Nevadans?

[chicharomirinda]

Whatever's onhand. But sharp cheddar or pepper jack are awesome in them. Last year, I made a stuffed relleno-type thing by making a filling of polenta, garlic, herbs, and chopped cheese. I roasted the peppers just until they were flexible, then stuffed them and put them back in the oven until everything was heated through. It was very popular.

Uggh this heat is killing me! I need to take some old white (threadbare) massage sheets and hold them up to the light to see if enough light passes through to use for shade cloth. I just plain need more shade cloth, but won't have the money until a ways into this nice little heat wave. A week or two of weather this hot will mean a week or two that no blossoms set, and then we get no peppers. Booooo!

We lost 3 of the new marans eggs so far. They've been breaking in the nest. I think it's because Sour has been moving them around like she's supposed to, but she also lets other hens share the nest with her. It doesn't look like it's an intentional egg eating thing, because she doesn't even notice it's broken until I put my hand under her, get a hand full of goop, and lift her up to take the shell out. Then she leans down and eats the yolk. I threw in more bedding for the other 6 eggs. Do you think it would be damaging to take these eggs and rinse the old yolk from them? They have 3 broken eggs worth, sticking to them and the underside of Sour.

Also Loco is back to laying but Cacciatore has taken her place. Right now, we have Cacciatore on Tom Ka Gai's eggs, Tom on Loco's eggs, and Sour on her 6 remaining. And I walked outside today to find Barbeque had a really bloody comb. There were also a few drops of blood on Loco's eggs, under Tom. Since Barbeque is really docile, I'm thinking she went in to lay on her regular spot, and Tom had issues with it. Nothing else looks hurt, other than the comb. I poured betadine on it and let her back outside.

quite a lot of broody activity over at your place!

Hmm... Well there are a couple of possibilities. First off, many people don't know this, but the swamp cooler is pulling in a lot of air from outside, and that air needs somewhere to go. So you need to open some windows to let the excess pressure out, otherwise the motor has to work twice as hard. Open at least two windows in areas of the house that are farthest from the cooler. You don't need to open them a lot; depending on the CFM (cubic feet per minute) rating of your blower, 3 inches ought to be good. This also makes the swamp cooler work better at cooling the whole house, because cool air will flow from the swamp cooler towards the open windows. You can literally feel the cool air blowing past you towards the open window!

The other possibility is that your motor is undersized. Once again, you need to know the CFM rating of the blower, and the HP (horsepower) of the motor. I've found the way to calculate what HP motor you need for what CFM blower before on line, but I just tried now and couldn't find it again. Maybe you will have better luck (but hopefully my first suggestion works for you!).

yes, we are aware of the open window on the other side of the house. have that covered. I can hear how the air is pulling through and get it opened the right amount; I'm thinking maybe the motor is undersized. i have to look inside and see what info there is. of course I thought i was getting the right replacement last year and don't have the old motor to look at any more.

Also strategically placing fans around the house helps relieve some of the pressure from the blower and gets the air circulating the way it oughtta. Its really funny, Ron, that you wrote that because my dad and brother gave me a huge lecture on it the other day, hahaha.

yes, we have a system of fans set up as well.

HaHa that's funny!

Well I processed 7 of my meat birds today. It was pretty easy. Two of them went straight to the charcoal grill - yum!

I will definitely do it again, with some changes. Fermented feed is absolutely the way to go. But with the cool nighttime temps we usually have here, it takes a while to ferment a batch. So I will need to have at least three fermenting setups to make sure I can give them a diet of nothing but. Also, I didn't give them feed free choice after the first week. I fed them once a day for the next 5 weeks, then twice a day the last two weeks.

Oh and by the way, my Olive Egger finally started laying this week...!!!!




and the color is!!!!!!........






...(drumroll please!)....







GREY. a very dreary shade of grey.


(oh here i am in between a pretty white, brown, and blue egg...how dreary i look.)


