Colorado

[laceykins]

I am looking for a great mouser/barn cat immediately to come feast on many mice that are plaguing me and are too smart for traps now.

And I found a frozen cracked egg from my rc leghorn on the coop floor, but my ee Agnes was about to lay a pretty blue egg.. gotta fill the bator.

http://denver.craigslist.org/grd/4824096845.html

 

[trsturself]

What incubator are you starting with? I remember researching for days and days, and still wasn't for sure which one I was going to get till the last minute.

Anyone doing top bar beehives? We're planning our deck to be like a large fruit garden right outside the back door, and I'm thinking we need more bees out here. I've been reading a lot about beehives, and a top bat seems easiest for a beginner.

My friend just build a top bar hive and her husband gave her bees for christmas (they will ship in spring). I too am going to start bees this spring. I have looked into it a little and might do a ware hive since it seems to combine the pros of both langstroth and top bar. But I haven't fully decided yet. It's one of my winter research projects.

We had minus ten this morning, but was a balmy 20 inside my one coop, they seem to keep it this temp on most nights. This coop is insulated but has good air flow too, I am very happy with doing it the way I did. My big coop, whole other story, not so warm, but no insulation and it is HUGE, and that is the problem, plus the fact that I have 17 less chickens in it than last winter. I did have one roo get frostbite on the tips of his points in this coop, but everyone else have had no issues. I have noticed too that some of my hens tuck their heads under their wings, and sleep this way, I wondered why everyone doesn't do this???

Hot chocolate is my all time fav!!! You will burn off the extra calories doing chores in this cold weather, not to worry!!!

Pretty sure you will love the Brinsea, I have heard lots of good things about this incubator!!! Keep us posted on your hatching journey!!!!

No hatching for me right now, no where to brood them....... I put some eggs to the side these past few weeks thinking maybe I can hatch this early, but this last cold snap has made me realize is not feasable for me right now.

I have an nine week old chick I bring in the house over night when the temps are in the minus, scared it might freeze in the coop as none of the other chickens will snuggle with it as she peeps non stop, and I mean all day and part of the night, nonstop! I have tried to add her to one group after dark, they sleep in a pile together, my Silkie and some young bantams, but she pops back out, and then stands there peeping for ?????? I have integrated many chicks and chickens, but this one is a challenge!!

Accuweather says the real feel at home is -18 right now. We're on vacation so I hope our friend is taking good care of the animals! I can see the chickens have knocked over their food in the coop so hopefully she checks on them at some point today but with that cold, I doubt it. At least it gives them something to scratch for. I have been checking the temp inside the coop and the lowest I saw it go was 10deg. Not bad considering the temp outside. I too see most of our birds sleep with their head under their wing. Our BCM roo had the smallest bit of frost bite on his comb before this cold snap. I hope he is ok this time.

I would love to hatch but they'd all be mutts right now. My friend's chickens are living in our extra space that I want to use for breeding pairs, so I have to wait. Fingers crossed she has a place of her own before spring!

Some broodies will take many, many chicks, and some, like my awful Wyandotte will peck the new baby till it runs screaming. We had a Silkie that went broody, we gave her chicks in the middle of the day, and she tucked them right in with zero issues. When the broody refused the new chick, we took all the chicks from her, because it was better then one chick alone in the house...it cried for hours before we finally did that. I'm not convinced chickens CAN'T count, from what I've seen of broodies and their chicks. They just know when someone is missing, or when an addition has been made.

Interesting!

I am looking for a great mouser/barn cat immediately to come feast on many mice that are plaguing me and are too smart for traps now.

And I found a frozen cracked egg from my rc leghorn on the coop floor, but my ee Agnes was about to lay a pretty blue egg.. gotta fill the bator.

I'm sure you will have no problem looking on craigslist. Or place a wanted ad on there in the farm and garden section. The lady that bought our horse had barn kittens for free but she wasn't advertising. That's where we got ours. He's already proved to be a great mouser and he's perfectly happy outside living with the goats. I worried about getting one from a shelter because you don't know if they'll tolerate it outdoors, run away, or not catch anything.

 

[suncatcher]

So nice that you are away missing this bitter cold!!!! Hope you are somewhere warm!!

I agree, CL might be the best place to look for a free cat, also plenty of rescues too......

 

[Double Kindness]

I looked on cl, but it doesn't seem like there are any mousers specifically... well maybe a male kitty in Elizabeth, but idk if the bf will drive me that far to get a kitty. But we are supposed to go visit our a2a2 raw milk cow share this weekend.

 

[suncatcher]

Is there anyone here that is looking to add some BCM's to their flock or breeding pen? I found a source for chicks, but they have a minimum order, and I only want to add two at this time. Please PM me if interested.

 

[suncatcher]

I looked on cl, but it doesn't seem like there are any mousers specifically... well maybe a male kitty in Elizabeth, but idk if the bf will drive me that far to get a kitty. But we are supposed to go visit our a2a2 raw milk cow share this weekend.

Funny how when you want or need something, there are not many around!!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Well it is blinking cold outside. Everyone is rather ticked off at not getting to go outside but they are doing well. Having the large coop that they can stay in if needed is a blessing right now.
Salt hates me lol. Bag Balm on the comb is NOT on her favorite activity list.
I am getting up even earlier tomorrow so I can make oatmeal for them. ( I really hate the cold )
I am looking forward to warmer weather. The coop is 20 degrees right now. I am done for tonight with them. I do not want to be fanning the door.

