Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Birds are tucked in for the night. Coco is in her box (still purring)
She said she’s ready for bed also.
Nacho and the three chicks are back in their box in the run.
It’s gonna be a California cold night tonight.

 

[Ponypoor]

Our hens are huddled in the back patio away from the 55mph Santa Ana Wind gusts!
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Front & back yards are full of huge dried up Maple leaves blown in from the roadside freeway trees. Just hope the limbs & boughs dont blow into our yards. One year a flying 5-ft freeway tree bough almost broke my bedroom window!

I am just watching the News and see brush fires in california, sure hope they are not near you.

Of Alex.

Both of you please be careful.

 

[Ponypoor]

Sounds like a good case for heated socks & gloves! Can you believe they're battery-powered & some come w/a remote?! Wonder how long they last at those prices? Better than losing phalanges though!
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Yep they have been around for a while. They can cause issues with sweating which can cause freezing also.

I dug out my good to -70C boots, but now the snow is almost over the boots trudging to the barn.

The gloves/mitts are good but I handle water so much they would get soaked. This is why my fingers are frosted.

Meanwhile the chook’s Hen House has warmed up to +3C, I am going to remove the boards on the side of the barn the brats want to roost on and put up some mesh fencing to stop them roosting there. They will have to go on the Hen House of roost on the ground.

Hopefully they get the picture and roost where they should. It would warm up faster if they would just roost in there.

I told mum we need to be moving to Vancouver Island - it would be better weather and easier for me to work in pipelines/mining jobs being out there. I am done with snow and cold!

 

[RoyalChick]

Livestock below, hay above - we call it poor man’s insulation. I make sure to leave a bottom layer of hay on the loft floor for the winter.

Also small windows, and doors. Windows and doors on the south side of the barn, old barns are dark dim places, but full of cattle they would be very warm. Dreary life in the winter for people and livestock long ago.

Yes. But some of these are more elaborate.
This one follows a chapter on how chickens suffer in the cold and has these plans for basically underfloor radiant heating for them!

Here are two that are built into the hillside. I did seriously consider that approach for the Chicken Palace.

My personal favorite, just because I think it is an intriguing approach, is this one.

If I had seen this before constructing the Chicken Palace I might have adopted this design.

In case anyone is interested, these are all from this book published in 1881.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hey y'all just wanted to give a gentle reminder to not have lots of water sources around if you can help it. I honestly think a sick bird drank from/miraculously aimed poo into one of my fence bowls or something to spread illness to my flock. It's one of the things I will be changing this spring. It does make watering inconvenient and might be impossible for some of you, since you have waterfront access. But all of my bowls will be back from the fence a few inches and have a roof set up above them.

I love all your birds and want them to be healthy!

I'm going to turn an old satellite dish into a feeder/waterer station for my big run this spring. Hubby and I already figured out a way to do it. It'll give the chickens something to run around and jump on too.

I tend to keep the feed and water inside the barn unless it’s really hot, then I will have water outside for them.

I don’t want wild birds or squirrels to be hanging around. I also chase geese away when they try to land here - yes I am that crazy lady running down geese chasing them away yelling ‘go away, go go, get go…’ not sure what my neighbours think of me sometime!

 

[Ponypoor]

Hey y'all just wanted to give a gentle reminder to not have lots of water sources around if you can help it. I honestly think a sick bird drank from/miraculously aimed poo into one of my fence bowls or something to spread illness to my flock. It's one of the things I will be changing this spring. It does make watering inconvenient and might be impossible for some of you, since you have waterfront access. But all of my bowls will be back from the fence a few inches and have a roof set up above them.

I love all your birds and want them to be healthy!

I'm going to turn an old satellite dish into a feeder/waterer station for my big run this spring. Hubby and I already figured out a way to do it. It'll give the chickens something to run around and jump on too.

I should do that with our old dish!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yep they have been around for a while. They can cause issues with sweating which can cause freezing also.

I dug out my good to -70C boots, but now the snow is almost over the boots trudging to the barn.

The gloves/mitts are good but I handle water so much they would get soaked. This is why my fingers are frosted.

Meanwhile the chook’s Hen House has warmed up to +3C, I am going to remove the boards on the side of the barn the brats want to roost on and put up some mesh fencing to stop them roosting there. They will have to go on the Hen House of roost on the ground.

Hopefully they get the picture and roost where they should. It would warm up faster if they would just roost in there.

I told mum we need to be moving to Vancouver Island - it would be better weather and easier for me to work in pipelines/mining jobs being out there. I am done with snow and cold!

Sweating ~ probably why the heated socks or gloves have a remote to turn the heat up or down. Some gloves are waterproof. Still, very pricey. Sounds like moving to Vancouver is a better option teehee! Vancouver sounds like a paradise. Wonder how property prices are? Hmmm...some curiosity research to occupy time before I hit the snooze button for tomorrow.

 

[Ponypoor]

Yes. But some of these are more elaborate.
This one follows a chapter on how chickens suffer in the cold and has these plans for basically underfloor radiant heating for them!
View attachment 4022833

Here are two that are built into the hillside. I did seriously consider that approach for the Chicken Palace.
View attachment 4022835

My personal favorite, just because I think it is an intriguing approach, is this one.
View attachment 4022836
If I had seen this before constructing the Chicken Palace I might have adopted this design.

In case anyone is interested, these are all from this book published in 1881.
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View attachment 4022838

Many of our old barns here are called bank barns - they are built into a hillside or have had a dirt bank piled up against it so that the hay could be easily put up into the mow (pronounced like you would say ow when you stub your toe - but with an M at the beginning).

The below section would be partly underground/built into the bank. These barn have stone walls 2’ thick!

If I remember next time I go to feed my Vet’s kitty I’ll snap a pic of his glorious old bank barn. To build a barn like that these days would be hundreds of thousands of dollars, the beams inside are from old oak and maples hundreds of years old.

It take a real master barn builder to renovate one of those suckers! Generally people here get the Mennonite to fix and repair them.

Tax
Laverne and Shirley

 

[Ponypoor]

Sweating ~ probably why the heated socks or gloves have a remote to turn the heat up or down. Some gloves are waterproof. Still, very pricey. Sounds like moving to Vancouver is a better option teehee! Vancouver sounds like a paradise. Wonder how property prices are? Hmmm...some curiosity research to occupy time before I hit the snooze button for tomorrow.

Vancouver is way too expensive and on the mainland, Vancouver Island would be less expensive. And has the better weather.

 

[rural mouse]

Don't feed them at all. For thousands of years wild birds have survived w/o our help. I stopped leaving out bird feeders or hummie stations 3 yrs ago. & we keep catching rats. Those buggers can reproduce several times a year! Anything we can do to lessen the predator or wild animal/birds hanging around our property the better. Biosecurity has a whole new meaning since AI problems started in the USA!

If you've been feeding them into winter (in Northern climes), then suddenly ceasing will cause them to starve as they've come to rely on you through the lean times. If you're going to cease feeding wild birds, then you need to cease during the summer when food is plentiful and wild birds can move as food supplies/sources dwindle. Once winter truly hits (like now), if you've been feeding birds, then keep feeding until spring. Once the migratory birds return, food stuffs can be found by the wild ones again and you can cease without starving them to death.