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AnneInTheBurbs said:
Awesome! It was a great idea for you to give them a friend. Your eggs look so good! It's funny, Coco and Mira are eating better quality eggs than I am right now, because I can't find any pastured eggs yet. Haha! Hopefully, my older pullets will start laying before winter.
Dennis, the turkeys are very interesting, I'm enjoying watching them. Should I make a next box for the hens? How large should it be? I am hoping when I let them out tomorrow to free range that they will remember where they are supposed to be sleeping. They snuck out yesterday while I was further predator proofing the inside. I had to chase them down and grab them by the legs. My husband was quite amused....
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Here are the chickys I got from @dheltzel & @stake . There are 14. Stake's a are few weeks older, but I put them together the first night at bedtime, and everyone has gotten along peachy. Stake, I do think you slipped me a Roo by accident. If you don't want him back, he will probably end up being my first attempt at butchering in a few months. He is the dark one with some barring, towards the front. He definitely has a bigger, pinker comb, and some baby wattles showing. That's totally okay though, I have plenty of chickens.... For now..
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. I am curious how the CCL x BCM mixes will look when they are adults. They are already beautiful now.


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Hey Anne:

Sorry about that....I don't need 'him' back...from my old CCL boy over BCM girls, all OE were all barred, 1/2 were crested, and an even split on yellow/slate legs.....these chicks are BCM boy over CCL girls....
 
stake said:
AnneInTheBurbs said:
Awesome! It was a great idea for you to give them a friend. Your eggs look so good! It's funny, Coco and Mira are eating better quality eggs than I am right now, because I can't find any pastured eggs yet. Haha! Hopefully, my older pullets will start laying before winter. Dennis, the turkeys are very interesting, I'm enjoying watching them. Should I make a next box for the hens? How large should it be? I am hoping when I let them out tomorrow to free range that they will remember where they are supposed to be sleeping. They snuck out yesterday while I was further predator proofing the inside. I had to chase them down and grab them by the legs. My husband was quite amused.... :lol: Here are the chickys I got from [@=/u/249441/dheltzel]@dheltzel[/@] width: 350px; height: 263px"> [/URL]
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Hey Anne: Sorry about that....I don't need 'him' back...from my old CCL boy over BCM girls, all OE were all barred, 1/2 were crested, and an even split on yellow/slate legs.....these chicks are BCM boy over CCL girls....
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No worries! It happens. Boys are sneaky like that. :lol:
 
Here are some pics from today. The turkeys seem to be doing well. I think I will start letting them free range on Saturday. They should come back to roost at night, right @dheltzel? I haven't gotten any eggs yet from the turkeys, so maybe it was not the midget whites that were laying. I think I should put a nest box in there anyways. I might just use a large tote for now, until I can make something better.

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Here is my ugly yet effective setup for the chicks. It started out as a playpen, but I expanded it with some baby gates, held together with zip ties. I then laid some screens on top, and draped an old bed spread (thanks Mom!) on top of half for shade and more protection. Hopefully this will keep the little buggers safe and happy all day while I am at work. The is also a square bucket inside to allow them something to play on and around. This is only temporary until I can get shed for the chickens, and build some runs, in a week or two hopefully. That one chick is really starting to develop a reddish comb. :p

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Edited to add: The chicks are only in this enclosure for the day. I transport them back to a large critter cage that is kept in the garage overnight.
 
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AnneInTheBurbs said:
Here are some pics from today. The turkeys seem to be doing well. I think I will start letting them free range on Saturday. They should come back to roost at night, right @dheltzel ? I haven't gotten any eggs yet from the turkeys, so maybe it was not the midget whites that were laying. I think I should put a nest box in there anyways. I might just use a large tote for now, until I can make something better.
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They might need to be herded back into their pen in the evening and the door locked behind them. Sometimes they come back to roost, but if you wait too late in the evening, you might find they'd prefer to roost on top of the carport, or your house, or a tree somewhere, or your care ,. . . . you get the idea.

They really aren't very bright sometimes, and picking a place to roost might not get the same attention you would give it.
 
dheltzel said:
AnneInTheBurbs said:
Here are some pics from today. The turkeys seem to be doing well. I think I will start letting them free range on Saturday. They should come back to roost at night, right [@=/u/249441/dheltzel]@dheltzel[/@]? I haven't gotten any eggs yet from the turkeys, so maybe it was not the midget whites that were laying. I think I should put a nest box in there anyways. I might just use a large tote for now, until I can make something better.
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They might need to be herded back into their pen in the evening and the door locked behind them. Sometimes they come back to roost, but if you wait too late in the evening, you might find they'd prefer to roost on top of the carport, or your house, or a tree somewhere, or your care ,. . . . you get the idea.

They really aren't very bright sometimes, and picking a place to roost might not get the same attention you would give it.
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Okay thanks, I will make sure to allow enough time in Saturday to bring them back. Maybe I should set up some temporary netting to make sure they don't roam 3 acres back into the woods. :lol:
 
hippiechickX4 said:
I'm still quite new to having chickens. I had a few when we lived in town when I was young, but they started crowing so we had to get rid of them and never replaced them. As an adult my family now has 28 chickens. 22 hens, 5 pullets (hopefully) and 1 roo. We plan on adding a couple of different breeds in the spring. I appreciate so much the help and insight I have goten from everyone. I have learned so much about chickens from this site and reading about them. It's different reading about what you should do and what people that live in your area do. We are trying to prepare for winter right now. Is there a proper way to do that for central PA. My husband read that you shouldn't insulate, heat or use a heat lamp for chickens in the winter, that they should pretty much fend for themselves and build up a tolerance to the cold. That's fine, but I don't want my chickens to freeze to death. What do some of you do to prepare for the winter?
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An insulated coop is just fine and helps minimize drafts but ain't extra hear to the coop is not recommended because it week impair their ability to adapt to the cold. Our coop is competely insulated but has open eves for ventilation. The only time we ever added any sort of heat to the coop was when it was supposed to be -10 and we only added one heat lamp for just a couple days during the bitter cold. It didn't change the temps in there much but kept it above 0. Blocking the wind is the number one concern in my eyes. We actualy put plastic around our run for some protection.
 
It has been exactly one week since Mira had her accident. I tried taking a couple pictures today to show her progress and compare with the originals. She has a line going down the back of her head/neck now that is new skin. She's been itching her scabs the past day or so, working them off.

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