Consolidated Kansas

[zigzag45]

This broody raising babies is pretty interesting. When you have the chicks in brooder, it is all toasty warm.

When they are with a "mamma" - the rules are different. My broody has had her two or three week old chicks outside every day, yesterday and today included. It's 15 degrees out and they are pecking around the yard. Amazing.

I would really like to have them integrated before Thanksgiving. I'm thinking early next week I will try moving broody and her clutch into the coop. They all hang out around each other in the yard and seem fine, so we'll see what happens. She will fight me like crazy on the move, she doesn't like being handled.

 

[Mellowfields]

Welcome Mellowfields. Please feel free to tell us more about yourself. It's been pretty quiet here recently but we are a group of people who many have become real friends and personally know each other. Feel free to ask any questions you have. We are always glad to help in any way we can. Once in awhile you'll get 10 different answers to one question but that is the beauty of this thread. You can evaluate the answers and decide which one works best for you. I'm not too far from you. And Chooks who started this thread lives in Lawrence although she doesn't have as much time to post as she used to.
It's been a miserable few days and it sounds like today is the worst yet as far as cold goes. I have the flu to top it off which doesn't make me want to go out and spend hours caring for the birds in these conditions. Most of the birds are cowering today. I wish they all had places to go that they had a good windbreak.

 

[cherwill]

I'm sorry about your hen, Jessi.

The first time I had to get rid of a roo, the only place I could find was a neighbor of my neighbor's sister, so we didn't know too much about the home. I cried all the way home, because there were about a dozen roos in their barn and I was certain they had all of them to butcher. A year later, though, my neighbor told me her sister had been to this house and my ex-roo was still there. He was still mean, but they'd had others like that and didn't mind. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you're able to find a nice home for yours. It's hard, I know, because most people already have more roos than they need.

 

[Trish44]

Mellowfields I'm sorry about your hen. Sometimes they die of heart problems or some defect you can't see, I have had that happen as well. It's hard to find homes for excess roosters. I had an abundance of them this year & even though they were pure bred I couldn't find homes for them so I ended up taking about 13 to the auction in Yoder & sold them there. It was sure better than having to feed them all out & then end up butchering them in the end. It's sad to have to butcher pretty roosters, but unfortunately people only need so many.

It's still cold here today, barely above freezing at this point. I was hoping for a bit warmer so this snow would continue melting off. It just gets more slick & hazardous the longer it's out there & that makes me nervous after breaking my leg once. I have the things on my outdoor shoes for traction but still am being careful going up & down that hill. I just hate this time of year.

 

[zigzag45]

@Mellowfields - Young roosters never start crowing at a convenient time. We also are in the city and mine started crowing right as a baby was coming, two days into a 2+ week hospital stay. Murphy lives out in our coop...

 

[chicken danz]

So sorry about your bird, Mellowfields. We all get very attached to our birds even if we have a lot like I do.
Well today the big long hose I was dragging through the yard to water all the pens blew a leak. So I had to go out and scrounge up other hoses to replace it. I had left several without draining them when the cold weather hit. I have the flu and I really didn't want to be out working in the cold in the first place. Dealing with water problems wasn't on my agenda of things I wanted to do today.
It's a shame you can't remove the crow from a rooster without caponing him or rehoming him. I'm sure there must be some way.
I just normally sell my good expensive roosters as breeders but also have to sell many as meat. I could keep my freezer pretty full if I wanted but I'd rather sell most of them for someone else to butcher.

 

[tatinatimom]

Has anyone tried the no crow collar? I am wondering if it is humane and would help lessen the crowing so we can keep our roos!
Funny how some neighbours never hear their dog bark ALL NIGHT long, but complain when morning comes and a rooster crows and it's time to get up anyway.

 

[tatinatimom]

Btw, welcome Mellowfields, from Tongie. Sorry to hear about your hen!

 

[tatinatimom]

Thanks everyone for the tips on the heated dog bowls!! I ventured into Orscheln on Saturday afternoon after my daughter's cheer competition and they had one left on the shelf and it was on sale for $19.99. We rounded up a super long extension cord and plugged her in!! Just in time to keep the water from freezing especially with the snow that fell Sunday morning.

 

[Trish44]

Thanks everyone for the tips on the heated dog bowls!! I ventured into Orscheln on Saturday afternoon after my daughter's cheer competition and they had one left on the shelf and it was on sale for $19.99. We rounded up a super long extension cord and plugged her in!! Just in time to keep the water from freezing especially with the snow that fell Sunday morning.

I have quite a few of those in pens here & they have worked great for a couple of years now. I have extension cords all over the place here, it's a necessary thing in the winter when I don't have electricity out to pens any other way. Sometimes the birds will sit on the edge of the bowl because it's warm. They're easy to empty out & refill. I have a couple of heated bases as well that I have in my main coop for the metal waterer because that group is bigger so I need a bigger container. I just put one in another pen too because I ran out of heated dog bowls.