The lady must have not known that it takes a few generations to create an olive egg, and sold me some stupid expensive chicks from an F1. grrr!!!! I hate when people dont know what theyre talking about! I guess i should have asked more questions. I suppose ill just try breeding greggors to this bird and see how that goes.

how anti-climactic...

well, it is a different color from your other eggs.

Missy, it sounds like what you saw was the chick starting to break through the membrane. Keep an eye on it, you may get an early hatch there? I wouldn't candle anymore if the chicks are to hatch on Wednesday. This is the hard part of this now you are going into and the broody needs to stay on those eggs the whole time without getting off of them. If you can move her at night this may be the time to do it since she's very dedicated? You may want to wait for a chick to hatch first too.

Oh Aubrey, I so hope it is your cochin too. I would love to see how it looks later on.

I'm getting closer to having my old shift back finally. Almost everyone has a steady shift except for me. I'm having a really hard time trying to sleep when I must and getting up too. I have no problem waking up at 6am but it is a problem when you go to bed at 1 or 2 am and then you can't get back to sleep until finally you do and you almost over sleep. The one thing I'm most worried about is not waking up in time and being late to work. My body does much better when I'm on a regular schedule and home early so I can be in bed no later than 10pm and up by 6am. I have never been late to work yet in the almost 12 years I've been there and I don't need to start that now.

hope you can get a steady shift. i'm sure that's the worst having to switch shifts all the time. your body will really be messed up.

NevadaRon,

Can you share about this fermented feed thing you are doing with meat birds?

I've raising heritage meat birds this year. Not sure I'll do it again. They're eating me out of house and home. Bought a box of Delaware chicks, straight run. Out of 27 birds, I have 19 boys! Can you believe that! I'm looking forward to butchering some of them.

Please tell me about the feed thing.

wow! that's a lot of roosters!

 

[NevadaRon]

WOW RON! I bet Markie would pay you pretty well to raise up an extra 3 or 4 birds and butcher them for him! Weve been really conscious of where our food comes from lately...

That's a possibility. It's basically the more the merrier with these guys. I'll let you know when I'm ready to do it again.

NevadaRon,

Can you share about this fermented feed thing you are doing with meat birds?

I've raising heritage meat birds this year. Not sure I'll do it again. They're eating me out of house and home. Bought a box of Delaware chicks, straight run. Out of 27 birds, I have 19 boys! Can you believe that! I'm looking forward to butchering some of them.

Please tell me about the feed thing.

Hey Lacy! There's a whole thread about it over in the Meat Birds section: Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds. There are huge benefits to using it. Fermenting ups the protein content by 12%, so they eat less of it. Also, the birds get probiotics which makes them healthier overall plus makes their poop like regular chicken poop instead of the diarrhea you usually get with birds fed a high protein diet. If any of you have ever done the Atkins Diet you know what I mean!

Basically it takes away all of the negatives normally associated with Cornish X. Also, don't feed them free choice after the first week! You are much better off to feed them every 12 hours. It cuts down on things like the leg issues and abscesses you hear other people talk about. Plus the meat was very lean - just enough fat in it to keep it moist while cooking.

ETA: Where did you get your heritage Delawares?

 

[chickee]

I know you guys are pretty full up with chickens, but If anyone is interested and coming this way I have 3 (2 wheaten, 1 blue wheaten) one year old Ameraucana hens for sale. I would like for the 3 to go together. I am offering them at a discounted price since one lays a white egg (the other 2 lay blue) and I don't know which one lays it so I thought I would adjust the price because of it. If interested please PM me. I also have 2 eight week old buff x wheaten pullets available. You can see them in the BYC 1-8 week old chickens for sale section.

Pictures of the 3 W/BW hens~

 

[aubreynoramarie]

ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME IN TROUBLE!

can you imagine it? Mark comes home after being out of town for a week and we have three new chickens? hahaha

 

[chickee]

ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME IN TROUBLE!

can you imagine it? Mark comes home after being out of town for a week and we have three new chickens? hahaha

Aubrey, your funny! I always enjoy reading your posts!

