INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

I think its warmer in my coop than my house. Maybe i should sleep with my flock. Lol

Cluck ~ I love my electric blanket.

kabhyper ~ At least he has foot covers!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

it is just above freezing here at 33F. Now if all the snow could melt from the roof of my new coop, I'm sure it would warm up in there. But nope there is more snow coming before the current snow will have time to melt.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Actually - if you have a good heavy snow cover it acts as an insulator so it should be warmer w/the snow on it. I always try to sweep the snow up against the hen shed walls to make an insulator around the base when we get enough snow to do that.

On the frozen litter - the poop freezes for sure. I have a little "kiddy" rake (garden rake w/metal head) that I go in and try to rake down to loosen everything up as well as I can when it's like this. Keeps it from getting too hard in too big a clump. Sometimes you can just kick down in there w/your boot and loosen things up.

 

[Leahs Mom]

RE free ranging meat birds, this is a great article by a fellow - BYCer.

And her video too

Makes me excited for spring to come as I may try my hand at it

 

[Leahs Mom]

And another one of her videos:

(For those that don't know, the white chubby ones are the meaties (CX).

 

[bradselig]

So question on broody hens. Cab I just take their chicks away from them? I didnt realize that broidies were raising the chicks I bought and I realky dont have a place to seperate them right now. I could probably pen in a sction in garage if need be but id rather put the hens back with the flock and chicks in a brooder pen.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

So question on broody hens. Cab I just take their chicks away from them? I didnt realize that broidies were raising the chicks I bought and I realky dont have a place to seperate them right now. I could probably pen in a sction in garage if need be but id rather put the hens back with the flock and chicks in a brooder pen.

There is no reason you couldn't but you might have a hard time getting them away from her. It is not something I would really recommend for someone to do though. I just like to let the broodies do all the work

 

[bradselig]

There is no reason you couldn't but you might have a hard time getting them away from her. It is not something I would really recommend for someone to do though. I just like to let the broodies do all the work

Thanks for the answer. I have never had a broody with chicks, so wasn't sure if there was a "formal" weaning process. The two hens were in a cage with the chicks so I was pretty easy to get them out. They mingled with the rest of the flock like nothing was wrong but I'll check on them in the morning. The chicks are doing fine and eating and drinking like pros.

 

[bradselig]

Well, finally got everyone situated! Stupid me stopped on my lunch and got two bags of bedding, 2 bags of chicken feed, and a bag of dog food before realizing I wasn't stopping home before picking them up! Thankfully I was able to fit everything in the trailblazer but didn't think I was. I picked up all the 19 adult/subadult silkies, 17 silkie chicks, a pair of adult LF Cochins, 3 1/2 dozen silkie eggs, little giant incubator, 10 hole metal lay box, 5 gal waterer, misc things like boxes, bubble wrap, meds, heat lamps, etc as well as the junk I bought earlier! It was a FULL car load!

I was able to get off work early and they had about 30 mins of daylight left to roam their pens. They all cooped up on their own though! I did get some quick pictures and will work on uploading them later after dropping off parents vehicle.

 

[bradselig]

Ohh and after about killing myself moving the coop out by hand, I picked up some starting fluid today to see if I could get the tractor started. I took off air filter and figured I'd give if a try before spraying any starter fluid. First crank and she started right up! Figures lol