Montana

[cicknmama]

And I sat for a long time just watching the chickens....lol

I love doing that. Chicken tv is my therapy.

 

[Granny368W]

I love doing that. Chicken tv is my therapy.

it is so relaxing to just watch them.... they love to hang out around my chair.....

 

[Granny368W]

Thank goodness we got the roof on, we had a powerful storm go through... rain, wind and lightening.... we got a quarter inch of rain, which we needed....

 

[DuginMT]

Got my first true confirmed pullet egg today out of my young ones! It is shown next to two normal sized eggs. I would say it is about half volume. Not sure which one laid it, but the Speckled Sussex and New Hamshire Red have been squatting a lot lately! I think I will soon be giving eggs away again! The new girls are 21 weeks old today. They were hatched on March 2nd or 3rd. Not bad, I say! And it was laid in a nest box, right next to a golf ball! I changed from All Flock to layer feed at 20 weeks.

 

[cicknmama]

Thank goodness we got the roof on, we had a powerful storm go through... rain, wind and lightening.... we got a quarter inch of rain, which we needed....

We got that too...we had nickel sized hail...is that crazy or what!!??

 

[Granny368W]

We got that too...we had nickel sized hail...is that crazy or what!!??

yes it is crazy, and then we got cold! lol last night we got down to 40.5 degrees.... today is going to be nice too..... I hate the heat! We are going to replace a bridge that broke down this last winter.... so glad it will be much cooler...

 

[Bowldy45]

Hello from Winnett Mt. I have heen reading a lot of your posts, so very informative! I am just starting to get into the process of owning chickens. How overwhelming it can get!! Anyways, my hubby has been building me a coop, and he has insulated it for the winter months. With that being said, would I, or do I still need a heat lamp once we get start getting chicks?

 

[cicknmama]

Hello from Winnett Mt. I have heen reading a lot of your posts, so very informative! I am just starting to get into the process of owning chickens. How overwhelming it can get!! Anyways, my hubby has been building me a coop, and he has insulated it for the winter months. With that being said, would I, or do I still need a heat lamp once we get start getting chicks?

Welcome to BYC! I'm new to Montana, where is Winnett? Chickens do much better in cold than in heat. With an insulated coop, you should have no problem. But you could look it up and read about the pros and cons and then decide. I heated my coop last winter and my chickens never acclimated to the cold. I built a bigger coop and run this year and I'm going to see how it goes.

 

[Bowldy45]

Thanks for the welcome! Winnett is approximately 2 hours north of Billings. I have been doing tons of reading on here about heat lamp or not. Mostly what i am finding is that 8ts a personal preference, with alot of folks usuing more just a light to extend the daylight. Figured I would get the expert opinions of Montana folks that know the climate better, and have the experience.

 

[Granny368W]

Hello, I'm just checking in, we have been having a few colder days and nights... I feel the dampness in the air at night... we have had over an inch of rain... my 14 Australorps have been so happy, and I have too!! We switched out the 2"X2" and put 2"X4"... they seem to be happy with them so now we have to build the nesting boxes... we also have to put the wire (hardware cloth) around the whole coop and run, on the outside...
I think we need to add another water bucket, we have 2 now with 4 nipples on each, but I don't want them to run out... I want them to be able to go for at least a week before we need to fill them....
one thing I wanted to ask about them foraging, they are out most of the day, they seem to come in if something scares them.... I'm worried if they are getting enough of their food....
well I've rambled on enough... I haven't been able to get on line because everytime we get lightening, I have NO Internet...