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emorems0 said:
Questions: What size brooder box would I need for 25 meat chicks and 4 turkey poults?
Can you link me to your favorite brooder for ideas? Wire floor okay to eliminate need for bedding... 1/4" hardware cloth okay? How tall should the brooder box be (remember that that light will be above/outside the lid so I don't want to make it too tall)? I'll wrap the wire walls with cardboard or plastic to keep the heat in/eliminate drafts.
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Use 1/2" HW cloth for flooring, 1/4" will clog quickly. Commercial brooders use 1/2", recommending you put down paper on top for a few days. You should try to make the height of the lamp adjustable, and also use a tabletop lamp dimmer with the heat lamp so you can dim it down as the chicks grow.
 
Oh... funny non-traditional wife gifts... Hubbs had fun telling people at work one year that he bought me a mitre saw. Everyone thought he'd be in the dog house but it was what a really wanted - not just any mitre saw, but a 12 inch compound sliding mitre saw - best birthday gift ever!
 
dheltzel said:
Use 1/2" HW cloth for flooring, 1/4" will clog quickly. Commercial brooders use 1/2", recommending you put down paper on top for a few days. You should try to make the height of the lamp adjustable, and also use a tabletop lamp dimmer with the heat lamp so you can dim it down as the chicks grow.
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Lamp dimmer... I wouldn't have thought of that, I was just going to suspend it from the ceiling so I could adjust the height upward as needed. I just can't make it any lower than the top of the brooder box. Think 2ft is a good height? 5'x 5' floor area or 6'x 6'?
 
MotorcycleChick said:
At one in the morning, I am doing what any normal person does. I'm researching ways to make a sourdough starter. It began with some flour and water, but I then began looking at other recipes. Worse, other "rules".
After three hours, I am convinced that the Internet was designed to cause anxiety, and that all four of my bread recipe books were written by lawyers (a lot of fancy words, but little actual information).
So! If you do sourdough, do you make the starter stiff like dough or runny like batter? That is the most important question.
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http://www.instructables.com/id/Catching-wild-yeast-and-making-sourdough/?ALLSTEPS

This is what we used to start ours. I think we've had it for almost a year now. I'm bad though. I only feed mine when I use it.... since I'm not a big sourdough fan (hubby is though) it doesn't get fed often lol. It does make a good sourdough bread. Ours is a rather thick batter with a good covering of hooch on top. We just stir it in each time.
 
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dheltzel said:
My local Agway is not well stocked with that sort of thing. My local choices seem to be 24% at TSC for $18.50 or 30% Purina at Pickering Valley for about $25. If I buy a ton of 26% from the mill, it's much cheaper (and delivered). I can of course feed it to about everything (since I don't have waterfowl), so I might go that route anyway. It seems like others might be in the same boat, so I thought I'd ask here.
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Agway should be able to order it in for you. That's what we had to do. They would order in 2 bags a month for us and hold it until we picked it up, but other people have been asking for it so it became a standard stock item for them now. It's worth a try. I haven't heard of agway refusing to order things in that they are supposed to sell, they just might not stock it.

The 24% should be fine. If you can find some brewers yeast to add to it, it would help increase protein and provide othe rbenefits. Might find yeast at TSC, or the mill. Buying bulk is nice if you can store the feed and use it before it ages too much. You may also be able to sell the custom feed by the bag with some mark up to people you know in your area with turkey, game birds, etc.
 
emorems0 said:
My sourdough starter varies a little, I mostly maintain a thick batter consistency and that seems to work best. I didn't start from scratch though, I got my starter from a local foodie and I've kept it going for years. It's a survivor, I shared some with my sister a couple years ago and she was too intimidated to start using it (thank you internet), so it sat in her fridge for a year unfed. When I helped her move, she asked me about it and it was all dried out and hard on top. I scraped a little soft stuff that was left and fed it and within 12 hours (and two feedings) it bubbled right up! I feed a variety of flours as well since I like to bake a variety of breads and don't want to maintain a starter for each type, I think my starter is more robust that way.

In other news... DH went all fire hazard crazy and wouldn't let me run the heat lamp over the bigger brooder last night so the poults are still in their box (sometimes, lol... the one week olds have jumped out and explored the house several times already). Obviously they can't be down in the cold basement/garage without heat so I need to come up with a compromise before the meaties get here next week. I decided I would just build a quick brooder box with a lid so that the lamp cannot fall into the bedding. I'm hoping to get out to Lowes today for supplies so I can have it done for tonight. I was thinking of just making some wooden frames out of 1x1 or 2x2 and stapling some hardware cloth to the opening and then bolting the frames together to form a box, that way I can unbolt it and stack the frames together for storage.

Questions: What size brooder box would I need for 25 meat chicks and 4 turkey poults?
Can you link me to your favorite brooder for ideas? Wire floor okay to eliminate need for bedding... 1/4" hardware cloth okay? How tall should the brooder box be (remember that that light will be above/outside the lid so I don't want to make it too tall)? I'll wrap the wire walls with cardboard or plastic to keep the heat in/eliminate drafts.
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The ideal brooder would be 8 feet long, 18-24 inches deep, 2 1/2 feet wide (3 ft if you have long arms) with wire top for indoor brooder. Lay lamp on top of wire top & raise as needed using chain with lamp ziptied in place.

Outdoor brooder make 2 1/2-3 feet deep, with 12-18 inch legs under, waterproof roof, doors in sides at each end, hang lamp inside on hooks & ziptie to hold in place.

I prefer the outdoor version. You can divide it into 1/3 brooder section enclosed with wood & 2/3 run section enclosed with rabbit wire. Plastic or feed bags can be stapled to run section as windbreak if weather requires it.
 
ducky update.... still not a big problem, but I do not leave food and water in 24/7......figured if they would be outside with a broody she would only take them to food and water a few times a day....

 

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