***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[jcatblum]

My birds don't get heated water. Figure we have only a handful of days below freezing so I don't bother. I do have a 55 gal drum of water with an aquarium heater in it for winter, just in case the faucet at the barn freezes. We have the ability to have power to all our pens, but I have a husband that I don't think would be excited if I requested any other chicken projects. He is more into goats this wk.
Mitzi I bet you could find some creative coop building materials, just to have in case you incubator just wont turn off. A thrift store I frequent always tosses out the HUGE old wooden desk that come from offices. Bet you could remove the drawers, cut out a few drawer guides-- leave a couple for roost then cover the desk in scrap metal. Sounds cheap & easy. We still have a huge pile of old roof material that we have been building stuff out of the past yr. It would be like a huge dog house & prob only take a couple hours to turn into a coop.
Mitzi I told Taron how many pens you had, asked if it sounded like lots of work, she said nope sounds easy. I totally understand on the pen building. Last yr I felt like we were building a pen or working on a pen every weekend. And here comes a new goat pen. We have 2 pens but we need seperate pens for the moms when they kid, bucks & others. Hopefully we can stop @ 3 goat pens.

 

[Kassaundra]

We have a cookie tin waterer b/c I HATE WINTER TO THE BOTTOM OF MY TOENAILS, one day of dealing w/ frozen water would make it worth the money to run a one light bulb through the winter! lol And I am using the royal "we" b/c all outside chores that need to be done in the winter are done by my wonderful husband, since it takes every ounce of energy I have just to survive winter.

 

[Oakieridge]

It's official I hate fall hatching! The last two hatches have had one chick each and my only hatch from this last week died this morning. It was a sweet little silkie chick and was fine when I went out to feed the big birds but when I came in it was laying dead in the water dish. The water dish is filled with colored marbles so I don't see how he drowned. I don't know what happened. Then I candled the eggs that are to hatch this week and over 1/2 are clear! I am going to gather eggs one more time for hatch but if it doesn't go well then I am done for winter/fall hatching. I will try again in Feb/March. I set eggs today for the kids they had a little over 2 dozen between them of OEGB, Silkie, and Bantam Cochins so we will see how those do.

Today's chore is to get supplimental light to all the pens that are laying. I have some lights in our main pen but the other 3 need them. Still undecided if I want to put a light in the guinea pen or not.

 

[jcatblum]

Cathie sorry for the poor hatches. We got over a dz eggs yesterday. Pretty sure the dog is the main reason our eggs were down earlier this wk.

Kass if my husband had to change the water or feed the birds we would be in a bad way. Taron takes care of most of the birds, but she does need someone to supervise & keep her on track & assist.

 

[Ksane]

Christina, once the mundane stuff is done like making sure everyone has food and water, raking their mulch around if they're in pens, fluffing the shavings and adding more......after that it really does not seem like much work. No way I could (or would) do this if I were working like I did for years though. Cathie is like the BYC super-woman. 6 kids, a job and all those birds?? I feel like such a slacker compared to her. Besides- my fish tanks and chickens get all my attention, I never cared for things like nice furniture and vehicles

It's official I hate fall hatching! The last two hatches have had one chick each and my only hatch from this last week died this morning. It was a sweet little silkie chick and was fine when I went out to feed the big birds but when I came in it was laying dead in the water dish. The water dish is filled with colored marbles so I don't see how he drowned. I don't know what happened. Then I candled the eggs that are to hatch this week and over 1/2 are clear! I am going to gather eggs one more time for hatch but if it doesn't go well then I am done for winter/fall hatching. I will try again in Feb/March. I set eggs today for the kids they had a little over 2 dozen between them of OEGB, Silkie, and Bantam Cochins so we will see how those do. Today's chore is to get supplimental light to all the pens that are laying. I have some lights in our main pen but the other 3 need them. Still undecided if I want to put a light in the guinea pen or not.

