Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Danz, do you have pics of your new wagon and maybe a link for where you bought it? Same for your grain bin. I am still buying my feed in 50-pound bags and often think there has to be a better way, with the volume I am buying, but I'm not currently set up to store it any other way.

My three week old chicks got moved outside permanently two days ago to prepare the brooder for the new hatch that is ongoing now. They had really outgrown the brooder anyway, so it was time. It was 40 when I got up this morning but I went out and checked on them and they are doing fine. There are enough of them to share body warmth and they've been acclimated to being outside since they were two weeks old (out by day, in by night between 2-3 weeks) so they seem to be doing fine on their own with no heat now.

I had one chick hatch 2 days early and a full day before any others from this hatch. It is still in the incubator but is now more than 48 hours old so I'm just waiting for a chick that is zipping to get done and then I'll pull the first few hatched out and move them to the brooder.

I guess today we get a break from the winds and then they're supposed to be gale force again over the weekend. I know its Kansas but even so, I'm tired of trying to work outside in that non-stop wind. Hopefully we'll get some rain out of the storms they're calling for this weekend.

Well, I thought I'd take a pic of my silly bird that went broody on the roosts in the main coop. Obviously I can't give her either eggs or chicks sitting up there and when I tried to move her to the hoop coop, she found a way out within minutes and hightailed it back to the main coop. So I guess she'll just perch up there until it occurs to her she can't raise chicks on a 3' high roost.

 

[sharol]

Danz, do you have pics of your new wagon and maybe a link for where you bought it? Same for your grain bin. I am still buying my feed in 50-pound bags and often think there has to be a better way, with the volume I am buying, but I'm not currently set up to store it any other way.

My three week old chicks got moved outside permanently two days ago to prepare the brooder for the new hatch that is ongoing now. They had really outgrown the brooder anyway, so it was time. It was 40 when I got up this morning but I went out and checked on them and they are doing fine. There are enough of them to share body warmth and they've been acclimated to being outside since they were two weeks old (out by day, in by night between 2-3 weeks) so they seem to be doing fine on their own with no heat now.

Timely comment. I sold 4 of Breda chicks yesterday, so now I'm down to 14 in the brooder and it is still way too crowded. I've been trying to figure out how to get them outside. I have the hoop coop/run set up with a little sweeter heater but I checked and the overnight low in the coop under the heater was in the 50's last night. They were out there a couple of days earlier in the week, but it has been much cooler yesterday and today, so they are stuck inside.

I'm toying with the idea of moving the larger sweeter heater out there for them so they can have a warmer spot to go to, and then putting them in the run again today (high is only 68. What do you think? Is that too chilly for 4 week olds?

 

[chicken danz]

Danz,
Your selling your Trump pheasants or am I thinking of different ones?

Yep Hate to but have to make a cut somewhere.

Danz, do you have pics of your new wagon and maybe a link for where you bought it? Same for your grain bin. I am still buying my feed in 50-pound bags and often think there has to be a better way, with the volume I am buying, but I'm not currently set up to store it any other way.
I don't have pictures of either but given a little time (nearly impossible, these days) I'll try to get some. The wagons came from Orshels's. The little wagon with the plastic dump bed is the one I am hauling feed in. http://www.orschelnfarmhome.com/ede...esFlyer.vm&ctl_nbr=16754&ct=salesFlyer_iframe It's just the right height to pull under the shoot on the grain bin. I think this is the company that the feed bin came from. Ours is a 3 ton. Made much better than any others we looked at with extra suspension, wiring stabilizer bars etc. There is a picture to the right side of the page of a smaller unit. DH called and made the arrangements so I'm not sure about all the details. All I did was foot the bill! LOL
http://www.cowboyrigs.com/Other-Equipment.html

My three week old chicks got moved outside permanently two days ago to prepare the brooder for the new hatch that is ongoing now. They had really outgrown the brooder anyway, so it was time. It was 40 when I got up this morning but I went out and checked on them and they are doing fine. There are enough of them to share body warmth and they've been acclimated to being outside since they were two weeks old (out by day, in by night between 2-3 weeks) so they seem to be doing fine on their own with no heat now.

I had one chick hatch 2 days early and a full day before any others from this hatch. It is still in the incubator but is now more than 48 hours old so I'm just waiting for a chick that is zipping to get done and then I'll pull the first few hatched out and move them to the brooder.

I guess today we get a break from the winds and then they're supposed to be gale force again over the weekend. I know its Kansas but even so, I'm tired of trying to work outside in that non-stop wind. Hopefully we'll get some rain out of the storms they're calling for this weekend.

Well, I thought I'd take a pic of my silly bird that went broody on the roosts in the main coop. Obviously I can't give her either eggs or chicks sitting up there and when I tried to move her to the hoop coop, she found a way out within minutes and hightailed it back to the main coop. So I guess she'll just perch up there until it occurs to her she can't raise chicks on a 3' high roost.
Silly bird! That's funny!

Sharol it's supposed to be in the 30s tonight. I don't think I'd move them just yet. If you do definitely put in a larger sweeter heater.

 

[sharol]

Yep Hate to but have to make a cut somewhere.



Sharol it's supposed to be in the 30s tonight. I don't think I'd move them just yet. If you do definitely put in a larger sweeter heater.

I think I'll find a happy medium. I put the bigger heater in the coop part of the hoop (closed in with a pop door), and I'll put them outside in the hoop/run/coop area as soon as I'm sure the bigger heater will keep the coop area warm for them. Then this afternoon later, I'll haul them back in to the brooder for the night. I agree it will be too cool for them, and then in the morning I can tell whether the bigger SH will keep a sleeping area warm enough (it is a high/low thermometer -- not terribly accurate for hatches, but good enough for this. It is 55 now, and I'm headed out to check the temp in the coop under the heater.

