Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Penny Hen]

I bought homemade soap from someone on this list two years ago, She raised chickens and turkeys. I can't remember who it was. She also had Silkies. I really want to get another order of soap. It was a special order that was designed to repel fleas on dogs and cure eczema. It worked wonderfully but I have run out.

 

[Werforpsu]

The wind was crazy last night. We had to kick on the furnace just so our daughter would go to sleep (she's afraid of the wind). We were lucky enough to not lose power at all. For us, that also means no water, no septic pump, and no heat. When we do lose power, we typically go out and fire up the generator just long enough to get some water stored up. Then we get a fire started in the fire place. I can't wait till we have a wood stove.

We have 2 wood stoves and love it.
One is outside and uses electricity to pump hot water into the house.
The other is in the basement and would keep us warm and fed if we lost power.

We also loose water if we loose power.

 

[fisherlady]

I bought homemade soap from somewone on this list two years ago, She raised chickens and turkeys. I can't remember who it was. She also had Silkies. I really want to get another order of soap. It was a special order that was designed to repel fleas on dogs and cure eczema. It worked wonderfully but I have run out.

It may have been silkiesensation? I know she sold many different soaps. I think swataracreek did also and possibly MissyDCP (sp?) And mama2my4? But don't remember them having turkey. I don't think wingstone sold soaps but she had all types of meat birds....

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Made chicken's soup today for first time. Was definitely a hit!

 

[stake]

GM All:

On the Soup front, I made a batch of Minestrone....it was a package from "Purely American"....excellent stuff.... their 18 bean Market Garden is also a killer....https://www.soupsonline.com/m-38-purely-american.aspx .....

 

[stake]

It may have been silkiesensation? I know she sold many different soaps. I think swataracreek did also and possibly MissyDCP (sp?) And mama2my4? But don't remember them having turkey. I don't think wingstone sold soaps but she had all types of meat birds....

Wow Fisher:

Bunch of names from the past....Think SilkieSensations also was hanging in the Ohio threads a while back.....

 

[Werforpsu]

Here is a sand question:

Can chicks have a brooder with sand instead of other bedding?

I'm thinking of the play sand that they sell at Lowes. We have some sand in our coop as the bottom layer (under the thick layer of leaves, weeds etc that we added for the winter) but when we had the brooder going, we used pine shavings. To be honest it was terrible whenever they spilled there water etc because the shavings didn't absorb well.

Over the summer in the coop we had only sand and the coop was open on the sides to the weather. After it would rain, I would go in and rake the sand around. It would absorb the water, preventing puddles. I would love that with messy chicks, but was worried that they would eat it....

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Here is a sand question:

Can chicks have a brooder with sand instead of other bedding?

I'm thinking of the play sand that they sell at Lowes. We have some sand in our coop as the bottom layer (under the thick layer of leaves, weeds etc that we added for the winter) but when we had the brooder going, we used pine shavings.  To be honest it was terrible whenever they spilled there water etc because the shavings didn't absorb well.

Over the summer in the coop we had only sand and the coop was open on the sides to the weather.  After it would rain, I would go in and rake the sand around.  It would absorb the water, preventing puddles.  I would love that with messy chicks, but was worried that they would eat it....

It's my first time with chicks but we went with sand and like it. It is kinda dusty. My chicks are in the house and I definitely have to dust more lol. I sift the sand on a regular basis and normally mix some food in to keep them busy scratching around. After I sift I add a little more new sand. Lowe's has sand for mixing into cement right next to play sand for half the price and it's pretty much the exact same. I'm a total newbie but after doing a bunch of research were going for sand for all of our birds.

 

[dheltzel]

Here is a sand question:

Can chicks have a brooder with sand instead of other bedding?

I'm thinking of the play sand that they sell at Lowes. We have some sand in our coop as the bottom layer (under the thick layer of leaves, weeds etc that we added for the winter) but when we had the brooder going, we used pine shavings. To be honest it was terrible whenever they spilled there water etc because the shavings didn't absorb well.

Over the summer in the coop we had only sand and the coop was open on the sides to the weather. After it would rain, I would go in and rake the sand around. It would absorb the water, preventing puddles. I would love that with messy chicks, but was worried that they would eat it....

I tried sand for turkeys, because if they eat it, it is less harmful than shavings. I didn't like it, too heavy and more expensive, so I tried to wash, dry and reuse it -- really a lot of work. I use newspaper covered with paper towels the first week or so, then small shavings.

You might like it, if you aren't raising hundreds of chicks, it might be very workable.

 

[fisherlady]

Here is a sand question:

Can chicks have a brooder with sand instead of other bedding?

I'm thinking of the play sand that they sell at Lowes. We have some sand in our coop as the bottom layer (under the thick layer of leaves, weeds etc that we added for the winter) but when we had the brooder going, we used pine shavings.  To be honest it was terrible whenever they spilled there water etc because the shavings didn't absorb well.

Over the summer in the coop we had only sand and the coop was open on the sides to the weather.  After it would rain, I would go in and rake the sand around.  It would absorb the water, preventing puddles.  I would love that with messy chicks, but was worried that they would eat it....

We raise all of our chicks on sand, most in coop with broodies and some in brooder for a week or two before going to coop (our meat birds). We have never had any problems with it. You can add hardware cloth to a cat litter scoop or a dust pan you cut the bottom out of to use to sift the sand. The sand makes it easy to scatter seeds or treats over wide area to encourage scratching behavior (a good exercise habit for meat birds to get into) and we have not noticed any digestive problems from it.