Minnesota!

[Mistahbue]

Toad Strangler? So funny! I've never heard that term before!

That's my Georgia (or I pronounce it JooooorJa) raising

My roomie had never heard it either.

Hope everyone faired okay from yesterday's round of storms!

 

[Mistahbue]

Nice list of birds...and lots of them..

My flock is 29 adult chickens, 3 are roosters...
6 adult turkeys and a bunch of poults...
6 guineas and a bunch of keets..

oh and 73 CX marshmallows on toothpick legs..

You got some nice birds!! I love the turkeys too! Are you still getting your porcelain eggs?

 

[Mistahbue]

I've been on here a few years, but don't post too much - just listen and enjoy the banter. I am just south of Duluth

Howdy

I'm just a smidge south of Hinckley. Nice to 'meet' folks up this way.

 

[coldupnorth]

Bogtown - Love to see more pictures of your cute little Sadie! Puppies are such an adjustment after having mature dogs. Our Wattson is now 20 weeks old is basically all teeth! Not sure if he gets called Wattson as often as other names that are not so enduring. The last couple of weeks he has slowed down slightly on gnawing on his family. He used to be scared of the chickens but now has become "birdy" and very interested in a bit of chase or "flush" the bird. He is never alone with them and we keep verbalizing that they are off limits. Here is a more recent picture him.

 

[scandiafowl]

I got most of mine from Hoovers too, They always treated me well, and given me good birds.

Where is Hoovers?

 

[Minniechickmama]

If u dont want your feelings hurt stay away from the broody hen thread. They were evil!! I did everything wrong to them and yet my hatches were so much better than theirs! But I will just let them be know it alls.

You are just learning about all the people who are internet experts. LOL! This and the Buckeye Thread are the only ones I come on from this site. I have had my fill of people trying to tell me about how to raise chickens when they have 3 and I have 300.

Can I suggest something about your brooder intentions. I know how much of a pain in the butt it can be to brooder a few hundred at a time, so I started making stacked brooders. I need to clean mine, but once I do, I can show you what I have. For the littlest chicks, I am using a 4 shelf, metal framed unit I bought at Home Depot, am putting sides and back on it, running a nipple water line and making it accessible from the front. I have to find the right heating unit. I was playing with the idea of making a coffer up the back and heating just from the back and using a fan to circulate, but not sure if that is going to work so well. I still love the idea, but accessability for cleaning in the back is the issue. Every year I come up with something a little better for brooding. My brooder house is a 10X12
I still use large totes for chicks right now and rotate to bigger ones or split them up as they grow, then they got into a smallish stacked brooder with two pens, then there are two larger pens that are their final stage of the brooder house that are 3'X6' with a hatch door on top. I lay vinyl, glueless flooring in everything for ease of cleaning and to protect the wood from damage from droppings and any wetness. My system isn't perfect by any means, but it has worked for me this far. I am trying to phase out the totes altogether though. They are handy if you are doing small scale, but for what I have been doing, not so efficient.
One of my projects this Summer still is to put a rail and the trim on the brooder house. We are going to build a little cat house too on the end closest to the viewer in the picture, since our barn cats love being on the deck and hanging around me there. Surprisingly, they have never killed a chick or any other chicken! Even though they were wild when they showed up! Now, they get a little kibble each day and hunt for the rest. If they continue to help with rodent control, I am happy to provide them with a little house.

 

[KlopKlop]

Where is Hoovers?

Near Mason City, Iowa I believe

They ship to your Post Office but also many farm and feed stores around here will order them in for you.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I think poo is a great antibiotic ointment for you holm,,,,,,

There are many so called experts om the internet , you must have stumbled into a group of them....

Take for instance my Poo advice above, some would think it is wrong, but I being an old country boy see the benefits of poo on other peoples fingers..


My favorite people are the ones that insist a CX will just up and die after 8 weeks......

Rhett you really need to sell a bird once, it gives you a whole new high and you can tell your spouse you nade money on your hobby/addiction.