I will be sending most of my flock to camp and getting new babies to raise up. (Most of my hens are 4 or going on 4 years old and pretty much done laying)

On my wish list

Black Australorp
Partridge Rock
Giant Cochin (hoping for partridge cochin)
and
Delaware

The plan is to have the bantam cochins raise them for me.

From what I have read they are pretty accepting of having babies stuffed under them when they are broody. Mine are certainly the broody type. Does anyone have luck sticking babies of the wrong color under them? I would hate to have them peck the little ones to death just for being the wrong shade of yellow.

Edited to add:

Double Kindness
Spring is a good time to find barn kitties on CL and in the paper. It has been my experience that just having the cat around will drive most mice off even if the cat does not hunt them.

 

[COChix]

Glad Bruno and the boys fared well, mine were slow to move around too, they are usually right at the door when I open it, but today they were hunkered down on the floor, in the straw.  My one roo was in a nest box!  I have never seen him inside a nest box, sometimes in front of it, makes we wonder if she slept there all night???

C'mon spring, I knkow we just had the first day of winter, but I am ready for....... no snow, and warm weather already!!  lol

Gosh hope yours didn't sleep in the nest box! I am ready for spring, lol. Not really but not liking this cold.

 
Accuweather says the real feel at home is -18 right now. We're on vacation so I hope our friend is taking good care of the animals! I can see the chickens have knocked over their food in the coop so hopefully she checks on them at some point today but with that cold, I doubt it. At least it gives them something to scratch for. I have been checking the temp inside the coop and the lowest I saw it go was 10deg. Not bad considering the temp outside. I too see most of our birds sleep with their head under their wing. Our BCM roo had the smallest bit of frost bite on his comb before this cold snap. I hope he is ok this time. 

I would love to hatch but they'd all be mutts right now. My friend's chickens are living in our extra space that I want to use for breeding pairs, so I have to wait.

Hope your some place warm and sunny!

So update, so got the sand defrosted and filled the dog bowl put the waterer on it and thought I was good. Well, went out to check the gang and noticed the Delaware hen was bleeding again. Checked the water and immediately knew the issue, the steel water dish was a bad idea in - whatever temp we were. i forgot that detail and felt bad for it but nothing I can do now but not make that mistake again. She caught her waddle stuck in the edge as evidenced by the blood splotches on the edge. So immediately pulled the dish and removed her from the flock, inside the bathroom in a dog crate. I then got one of the plastic chick waterers and used that instead. Not sure that will be a long term solution as it wasn't out very long and the water seemed to already have a top layer of thin ice.

Her wounds dried and I was able to apply Blu Kot to bottom of her waddle and then put her back with the gang. Went out 45 minutes ago to check the temp in coop as temp gauge here said -11. Coop was at 14 and humidity was at 16%, I felt better after that as was worried about the coop temp. So decided no light tonight, coop should stay above 0. Hoping that was the right decision.

What is everyone doing about their water? Also any other suggestions on keeping waddles out of waterers? That is why I did the chick waterer, too small for them to dip into, got that off another thread,

Stay warm!

 

[trsturself]

We have the heated dog dish and haven't had a problem with the wattles. Our coop has gone down to 10deg this time, hopefully everyone will be ok when we get home.
Our friend was using a bucket with nipples on it and an aquarium heater in it. The water froze though because on normal days I have the heater set to a timer with the door so it's not on during the day but comes on at sunset for the night. On cold days I turn the doors to stay closed and that turns the heater on. I told my friend to close the doors but didn't mention the heater, she didn't close the doors so the heater stayed off. That resulted in the water freezing solid and breaking the heater. She said she was going to run and get a heated bowl but I haven't talked to her since then.

As strange as it sounds, I'd rather be there then here. It's chilly here but I'm worried about our animals there. Our friend told us at the last minute she won't be staying at our house most of the time. One of our pugs has a hard time with the dog door when it's cold. I'm worried she went out and can't get back in. The rest of the animals were ok when we hit subzero before but we had to let that pug into the house multiple times. I'm really annoyed with my friend right now.

I wish I had setup our other camera so I could check on the dogs in the house. Then I could make sure all 3 dogs are inside. If the dumb one was missing I could yell at the others to go outside and then the stupid one would follow another dog back inside when they went through the door. lol Oh well. I just have to hope another dog goes out with her every time she does. Glad it's going to get warmer tomorrow! This worry is too much for me! Next time we go out of town I know to setup that camera on the dogs and I think I'll get an outdoor one for the goats/horses. Then if I see something I'm worried about I can ask a neighbor to run over for me.

 

[jime]

We will have 10 acres, no structures yet - just the house (we will be building those as well as adding trees/landscaping). It's currently zoned Ag. It would be in Elbert County.

I have 10 acres. We are allow 30 chickens (all fowls included) over 8 months and more under.Yu can have as many rabbits as you want because hey are consider pets, but dogs and cats that a are pets as well you can only have 4. and here is the thing (4 cats or 4 dogs) according to what is written I have 7 (3 dogs and 2 cats and 2 barn cats).
As for horses we can have 5 but that will be over killing to the land so we have 3 (one is a lease) and they only pasture half the year.I have a heifer as well Dexter she is counted as a horse.(for the unit thing) I have 2 goats (you can have more goats, 6=1 horse)
In the end I did call the county to make sure, because we have a nasty neighbour, and want to make sure if we were doing things right.As long and people does not complain and your pasture looks descent you can stretch things.