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Ooh so tempting! I would love a wheaten hen, but I don't have the resources to come get them, and I currently don't need 3 more.

I have been thinking of getting more ameraucanas/EEs in the future, though.

 

[gaited horse]

ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME IN TROUBLE!  

can you imagine it? Mark comes home after being out of town for a week and we have three new chickens? hahaha

Heres how you do it with out getting in trouble
Markie: WHY ARE THERE 3 new chickens in my yard
You: "I told you the girls were broody. Look what hatched out of 3 eggs". Or "I rescued them from a bad situation" or " I missed you so much I needed to have 30 chickens 1 dog and a cat to fill in the void"
The last one is my personal fav.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

well we have 30 chickens, 1 dog, and TWO cats thankyouverymuch, bahahaha.

my favorite is the first one.
"well geeze, Mark, they just hatched all big and fluffy like..."

 

[HighNDryFarm]

I just ordered two Add-A-Motor door openers for my coops. We can't go away for the night because the chickens need to be put away. My parents live next door but they go to bed before the chickens do so I hate to ask them to do it. Plus, we have to make an extra trip out to put them away also. We have horses so we feed them earlier and then have to go back out to close the chickens up. Can't tell you how many times, right before I fall asleep, I remember that I haven't closed the chickens up! I'm sure you guys relate.

From what I've read, people are very happy with the Add-A-Motor and I found them on sale for $74. I didn't order the timer, figured I could get that local and I think my husband has some 12V batteries to run them or I'll get those local too. Also interested in the solar chargers. These aren't as expensive as I thought.

A fellow BYC member has some of the Foy setups for sale but I only need the motor and timer and she has the doors too. Even used, they're out of my budget and I only saw one comment that was somewhat negative about the Add-A-Motor and that was because their door was too heavy for the motor rating.

Anyone have any experience with this product? I'm SO excited to get these. Having to open and close the coop and rely on someone to do it when we're gone is the only thing I can complain about chicken keeping.....well, that and having too many roosters....

 

[chicharomirinda]

well we have 30 chickens, 1 dog, and TWO cats thankyouverymuch, bahahaha.

my favorite is the first one.
"well geeze, Mark, they just hatched all big and fluffy like..."

with my husband, I might be able to sneak a few new ones in there and he wouldn't notice. I think Mark would notice new ones, though.

I just ordered two Add-A-Motor door openers for my coops. We can't go away for the night because the chickens need to be put away. My parents live next door but they go to bed before the chickens do so I hate to ask them to do it. Plus, we have to make an extra trip out to put them away also. We have horses so we feed them earlier and then have to go back out to close the chickens up. Can't tell you how many times, right before I fall asleep, I remember that I haven't closed the chickens up! I'm sure you guys relate.

From what I've read, people are very happy with the Add-A-Motor and I found them on sale for $74. I didn't order the timer, figured I could get that local and I think my husband has some 12V batteries to run them or I'll get those local too. Also interested in the solar chargers. These aren't as expensive as I thought.

A fellow BYC member has some of the Foy setups for sale but I only need the motor and timer and she has the doors too. Even used, they're out of my budget and I only saw one comment that was somewhat negative about the Add-A-Motor and that was because their door was too heavy for the motor rating.

Anyone have any experience with this product? I'm SO excited to get these. Having to open and close the coop and rely on someone to do it when we're gone is the only thing I can complain about chicken keeping.....well, that and having too many roosters....

hope the add-a-motor works for you. let us know. I don't have it yet but that's what I plan on getting eventually. I designed the pop doors with that in mind. Of course I made the run predator proof so now in the summer i've been leaving the pop doors open 24/7. that's been working very good. In the winter, maybe it will be too drafty to do that.