Keets in the Mail

LOL love your play by play updates
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Yep, 30+ keets in one bin is messy times ten, lol.

I use these feeders to minimize the food scattering mess in the brooders, but I usually need to refill them (and their water) 3 times a day...
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Yeh I have to get them into larger quarters or divide them into two bins. Or build a new brooder.... one that I can use later. I may do that tomorrow.

Scribble scribble sketch..... busy now designing a modular brooder that can be built in a couple hours. Lets see six feet by three by two high..... ... Yep Got it.

Will share pix soon as I get the sketch done.

OK its quick drawn in my lap.
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All PVC all plastic hardware cloth. with Zip ties for fasteners and a couple of little screen door fasteners to lock the door.
 
Nice!!! Really good idea
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I built a big brooder Friday and Saturday.... in my plans it seemed small, but it's huge now that it's all put together, lol (only 4'x8'x2'), and it just about killed me in the heat lol (I kinda cheated tho, I had my contractor cut all the plywood into specific sizes for me while he was out here framing my new coop so there was WAY less cutting involved for me). I put it together all with wood screws, and made sure all 4 sides come off easily so it will come apart and store flat too.... if I get that energetic, lol.

It's got my older keets in it that are off heat and now I'm trying to determine their sexes (at least all the Hens anyway) so I can sell them for more money rather than just my straight runs of younger keets
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I need to hurry up and devise a plan for what to put underneath the front 2'x8'x2' hardware cloth section of the floor tho, to catch the mess and make clean up easier. Right now it's just dropping on the ground and I can rake it out fairly easily and replace the wood chips underneath with fresh stuff, but these keets are messy lil buggers, major poop machines and I've already noticed the fly population increasing
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I need some sort of pull out trays to lay down under there I can clean out daily.


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Great design. I love building with standard sized material. Using a whole sheet of plywood ....etc. where you can.
How many keets can you house in there it looks like more than thirty.

WRT Poop machines. Several ideas here:

You might try a Poop Hammock.. If you raised the brooder up higher like say two feet off the ground you could make a hammock out of plastic tarp material hung under on closet cups. Then reach under grab the back one and you have all the poo and contained in the hammock and slide everything off into the recylcing bin.

If you dont want to raise the brooder up you can lay a plastic tarp underneath with stiffened edges (PVC, Closet rod, broom handle) Feed it through the back side spread out using the stiffeners then when time to clean you pull it on thorough carry with the handles to disposal site.

or lay a sheet of plywood under with edges on it and shop vac it out.

Or attach corrugated plastic roofing underneath in a loop so everything slides to the middle then use a push broom to push the stuff out the end. You could even hose this off right there too. put a bucket under the end and remove the dirty water somewhere else.



Your going to get flies no matter what. though.
 
Excellent ideas for the poop clean out issue, Thanks!
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Today (before I read your post of suggestions) I just slid a few empty feed sacks under that area (definitely have plenty of those around here, ugh!) that will catch the majority of the mess, (and I can either hose them off, add the poop to my already composting pile of garden fertilizer or just roll/fold them up and throw them away), but I am thinking of getting a couple of those shallow large oil drip pans from an auto parts store that have a rolled lip/edge on them. I don't really want to raise the brooder up too much, because my access for feeding and watering (and catching them) is from the top (which works out great, cuz when I open one side they all scurry to the other and no one flies out), and if I raise it up too much I won't be able to reach the ones in the back when I need to catch them... unless I add a couple doors wide enough to lean thru to reach in and grab keets (which will require more material costs and more sweating... both of which I've had more than my share of lately, lol).

I actually built this for younger keets (2-4 wk olds), assuming that I could fit 50+ in there with no space issues... but yah, there's somewhere between 35-40 birds in there currently. They don't all want up on the perch yet, so there's no jockeying for the expensive seats yet, lol. But for now it's being used as a temporary holding brooder until I can sex all the little Hens... I use a squirt bottle with water in it when I see/hear one buckwheating and then soak her pretty good
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so I know which one to catch, and then I band her leg with a pretty pink zip tie lol. A lot of people are very particular about their male to Hen ratio, or some want all Hens or all males etc. It's a little extra work on my part, but I charge accordingly for all my extra effort
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I will have to spend some time devising the perfect fly issue solution. For now I'll just go get a few of those nasty smelling fly bag/bait traps... I just hate getting a wiff of the bait's LOVELY aroma every now and then (makes my gag reflex work double time, lol), and I'm out in that area a lot because I am growing tomatoes and squash back there, plus the gate to my actual garden is at the opposite end so it's a high traffic area. (I know, whine whine whine, gimme some cheese
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WRT flies. here is a thought. Put regular screen door screen on the outside of the hardware cloth. Then do screen flaps around the outside bottom. you could attach with velcro lift the edges for cleaning and put em back down after.

Also I have several horsy friends who use Fly predators. you can buy them at most nursery's or you can buy them on line. They swear by them.
 
Yep, fly predators are on the to-do list too, but I think you need to start with them earlier in the season if I remember correctly, so... add them to next year's list. My free rangers usually take care of the fly populations that the horses and goats create, but this area where the brooder is happens to be a continuation of my No Guinea Buffer Zone (a couple of my dogs will kill any Guinea that flies into their 1/2 acre fenced area if I am not watching them), so I just have to stay on top of the poop clean up and do consistent manual fly control myself.

Thanks for the screen idea... I just happen to have some of that
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Looks like I'm gonna sweat today after all, ugh, lol.
 
OK here are the PIX
First documentation of today's activity.... news alert
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the strange hands came in and pulled the ground out from underneath.... Oh the Horror the Inhumanity. Then the hands put in new ground and all was well..... Whew time for a nap.
first one end of the carnage
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second the other end of the carnage
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Whew.... nap over. Ooo look at that.
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Now following our news broadcast a short video of the Manna from heaven that appeared out of the dark dark sky.
Life is back to normal now... whew.

I bought a new feeder today along with another fifty pound bag of Startena..... I can see where this is going big time.....
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I figured it would give them more elbow room for feeding.
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I didnt get to the PVC. but I did go and buy thermometers for the brooders. I was afraid that our high temps during the day in combination with the brooder light that it was getting too hot in their tub. No worries. Right in the middle of the tub it was 90 degrees everyone seems to mill around back and forth through the hotter end.
 
And as promised pix of my teenagers. Going up to the house on Wednesday. (only time my son has to give me a hand)
Here they are giving me the stinkeye en masse.
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Perched Pearls
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Perched Lavender
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These guys were born may 14 so that puts them at six weeks. Time for the desert coop. Which for now will be 12 x 6 x 6tall chainlink enclosure lined with chicken wire and covered with a Reflective tarp.
 

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