NY chicken lover!!!!

[SunnysideupstateNY]

ChickPrincess, Oh boy! Buddy is starting to act like the boss of the coop now, the girls are following his lead. I haven't seen any mating but I think he's trying to crow. Its one note. I'm glad to hear Henry is OK!
I've had to shovel the coop out a few times, they too have no interest in walking on the white stuff. Even when I bait them with oatmeal. I'll spoil them tonight with scraps from the turkey and some warm oatmeal.
I threw a cabbage in the coop to pick at, it doesn't look like they've touched it.

 

[rancher hicks]

Shameless Commerce :

Is anyone still looking for Heated Dog Dishes ?
I bought a bunch I found - 5 . I might keep one ..They are huge ! 11 1/2 inches in diameter . They might be too big for me ..

Farm Innovators 1-1/2-Gallon Round Heated Pet Bowl Blue 60 watts .

I am thinking maybe 29.00 & shipping ? or if you are in Syracuse area ? Maybe we can meet somewhere If anyone is interested email me at [email protected]
Deborah

I do know TSC has the Heated dog dishes for $19. Not sure how much they hold. Also the 2.25 buckets for $29. Can't speak for quality though.

FI has green bowls 1.3 gallons now for $23.00

With all due respect I can't see paying the same price for used/not new things as I would new. I see this on CL all the time.

 

[Aria]

We have a 5 gallon plastic pail with nibbles with an old
type cylinder heater. Works great.

And we have another water container with a unit like they
used on car batteries on the bottom. Works great.

We have 18 Silkies. Need to bring water every 3 days.

We had one and one half inches of snow....and it has
been snowing all day.

 

[marquisella]

I wrote this on my blog today. I admit, I dont' post to it very often, but I thought I'd share with you all.

O







Do you cook for your chickens?


I'm on a plan to increase egg production, yes, even during the winter months.

I am adding to the normal pelleted feed, cooked soy, along with oats, sunflower, alfalfa, seeds & fat.

My local grocery store is saving up some fat each week for me. I cook it down until its melted. I cook about 2 quarts of soybeans at the same time until they are soft, about 1/2 hour. I then mix the soybeans & melted fat together & carry the bucket out to the barn.I also put some Red Cell liquid vitamins in at this point because the soybeans & oil are pretty wet and it mixes well & coats the beans better. I normally put the Red Cell in their water, but now that their water is freezing, I put it in the feed mix instead so its not wasted.

Right now I'm eyeballing the amounts, but I mix into the bucket, some whole oats, sunflower seeds, just a little, a little corn, some alfalfa meal, and about half the amount of pellets I use to feed when it was all I was feeding.

Because I bring it out right away from being cooked, the whole mix stays warm, and the birds flock, pun intended, right over to eat. Even if it doesn't make them feel better, it makes me feel better that I'm giving them something warm to eat on cold winter days.

Why am I going through this fuss? When I use to feed whole grains, I almost never had sick chickens. And I got compliments from judges on how well conditioned my chickens were at shows.

I've been frustrated lately with my birds, just didn't seem quite right, and everything pointed to their feed. It was an "aha!" moment for me.

So, back to whole grains for my chickens...We'll see how it goes for the next few months.

 

[littlecritters]

​

I'm not sure if this has been shared here....there is a thread for the Northeastern Poutry Congress to enable folks to arrange pre-orders, sales, swaps, meet ups etc. hope to see some of you there!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/731397/northeast-poultry-congress-2013

 

[vmdanielsen]

Morning all! Supposed to get another 4 to 6 inches today. We shall see. If we do then I will have to hear it again from all the cheeps about the evil white stuff. The girls refuse to come out of their coop as their run isnt shoveled. The silkies had snow blow into their run so they refuse to come out and I cant go in to clean it out as it is only 3 foot high and covered. First time thats happened. I will have to put plastic around it next year to keep it from happening. The terrorists come out but only on the shoveled areas inside their run. Bunch of sissys. I told them that the chickens down the road were out in their run and it wasnt even shoveled! They were out on the snow walking around. All I got in response was more bawking complaints and some demands for scratch.

I keep looking at my incubators and want to fire them up really badly! I will wait until february though. Not a good time to be hatching chicks and I am not set up for chicks yet anyways. I do have two broody silkie hens sitting on pine chips trying to hatch something out of nothing. Sigh. They are never broody when I want them to be.

Question...Is it safe to feed cooked potatos to chickens? I have read conflicting reports. I have some leftover baked potatoes that I would like to give them if its okay.

Be safe in this weather everyone.

I think potatoes w/o green skin (SOLANINE?) are ok. I would feed them to mine anyway.....

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

Juanita ask Karen about turkeys. She knows someone with some (bourban reds I think).

 

[cracrzy4chicks]

Juanita ask Karen about turkeys. She knows someone with some (bourban reds I think).

Thanks Tab, just got off the phone w/her !

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all! Due to a miscommunication between dh and I the silkies never got locked up last night and waterers brought in. All were accounted for this morning and some heavy breathing on my part got the bottoms unfrozen and off the containers. Knocked out the ice and refilled them. Little man and his girls still refuse to go out into their run because of the little bit of snow in there. While I was shoveling off the roof of their run, I heard Gandolf try crowing in the other coop. He made a decent effort. He likes to hang out on the door ledge of his coop as I am filling feeders and waterers, looking at the snow on the ground. I left the door open this morning so they can get some air moving through and come out for a bit if they would like to. Dh shoveled out the divas run and the terrorists run so they all finally came out. I have to say the snow makes a nice backdrop for the reds and they look outstanding against it. I do believe, however, that they are still blaming me for the evil white stuff. Now we are going into the deep freeze all week.

Hope everyone made out okay with this storm. We got an additional 3 inches on top of the already 6 from before. Had to shovel off the roof of the silkie run. More shoveling later.

 

[ChickPrincess]

Morning all! Due to a miscommunication between dh and I the silkies never got locked up last night and waterers brought in. All were accounted for this morning and some heavy breathing on my part got the bottoms unfrozen and off the containers. Knocked out the ice and refilled them. Little man and his girls still refuse to go out into their run because of the little bit of snow in there. While I was shoveling off the roof of their run, I heard Gandolf try crowing in the other coop. He made a decent effort. He likes to hang out on the door ledge of his coop as I am filling feeders and waterers, looking at the snow on the ground. I left the door open this morning so they can get some air moving through and come out for a bit if they would like to. Dh shoveled out the divas run and the terrorists run so they all finally came out. I have to say the snow makes a nice backdrop for the reds and they look outstanding against it. I do believe, however, that they are still blaming me for the evil white stuff. Now we are going into the deep freeze all week.

Hope everyone made out okay with this storm. We got an additional 3 inches on top of the already 6 from before. Had to shovel off the roof of the silkie run. More shoveling later.

You got off easy! We have a total of about 25" here in Canandaigua. Yuck!