Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Our broodies are a bit confused as well. Virpi seems to think she's a chick...


Somewhere in that pile there are four little chicks as well, currently doing just fine with freezing temps outside.

"Closet" is for the outside closet I've got next to the coop, I placed the thermometer in there to keep it out of the snow. But it's not insulated in any way, so should show pretty close to outside temperatures, maybe a bit higher with some heat coming from the wall of the house.

 

[scottcaddy]

Our broodies are a bit confused as well. Virpi seems to think she's a chick...


Somewhere in that pile there are four little chicks as well, currently doing just fine with freezing temps outside.

"Closet" is for the outside closet I've got next to the coop, I placed the thermometer in there to keep it out of the snow. But it's not insulated in any way, so should show pretty close to outside temperatures, maybe a bit higher with some heat coming from the wall of the house.

Nice wireless setup Felix! Do you know why the nest is 6 degrees colder then the coop? I would have thought that it was the other way around.
Is the pic from inside your house or your compost bins, or are both at 17 degrees?
Scott

 

[vehve]

Scott, the coop temp is measured close to the ceiling, in the large open space. The nest temp is measured in the nest, and at that time the birds were probably not in there. It's a lot lower (=colder), and the radiation from the heat lamp doesn't reach it due to the construction (see my coop page), plus it has a lid which probably leaks some heat. The temp is from inside the house, we actually have it at about 20C in here, but sitting next to the window it cools down the thermometer a bit (that temp is measured in the main unit itself).

 

[cwrite]

Too funny Vehve! I think they are just not sharing. The black hen is making her point that she WILL sit on the chicks, even if Virpi is in the way.

 

[vehve]

I actually think she was feeling a bit cold and sought out a warm spot to wrap up in.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Ben, did you do anything special for them? Are they sitting on anything? Poor confused things!

For our broodies? No, I didn't have the time to break them in a cage, and we don't have the space to hatch more chicks just yet, so I let them have a few golf balls each. Sadly, the gold balls are in fertile, I didn't even have to candle them to check.

When our youngest get a bit older we will let one of them hatch, they are both going to be broody machines I think so we will get another chance down the track.

Too funny Vehve! I think they are just not sharing. The black hen is making her point that she WILL sit on the chicks, even if Virpi is in the way.

Seems logical to me, warm and nurturing hahaha!

 

[vehve]

Ben, I hope you're far away from the fires. In reality, Australia is a lot bigger than the small island it is in my head, where everyone knows everyone and you can see from Melbourne to Brisbane on a clear day (I hope they're actually far away from each other so that I didn't just pick two cities next to one another).

@scottcaddy I forgot to share this with you a few days ago:


This one's taken nine days after the previous photo, Jan 4th 2015.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Thanks for the well wishes Felix. The downside to summer here in the beautiful land, firebugs and dry grass. Every year way too many fire are lit on purpose and get out of control.

Personally, we are well clear of any fire danger at the moment. The two cities you mentioned are 1,800km apart (too far for me to run lol) Equivalent of driving from Helsinki to Oulu, then around Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden, then down the gulf to Umea, down to Sundsvall, then hop over the border to Sweden to Lillehammer!

We live about 4,300km from Brisbane, on the other side of the island. Equivalent of driving from your town center to Baghdad, via Moscow. We might be an island, but it's a pretty big one.

On the chicken front, we have between 1 and 3 broodies still. Two can't make up their mind so I think they are nearly finished, Ginger who was last to start is still pretty dedicated.

We have had some extreme heat, so eggs have been pretty low, we regular wetting down of a patch of the run seem to keep them happy.

No new hatches, no losses.

Still not sure about the mixed breed chick, no bigger wattles, not more redness than before.......fingers crossed we are in for a large egg layer!

 

[vehve]

Haha, looks like you did some Google maps travelling

We're up to a nice, cozy -4C today. No risk of bush fires here! In the summer we do get forest fires sometimes, but they're usually contained pretty quickly and don't spread all that much.

Our four chicks all look like boys to me, but we'll see. They're three weeks old today and starting to be feathered. Whatever I read about chicks needing 35C temps in the brooder as newly hatched certainly isn't true with a broody. Okay, the broodies keep them warm, but we've kept the coop at about 0C and the chicks have been fine running around there on their own.

 

[Bens-Hens]

It was kind of fun driving by Googlemaps hahaha

From what we have seen with broody mum's, there is no need for extra heat, when the chick gets cold it calls to mum and she warms them back up again. Amazing to watch really.