"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[CackedNut]

The people and the land here are beautiful! Yes, we seem to have a lot to deal with but we manage. Sharing how we got rid of something or warnings about weather or new bugs helps others in the state deal with them. From cities to countryside, swamps to flatland, we have an area that just about anyone would like to live in. We fish, hunt, swim in waters you could barely see in, have festivals in town all the time, great farmers markets as well as street side farmers, participate in the bartering system (gotta love it!), and help neighbors and complete strangers without a second thought.

Back in 2005 my mother had cancer pretty bad and her insurance was barely covering the treatments. I came down here to help care for her for a year. In this time we both had to cash out our 401(k)'s, max out both of our credit cards and loans, and barely had two cents in the bank between us. One day my truck had broken down so I had to walk all the way into town to get what little food I could buy with the little money we had. When I was leaving Wal-mart someone had noticed that I was walking and offered me a ride. (This was a smaller area then and everyone knew who my family was.) We had to use the farm truck (not quite legal for road use) to get her to her next appointment in Houston and while we were there we had a "Louisiana break in". Like I said, small area, most people don't even know where the keys to the door are much less lock it here. When we got back someone had fixed my truck, filled the house with food, and gave us some comfort items and toiletries. I still to this day do not know who did this for us but suspect a town effort and am forever grateful.

What a wonderful kindness. I like how you put it, a "Louisiana break in".

 

[catdaddyfro]

If I was to feed that soaked feed(which I wouldn't) I'd at least start those chicks out on dry crumbles for the first 3 days till they get better coordination and muscles (and a little brainier these don't get too much smarter from what they come here with though) I've raised up multi hundreds of thousands (poss. millions never did the math) of broilers and they are not smart, all they are programed for is to eat, poop,sleep and grow.

On those brooders or coops you have to build a design that is draft free no matter how hot of a bulb you have. a design with all 4 sides enclosed with an adjustable solid top(or is use cloth like old shirts or small bathroom throw rugs easy to fold back and forth for regulation) for venting and temp control is best and could be heated with reg light bulbs 100W down to 60W depending on the size box these type bulbs are so much more safe and less likely to have disasters with too. IMO

Jeff

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Slippers? Lol jk haven't gotten to the processing yet! Whatcha got in mind? People are buying the babies as breeders lol next set we *should* have some meat lol I will have an abundance of feet and hides but I don't know how to tan a hide so....ya. I dunno. Feet (well a couple dozen are on reserve for a NOLA lady that wants them...I didn't ask for what :/ ) and the ears I was going to dry for my dog. Sorry to anyone who's ick'd out. I hate to waste. Especially waste useable things from creatures we raised.

I don't know if you have thought much about rabbit processing, but Celie says the kindest way, they feel no pain is to hold down and one bullet to the head. You can ask her when the time comes bec she is a firm believer in raising her rabbits with love and processing them in love.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Has it been 8 weeks yet?

R.I.P. ME

Those chicks darn near killed me, picked me up and buried me. I'm so tired and I haven't had them 24 hours yet.

******************************************************************************************

Here is a copy and paste from my 100 broiler thread on the meat bird thread. :/

Good morning everyone. Sorry that I didn't post last night but I had to get all of them situated and it took me longer than expected and I still had to feed the rest of the zoo animals.

So, I picked up all of them at 3:30 PM on yesterday They were all packed in a square box with dividers and were chirping away. I opened the box and fall that all of them were alive.

Got home and brought them inside the house as I got their water and feed ready in the brooder in the garage. I had the FF in the garage and it was cold. I was afraid that it would be too cold for the broilers. I will be moving it inside. Once everything was ready for them and the brooder lights were turned on, I put all of them in. I had 2 thermometers in the brooder to keep an eye on temps. After about 5 minutes, they started to huddle in the corner by the heat lamp. I looked at the temp at the temps were 88 degrees. I had 2 heat lamps stationed at different places in the brooders and both groups were directly under the heat lamp and bunched up together. I adjusted the heat lamps and got the temps up to 99 degrees. Then were still huddled in the corner under the heat lamps but I didn’t adjust the temps any more. I figured that they would settle down and move about and get comfortable.

I put the FF in their feeders but no one seemed too interested in the feed which was ok . I figured that they would eventually start eating once they got comfortable with their surroundings.

