Maine

[buckabucka]

I'm enjoying all the photos today.

Lazy gardener, I would not consider the poly-covered cattle panel to be predator proof. I think if I were going to leave birds out there when I wasn't home, I might at least cover the panels with chicken wire, for an added layer of protection. I did have quarantine birds living in a poly-tunnel with no wire at all for a couple of months one winter, but it really depends on how much risk you are willing to take, and how frequently predators visit your yard. If mine are out for the day and I need to run an errand for an hour, I leave them out and take my chances, but that's really just because it is such a pain to round them up.

I like my heated dog dishes. One of them corroded and quit, but I had it for two winters and it was cheap. The kind I use only hold a gallon, but that gets them through the day. I got them on Amazon, and I actually keep a new one in "back up", because if one quits, I don't want to wait for a replacement to ship.

 

[lazy gardener]

An other newbie question: can chickens eat whole squash seeds. I'm talking about the real big seeds, like from a hubbard. I cooked my first squash today, and want to give the guts and skin to the girls. I know they can do the pulp ok, I'm tempted to cook the skins for them just a bit. Advice re: seeds???

 

[mlowen]

Portable Paddock:

I screwed a 2 ft piece to the flat side of the 2x4x4 ($.51 cull lumber at HD) and a 16" piece butted up against it.

Coated coat hangars as twist ties to keep the top of the welded wire fence against the top of the post.

100 foot roll--surrounds most of my garden. (Used to be raised beds. I just removed the wood that was rotting & am going to re-configure that whole side for next year.)

2 foot piece slides through the 2x4 welded wire at the bottom. Worked really well.

 

[mlowen]

An other newbie question: can chickens eat whole squash seeds. I'm talking about the real big seeds, like from a hubbard. I cooked my first squash today, and want to give the guts and skin to the girls. I know they can do the pulp ok, I'm tempted to cook the skins for them just a bit. Advice re: seeds???

I believe all squashes/pumpkin seeds are natural wormers. Lots of people store pumpkins (cheap or free after Halloween) on pallets under tarps and feed them to their chickens through the winter.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Follow up question: How many of you out there in Maine use some type of water heater during the winter? What do you use, and how well has it worked for you? I have to at least buy or make an other waterer as the one I have will crack at the first sign of ice. (It's one of those cheap plastic white and red gravity feed 1 gal. waterers from TSC.) I'm not crazy about buying galvanized as I don't like the idea of leachates, and not crazy about the open rubber tub either, b/c it will be in their loft, and I DON"T want to have to chip a littercicle out of their loft in the dead of winter. Ideas?

I have 3 sets of animals that I winter over:
1. The chicken coop (with some turkeys) - about 50 birds
2. The duck house (up to 5 ducks)
3. Goats

The chickens have to have a galvanized water. Nothing would be big enough to water that many birds. I run an extension cord out to them, and then have the heated water base. Change it out daily.

The ducks get an unheated rubber bucket that generally freezes over by the time I get home from work even though they play in it most of the day. I flip it over and generally have to stomp on it to get most of the ice out and then I bring a big bucket of hot water out twice a day to refill it and melt the ice. It's a pain in the butt.

The goats have a heated bucket. I run an extension cord out to them.

I don't want an extension cord on the ground in winter getting stuck to the ground or getting in the way of the plow or being pecked at by interested biddies. So we ran a PVC pipe from the outside plug straight up about 7 or 8 feet, then up over the chicken fence and into the chicken window, then through a series of O rings and S hooks down to the waterer. I have a cover over the outside plug (I think it covers water spigots in the winter) and a waterproof plug cover over the extension cord where it meets the heated base. Same thing in the goat house.

Let me see if I can find some pictures. It works well.

Goat extension cord. You can see how high up it is.


This one's the chicken extension cord and the PVC pipe thing. The goat one also comes out of this one but this picture was taken when only the chicken one was up.


We run it through a piece of wood on a fence post to get it even higher then to the window in the coop.


Even though we get a ton of snow, the cord stays above it all.

Here are the newbies.




FTR the pics from earlier are my neighbor's. The geese really like the large shallow puddle in his dirt driveway so when they visit he takes pictures.
And here, for those who might remember my first gosling, Verbena, is my darling girl now:

LOVELY.

An other newbie question: can chickens eat whole squash seeds. I'm talking about the real big seeds, like from a hubbard. I cooked my first squash today, and want to give the guts and skin to the girls. I know they can do the pulp ok, I'm tempted to cook the skins for them just a bit. Advice re: seeds???

They can have it raw straight from the squash and they'll love it.

 

[lazy gardener]

thanks.

 

[quailtrail]

Am I crazy??? Leaving work early just to see my flock out and about tomorrow. We have kept them in their new coop since Monday. It was so hard!!! Luckily DH put in a window so I could see them. I just want to grab and hug each one of them lol!!! I miss them! I've seen them when my daughter feeds them and such but I want to go in the coop and hang with them. Yup I got it bad!!!!

 

[quailtrail]

I would be happy to keep the house cooler... but my husband... now, that's a different story.  Why is it that opposites attract, even down to warm vs. cold, meat and potatoes vs. lots of veggies, skip the meat, thanks, I want to make my garden bigger vs. he wants more manicured lawn, Good morning Lord vs. Good Lord morning!  All I can say is : Thank God for love!  

The world revolves around poop and pee in the SNF environment!

You must be my twin!!! Lol!!!

Yes my life revolves around pee&poop 24/7...

 

[twi728]

I have a friend who needs to rehome her 12 golden comets. They are 18 months old, healthy and still laying regularly. Financial issues are causing her to sell her farm. She would prefer that they stay together. If anyone is interested please PM me.

hey we would be happy to take all ur birds if you stll have them. sent u PM

RMT Farms

 

[quailtrail]

hey we would be happy to take all ur birds if you stll have them. sent u PM
 
RMT Farms

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