NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: Stony - so that is what you have been doing ....havent seen you much lately ...Making Lynzi a coop ...Very Nice !

Nice coop Stoney. Lynzi you are a lucky girl.

Gramma--I dont have any place else to process my birds. Legolas seems fine, as does his women and children.

Time to get the snow tires on!

Maybe a sheet over the fence or run ? in between you & them .
if they were hiding ...they were obviously traumatized .

Dont want to think of snow !

 

[JLaw]

I think I remember seeing many many hundreds of pages ago people talking about fermented feeds. If you do it how much do you think I should start with for a flock of 25 birds? If I understand what I was reading correctly I can start a culture and by straining the feed out and leaving the fluids and some feed in the bucket I can keep a cycle going of good bacteria, I just don't know how much feed to start with. Also what other things do people ferment for their birds? Something I was reading said wild bird seed and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds?

I probably do mine alittle different than other people do. But I use a 15-25 gal bucket to do mine. As of right now I do a 2 to 1 ratio of starter grower to scratch and that's for all birds turkeys and hens. I keep mine so its a layer of water on top after it settles down then I use a paint mixer on a corded drill to mix it easly. Instead of straining I just add more dry feed to it in what ever i'm taking it out in. I'll post some pics tomorrow on my set up for fermenting feed but for 39 chickens and 2 turkeys I fill 6 14in putty troughs. Mind you I have a lot of chickens 2-4 months old and turkeys eat 2 of the 6 troughs. I use about half if not less of my set up each day so there is always plenty left over to mix up and I mix it up a few times a day just so I know they get some good stuff.

I tried the 5 gal bucket inside another 5 gal but I had problems. First I couldn't drain it right stater/grower was too fine when I dumped into my bigger bucket after giving up there was a lot in bottom bucket. Also it wasn't enough for me and too time consumeing to strain it even with a strainer and bowl. I feed 1 and 3/4 of a rubbermade Tupperware container that is 2.5 gal so about 4-4.5 gal of feed a day didn't make the 5 gallon thing work.

I keep my feed inside house and I make 2 trips out side to feed one for big coop and one for small coop. turkeys in small coop. So far it seems like it is going ok I have used alittle less than 150 lbs of feed using a 2 to 1 mix in the past two weeks. Mind you turkeys are eating 1/3rd of the food alone so its really like 100 lbs of feed for 39ish birds. This summer I think I used 100 lbs for 17 birds 2 weeks non fermented.

 

[miquwid]

I finally built my incubator, i took a thermostat and wired it into the light with the light facing the sensor on it and the fan blowing on both. So if it reaches 101 it shuts off the light the fan blows on it and it turns back on once its too low. But the inside stays pretty constant. I have 2 theremometers/hydrometers so i can get an average reading. I have glass jars with water to help hold the temp when the bator is open. I have a dish at the bottom with sponges and a water tube to help regulate the humidity. Right now its on a test run of 99 and 35 i will up the humidity when i get home, this way i can find out the best ways to control the humity. Once im satisfied i will set 9 eggs.

Off to work have a great day!

 

[SunnysideupstateNY]

Congrats. I'm still waiting on mine. They're around 20wks old.

Mine are 30 weeks. It's not as dark as I was hoping for, maybe it will get darker as she gets into the swing of things?

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

red

 

[stonykill]

red

house

Now THAT is how to start the day

 

[armorfirelady]

Hope everyone is keeping warm today. We got about 6 inches of snow. Electro netting stayed up but pop door didn't open. I'm wondering if I need to get the electric connection for the winter.

Big girls are out in snow after I shoveled. Tots are just looking out the door and shaking their heads. Eventually they will get hungry and need to come out wx forecast saying 60 for Saturday so it will all be gone shortly

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

house

Now THAT is how to start the day

pure poetry! thanks!

 

[ke5hde]

Mine are 30 weeks. It's not as dark as I was hoping for, maybe it will get darker as she gets into the swing of things?

It seems like some lines lay a lighter egg than others. That's one of the things I'll be working on with them. My plan is to hatch from the darker eggs in hope of passing it on to the next generation.

 

[stonykill]

Stony - so that is what you have been doing ....havent seen you much lately ...Making Lynzi a coop ...Very Nice !

that is just the tip pf the iceberg as to what I have been doing.






plus getting ready to start 2 Vardo campers for customers. Busy getting all of the materials together to build 2 of these.


tending to the farm/homestead, repairing furniture like crazy for customers, getting table orders in,writing articles for Modern Homesteaders, lending my BIL a hand with his contracting work and helping my wife with fall clean up for her gardening business.Somewhere in between it all I need to hunt to fill the freezer and butcher a mess of roosters and a few drakes. This 46 year old works harder than most kids today