Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Are you going to use that shed as a brooder house for your baby chicks? It will look tidy.
Naw DH has regular blood tests and physicals from work. The NRC requires it. It is just him. He has been the same way for the last 22 years that I know of. It's just him. A thinker but not a doer. If it were up to him he would sleep all day and stand and think all night.
I'm a day person so we are total opposites
I need to do my taxes but I'm running a fever and feel really lousy. I think it's nap time.

 

[tntblake]

Are you going to use that shed as a brooder house for your baby chicks? It will look tidy.
Naw DH has regular blood tests and physicals from work. The NRC requires it. It is just him. He has been the same way for the last 22 years that I know of. It's just him. A thinker but not a doer. If it were up to him he would sleep all day and stand and think all night.
I'm a day person so we are total opposites
I need to do my taxes but I'm running a fever and feel really lousy. I think it's nap time.

It will be my layer coop. I plan to use my old coop for my meaties and this new shed for my new layers. I am going to brood my chicks in it as well. The neat and tidy look is what we were going for since our house is getting ready to go on the market. I needed something that didn't look terrible in the yard since we already have one homemade coop out there. Plus it will be a lot easier to move with us when we find a new house.
I hope the meds start kicking in and make you feel better soon. Enjoy your nap!

 

[sharol]

I do computer troubleshooting part time, too, so it is especially irritating. I'm going to try logging off on both (well actually all 4 devices) and then log back in and see if that helps. Somebody suggested that.

Sharol

Very odd. Everything appears to be working fine with my account anyway. Sounds like you're doing all the right things. I read somewhere in another post that a number of people seem to be having similar problems with this since the conversion. I'm sure at some point the admins will find out what the problem is. I've been an IT professional for 20+ years & trust me, things like this frustrate us more than it does the end user. Hang in there.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Our chicks came! The group from Mt. Healthy arrived Thursday morning and not a single chick appeared weak or sick. We got 50 straight run Speckled Sussex and the 25 free chicks were what they call Araucanas but we all know are really Easter Eggers. I don't know how many of those are cockerels or pullets -- only time will tell.

We have a 40 X 60 Morton building where I have a 30 X 30 insulated and heated craft room. Because the weather turned cold I just couldn't stand to put them in the shed because DH hasn't had the time to get the ceiling rocked and insulated. So here is our brooder inside my 70 degree craft room. The light box can be used in an uninsulated building, so it would have worked fine but I wouldn't have been able to sleep very well. The light box can be insulated by placing bedding on top. Yeah, I need to get those cords inside some PVC and through the exterior walls.




And here are some chick pics.



They are so much fun to watch! During the day they come out from under the light box and run "laps" around the outer edge, then zoom, back underneath for more warmth, water, food and sleep. My DH put this setup together for me on the fly, but the brooder light box we copied from Robert Plamondon's book Success With Baby Chicks. DH says it was really easy to build. There's plenty of room for all the chicks because the light box is sized to accommodate 250, it's 4' x 4'. The exterior walls are approx 8' x 8'. Now, if the weather will warm up a bit and DH gets the ceiling put up in the coop, I'll have my craft room back. I have to admit I enjoy having them there for now but by the end of week one, I'm sure I'll want them to move on.

We had a few pasty butts today but I just cleaned them up with a cloth dipped in warm water and will continue to watch for anymore problems. I sure hope we make it without any losses.

So far, so good!!!

 

[shotah]

YAY KAREN! I can't wait to get mine too!

 

[Trish44]

KarenS, what cuties! Wow, you have quite a few, I wish you the best of luck with them all. I won't be getting my chicks until almost the end of April, so I have to wait, but I can enjoy everyone else's pics in the meantime. Congrats! I like you brooder by the way, I may have to ask you more about that.

 

[Ivywoods]

Karen-Congrats on getting a healthy bunch of chicks! I love your brooder set up. I want to make up a similar one someday. I'm just waiting to see when and where we are going to move later this year or possibly even next. Sure looks like you've got things under control.

Hope you've got a lot of chick starter on hand. That many chicks are going to eat a lot! I can't believe how much some of my older chicks are starting to eat. I had to swap the feeder out that I had in the stock tank with the older chicks. They were emptying it too fast and then it would be upside down when I went out to check on them. Instead of the long feeder with holes, I now have a self feeder in there.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Blake-- congrats on your shed! That will be fun to get it set up. Hopefully it will warm up a bit for you.

