Colorado

[rf12345]

i had some organic tofu that just expired, so... chickens got that. and because it was a box in my pantry they got that several times. works like egg making booster it turned out... hens get into a fight for it. must smell good for them or something...

for disinfectant look up potassium permanganate. look for concentration and usage carefully, as in larger concentrations it kills anything including person who tries to drink that, so keep away from kids and such. gets rid of iron bacteria too (if someone needs that for well water). what to buy: look for greensand filters stuff. that will last you life time... depending on concentration is is survival water purification and any other uses, high concentration is poison.

frozen egg thing was solved easy... it turned out the hen on bottom of the chain was not finding next box... suitable, so i made me cardboard walls between nesting boxes, now all of them get used, no more digging eggs in the ground or rolling them, 'no see each other' on the nest means no trouble. thin cardboard wall seems to do that trick.,


lost one hen to unknown predator

 

[samsr]

Mys wife and i got the greenhouse all set up this weekend. Made two raised off the bround beds roughly 4x4. Most of the auto water system in place also. Now to get some spinach, chard, lettuce, and peas planted. It was 70 in there today. We have some make shift heat going also. We filled the beds with composted horse, rabbit and chicken poo. It should work great.
We discovered for certain that we have one more roo in our flock also. BIG white brahma. I have been suspecting for a few months that he was a roo. He may have to go to the neighbors, as i have enough roos at the moment. I would like to find a black copper maran roo so i can make some more olive eggers. I have quite a few blue egg layers at the moment. This combo would give me olive eggers. If anyone knows of one fairly local. Let me know.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Hope y'all are doing well! I've been using Memnoch & Mercury as test photography subjects lately. I'm debating trying to hatch more of them this spring. I guess I'll have to wait to see how I feel about it in a few months!

 

[sonshine15]

Just curious... If the outside temp is below freezing, would it be a good idea to run a nebulizer/vaporizer inside the coop overnight? I mean wouldn't that be counter productive and cause frostbite issues as well?

@ LS we're using a cool mist vaporizer set high above on two areas above 4 coops.. got it down now after several days it seems..it does not get any of the flock wet and only using it during day and early eve. They turn off auto if i only put a small amount of water oxine in the bottom. The thing is with our situation there's over 60 foot just in length so it's not going to overdo any of the birds or the bedding. It's a very light mist and all is well. coops are clean enough to eat from, or they were lol

 

[sonshine15]

http://www.southernagrarian.com/building-a-roll-away-nest-box/

I saw this and thought it may help those that are battling egg eaters or dirty eggs this time of year.
Seems simple enough to do.

I am hoping everyone is enjoying some of this sunshine we are getting.

Great info! My egg production went to 7-8 from 12-13............AW literally has egg on her face........this should be fun to deal with..........

 

[sonshine15]

Mys wife and i got the greenhouse all set up this weekend. Made two raised off the bround beds roughly 4x4. Most of the auto water system in place also. Now to get some spinach, chard, lettuce, and peas planted. It was 70 in there today. We have some make shift heat going also. We filled the beds with composted horse, rabbit and chicken poo. It should work great.
We discovered for certain that we have one more roo in our flock also. BIG white brahma. I have been suspecting for a few months that he was a roo. He may have to go to the neighbors, as i have enough roos at the moment. I would like to find a black copper maran roo so i can make some more olive eggers. I have quite a few blue egg layers at the moment. This combo would give me olive eggers. If anyone knows of one fairly local. Let me know.

I've been reading up on having a system like this and am about to take the plunge The construction with lighting would be the expense part so it's taking a bit to put it all down on paper. Just had a new crow ourselves.....selling 2 Anconas. They lay and crow @ 3 months...........but their eggs are so large it's a a hard decision..may wait till the other pullets are ready to lay

 

[sonshine15]

Hope y'all are doing well! I've been using Memnoch & Mercury as test photography subjects lately. I'm debating trying to hatch more of them this spring. I guess I'll have to wait to see how I feel about it in a few months!

Beautiful!!!!! No other words needed. BTW i did look for VetRx to keep on hand and the store didn't have any in stock. Happy camper right now. Flock is well, no issues except one or possibly two egg eaters. They're getting a bit of kefir added in for a treat and prob's but everyone is happy and healthy!!!

 

[lindzkg]

Hey guys, I'm sure you've answered this question a million times, so I'm sorry in advance but where would you suggest buying chicks? I was hoping to raise a few in our garage under a light so when it's warm they'll be older and ready to lay soonish. We started off with 6 last year and between having a surprise rooster, a week old chick dyeing, and a fox attack we have two hens now. I only want about three and a lot of the places that would ship here either insist I buy at least 20-ish orrrrr its $50 for shipping $12 worth of chicks.

 

[Percheron chick]

Elizabeth and kiowa county corner will have chicks this week. Feeder supply in FC has chicks year round. There is always CL. If you want to hatch I can do EEs and OEs

 

[sonshine15]

Wow, no more small hatches. I was gone on a family ER and a friend was setting a few here and there for me..........................Finally got down to spreading the hatches every 10-15 days again.

Last hatch was 2 Silkies with EEs. The Silkies

...................coming up on a week old and it's been touch and go every day and night. I don't know why but these little Silkies get to me. One was upside down and had pipped through the fluid wrong...........aspirated and have been literally babying it all the way. I decided to try letting it breathe the oxine a few times a day through a super fine mist. Seriously, it should have not made it. So far it's eating and acting just fine. This, after several times I thought she would surely die. Unusual situation for sure. If I didn't give it fluids with a q-tip and pureed food, it would start to dehydrate and not eat. As soon as I did this, it would run over to it's hatch mate and join it eating and drinking. No fluids last night and stopped the pureed food day before yesterday. It's drinking and eating on it's own.........These are certainly not going up for sale. I got a bit attached so still praying the little one keeps doing well. Guess I'll stop worrying in a week lol.

The flock is going over the old shrinking snow drifts to get to the ground now. It's amusing watching chickens deal with crossing snow! Any hesitant hens and the roo would run back over to get them??? LOL. He's a new addition and 100% opposite personality of the one we had a few years. Pushy and controlling when it comes to his harem!

Hope everyone enjoyed the warm day yesterday! Snow this morning but temps are at least going to be above freezing