Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[aart]

Quote: I agree too cold....I just use a box to hold chicks when cleaning......or split my 6' brooder with a mesh 'fence' and do half at a time.
They have been living inside?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I used plastic fencing one time and did a lousy job at the ends. Probably user error more than the material itself but some older chickens were getting between it and the fence, trapped in there. I finally went with chicken wire.

 

[dyorto]

I agree too cold....I just use a box to hold chicks when cleaning......or split my 6' brooder with a mesh 'fence' and do half at a time.
They have been living inside?

Yes. They have been inside. I'll find a box or something. Thsnks

 

[perchie.girl]

Well, we're getting 6 chicks tomorrow and the remaining 6 on Tuesday. 3 - Copper marans, 3 - Blue laced red wyandottes, 3 - Buff orpingtons and 3 - Black astrolorps. Got most of the brooder work done. Got a nice big refrigerator box from a friend that works at an appliance store who is also a chicken person. Constructed my cave for the MHP from a tomato cage and some 1/4" HWC. Found the Sunbeam heating pad at Walgreens. Got the waterer, the feeder, chick starter, etc... Still need to pick up some pine shavings. We're getting pretty excited.

I cut the tomato cage down the center and formed it.

Added the HWC attaching it with some zip ties and then I used some wire loom to cover the front edge to make sure that the little ones had a smooth entry and exit.

Excited to get the first of the babies tomorrow!! Hopefully there won't be any issues with them being a week or so different in age.

I really like the use of your cable organizer on the end of the wire.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: This is what I do in my kennel coops, complete with overlap flap. The plastic works like a charm. It does degrade in time. But its so inexpensive and easy to repalce. Though When I rebuild the coop will be transformed into a poultry house. Solid walls around the parimeter up about two feet But still made of Kennel panels. The run will be lined though.

deb

 

[ShrekDawg]

It's a bit too late to start kale. If you want to try, plant it in a spot that gets morning sun, and afternoon shade to protect it from getting too much heat. Or wait till August to plant, for a fall crop. It's very frost resistant, so as long as you don't get a hard freeze, you should be able to harvest from the end of September till mid-November. Tomatoes and warm season veggies need to be going in the ground now, to be mature and ready for fruit production come summer. 
Warm season veggies- tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, 
Cool season crops- Kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, bok choy, cabbages, spinach, turnips, carrots, radishes, beets, chard
Onions do well in hot or cool weather, but I rarely manage to grow them to harvest. The chooks break into my beds as soon as they start to sprout and eat them all.
Herbs aren't picky about where or when they grow, but many can be very invasive. Mints, oregano, marjoram, lemon balm, and chives are best suited to container planting, otherwise they will take over whatever bed they are planted in.

I don't blame them, I don't like thawed strawberries either. Yuck texture, yuck taste. Just my opinion of course.


I believe you are due a partial refund of your dues, you overpaid. Blooie shouldn't get THAT much cuteness 


They naturally feel safer from ground predators higher up. I have an 8' roost at 2' high and approximately 27' at 4' high. None of the chickens sleep on the 2' high roost. Not even the broody raised chicks from last June, they went to the 4' high one with the older girls at about 4 weeks. 


I would be concerned they could get trapped in that back area, especially with the short gap. You could "turn it" 90 degrees by pushing down the open end and bending up one of the current long sides. Then put the pad on the inside. 


Um, not up here in the NE USA junebuggena! You put a tomato in the ground now and all you will have is a dead plant. Peppers, tomatoes and the like, as STARTED PLANTS don't go in the ground until after Memorial Day.  Kelsey, if you are planting tomato seeds indoors to grow your own transplants, do it now. Don't bother with peppers, they take SO long to get going it is already too late. You should buy them at the nursery. And with regard to tomato plants, if you buy started ones, do NOT get the biggest one you can find with blossoms already on it. You want a small compact one, not a rangy one. Another thing you can do with tomatoes if you can only get rangy ones, to get a good root system, dig a trench at the depth you want to plant, strip of the lower leaves and plant the roots AND that part of the stem. It will grow roots from the entire buried part. 

I also think it is not too late to start kale or other cold weather crops. Heck the ground a couple of inches down is still frozen.


They are sex links, sexable at hatch. If you got a cockerel someone at the hatchery screwed up big time.

Thank you both for all the great info!!!! And to june for the great list of plants!! And nice to hear from bruce, being from here. Although our winter has been real warm I think, maybe warmer than you? But still good info.

I'm really confused now though about the kale, should I or shouldn't I plant it? I don't want to plant it and not be able to harvest it but I also don't want to wait and have the seeds die or not be good. Does that happen? Maybe I could try planting some now and waitinf to plant some?

As for tomatoes, I personally don't really like them but my brother does which is why we tried them the last time. I may buy started plants for that?

The only seeds we actually have right now are the 2 kinds of pumpkins and the kale so really I could plant anything. I'm basically just trying to get an idea of what sorts of things I could, or should, plant, how best to plant them, and also what would best work in those raised beds video that was posted but I don't have to plant them in that.

I'd like to have some vegetables and possibly some herbs. That list may well work for us but is there anything else?

Also, we have some onions that we never ate and have sprouted and my mom thinks its possible to plant them? Is it? This is them.

Thanks again

 

[Jensownzoo]

Yes, you can plant the onions.

For cool crop veggies, a lot of people do two plantings a season...one in early spring and one in late summer. You can always try planting the kale...even if it doesn't get as big as if you had planted earlier before it bolts, you can still feed it to chickens!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yes, you can plant the onions.

For cool crop veggies, a lot of people do two plantings a season...one in early spring and one in late summer. You can always try planting the kale...even if it doesn't get as big as if you had planted earlier before it bolts, you can still feed it to chickens!

I'll try planting them then! Thanks! Do I just put the onion in and leave the green above ground?

That's a good idea! I think I will try that. Thank you!! And I hadn't thought that I could still give it to the chickens, good point. I gave them a bit more today and they devoured it.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Don't plant the onion to deep only stick the set part way down and keep them moist..... That's how you get the bigger onion

 

[ShrekDawg]

Don't plant the onion to deep only stick the set part way down and keep them moist..... That's how you get the bigger onion

That makes sense. Thanks.