Consolidated Kansas

[michelleml]

Forgot to post pics of my fabulous new brooders!! I love them! DH and MIL made them for me and apparently it was a lot of work! Each individual slot is 24" by 24", 3 sides and the top are very narrow hardware cloth for good circulation, the pole running across the top is for heat lamps to hang from, each end there are 4 plug ins and rheostats for each heat lamp so they can be adjusted for temp based on number and age of chicks. The brooders have a hardware cloth framed divider that locks in place in the middle or swings up and locks so I can use both sides for a large batch of chicks, the fronts are flat so I can just open the brooder and sweep dirty bedding out into a bin, there is tons of storage space for feed and bedding underneath the brooders on the raised slats and the brooders come off the bases so they can be taken outside to be washed off with a hose. They are very bright blue, DH picked the color himself, he is quite proud of them! I am impressed with his handy work!

Josie i love the brooders they did an awesome job

 

[sapphireblu76]

Forgot to post pics of my fabulous new brooders!! I love them! DH and MIL made them for me and apparently it was a lot of work! Each individual slot is 24" by 24", 3 sides and the top are very narrow hardware cloth for good circulation, the pole running across the top is for heat lamps to hang from, each end there are 4 plug ins and rheostats for each heat lamp so they can be adjusted for temp based on number and age of chicks. The brooders have a hardware cloth framed divider that locks in place in the middle or swings up and locks so I can use both sides for a large batch of chicks, the fronts are flat so I can just open the brooder and sweep dirty bedding out into a bin, there is tons of storage space for feed and bedding underneath the brooders on the raised slats and the brooders come off the bases so they can be taken outside to be washed off with a hose. They are very bright blue, DH picked the color himself, he is quite proud of them! I am impressed with his handy work!

WOW! Those are great, I want some!

 

[sunflowerparrot]

HEChicken, Yeah I think you're right about us being more interested in our chicken keeping than housekeeping. My DH gripes at me all the time about it & I just let it go in one ear & out the other, much like he does what I say to him. I agree that the Black Copper Marans lay the darkest eggs. Mine usually are speckled as well as chocolate brown. I have had people ask me if they're real, it's kind of funny.

Josie, I love those brooders, wow! You can send him to build some stuff for me, ha!

I have to get out there this afternoon & start trying to build my peacock hoop house pen. I found a peacock yearling for a decent price & the gal is going to hold him for me until I get my pen done. I can't wait to get him, but I have to get this pen done first, wish me luck. Sunflowerparrot, I may be calling you to come over & help me get the 2nd side hooked on, it doesn't sound like fun bending those panels.

Give me a yell if you need help (I won't be home Thursday or Friday.. picking up company both days!)

 

[medawinks]

I like the bubonic plague excuse . There are many evenings after a wild day at school that I feel so out of it that I might as well have the plague.... The cleaning is gonna wait!

Is anyone else having feathers show up everywhere? I don't see them pulling them out, but wow! It looks like a pillow exploded in my coop. Still no eggs.... Surely 23 wk pullets wouldn't be molting??? Any ideas welcome. I don't understand what they are up to. They are red in the face, talk all the time now.... Instead of eggs though, I find feathers????

 

[Trish44]

Sunflowerparrot, thanks I may take you up on that when I get to the point of bending the things. I started hooking on the panels this evening to the frame, but then had to stop right after you called & go do chores. I got one side going crooked a little, so I will have to pry a couple staples loose & put them back in better tomorrow. I'm hoping my DH will get out there in the morning & work on my coop again. Just life has gotten in the way of working much on it lately, but now it's getting cooler & we need to get moving on it. I sure wish he could have had the big 16 ft walls put together when my son was here so he could have helped him attach them to the floor. He would have been much more able to help lift & hold that wall than me. Isn't that how it usually goes though with those kinds of things, it never seems to work out so easy. Danz, thanks for that hint about the tie-down strap, I would never have thought of that, I will for sure try that when I get ready to bend the things. I had to cut down quite a few little trees in the area where the pen is going, I didn't want trees growing up through the pen or having to deal with them later. It seems like there are little baby trees coming up all over the place. This clearing where we're putting the new coop has been clear of trees for years & now all of the sudden there are baby trees sprouting out. I pulled this huge limb down this afternoon too that was in my way, it was kind of scary because I was afraid it was going to fall on my head!

