"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[MicheleC]

I'm using litter boxes with tops, my broody raised her chicks out of one, but I can see a litter container would be too small.

 

[mzstre]

It's perfect for some of my smaller girls though!

 

[MicheleC]

I bet! Great way to recycle. My cat refused to use the litterbox indoors so we just let him out and he comes and goes as he pleases. Sooo I figured why not? Put some bedding in and had an egg in there before the end of the day. Super easy to clean, and I move them around periodically.

 

[Roxanneinla]

In my open coops, I will sometimes run the heat lamps out to the yard. I'm a whimp and I don't want to see my birds cold at night.

If it is too cold, I will fire up the outside fire pits and place in different locations and let the firewood burn all night long. It looks so nice and cozy until it makes me want to grab my blanket and my teddy bear and join them in the chicken coops.

oh you spoil them.

 

[kuntrygirl]

We recycled a large litter bucket recently to use as a nest box in the breeding pen for my Basques, but the girls wouldn't use it. We finally saw them try to get in it a couple of days ago, but they were too big to turn around comfortably so they just hopped back out. DH built them a simple wooden box out of scraps and they like it just fine. What size birds do y'all have using those litter buckets? Maybe I'm misunderstanding lol. Are you using the buckets or the actual litter boxes?

I have all size chickens AND ducks that use the litter buckets. This is what I use.

Here is a pic of 1 of my kitty litter buckets that has eggs in it.

I have a co-worker that uses about 8 litter buckets every other month. She brings them all to me and I use them. I am in the process of creating a line of litter buckets that will be screwed together so they cannot be moved and placed on the wall in my next chicken house.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Good morning everybody -- another nice, cool one here! We had a lot of frost on the ground.

I caved in & fired up my 'bator this morning - set 14 Welsummer eggs & 8 of my RIRs & "Rhodies" (RIR roo crossed on my 2 old Wellie hens). I want to have this batch at point of lay by next spring as most of my flock are up in age now & not laying very often anymore. That's OK, they earned a nice retirement.

 

[kuntrygirl]

In my open coops, I will sometimes run the heat lamps out to the yard. I'm a whimp and I don't want to see my birds cold at night. If it is too cold, I will fire up the outside fire pits and place in different locations and let the firewood burn all night long. It looks so nice and cozy until it makes me want to grab my blanket and my teddy bear and join them in the chicken coops.

  oh you spoil them.

I try to. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I knew they were in the freezing cold when I'm in my warm bed. My nerves are too bad for that.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Good morning everybody -- another nice, cool one here! We had a lot of frost on the ground.

I caved in & fired up my 'bator this morning - set 14 Welsummer eggs & 8 of my RIRs & "Rhodies" (RIR roo crossed on my 2 old Wellie hens).  I want to have this batch at point of lay by next spring as most of my flock are up in age now & not laying very often anymore. That's OK, they earned a nice retirement.

Good morning. Yes, it is cool outside.

Way to go Terri with the bator. I'm waiting on my email from Ideal, so I can get my order of 50 - 100 pullets in. My girls are getting old as well. I have a group of 15 older hens that are about 6 years old that may give me 1 - 3 eggs a day. My poor girls. But I love them to pieces.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Celie, I don't know what message you sent to my chicken yard but when I got home, I had 1 dead hen and I have no idea what happened. She was still warm, soooooooooooo I went ahead and processed her and put her in the freezer for gumbo. I was sad to see her dead but I thought about you and you were screaming in my ear FOOD FOR YOUR FAMILY. So, you gave me the courage to do it again.

Now, If I can only do the deed on a live one huh? :/

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Good morning. Yes, it is cool outside.
Way to go Terri with the bator. I'm waiting on my email from Ideal, so I can get my order of 50 - 100 pullets in. My girls are getting old as well. I have a group of 15 older hens that are about 6 years old that may give me 1 - 3 eggs a day. My poor girls. But I love them to pieces.

Ditto! I still want to get some BCMs from you in the spring, too. I'm so happy to have gotten the Wellie eggs - they are Channing Grisham lines, same as my original Welsummers - lay a beautiful terra cotta speckled egg & the hens are so pretty & nice - I had every intention of keeping this line going but lost my roo to a predator & then the hens until I only have the 2 old girls left. When I let the flock out those 2 will follow me everywhere I go.

and I love the RIRs! - already laying bigger eggs than any other chicken I've ever had - plus they're just downright beautiful to look at.

WOW - 50-100?! that's a LOT of chickens!

I spotted some really nice pallets piled up behind a store not far from us -- going to go ask if I can have them tomorrow, so we can start on the pea pen expansion, since it looks like we're going to remain a 10 pea family.