Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

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lcahill said:
I've used 14 gauge solid galvanized electric fence wire but my all time favorite is concrete re-bar tie wire. it's 14 ga or 16 ga and is extremely cheap comparatively speaking. I also use the heck out of zip ties and had only a few issues with them breaking. I used to compete in demolition derby and re-bar tie wire and zip ties (AND of course duct tape) can hold a car together if used right.
lau.gif
Click to expand...

LOL Duct tape is my friend too. Here we have high winds so if you put up a shade structure you have to duct tape the connections together Or the canopy in its effort to take flight will pull all the connections apart. Then I used Baling twine to fasten the legs to the fence and covered the bailing twine with duct tape to protect it from UV Rot. Worked for three years till a HUGE wind storm came through and the nex morning I found the whole thing flipped and wadded in the corral and my horse standing in the middle of it all.

She looked at me as if to say..... "What..." She was beginning to play with one of the legs Gotto love Draft horses.

ONly a couple of pipes gave way but the baling twine/duct tape combo held.

We occasionally get what seems like fifty mile gusts here. One time my son was getting out of the car and a gust of wind BLEW the car door open and removed his glasses we found them more than a hundred feet away.

deb "Who has looked at that rebar wire on several occasions trying to decide if it was a good idea or not"
 
Here's some more pictures!



Look! I'm king of the Momma!



In this pic you can tell how small of a chicken she really is! That is a pie pan beside her, that she can almost fit in!



I think Operation Chick Adoption is a success!

She has moved everyone out of the nesting box and onto the shavings of the coop floor... Not sure why, but what ever! LOL. I am going to take advantage and clean the boxes out when Hubby gets home to watch the kiddos! It is too hard to try to do with a 2yo and a 15 month old trying to "help"!
 
The update

So we candled at 9 days and the turkey eggs were not looking good, but we left them in the bator. On day 14 there is veining in 2 of them. Here is hoping. I would so much like to have some turkeys and have had terrible results thus far. We also checked on the ducks and all 13 that started are progressing.

The quail should hatch between monday and wednesday Phils time. They say 16-18 days. I actually expect it to be Monday. Being so small and speckled in color, they are impossible to candle so all will go into the bator. Some were 15 days old when they got there so I think they hatch rate on them wont be the best. Studies show that they do ok up to 14 days then drop off. Others were barely 5 days so they might be ok. The heat wave in the SoCal area before I left may have messed them up too. Still, a 10% hatch will mean a lot of quail.

Now for some pictures.






















The feather footed chick in the pic above is a mystery. I did have light brahma eggs but thought they did not hatch. It looks like one may have. Now I will have to take over a few more for it to hang out with.

The new "pentaplex" row house coops are finally done. Dado, the carpenter is not the fastest framer on that side of the pacific but he does good work. It took seven weeks with manual tools. The tolerances of every joint are way tighter than western standards. You wont find a gap anywhere.

Each coop has a 4 inch sewer pipe gravity feeder and a nipple watering system.











The duplex coop also got feeders and waters. The broody is doing well with her chicks in there.

I will move the layers into one of the pentaplex coops as This side of the duplex will become the grow out for the current hatch











Ben is still on the fence project. As the sugar cane harvesting season is just starting he will have to resume his regular job as a tractor driver. The original laborer to help him quit so he has been replaced.

There are 44 panels they are have 24 completed and several part done.

Today I am having delivered:

50 lengths 8mm rebar
40 bags cement
20kg tie wire
20 kg 4" nails

8 cubic meters of gravel will have to wait for the family's big truck to finish being repaired. The hardware store marks up gravel by 100%. If we pay for the truck's diesel, 3 men to deliver and unload its around $100. It can wait till Thursday.

Also we will have some 2" sewer pipe and fittings dropped off to make feeders for the chukar and quail.

Bernie will be directing traffic
 
Last edited:
OZ i see that good looking buff orpington pullet you have there
did you get 2 girls & a boy or was it the other way around?

i couldn't figure out why i couldn't sex the white Bresse birds i have here
well after checking out youtube i now know that i have all girls
not 1 boy in the bunch
even the black Bresse is a girl
no luck finding any on craigslist in the northeast
3 people are selling eggs on ebay but way too far for me to go pick them up (20 hours & up)

i think i'll give weighing a shot this time & maybe not turning them for the 1st couple day will also help?
i had some really good hatches when i was running the woodstove
so i think i'll wait till the weather get a little colder before i do my 1st test hatch with my monster bator
 

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