Josie, those are just some super nice brooders, he did such a great job on them, you will have room for raising all kinds of chicks next year. I have two separate brooders in my garage, but I'm really wondering if they will be enough when I start to really hatch a bunch of all of the breeds of chicks I plan to next year. I'm thinking maybe when I get some other projects done this fall that I should build another one. Now that I built one it shouldn't be that hard to do another. My biggest problem right now is needing to clean out the garage & just get rid of gobs of things out of there so I have more room. That is on my to do list to be done soon. There is so much stuff that has gotten shoved into that garage & it just needs to be hauled out of there again permanently.

Oh & Sunflowerparrot, I like all of the excuses you came up with for lack of cleaning, I may have to use some of those next time

.

I noticed this evening that my pullets that I got in April are starting to get more pink in the face & combs & they're really getting big, it will be nice when they all start to lay. My poor hens that had such awful bare backs from too many roosters around are now starting to grow feathers back on their backs since Big Red left. They have looked so bad for so long that it will be nice to have hens with feathers again. These two roos that I kept aren't nearly as rough with them as Big Red was thank goodness.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I noticed this evening that my pullets that I got in April are starting to get more pink in the face & combs & they're really getting big, it will be nice when they all start to lay. My poor hens that had such awful bare backs from too many roosters around are now starting to grow feathers back on their backs since Big Red left. They have looked so bad for so long that it will be nice to have hens with feathers again. These two roos that I kept aren't nearly as rough with them as Big Red was thank goodness.

I'm hoping once things get settled here (still settling in from my move) and company leaves (will have company for 10 days starting Thursday), and when the weather cools, I will start working on those saddles

 

[HEChicken]

Medawinks, they would seem too young to molt so I'm thinking perhaps they are pulling out feathers to line the nests in preparation for laying.

Josie, darnit, you dashed my hopes that my roo was being submissive by pecking the ground. Sounds like perhaps he is just awaiting an opportunity to jump me. Ah well, he doesn't have spurs yet so he can't do that much damage and when we spar I always come out the winner so hopefully once the hormones pass, he'll get over this. The funny thing is, DS walked in the chicken yard the other day (I forgot to warn the rest of the fandamily not to come at the moment) and Cyrus didn't bother him at all.

Trish, it is really a pity DH and your son couldn't get busy working on the coop while he was here - that would have been so nice to get some big stuff accomplished on it. I confess I did put my parents to work while they were here. DH said we couldn't have them fly all the way from Australia and then ask them to do hard work but SIL and I felt that it was better they were busy than sitting around bored. If I lived there, they would come and help me like they do my siblings so I actually think they are happy to have an opportunity to feel they did something to help me out here since they can't most of the time. We got a couple of big projects completed while they were here and it was really nice to have the extra sets of hands. It really is true that "many hands make light work"

 

[chicken danz]

I was gone all evening. Had a great talk with Josie and got some Denaguard from her. More drugs for the chickens.
I also got another batch of Swedish Flower Hen eggs. I'm pretty happy about that. I should have a nice colorful group of breeders some day...God willing.
As far as you all go with your brooders, many of you have seen my brooder house. That thing is always full. Even when I stopped hatching I had birds in there. I've got this big group of Sussex eggs and red star X brahma eggs I've been hatching and it is filling up fast. Plus I have my peafowl, my lavenders,my lemon cuckoos, my Orlandsk, and my Swedish Flower hen chicks in bins in the house. There is never enough room. I'm seriously going to have to get to work on other pens to house all these new birds in soon.
I've got to get out and get busy on my peafowl pen again today. DH didn't get done with the work so I need to get some more barrier up in case these peachicks hatch in the next few days. The way I figured it it should be in the next 2-6 days. I wish he had listened to me and done it the way I asked him to. Oh well. I will just have to work from where he stopped. Here summer is nearly gone and none of the projects are finished as planned. Of course the extreme heat and drought really put things at a stand still.
My yard looks like it snowed. I think whether a chicken goes into a full blown molt or not they still tend to loose a lot of feathers when the seasons change. I've noticed the same thing the last couple of years.
I had a guy call while ago and I think he might end up taking a huge load of my pullets. He is supposed to call back and let me know when he is coming. That would be such a relief. He lost all his birds to predators and has a large amount of egg customers. I'd rather be a little low on eggs myself than have all these extra mouths to feed. And that means one step closer to getting down to just my breeders.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

It really is true that "many hands make light work"

My brother will be flying in on Thursday (from New Orleans) and will be staying with me for 10 days... you should see the To Do list I have for him lol..

 

[HEChicken]

That'll teach him to come visit

That reminds me. I have a brother coming to visit around Christmas time too. Hmmm....best I get started on the to-do list, I guess