Here is a pic of one of the feeders that I used.

A few of them noticed the feed and started pecking at it. I saw that they were stepping into the feeder because I didn’t have tops on the make-shift feeders. The FF was a little too mushy because the ones that were stepping in the feed were getting stuck as if it were quick sand. So, I had to take them out, wipe them down and leave them inside until they dried and fluffed back up. After putting the tops on, I noticed later on that some were getting stuck inside the feeder top holes. So that was another problem. I had to take the tops off and get them out.

Here are pics of another feeder that I am using.

As I’m checking on them and working in the brooder, I’m noticing that the brooder is not the size that I need for these broilers and definitely not wide enough. It was pretty much non-functional for me or the chicks. When I say non-functional I mean that I would have preferred more width as opposed to the length. The 2.2 ft width didn’t allow the chicks a lot of area to move in that particular direction. The door opening areas are too small and too tight for me to get in and out. The need for and the frequency of me needing to get in and out of the brooder if there are any problems and to simply feed and water the chicks requires a larger opening. And the heat lamps are stationed in the corners of the brooder, so in order for them to warm up, they have to huddle in the corner. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that this brooder was someone else’s (non-chicken person) idea. I initially DID NOT want to use these shelves in the garage as a brooder because I knew that it wasn’t going to work. But I didn’t say anything to my friend that was dead set on transforming these shelves to brooder. He had been talking about this project for months. I bit my tongue every time he said something. I guess the reason that I didn’t say anything because I try to give my friend and opportunity to feel that he is a part of my little farm by being attentive and entertaining and trying his ideas but sometimes his ideas just don’t work (as this brooder is not working for me). Seeing that brooder was not going to work, I immediately went to my Plan B. Yes, I had a Plan B because I knew Plan A was not going to work. I originally wanted to put the broilers in several kiddie pools for the first couple of weeks and then to my other large wooden brooders (shipping crates) after that. So, I got my next plan going. I separated the group and took out half of them and put them in other brooders with a heat lamp. After taking them out and putting them in my preferred brooder, I immediately noticed a difference.

Here they are after putting them in another brooder. I still have to put the usual shelf liner rubber pad on the brooder floor. I'm glad to see that they are not huddled up in the corner trying to get close to the heat lamp.

I weighed 10 of them last night and their weights ranged from 1.2 oz to 1.4 oz. .

I was checking on them all night long. I think I was up every 30 minutes making sure there were no problems. I finally fell asleep at 4:00 AM and woke up at 6:30 and checked on all of them. Everyone made it through the night.

What I will have to work on his how much feed to put in the feeders so that feed is not wasted. I noticed this morning that some of the feed left from last night almost dried up. I gave that FF to my chickens in the chicken yard and put them fresh FF for today. I guess I should just remove the feed after feeding time is over.

Here is a pic of a few chicks in the leftover feed from last night.

So far, everything is ok. I’m already counting down the day to processing. I think there will be a lot of sleepless night. I’m a worrier when I have chicks and I’m up more than usual when it comes to checking on them.

I’m glad that I got them on Friday because I have the weekend to work out kinks and to make sure that they are thriving the first few days.

Wow! That is one huge pile of fluffy butts. If I were a meatie, I'd want you to be my owner. You really do "baby" your babies. Sounds like a hard night, but getting stable. Loved reading your post.

 

[Angelicisi]

Yay! You go girl...

They look great!

Has it been 8 weeks yet?

R.I.P. ME

Those chicks darn near killed me, picked me up and buried me. I'm so tired and I haven't had them 24 hours yet.

******************************************************************************************

Here is a copy and paste from my 100 broiler thread on the meat bird thread. :/

Good morning everyone. Sorry that I didn't post last night but I had to get all of them situated and it took me longer than expected and I still had to feed the rest of the zoo animals.

So, I picked up all of them at 3:30 PM on yesterday They were all packed in a square box with dividers and were chirping away. I opened the box and fall that all of them were alive.

