but I am not sure if we should add insulation to our coop? We have 6 day old chicks and our coop is half built, so we definitely have time to add insulation if necessary. I appreciate any input! Thanks!

Welcome to BYC and the world of chickens!

There was a large thread on this topic recently. I think if you search the keyword "cold" you will get a lot of threads about this. Insulation is nice but ventilation is important so that moisture does not build up. That will hurt your birds worse than the cold. We do not have an insulated coop and the girls did fine in the deep freeze we had this year. We did however shine a halogen work lamp on the outside of the coop to provide a small amount of radiant heat (probably 2 deg).
Ventilation, no drafts, and thick roosts (so they can sit on their toes) are the important things.