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken that is crazy about that hen on the roost, what a silly girl! I have one right now who insists on sitting in a nest box even with nothing under her. I go in daily to get eggs & run her out & she runs out of the coop yelling at the top of her lungs & then she goes on outside for quite awhile longer. I can only imagine what she is telling the other hens, lol. I just don't want her to be broody since she is in the laying flock for eating eggs.

I have a few chick orders going out today through Sunday, I sure need a lot to go but even a few helps because my brooders are overflowing. I have never had so many chicks at one time before ever. I got woke up by my cat this morning up on the brooders terrorizing the chicks. They just panic when she gets up there & bats at the wire. I've got a spray bottle of water ready now to hit her with next time I see her up there. I don't like her doing that at all, she is the only one of 3 cats in here that bother the chicks.

Well so far moving my hen that ended up being the egg eater out of her pen & into the main coop has seemed to cure her of it. She is on the bottom of the pecking order in there so she has been a bit freaked out. I hope it is a permanent fix because she is a blue copper marans & really pretty.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm toying with the idea of moving the larger sweeter heater out there for them so they can have a warmer spot to go to, and then putting them in the run again today (high is only 68. What do you think? Is that too chilly for 4 week olds?

I know I do things a little differently than some people. After years of observing chicks raised under broody hens, I've become convinced they don't need as much coddling as humans tend to give them. Under broody hens, they spend large quantities of time outside (not under her) even when it is quite cold and with a wind chill making it colder still. I had one hen go broody in November and hatch in December 2-3 years ago. When that chick was 12 days old, I woke to find the thermometer outside reading 3 degrees. Yet when I went to chick on mom and chick, he was out from under her, running around, happy as a lark (are larks really that happy?) and didn't seem cold at all. (That chick is now my head rooster and never had a sick day in his life.)

I think it is all a matter of allowing them to acclimatize. By exposing them to different elements, it allows their body to develop the blood circulation and grow feathers faster than they would if kept at consistent temp and conditions. So, my chicks never have heat longer than two weeks. I use Eco-Glows which are similar to the Sweeter Heater and they have 3 adjustable height levels. As newly hatched, they obviously start out on the lowest level. At somewhere between a week to 10 days, I raise it to the middle level. I've never used the upper level because by the time they're big enough to need the extra height, they no longer need heat.

At two weeks, the heat gets turned off and they spend the day outside. For this batch, the first day they went outside, I waited until the thermometer outside hit 50 and out they went. That was maybe 10-11am and they were outside until about 7pm. The next day 50 arrived an hour earlier so they had an extra hour outside. From the first day they spend outside, they no longer have heat inside, even at night. That makes it easier for them to adjust between the inside and outside temperatures. Also, their brooder is in the basement which is about 10 degrees cooler than upstairs, so about 60 at night.

By the time they are three weeks old, they have typically outgrown the brooder and that's when they stop coming in, even at night. My chicks have now been outside for two nights. The first night the low was about 50 and last night it was forecast to be 38. The thermometer read 40 when I got up so I can believe it dipped to 38 overnight. I checked on the chicks first thing and they were zipping around eating their breakfast and couldn't have been happier.

Now, I will say, you can't take them from under a heat lamp and put them out if it is 38 degrees - the shock to their system will kill them. But by allowing them to gradually acclimatize, I've never had a chick die from cold. I've also never had a chick in the brooder longer than about 3 ½ weeks - and that includes my first hatch ever, that hatched Jan 29th, about 5 years ago. Grant you, that February was pretty mild. Still, by the end of February, those chicks were living full-time outside.

***

Danz, thanks so much for those links. I've opened them up in new tabs and will take a look at them later when I have more time to peruse them.

Trish44, so glad you solved the egg-eating problem - what a pain to have to deal with.

We just moved the sheep and goats into the chicken yard for the day. The yard is about ¼ acre and is about the only place on the property with longer grass to eat. So we figured we'd give the pasture a rest today and let them eat down the chicken yard. They are confined behind portable electric, which the adults remember from last year. However the lambs and kids are each having to figure it out for the first time and there have been quite a few yells of pain/surprise upon touching it. Fortunately, each one has turned and run away from the fence that is biting them instead of plowing through it in their panic, so it is teaching them to respect it.

 

[Trish44]

Danz that looks like a nice dump cart, I wouldn't mind having one of those myself just for animal chores, it would be handy. I have one of the green metal ones like the one beside that one on the ad. It's used for taking the feed out at feeding time & bringing up more feed to add to the FF each day. It sure has been handy as well.

 

[chicken danz]

Customers have come and gone and I've got three more peafowl sold. Yay! Now I'm down to some random boys.
@HEChicken I took some pictures of my grain bin. Yeti and Precious photo bombed when I took the picture of the front. Look at Yeti. 17 weeks old and nearly as tall as Precious. Precious is a really big female too. Don't know what was hanging in front of my camera in that second picture. This is a 3 ton bin. Has a window you can look in but it's hard to see in this picture.




I took a picture of yesterdays hatch as well. Today is goose hatching day.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Great pics Danz

 

[sharol]

@HEChicken I've noticed that too. My broody hatched her chicks in February, and at 2 days old they were out from under her and out in the run and it was pretty cold. They would get cold and run back to her and pop under her wings for a few minutes and then they were off and running again.

I think I'll bring them in for the night (like you said, no sudden change), and then back out tomorrow morning. Of course catching them is a deal. Then I can clean out that nasty brooder and clean it up for foster kittens if the shelter needs me to take some this spring.