Karen, I wouldn't bother washing pasty butt-- just pluck it off. It takes off a bit of fluff, but in the end, that is best! Do it fast, they won't like it, but they'll be better off if it won't stick again. My pasty butt lasted only about 3 days and then they were all good. And by that time, they'd all had their butts plucked! LOL! The fluff grows back- don't worry. Danz and Ivy taught me that trick. And that was honestly the BEST thing. Love your brooder-- that is a fantastic set up! What a fun project you have started! Post some pics of your coop/barn when you get a chance!

Danz, hope you are feeling better today!! I've been thinking about you a lot, worried!

Well, I'm off to the Dr here in a minute. My middle child started throwing up and says his ear hurts. He didn't make it to the bathroom on time. Thank goodness for hardwood floors! Easy to clean up.

 

[WichitaKidd]

I do computer troubleshooting part time, too, so it is especially irritating. I'm going to try logging off on both (well actually all 4 devices) and then log back in and see if that helps. Somebody suggested that.

Sharol

I read that in a post somewhere too. One thing I've noticed with the new site is that it has problems logging people off. You have to manually click the "logoff" link to do it. Plus having multiple devices logged in at the same time can also cause issues. Hopefully logging everything off & back on will help. Here are some additional things to try if it doesn't work.

1) The golden rule for IT admins. Have you tried turning it off & on again? (you wouldn't believe how many problems this has fixed over the years)
2) Clear your web browser cache & temporary files often. Pretty much every web browser keeps "copies" of every web page in a "cache". This is so web pages load faster when you're browsing. It also means your web browser could be trying to use "old" files on a "new" site. This option will normally be in the "options" of your browser settings somewhere. May take a while the first time if you've never done it. In some browsers there is an option to clear this file when you close the browser.
3) Reset your browser settings back to default. There may be a setting somewhere that was made that is effecting what you're trying to do now.
4) Clean up temporary files on your computer. In Microsoft Windows there is a "disk cleanup" utitlity. Run it & make sure you clear all the "temporary files". There are some other options for this utility, but make sure you do at least this one. Again, if you've never done this before the first time can take a while (i.e. hours).
5) Make sure you are current with the latest updates & security patches. If you're on a Microsoft Windows or Mac computer these are free & downloadable. If you haven't done it in a while it could take a while. If anything make sure you are running the latest version of whatever web browser software you are using. "Newer" websites are being designed to utilize features that older web browsers may not have or support.

I won't guarantee that any or all of these steps will solve the specific problems you are having, but they are good all around things you can do to keep your system running smoothly.
Not sure anyone else has noticed this, but if you go to the BYC home page, on the right side of the screen towards the bottom is a "stats" section. If you ever wonder why things don't always work 100% all the time this will give you some insight as to why.

Hope everyone has a good day. Too cold to do anything outside today. Although it does appear to be warming up. When I got up this morning the thermometer said it was 8. Now it's up to 12. It's like a HEATWAVE!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Shotah and Trish: Thanks for the congrats! I made a little movie of them running all over the place and quickly realized I need to upgrade the videocam. Way too fuzzy to enjoy watching. Well, what's one more chick expense?

Ivywoods: I have 100 lbs of chick starter on hand for the first 4 weeks. The following 2 weeks they should go through 150 lbs! Anyway, that's what one of my books say. What is a self-feeder? Do you have a pic? I have 5 of the trays with holes, but right now they would rather eat from the flatter trays (and sleep there, etc

) so I'm wasting quite a bit of feed for now keeping those reasonably clean. I have more chicks coming either Sunday or Tuesday (HOPE Sunday) or I would just switch them over to the regular feeders. What kind of waterer do you use? I'm using the mason jars with screw on trays, 4 of them, and they go through all four over the course of a day. Of course, I empty and clean them as I need to, which is at least three times; once in the a.m., once around noon and once at bedtime. They certainly do not adhere to my standards of cleanliness without a lot of help. Just like regular babies!

It's lots of work but I have 8 kids who want to do as much as I'll let them. For now I'm kind of paranoid since it's my first time so mostly they just help with the water jars and "chick taming"

.

Hawkeye, I'm worried about them having a red bottom and getting picked. Should I get blukote before plucking or is that really not a problem? Do you know if Atwoods carries blukote? I knew plucking was an option, and seriously considered trying it but lacked the confidence to go for it. Thanks for the encouragement, I'll give it a try today.

I really, really like the brooder light set up and I can tell the chicks are very content with their quiet peeping. Happy chicks, happy me!

Thanks all!