INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Kiniska]

I have 13 in a 8x5 coop. A bit tight, but they seem fine. No insulation and an east facing 1foot by 1.5 foot screen window at ground level. Same temps and humidity as you.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Oh my I would love to! I plan to spool the fiber by hand then crochet or knit the yarn.
I hated to see my boys go, Comet was pure white and Beanie was a beautiful warm brown color.
We went through annexation, and mom started dialysis. The boys were not getting enough time from me and were becoming flighty.
Rather than ignoring the problem I rehomed them. Oh well

I am looking in the hatcher window every 5 minutes, I swear! DD is too, like impatient dads to be

They aren't due for 2 days yet, this is my hardest hatch yet! and the incubators are now E M P T Y AND O F F!!!!
Yes kinda like grass, but more like good grains sprouted for up to 7 days.
The first week the nutritional value of the sprouts is incredibly high compared to the seed value.
Its also really good for them since anything green is buried in snow or dead right now.
The flat pans work good, or just sheets of burlap. I will try to find the thread on BYC that tells how to do it.

 

[kabhyper1]

Oh my I would love to! I plan to spool the fiber by hand then crochet or knit the yarn.
I hated to see my boys go, Comet was pure white and Beanie was a beautiful warm brown color.
We went through annexation, and mom started dialysis. The boys were not getting enough time from me and were becoming flighty.
Rather than ignoring the problem I rehomed them. Oh well

I am looking in the hatcher window every 5 minutes, I swear! DD is too, like impatient dads to be

They aren't due for 2 days yet, this is my hardest hatch yet! and the incubators are now E M P T Y AND O F F!!!!
Yes kinda like grass, but more like good grains sprouted for up to 7 days.
The first week the nutritional value of the sprouts is incredibly high compared to the seed value.
Its also really good for them since anything green is buried in snow or dead right now.
The flat pans work good, or just sheets of burlap. I will try to find the thread on BYC that tells how to do it.

I am anxious for you! I'm sure some of them were fertile, I just hope your incubator didn't jinx you! lol
If you want to try the alpaca fiber, let me know. I have to figure up prices, but I will give you a good deal. I have white, which is dyable, dark fawn, a dark brown black, and a dark gray. These are the ones we have fiber from this year.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well, my girls hit a new milestone today. They blessed me with 14 eggs.

Way to go girls!

They earned a special treat for sure

Since y'all are talking about fodder...

I tried fodder (growing sprouts to the grass stage) on a small scale last year right on the kitchen counter. I ended up deciding to just do the sprouts rather than going to grass stage.

Last year I was growing sprouts for only 6 birds so I did an easy counter top version using a bowl and a colander. It was super-easy and I always had sprouts going. (You can read about it and see some photos here.)

This year I am using Kassaundra's (BYC Member) burlap bag method and I LOVE it! I grow them like she shows in her video below and then take the bag outside, invert it, shake some around the run so they can all get at them on the ground, then put the inverted bag on a post that I hammered down into the ground and they pick the sprouts right off of it and clean the bag.

I made my bags smaller than Kassaundra's just because I am only feeding 9 adults and 3 kiddos. Here's the video:

Thank you!!! this is the one I was searching for to post! I loved her ideas on the burlap, and thats how I am doing mine this year too.

 

[kabhyper1]

I have 13 in a 8x5 coop. A bit tight, but they seem fine. No insulation and an east facing 1foot by 1.5 foot screen window at ground level. Same temps and humidity as you.

Okay, well that makes me feel better. I have plastic on the NW walls of the run, but the coop faces SW, so during the day the chickens stay in the barn with the alpacas lol. My husband put plywood on the bottom half of the run tonight so they can stay out of the wind and still be outside. The coop has SW facing windows, so I have the one farthest from the roosts cracked open about 3 inches to keep them out of the wind. They seem okay nuzzled up together, but it is supposed to get down to 7 tonight, so I'm a little worried. 5 of the 9 girls have double layered aprons on, so maybe that will help hold body heat in.

