Maine

[IZZYBELLA]

Yesterday, I bought rancid feed. I'm starting to think there is a large section of the population that can't detect rancidity. Sometimes I'll be at someone's house, and they will be happily enjoying some crackers or chips, and I taste one and can't believe they are eating them. I'm glad DH is with me on this, or I'd think I was crazy.

Oh, bucka, you better not come to my house! I am one of those people who has barely any sense of smell. Unfortunately, it means I also have a really bad sense of taste. I have to ask my husband if the cream is bad, because I can't smell it and there is no guarantee I'll detect a bad taste either!

 

[lazy gardener]

Nothing any worse than biting into a cracker... and it's not fresh! YUK. Right up there with sour milk. My 13 y.o. GS should be a professional sniffer or taster. That kid has the most sensitive nose I've ever encountered.

 

[suzMEchicks]

Snowing again! My girls won't even put a toe outside the coop. I'm finding some design flaws in my coop that mean nothing in the summer but are a wicked pain in the winter. I had enclosed the coop with a nice big run and a door I fitted myself. I thought it was a great job but with all the snow I can barely get the door open. I've been trying to keep up with the snow. Well all I can think of is take the door off for the winter. The big front window was an interior window and its starting to fall apart with the weather.it cannot be spring soon enough! At least the girls seem to be doing well.

 

[longgrove]

I had enclosed the coop with a nice big run and a door I fitted myself. I thought it was a great job but with all the snow I can barely get the door open. I've been trying to keep up with the snow. Well all I can think of is take the door off for the winter.

I enter my coop from the utility room (it is on a glassed in porch) and it has another "people" door out to the barn (and a door from the barn to the run). The chickens go out to the run through a tiny pop door. I made it as a "guillotine" door with a cord tied to the top, running through pulleys to the coop door. The pop door is a heavy small piece of teak (too heavy for animals outside to lift up) and runs up through an angle iron channel in the coop when down and when lifted (so it can't be forced inward). It has only stuck once, during a freeze. There is no problem of it being obstructed by snow or litter on either side. When it is pulled up, a little loop tied in the cord hooks over a cup hook to keep it secure. On the outside, it exits about 2 feet above the ground (there is a ramp for the divas for wen they don't want to fly up or down). Guillotine doors are great, limit draft, controlled ventilation, easily secured and difficult to obstruct.

Rancid feed...yuck! It never hurts to be vigilant. I recently was looking for cat food kibble (to supplement the fresh food I make for them). I looked at BS "cat krunchies". I had used it in the past when it was better than most of the commercial cat foods (first ingredient was pork, with little grain components). Checked on line and wow, it is a way different product now. First ingredient is corn, second, wheat, third is chicken byproduct meal (different from chicken, read feathers, guts, feet, etc). So glad I checked.

Gave the whole flock a good coating of bag balm on their legs yesterday (thanks to who suggested it) and found improvement in some of the flock who were symptomatic with the leg scale mites from the previous (oregano essential oil in olive oil) treatment. Will keep checking and treating them all till a while after all symptoms resolve. Only a couple of the hens were really markedly effected, looks uncomfortable, poor things. Glad they are looking improved.

Here we go again, they are predicting over a foot here. Unlike the the last storm, tho, it will be heavier and wetter. Hoping we don't get power outages with the strong winds expected tonight and tomorrow.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I got a bad bag of purina once... opened it up and basically the pellets had turned to crumbles. Little did I know it was infested with grain mites.

Purina never apologized, never offered to refund my money. The store I bought it from refused to give me a refund because I ended up throwing it away due to the creepy crawlies in it. I did take pictures and I did save the receipt.

After that I switched to Blue Seal.

 

[buckabucka]

Cknldy, your story made me laugh. I don't think I could use feed that smells like vomit .

Like lazy gardener's GS, I could be a professional sniffer or taster. The new bag of feed DH picked up in New Sharon is the best one yet. The grains smell sweet, and there are a lot more visible pieces of corn this time (that's the first grain my hens grab). I don't like the smell of the fresh pellets, which smell of banana and something else that I can't quite pinpoint, but they certainly don't smell rancid or rotten.

SuzME, I have some big design flaws with my coop and run, too. The building was already there (our old one-room house!). It is easy to get in and out of the coop, but I really wish I could access the run from the coop (I can only do that if I crawl through the pop door). To access the run, I go outside to another door, which opens out. I have to do a good shoveling job and chop up any ice with a pick ax to keep the door operating. In the summer, if I don't want the chickens out roaming and I want to replenish water in the run, it is a big challenge to get in there and not let the chickens slip out. Usually I throw seed to distract them first.

 

[lazy gardener]

OK, confession is good for the soul: My design flaws: I don't even have a functioning pop door right now. I didn't plan the roof line of my new coop well. The eaves are on north and south, gable ends on east and west. 2 windows and pop door (which is non functioning right now) on south wall. Perches and big clean out door on west end, people door and window on east end, nest boxes on east with plans to cut through wall for outside access. Closet on north east corner, outside access from north, and inside access to right of people door after you walk into coop. Now, the explanation of my flaw: I should have turned the roof the other way, so the gable is on the north and south. Because of the steep pitch on the metal roof, I don't dare to use the pop door, b/c a snow avalanche would bury the chickens. I can't set up a run on the south until after snow season. As it stands right now, there is NO run, the closet door and clean out door can't be opened without power tools b/c the wafer board has swelled. When spring comes, and snow is gone, I can address the swollen door openings, and will be able to use the south pop door (after I make it!) But, oh how I wish I'd re-oriented that roof!!! On the plus side: with 3 windows and the door which has full size glass, that building heats up real nice. On a sunny day, it will be 20* warmer inside than outside, even with the people door wide open! The clean out door is just right to shovel the poo right into my wheel barrow.

 

[buckabucka]

Would snow-stops work on the south side, LG? Or were you planning on adding a run with a roof on the south side anyway? My run has a roof and tarps on the sides, but the blizzard we had filled the run with snow! It came in everywhere. And it reminded me that I still have rats, because I saw some tracks.

 

[lazy gardener]

The slope is a 12-12 pitch. I'm not sure what would happen with the snow dump, ice build up in relation to a green house roof. I don't want snow stops b/c, I'd rather just get that snow off the roof. So, I think the plan is to cut in a pop door on the east side which can be used for a winter run, or when the electronet is on that side. That's also the side that is closest to the house for increased ease of keeping an eye on things. Then, I may also cut in a pop door on the west end b/c I plan to move my green house to that end and it'd be real easy to put a short tunnel from coop to green house for winter grazing. So, that south pop door will just be used during non-snow season. With door options on 3 sides, it will be super easy to move that electronet around. I'm also planning to put up gutters on the north and south, but not sure how they'll hold up to snow loads. I may have to re-visit that. But really hoping to be able to for rain water collection for garden and chicken use, as well as growing a tub or two of duck weed for protein.

Rats are evil creatures. We had an infestation years ago. I went through a lot of feed before I figured out that rats were cleaning it out. That's an other reason why I'm so sold on fermented feed. Never any feed left for them.

 

[Vbrown71]

I Have 3 chickens Molt and a whole Lot of snow hope everyone is Hang in here comes the next snow storm