That really sucks. I bet the kids were upset :-( I had a batch of hatchery Silkies last summer but only have 3 left for various reasons. It's the white ones I miss so bad. The 3 Silkies I've gotten from Betsy have all done really well and been healthy. The hatchery Silkies seemed prone to weird neurological problems and strange things like that. Some I just found dead, really sad. So I won't be getting any more hatchery Silkies. Good luck with the eggs you set today.
Oh, and if you have a bright enough LED flashlight you can easily see the clear/non-fertile eggs by the 4th day. I can always see veins by then if they're fertile.
Where are you going to keep the new hatchlings if they hatch? I want to get a 4x8x6 coop built with no drafts at all and put heat in it for my three 5 wk old Phoenix & the Brabanters I hope to hatch. Can't decide if it's easier to do that or keep them inside the heated RV where my computers are.

 

[jcatblum]

Mitzi you forget Cathie also homeschools. Yep she just lives to work, takes care of kids & chickens. Maybe she goes to work to get a break from animals & kids. Nope can't be it, she works in a place where everyone brings in screaming snot nosed kids all day!

 

[Ksane]

Mitzi you forget Cathie also homeschools. Yep she just lives to work, takes care of kids & chickens. Maybe she goes to work to get a break from animals & kids. Nope can't be it, she works in a place where everyone brings in screaming snot nosed kids all day!

See?? No matter what the rest of us do or how hard we try we're always going to look like lazy slackers next to her lol!

 

[Oakieridge]

Mitzi you forget Cathie also homeschools. Yep she just lives to work, takes care of kids & chickens. Maybe she goes to work to get a break from animals & kids. Nope can't be it, she works in a place where everyone brings in screaming snot nosed kids all day!

HAHA I tell people I go to work to escape the craziness that is my home lol. But I LOVE my 3 days a week I am at home. Now saying that I am at work with 2 of my kids today on my day off, grrrrr. I couldn't do it without my hubby being at home on the days I work. Of course I don't mind the kids here at my work when they leave with their parents lol. The only ones I don't care for are the ones that come in sick. Yesterday one came in and as they were leaving the grandma said "we have been fighting MRSA with this one for a month now"

I just wanted to thump her at that point because we don't need anything like that in our office!

Christina, once the mundane stuff is done like making sure everyone has food and water, raking their mulch around if they're in pens, fluffing the shavings and adding more......after that it really does not seem like much work. No way I could (or would) do this if I were working like I did for years though. Cathie is like the BYC super-woman. 6 kids, a job and all those birds?? I feel like such a slacker compared to her. Besides- my fish tanks and chickens get all my attention, I never cared for things like nice furniture and vehicles

That really sucks. I bet the kids were upset :-( I had a batch of hatchery Silkies last summer but only have 3 left for various reasons. It's the white ones I miss so bad. The 3 Silkies I've gotten from Betsy have all done really well and been healthy. The hatchery Silkies seemed prone to weird neurological problems and strange things like that. Some I just found dead, really sad. So I won't be getting any more hatchery Silkies. Good luck with the eggs you set today.
Oh, and if you have a bright enough LED flashlight you can easily see the clear/non-fertile eggs by the 4th day. I can always see veins by then if they're fertile.
Where are you going to keep the new hatchlings if they hatch? I want to get a 4x8x6 coop built with no drafts at all and put heat in it for my three 5 wk old Phoenix & the Brabanters I hope to hatch. Can't decide if it's easier to do that or keep them inside the heated RV where my computers are.

Not 100% sure I need to build Jackson his own pens for his birds. Right now he has 2 of my breeding pens with chicks (well they are all 5/6 months old) and his Aframe with his main pair. Kurt has 2 big pens, 2 A frames and brooder hutch for his birds. I want to raise out some pullets to sell come spring but they have to hatch first, lol. I do have an empty hoop house right now for them to grow out in if I ever hatch any haha.

 

[Oakieridge]

See?? No matter what the rest of us do or how hard we try we're always going to look like lazy slackers next to her lol!

LOL you give me way to much credit, Kurt does bird feeding and watering Monday-Thursday, hubby takes kids to coop classes on Tuesdays, Matthew drives Kurt to classes on Thursday and now takes himself to his practices and that HELPS A TON!!! Kids take turns doing dishes and the older 2 boys each take a night of fixing dinner. No way could I do it all on my own. But my birds are my stress relief I love being outside taking care of them!

 

[Kassaundra]

Almost got frost bitten harvesting 8 huge zuchini off my beautiful plants in full bloom.