***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Kassaundra]

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Dig for gophers/moles, tree squirrels, eat chickens, run the fence barking at anything that moves, terrorize children, it's all the same to him!!!!

 

[bfrancis]

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You won't buy chance be selling any Australorp pullets this early spring will you?

 

[jcatblum]

Hay is done-- looks like 14 bales, think they got 33 in June-- but they are thankful for every bale they can get. I am thankful it isn't going to waste. Just hope they move it soon, if not every joe that drives by is knocking on the door trying to get a bale or 2.

Almost finished Christmas shopping, just have dh left & his is harder since his birthday is the wk after. Think he is getting a new riffle & an electric call for the coyotes. He borrowed a call from a friend & loved it. The coyotes come out instantly.

 

[Ksane]

NanaKat, I loved those pictures. Sigh. Thank you so much for posting them.
I'm trying to figure out how much room I need, who to put where, etc. I don't want any of the birds from the 2 pens with e. coli to ever get mixed with any of the other birds. But that leaves me with having to do a bunch of separate pens because there's cockerels in with pullets (my Silkie & Cochin youngsters) and the boys outnumber the girls 3 to 1 so they can't all be left together to live long term. Your pens give me ideas though. What size is your teen pen (for example)? And how many birds in there? I've got 6 4 mo old birds right now in 1 particular 8'x8' roofed pen (where some birds were sick but are better now). 4 are Marans and they'll be pretty big, the 8'x8' doesn't LOOK big enough & I've got to get them in somewhere soon. If they were your birds, what size of pen would you put them in for the winter? Would one of those big wooden doghouses work for shelter?
I want to protect the birds in yards where no one got sick. I'm building pens right now (2/3 done) in the back yard to put my possibly exposed birds off away from the other bird's yards. Then there's 3 Polish who are going to need their own pen since they were in with the sick ones and get beat up so have to be separated. So anyway, that leaves me with figuring out how to do multiple small pens. I need like 6 that are going to hold 3-6 birds each. I'm getting really frustrated. Then I see pictures like yours and you've made it look so easy and I wonder what I'm doing wrong that I can't seem to get organized lol
I'm also worried about the water freezing in all these small individual pens this winter. I can't run electricity to ALL these pens. What on earth do you guys do? Are all your birds in actual buildings with electricity? It's just the smaller individual pens that I'm going to have to build that won't have electricity. All the other birds do.
Sorry this is so long. I guess I'm partially venting lol!

 

[NanaKat]

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You won't buy chance be selling any Australorp pullets this early spring will you?

I don't have an Australorp roo.
The girls are running with the Cochin roo. So any eggs hatched would be crosses with feathered legs...of course Samson is a Blue Cochin. This means some of the offspring could be blue.

 

[bfrancis]

Bummer! I've got an awesome looking Australorp cockeral/roo (8mths) that I want to put a purebred flock around. Hoping to find some girls for him that are in the same age group so they can start doing their thing this spring.

Really enjoyed looking at your photos though, you do have great looking birds...we have a mixed flock too, seeing all the different colors are kinda neat.

 

[NanaKat]

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My teen pen is 16 x 14. There are 15 birds in that pen. One corner has a 6 x 8 foot pen with a gate that closes. I have used it in the past as a growout pen for little birds out of a brooder on the floor of the barn. I included it in the current teen pen to use as a outside growout pen and to keep a trio or quad for the winter. They have their own wooden coop with a two nest box on one end. This picture is during construction before the top was finished off with chicken wire. You can see the inside pen on the right. I later covered the top with shade cloths.

The BLRW trio are in this pen. It is a 6 foot tall 6 x 12 dog pen with shade clot cover. Their little coop is 3 x 3 x 4' with a two nest box at one end. Windows have plywood covers that can be attached and held with cleats to keep out rain and wind in winter.

An 8' x 8' pen will be sufficient for 6 birds. A wooden dog house could be adapted to use for chickens. I'd add a roost board up off the floor and provide woodshavings or straw for extra warmth on the floor and change it as needed. You basically need something to block the cold winds off your birds and keep them dry but still leave enough air flow to keep down ammonia smells. Even one of those plastic igloo dog houses would work.
Surprisingly ice and snow make a thermal blanket of small structures.

As long as your birds have room to run around the outside of their structure...or even under it..they will get the necessary exercise they need during the winter.

 

[NanaKat]

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Thank you. Have you been able to see any Australorps at sales? or does Michael know anyone who has young birds?
Mine were chicks I purchased at Atwood's three years ago and some I've hatched. I think the hatchery Atwood's uses is Ideal.

 

[NanaKat]

Breeders out there:
I'm curious what a Columbian Wyandotte roo and Buff Minorca will produce.....Could these possibly look like Buff Wyandottes?

When I was breeding lovebirds, there was a site that had a genetics chart for predicting what the offspring in a particular breeding would be.
Is there a breeding chart for chickens.....?

 

[NanaKat]

Ksane...one of the necessary evils of having birds in winter without electricity is changing the water frequently to make sure they have plenty of fresh water handy.
A full grown large fowl will drink up to 1.5 cups of water a day. For pens without electricity, you can change the containers out several times a day and strategically place black pans where the sun will hit them...thermal absorbtion.

I can keep water thawed inside the hen house in the barn just by running a red heat lamp and by keeping deep litter on the floor. I also close the door at night when everyone is inside. Many days the girls don't want to go outside. I have a a hen house that is 12 x 10 (soon to be doubled) The nest box is on one side and the roost is on the other. I also have a cedar tree on the roost side that goes from floor to ceiling and an old ladder leaning against one wall. I have birds in winter that will actually roost up high.

There are low wattage bird bath de-icers that are safe for chickens too. We have laid Electric cords out for Christmas lights and there are "stations" for multiple cords. If you had four pens with adjacent corners and a cord station, you could run 4 de icers into the four pens....just a thought.