I have a question for any of you that know about turkey behavior. Is it normal for a turkey to sit on her nest at night, while she is still laying eggs? ( this would be the nutso turkey that tried to rip my hands off yesterday...

I cannot believe I am sitting here at 4 am, typing, but I went to the doc yesterday and he gave me a p-numia (yeah well you spell it then) shot and my arm hurts, the weather has my knees and hips hurting, so I can't sleep either....so here I am.

If the turkeys hatch the eggs they have I will have chicks to sell in 3-4 weeks. I have turkey poults I would sell, now, When I figure out who is the roosters in the creamettes I would sell them too, if anyone wants a blue egg laying gene in their next years hatch...

Ok I am rambling, time to take a sleep inducing pill..

I feel your pain, sometimes. I have had back issues for most of my life, starting when I was 14. You gotta love the farm life. I had a bale dropped on my head once when my sister forget to yell down when she was tossing down bales from the mow one day. There was that, then carrying 100# bags for feed on my shoulder, putting up previously mentioned hay, pitching silage from the silos, pushing carts full of high moisture corn up ramps that I still don't know how they H377 I ever managed to do that! We used to tell people we had Armstrong equipment to do chores with, my arms were very strong. Automatic silo unloaders always broke down, so we just stuck with pitching it out with a fork, and half the time the gutter cleaners were coming off the sprockets or wheels. SMH I think you all get the picture. SO, whenever the humidity starts to kick up, my body really hurts. I have an ankle that has pretty much bothered me non-stop for about 8 years and it is the worst of the joints when the weather changes in May-June.
Enough of my whining though...

You statement about the CRX though, I must say, I have had them flip and die at 7-8 weeks. You know that to keep them going, you have to be very cautious about their feed intake and activity. I only feed once a day and only what I know they require, and mine still get pretty plump and juicy by 8-weeks. My neighbor had 50 a few years ago when it got SO hot in late July early August, that I think they last over 40 birds in a couple of days time. She said she walked out and they were just literally flipping on their backs and dying right in front of her. That wasn't all size, that was 95-100 degree temps for an extended time. We lost 2 after washing them for the fair and putting them in cages to dry off that time. Heck, even my purebred Cornish, when it gets hot, they are the ones to watch so they don't croak on me. With that kind of bulk, their hearts have to pump so much harder to keep them going that it just gives out when faced with a lot of stress. That also makes it easier for them to contract respiratory infections. I sometimes think I am just a glutton for punishment with them.

Oh, and I got one of those shots a few weeks ago. I was lucky, it didn't bother me at all. However, I cannot get a tetanus shot because my whole arm swells up and gets hot.

 

[Rhetts]

Minnie-how is the vinyl in the winter? I tried to talk DH into putting it down but he thought it would be too slippery in winter and didn't want us getting hurt from falling. We put down polyurethane instead. It works but vinyl would be way better IMO.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Minnie-how is the vinyl in the winter? I tried to talk DH into putting it down but he thought it would be too slippery in winter and didn't want us getting hurt from falling. We put down polyurethane instead. It works but vinyl would be way better IMO.

Not slippery at all if you get the right stuff. I bought some cheap stuff last year to replace the old stuff that was paperbacked. I started with that garbage because they were just coming out with the glueless when I built the big breeder building and went with the paperback stuff. Now, the price is reasonable and you can lay the stuff that is pretty thick down for a reasonable amount. You don't want to buy the really rough feeling stuff, but the ones with a stone or stone tile patter on them are the best ones. If the poop freezes in winter, it will still come up off the vinyl with a little effort. Just be careful to not rip it on a nail or with a corner of a shovel. I wouldn't use anything else for flooring in a coop, and I use it in all the coops with floors no matter how big or small. I have even used it on walls where I have had ducks so they don't ruin the wood when splashing. BUT you MUST use a wood strip (I suggest cedar) at least 1-inch wide and thick around the edges to hold them down or you will have a real PITA issue with bedding and poop getting under it then you have a mess to deal with.