Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Not today but the last 2 days, frozen eggs for the dog... now he is waiting for them
I have been getting 6 to 12 since the five 4th of July pullets started acouple of weeks ago

That's a good number of eggs! I got rid of several hens & most of my orps pullets haven't started yet. I have 4 girls doing all the work & a 5th just started.

I keep saying that I'm going to downsize the orps & replace them with IsaBrowns & Leghorns. Of course that never works. Even when I did get rid of all those orp hens, I ended up hatching more orps!

 

[cavemanrich]

I forgot what eggs look like...
Oh wait..... they are white, bleached and in blue cartons.... from store.
My feed has really been streeeeeeeeeeetching far since no production. But all things reach the bottom of the barrel sooner or later. Need to go to Farm N Fleet and resupply next week. I always buy more things than what I REALLY NEED. The 60 mile round trip has to be made worthwhile.

 

[chickendreams24]

I'm with you there cave man!

Our egg production has pretty much bottomed out. We've been getting maybe 2-3 a day if we're lucky and the last couple days all but one or two have been frozen. Frustrating since I have an egg customer waiting on 2-3 dozen. I've informed them of the problem and they're very understanding and patient.

I'm worried the flock may be eating eggs again out of boredom. If this is proven the culprits will unfortunately have to be dealt with. We have about 80 hens and pullets, although some of the pullets haven't come on line yet(it's been a very strange year).

I'm hoping with the light increasing we can start getting eggs regularly,,, or I may have to ...buy... Eggs! What the heck I haven't eaten a boughten egg in three years. This is unacceptable. We are actually getting more eggs a day from our quail in the porch than our entire flock of chickens. How sad is that.

We are dealing with some frost bite unfortunately unavoidable with the wind as they go outside. I'm also seeing some frost bitten wattles for the first time ever probably due to the waterers. So we're planning to switch them back to the nipple buckets I think.

Been a long week here. Thursday was my birthday and a very mellow birthday it was. DH2B wanted to give me more for Christmas so he gave me my birthday gifts then and plans to get me more later. Lol I don't care but it was cute how excited he was. I now have two nice canvas prints of photos of us together.

The weather is bitter here and that means all of our 4-5 bushels of apples from the porch had to come inside as they began freezing. A few rotten ones and a dozen or two suitable for the chickens and the rest are still good. We also have two bushels in the fridge. Can you believe it?! Lol with everything that went on I couldn't believe we bought so many apples. Lol they kind of snuck up on us.

I'm sure you guys remember that our processing and canning of the apples was put on hold back in October and November due to DH2B being in the fields and the declining health and passing away of my Grandpa. Then the subsequent holidays. It's all a blur now and we're still dealing with the repercussions. We go out as often as we can to be with my Mom and Grandma.

We still have two Christmas's left one with my father and one with DH2B'S father.

On Thursday (my birthday) my little sdw oegb roo passed away. He was I think three when we got him so he was older but I wasn't expecting it and of course it put a damper on my day. He had no physical signs of illness or injury and was tucked up safe and warm with the other birds at bed check that night. He also had no frost bite.

We woke in the middle of the night one night this last week to find that the electricity was out, because of this our heat wasn't running(fans driven by electrical of course). The temperature was dropping fast. Thankfully they restored the electricity before morning but we still don't know why they were having problems, as it wasn't just us.

We have been making apple pie filling(many many uses) and are still planning to do more applesauce.

We also still have all the stuff I saved in the freezer for making and canning salsa and hopefully we'll have enough to do some spaghetti sauce.

We did manage to process a couple birds last Sunday. It was cut short though because of bitter wind and us getting frost bite. Lol we love the plucker but we think we may need a stronger motor. We will be trouble shooting that more later. For now the numerous spare cockerals get a stay of execution. Although I want to get them done asap bc of course they're costing us feed and space.

We also two nights ago had a boy missing one of my favorites in fact. Our property was marked all over in the fresh snow with what looked like fox(possibly coyote) and rabbit tracks. We spent a couple hours outside tracking the animals around our property. Expecting to find a place where the predator grabbed our missing bird. We didn't find such a place and the next morning the bird was there. The rabbit too got away. Lol

I don't remember if I told you guys. We also saw a bald eagle last week just south of town feeding on a kill along the road. Beautiful sight. We live just north of town. I'd prefer it stays there.

No signs of the mink for some time now. Hopefully it stays that way. We are going to be putting poison out again as there seem to be some signs that we have a few rats or mice again. Haven't seen any of them though.

 

[cavemanrich]

@chickendreams24 ...

 

[chickendreams24]

@chickendreams24 ...

Thank you!

 

[Faraday40]

@chickendreams24

 

[Faraday40]

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

[chickendreams24]

@chickendreams24
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Thank you so much!!!

 

[Julie Baker]

Hello, fellow Illinoians! I am up north near the Indiana Illinois border. I was wondering what others near me do to make their coops comfy and safe in the extreme cold we get in the winter. Has anyone ever put insulation in the walls to keep out sever drafts? I was thinking of putting a low r value foam board in between the walls of our coop. btw we are new to all of this.

 

[cavemanrich]

Hello, fellow Illinoians! I am up north near the Indiana Illinois border. I was wondering what others near me do to make their coops comfy and safe in the extreme cold we get in the winter. Has anyone ever put insulation in the walls to keep out sever drafts? I was thinking of putting a low r value foam board in between the walls of our coop. btw we are new to all of this.

Welcome... and our Illinois thread.
Insulation is not as important as a draft free coop. Ventilation is most important. Ventilation (definition) means free air movement that removes moisture and ammonia from coop interior, but does not cause draft action that would ruffle chickens' feathers. Insulation such as you describe can also be bad, in such that chickens may pick on it as well as eat it.(don't think that would be Ideal.) If it is sandwiched between plywood, then chickens would not have access to eating it. Insulation not properly protected, can harbor moisture and mold.
MAIN thing is PROPER VENTILATION.. There are many articles here on BYC about that subject. You can ask any specific question here also.
What breed of chickens do you have? If they are the COLD HARDY VARIETY.. than you should be fine. Even with the best efforts sometimes chickens do encounter frostbite on their wattles and combs. They will recover on their own in due time.
Some peeps do add heat to their coops. Problem with this is multifaceted.
1. Makes chickens dependent on the heat and do not grow enough own down. Have a power outage long enough and your chickens suffer.
2. Can lead to premature molt in winter, which is anything but good.
3. Expensive utility.