Got home and brought them inside the house as I got their water and feed ready in the brooder in the garage. I had the FF in the garage and it was cold. I was afraid that it would be too cold for the broilers. I will be moving it inside. Once everything was ready for them and the brooder lights were turned on, I put all of them in. I had 2 thermometers in the brooder to keep an eye on temps. After about 5 minutes, they started to huddle in the corner by the heat lamp. I looked at the temp at the temps were 88 degrees. I had 2 heat lamps stationed at different places in the brooders and both groups were directly under the heat lamp and bunched up together. I adjusted the heat lamps and got the temps up to 99 degrees. Then were still huddled in the corner under the heat lamps but I didn’t adjust the temps any more. I figured that they would settle down and move about and get comfortable.

I put the FF in their feeders but no one seemed too interested in the feed which was ok . I figured that they would eventually start eating once they got comfortable with their surroundings.

Here is a pic of one of the feeders that I used.

A few of them noticed the feed and started pecking at it. I saw that they were stepping into the feeder because I didn’t have tops on the make-shift feeders. The FF was a little too mushy because the ones that were stepping in the feed were getting stuck as if it were quick sand. So, I had to take them out, wipe them down and leave them inside until they dried and fluffed back up. After putting the tops on, I noticed later on that some were getting stuck inside the feeder top holes. So that was another problem. I had to take the tops off and get them out.

Here are pics of another feeder that I am using.

As I’m checking on them and working in the brooder, I’m noticing that the brooder is not the size that I need for these broilers and definitely not wide enough. It was pretty much non-functional for me or the chicks. When I say non-functional I mean that I would have preferred more width as opposed to the length. The 2.2 ft width didn’t allow the chicks a lot of area to move in that particular direction. The door opening areas are too small and too tight for me to get in and out. The need for and the frequency of me needing to get in and out of the brooder if there are any problems and to simply feed and water the chicks requires a larger opening. And the heat lamps are stationed in the corners of the brooder, so in order for them to warm up, they have to huddle in the corner. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that this brooder was someone else’s (non-chicken person) idea. I initially DID NOT want to use these shelves in the garage as a brooder because I knew that it wasn’t going to work. But I didn’t say anything to my friend that was dead set on transforming these shelves to brooder. He had been talking about this project for months. I bit my tongue every time he said something. I guess the reason that I didn’t say anything because I try to give my friend and opportunity to feel that he is a part of my little farm by being attentive and entertaining and trying his ideas but sometimes his ideas just don’t work (as this brooder is not working for me). Seeing that brooder was not going to work, I immediately went to my Plan B. Yes, I had a Plan B because I knew Plan A was not going to work. I originally wanted to put the broilers in several kiddie pools for the first couple of weeks and then to my other large wooden brooders (shipping crates) after that. So, I got my next plan going. I separated the group and took out half of them and put them in other brooders with a heat lamp. After taking them out and putting them in my preferred brooder, I immediately noticed a difference.

Here they are after putting them in another brooder. I still have to put the usual shelf liner rubber pad on the brooder floor. I'm glad to see that they are not huddled up in the corner trying to get close to the heat lamp.

I weighed 10 of them last night and their weights ranged from 1.2 oz to 1.4 oz. .

I was checking on them all night long. I think I was up every 30 minutes making sure there were no problems. I finally fell asleep at 4:00 AM and woke up at 6:30 and checked on all of them. Everyone made it through the night.

What I will have to work on his how much feed to put in the feeders so that feed is not wasted. I noticed this morning that some of the feed left from last night almost dried up. I gave that FF to my chickens in the chicken yard and put them fresh FF for today. I guess I should just remove the feed after feeding time is over.

Here is a pic of a few chicks in the leftover feed from last night.

So far, everything is ok. I’m already counting down the day to processing. I think there will be a lot of sleepless night. I’m a worrier when I have chicks and I’m up more than usual when it comes to checking on them.

I’m glad that I got them on Friday because I have the weekend to work out kinks and to make sure that they are thriving the first few days.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I am not trying to be rude (not a people person), but does anyone know any Pentecostals or Mennonites? Both of those churches as well as LDS have their own co-op for organic items. If anyone does know someone from those churches it might be worth the while to ask if the higher up in the church have any suggestions on where to get feed from for non members. In many of the areas that I have lived in all three churches were big pushers for people converting to local and organic and would help even non members get access to buying them.