 

[HouseKat]

You peeps must have had so much more "fowl" weather than we did here. I have clear plastic shower curtains stapled to the wood frame of my run. And I have a blue tarp covering the full length of it. I'm very worried though about the snow piling up on the tarp and breaking through into the run. Next Spring I intend t recover the run with better 2x4 frame work and some tin roofing. It will help keep the run dry and also shade it some when Summer finally gets here. I want the best for my girls...yes they are spoiled! By the way these girls love cat toys...lol... Little balls with bells in them and (big) stuffed mice with catnip, also parrot toys...ladders and hanging ropes with bells. It's funny watching them pull on those ropes and throwing the bell balls around. They actually fight over the balls!

Our enclosure collapsed late Friday night/early Saturday morning from snow and ice accumulation on the roof.



We had to throw together a quick & dirty temporary shelter using an old swingset frame and plastic tarps. All the chickens made it out unscathed. We had some plastic tote boxes in the enclosure for nesting boxes and they kept the roof from collapsing on the chickens.

 

[Mother2Hens]

I went out tonight to put aprons on a few more girls. I have 5 of them on now. I have 4 more to put on them. I looked at the temp in the coop and it was 19 degrees with 16 percent humidity. I have the window cracked, but I was worried about drafts. The humidity is pretty low, so I think they are okay there. I have sand and about 6 inches of straw on the floor. It is a 4x8 coop. It isn't insulated. There are 11 adult chickens and 3, 9 week olds in there. Will they stay warm enough?

No, crank up the heaters! Just kidding. I wanted to get everyone riled up. I'm sure all will agree that they will be fine--especially with 11 adult chickens, not sure about the 9 week olds. Do all of them line up on perches, or are you including Silkies that apparently like to sleep in piles? I'm sure the aprons are a help even though you should have knitted them out of your excess alpaca fleece.

Speaking of meal worms, I've found that Lowes has the best price. 1.25# for $15.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_417137-8447...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=
Coincidentally, I went to Rural King today and bought a 7 oz. bag of Kaytee freeze dried mealworms (from China-- yikes) for $4.99, which I believe is a few cents less per ounce, although math is my worst subject. For a few cents difference, I like Lowes a million times more than RK, but RK is closer. I think the best answer is to buy live mealworms from jchny!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I went out tonight to put aprons on a few more girls. I have 5 of them on now. I have 4 more to put on them. I looked at the temp in the coop and it was 19 degrees with 16 percent humidity. I have the window cracked, but I was worried about drafts. The humidity is pretty low, so I think they are okay there. I have sand and about 6 inches of straw on the floor. It is a 4x8 coop. It isn't insulated. There are 11 adult chickens and 3, 9 week olds in there. Will they stay warm enough?

Thats pretty good on humidity, I think you will be ok as long as they all perch together.

Quote:
Some Byc'ers sell them too. I have raised them about a year and a half now, easy but dusty and wear a mask!
Great tool for winning over shy flock members or new birds.

 

[kabhyper1]

The silkies are in their own coop in a pile in about 6 inches of straw. They have done pretty well so far. The big chickens in the 4x8 all roost, except Lavender and the kids are little stubborn butts, and no matter how many times I put them on the roost, the go right back under the curtains into the nesting box and ?under? her.... I say it that way because at 9 weeks they are not fitting under her very well anymore. One of RIR girls is sleeping on the side of the coop on a cross beam and my EE was sleeping in another nest box for some reason. They are weirdos. The humidity is doing okay. The roof is corrugated roofing and the humps in it are open to the outside, so it must be helping to vent the coop.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

Coincidentally, I went to Rural King today and bought a 7 oz. bag of Kaytee freeze dried mealworms (from China-- yikes) for $4.99, which I believe is a few cents less per ounce, although math is my worst subject. For a few cents difference, I like Lowes a million times more than RK, but RK is closer. I think the best answer is to buy live mealworms from jchny!

Oh my, that's too funny! They would probably arrive freeze dried for sure!

Quote: YIKES! Wow, so glad to hear they were all safe! My BBW turkey pen has a tarp for cover too. I was out there several times shaking the snow out.
My one neighbor near us probably thinks I am nuts and never sleep.

Quote: They are all lovely colors, shoot me a pm and we can go from there. I would love to make a hoodie scarf for my DDs this Christmas.
DH would probably like one too, lol. I studied up on how to clean the fleece etc. I hadn't bought the spinning wheel yet but still plan to.
I usually use cotton, but after learning about alpaca fleece, It would be great for DH since he is outdoors so much.