Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I have had some adult hens attack chicks but that was a case when the hen was still sitting on more eggs and the chicks explored out on their own without the hen. I would hesitate to house them together unless you check them and she is keeping them safe. I do believe the chicks need a private place to eat or drink for economical reasons and the fact that the big birds always think the chick food and water is better than what they have. I often house the mothers and the babies in a separate spot than the others for that reason. Building a chick creeper is a great Idea @HEChicken . In my building now I just pull the hen and her chicks out, make a psuedo nest of sorts and let them free range in and out of the building.
When I think about it I have something that would work great for a chick creeper. It's some old milk crates that have openings at the top (which would become the bottom) big enough for a chick to walk through but too small for an adult bird.
The one thing I have learned with hens raising chicks is that there is often more lost if they free range. I think sometimes some get left behind and I have had a few drown if they try to drink from bigger water containers. But the survivors are much stronger healthier chicks than the ones that I raise. I wish I could let hens raise all the chicks. It's just not practical in my situation though.

 

[Trish44]

I just can't let hens raise chicks here, my pens aren't set up for it & if a chick gets out it's cat food in usually seconds because if the cats hear peeping they sit outside the pen & wait for one to get loose. I lost several ducklings last spring because they kept getting out. I will have to beef up that pen in the spring with hardware cloth to keep them in better. I also plan to put hardware cloth on the bottom of the pen I moved recently in the spring.

I have 3 Isbar eggs due to hatch tomorrow & then I just candled the other batch of eggs & 11 out of 14 look to be developing. Of course that doesn't mean they'll all hatch but these are doing much better than the others I got. Go figure these are from Georgia so they came much further in the mail & the ones that didn't do well were from Oklahoma. Hopefully I'll get some little friends soon for the lone Isbar chick I have who is hanging out with some bantam chicks for the time being.

I have a rooster that is supposed to go to a new home today & then another that is supposed to go tomorrow. Yay two less mouths to feed for the winter!

 

[chicken danz]

I have tons of chicks right now. I really didn't mean to. There are just a few I need more of and will always sell regardless. Some of those are less hardy than others so I never quite raise as many as I have. A few I am just doing fertility tests on. They have poor fertility and I am trying to see if that improves. It's not unusual for fertility to be poor in the fall though. Others I may have to trim some vents to have success.
And I'm hatching all the Icelandics I can to choose some more breeders for myself. They are great little layers though so I should be good before long.
I've got so many birds right now but haven't had time to get pictures and adds up. And of course I need a major butchering day so that would decrease a bunch as well. I've pulled most of the desirable boys out of the rooster pen and put them in another pen. A few for my own back up breeders and a few for potential sales. Too nice to butcher when I do find time.
I never got the new finish on the floor in the brooder area of the new building. One more project that isn't finished. It would be nice to have that done.
So many projects!

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Hey everyone rescued another chicken from the SPCA last night a little Old English Game Rooster he is a sweetie however I am meet with a problem in that I don't have any other Bantams. So am hoping someone on here have a few little hens don't care if pullet or laying or color/ect just want to find him 3-5 little Ladies to keep him company. My husband and I are already working out Bantam sized tunnels and making a bantam chicken yard for the new little flock. Here is a picture is "Emo" so named by my hubby cause his comb looks like its a comb over.

Picture of him at the SPCA

 

[chicken danz]

Dani, Contact LaDonna Lickteig. She lives over by Lawrence. She raises all kinds of Old English. Her birds won't be cheap but they'll be priced fairly. I'll pm the phone number

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Danz thank you so much I have reached out to LaDonna and Heather and I will be going over on Fri to pick out some hens for him.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I am gonna have to put the chicks and mama in with the rest by next week. We've got much colder temps in the forecast and I have no way of keeping the chicks waterer from freezing. The big birds have a heater in their water but I don't have another one for the chicks. Nor do I have anywhere to plug an additional heater in.

Would just a normal cardboard box work for the chick creeper?

I am concerned about letting the chicks out to free range with the flock, mainly because of my DH's lab puppy that likes to chase anything new or different. I'm afraid she'd kill the chicks. I guess I will just have to keep an eye on her/them for a while after I first let them out. I will also have to set the big birds water bowl in the ground so the chicks can reach it. Would it be bad to let the chicks in with the big birds and just keep them locked up for a few days?

Anyone else have any tips?

 

[HEChicken]

I'm not sure a cardboard box will work for two reasons. First, it will be so dark in there that the chicks won't see the food and therefore won't go in, and two, as soon as the adult birds find out what's under there, they will knock the box away to have at it. What I used for my first chick creeper was a box made of 1x2 and chicken wire. The chicken wire was on top and sides and only the bottom was open. I set it up on some bricks and that allowed the chicks to run under. I had to weight that down too, or the adults birds would knock it aside in their attempts to get at the food. Later DH made me a dedicated chick creeper that is a lot fancier but to be honest, that first one worked better.

The box needs to be surprisingly big. That first box I used was 4' long and 2' wide and high. Even at those dimensions, I had to put it up against the coop wall and put the feeder as far in back as it would go, as the adults would snake their heads under to get to the feeder. As long as they could get the tip of their beak on a rim, they would drag the feeder over and the chick food would be gone in a jiffy.

I had a really busy day yesterday, trying to make the most of some of these last days of decent temperatures and also prepare for winter. I've had some painting I've needed to do for quite awhile. Boring stuff like redoing the trim around several outside doors. The garage door (big door and walk through door) both had paint peeling but the door to the workshop looked like it had never been painted ever. I don't know how I didn't notice that until recently. Anyway, painting is my number one thing that I hate to do so getting the motivation to get out a can of paint and paintbrush and then paint for two hours straight was not easy, and I felt very accomplished when I was done. It was drying fast enough in the sun and wind that I was able to do the first coat on all and then go back and do the second coat, so only had to rinse out the paintbrush once.

I got my rain barrel taken down from the coop, cleaned out and put away for storage. Usually that is not a fun job as I leave it until it is too cold and then cleaning it out with cold water from the hose makes it extra "not fun". So I was glad to get that done on a warmer day when working with hose water wasn't so bad. And with that done I also got the hose drained and put away for the winter since I won't be needing it again. I pulled a dog house up from the chicken coop to offer to one of my poor outside dogs who was displaced by the pigs. When they started sleeping outdoors, they took over the dog igloo that is on our back porch, and I later realized one of our dogs was sleeping out in the open as apparently she had been sleeping in that igloo. She has access to the garage through a dog door but evidently doesn't like to sleep in there. So I brought up another dog house for her and put the animal comforter in there so it should be nice and cozy. I put it on the front porch so there is no danger the pigs will take it over as well - they don't do steps.

I also got the tractor and bush hog greased and ready to go. I still have a bunch of mowing to do in the pasture but DH said I couldn't mow without greasing as it was way overdue so that's something else I've had on my to-do list and feels good to get it done. That darned to-do list. I never seem to be able to bask in the glow of getting something done because in the meantime three new things were added to it

 

[lizzyGSR]

I agree with you on the to do list, HeChicken! I've got that same problem.

On the chick creeper, I don't have time to build a box such as you are describing. My chicken coop is split into two sections by a chicken wire divider with a door. Do you think it would work to just open the door a couple inches and wire it so the big birds couldn't push it open farther? I could even put a brick or something behind the door to reinforce the bottom so the big birds aren't trying to bend it or something.

 

[HEChicken]

It is definitely worth a try - let us know how it works! This whole animal-raising thing is all about ingenuity. What works for one person in one set up won't work for another so at the end of the day we just have to try something and find a solution that works for our own set up.