I didn't know this I'm learning alot today. We travled threw amish/ mennonite contry in ohio. I asked about their produce the lady came back after asking someone. She said they use some pestisides but they keep it to a very small amount.There aren't any of those churches here I think LDS has one chapter in baton rouge, I don't think asking about other faiths or cultures makes you rude. If it does I'm the rudest I love learning about other cultures.Pam

LDS has their own cannery and food stores. You are required to give 10% of your income to them as tithing. They will take care of you when disaster strikes. My sister, is LDS, it is a very long story, ending in bankruptcy. The church paid their mortgage for nearly 6 mo, they were given vouchers and gave time working in there store and the church saw to it they had food. Contact the LDS, it is open to the public, they will charge you more them church members, but it is mostly organic. The food that they can are donations. Ask them if you can donate time in exchange for lower price. My sisters, I think also mills kernel grains to flower. Not sure. She is in Henderson, Nevada, a very large Mormon community, large enough to have a temple.

Note: Mormons, LDS, have 3 hour worship. Divided into 3 parts. The worship, then bible study, then the last hour is for the men's group and the lady's group to met. The woman have their own devotional around the home and family. Part of it is sending sign up sheets for pantry goods, in a group power buy. Church assignments are handed out and recognition for past assignments are given. Example, librarian or home teacher. I have attended the church many times, but I am not allowed to go to the Temple. You must be Temple Worthy to inter.

There you do work for the dead, a name is submitted and someone volunteers to be baptized and to do needed work to be come a Moron for the dead. (My dad is now LDS post death) Also you can do work such as Temple Prayers. Names of loved ones that are sick or in need are submitted, and groups will set in group and pray for them. Of course, this is after Temple Service which is the same as the church service. This is were the secrete of the vail...... Or what ever goes on. I have no idea. It is all secrete, unless you are pure or what ever, you need a letter from you bishop stating you past the tests and you have been anointed??? Not TOTALY sure. You need to verify this part, but that is what I know.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I hate wast also, When you take a life using as much as Possable gives honer to the life take. This is what we should do. Most country's eat every part of an animal.

As for bugs and stuff.... The sweetest roses have thorns. I love the non-poisonous snakes, and frogs that eat bugs and poisonous snakes. Even if it is hard to pass up a big fat front with tender sweet legs. But they have to be safe from me, I can not say about my chickens. And I love bats. I will probably put up bat houses. It makes it much nicer at night. Besides, I like tequila! They really do not bother anyone, when people and bats do tangle, it is because the people were jumping up and down and when the bat zigged to avoid, the person zagged in the same direction. The same with honey bees. (Not the Africanized)
I have bees......... I do not know if I will be bringing them. Let's see, 1 dog, a dozen or so chickens, and a bee hive? Interesting thought. The bees are the most interesting. I cam once across country with, 2 Great Danes, 2 cats, 1 snake, 1 lizard, 1 canary that sang every FOOT of the trip..... 2ft from my head, all in a Chevy S-10.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Better bring your bees they are hard to get here getting harder to get too. I know where there are some in the woods but I let them be(pun intended)LOL for my garden/corn fields use I hope no one finds them too.

Jeff

 

[Ron Skekel]

Slippers? Lol jk haven't gotten to the processing yet! Whatcha got in mind? People are buying the babies as breeders lol next set we *should* have some meat lol I will have an abundance of feet and hides but I don't know how to tan a hide so....ya. I dunno. Feet (well a couple dozen are on reserve for a NOLA lady that wants them...I didn't ask for what :/ ) and the ears I was going to dry for my dog. Sorry to anyone who's ick'd out. I hate to waste. Especially waste useable things from creatures we raised.

That was Ron but we're not icked out everything should be used. I bet the dogs love them. You could take the liver and dehydrate those in the pet stores are high dollar. I just bought duck feet for mine they love them. I would buy them if you had more than your dogs eat.Pam

 

[Ron Skekel]

Has it been 8 weeks yet?

R.I.P. ME

Those chicks darn near killed me, picked me up and buried me. I'm so tired and I haven't had them 24 hours yet.

******************************************************************************************

Here is a copy and paste from my 100 broiler thread on the meat bird thread. :/

Good morning everyone. Sorry that I didn't post last night but I had to get all of them situated and it took me longer than expected and I still had to feed the rest of the zoo animals.

So, I picked up all of them at 3:30 PM on yesterday They were all packed in a square box with dividers and were chirping away. I opened the box and fall that all of them were alive.

Got home and brought them inside the house as I got their water and feed ready in the brooder in the garage. I had the FF in the garage and it was cold. I was afraid that it would be too cold for the broilers. I will be moving it inside. Once everything was ready for them and the brooder lights were turned on, I put all of them in. I had 2 thermometers in the brooder to keep an eye on temps. After about 5 minutes, they started to huddle in the corner by the heat lamp. I looked at the temp at the temps were 88 degrees. I had 2 heat lamps stationed at different places in the brooders and both groups were directly under the heat lamp and bunched up together. I adjusted the heat lamps and got the temps up to 99 degrees. Then were still huddled in the corner under the heat lamps but I didn’t adjust the temps any more. I figured that they would settle down and move about and get comfortable.

I put the FF in their feeders but no one seemed too interested in the feed which was ok . I figured that they would eventually start eating once they got comfortable with their surroundings.

Here is a pic of one of the feeders that I used.

A few of them noticed the feed and started pecking at it. I saw that they were stepping into the feeder because I didn’t have tops on the make-shift feeders. The FF was a little too mushy because the ones that were stepping in the feed were getting stuck as if it were quick sand. So, I had to take them out, wipe them down and leave them inside until they dried and fluffed back up. After putting the tops on, I noticed later on that some were getting stuck inside the feeder top holes. So that was another problem. I had to take the tops off and get them out.

Here are pics of another feeder that I am using.

As I’m checking on them and working in the brooder, I’m noticing that the brooder is not the size that I need for these broilers and definitely not wide enough. It was pretty much non-functional for me or the chicks. When I say non-functional I mean that I would have preferred more width as opposed to the length. The 2.2 ft width didn’t allow the chicks a lot of area to move in that particular direction. The door opening areas are too small and too tight for me to get in and out. The need for and the frequency of me needing to get in and out of the brooder if there are any problems and to simply feed and water the chicks requires a larger opening. And the heat lamps are stationed in the corners of the brooder, so in order for them to warm up, they have to huddle in the corner. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that this brooder was someone else’s (non-chicken person) idea. I initially DID NOT want to use these shelves in the garage as a brooder because I knew that it wasn’t going to work. But I didn’t say anything to my friend that was dead set on transforming these shelves to brooder. He had been talking about this project for months. I bit my tongue every time he said something. I guess the reason that I didn’t say anything because I try to give my friend and opportunity to feel that he is a part of my little farm by being attentive and entertaining and trying his ideas but sometimes his ideas just don’t work (as this brooder is not working for me). Seeing that brooder was not going to work, I immediately went to my Plan B. Yes, I had a Plan B because I knew Plan A was not going to work. I originally wanted to put the broilers in several kiddie pools for the first couple of weeks and then to my other large wooden brooders (shipping crates) after that. So, I got my next plan going. I separated the group and took out half of them and put them in other brooders with a heat lamp. After taking them out and putting them in my preferred brooder, I immediately noticed a difference.

Here they are after putting them in another brooder. I still have to put the usual shelf liner rubber pad on the brooder floor. I'm glad to see that they are not huddled up in the corner trying to get close to the heat lamp.

I weighed 10 of them last night and their weights ranged from 1.2 oz to 1.4 oz. .

I was checking on them all night long. I think I was up every 30 minutes making sure there were no problems. I finally fell asleep at 4:00 AM and woke up at 6:30 and checked on all of them. Everyone made it through the night.

What I will have to work on his how much feed to put in the feeders so that feed is not wasted. I noticed this morning that some of the feed left from last night almost dried up. I gave that FF to my chickens in the chicken yard and put them fresh FF for today. I guess I should just remove the feed after feeding time is over.

Here is a pic of a few chicks in the leftover feed from last night.

So far, everything is ok. I’m already counting down the day to processing. I think there will be a lot of sleepless night. I’m a worrier when I have chicks and I’m up more than usual when it comes to checking on them.
I’m glad that I got them on Friday because I have the weekend to work out kinks and to make sure that they are thriving the first few days.

Did everyone pick theirs up! Looks like more than a hundred. Hopefully everyone 's on a routine by tomorrow. Hope you get one night sleep before Monday . Pam