South Carolina

[dixiebeast]

Thanks every one! I feel better knowing it should be moulting...my RIRs dont look like they are or maybe not as quickly as my boys!! They are completly healthy otherwise and only have silly squabbles that are always just some fluffing and dirty looks! Idiot knows Lucky is my big man in charge and they still cuddle up together on roost at night!!LOL On another note I am wanting to add a EE/Americana Roo in about 2 weeks,maybe next week( still working on the run for them so my gals are in my quarantine pen and I need to move them first). I really want one like the han on my sig! I LOVE LOVE LOVE her colors so I want more of course!!!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Yup, normal at this age. They will do it again around 6-7 months old, too. All you see is feathers! Next May you may see a grand shedding of feathers.

 

[pinkwindsong]

OMG ya'll just had to tell ya what happened..5:15 am had a bad dream, not too bad just not a good one. tossed and turned trying to fall back asleep nope couldn't. I couldn't get rid of the feeling of foreboding. so got up got a drink of water let the dogs out.. standing the doorway I thought, " well its cool but not cold enough for someone to have a fire yet".. ..... ..... FIRE.... I go Running to my coop and sure enough the new heat lamp I had bought yesterday on the ground in a smoldering pine shavings. big black spot and red hot coals.. grabbed the light unplugged and drenched the shavings with water. ( thank goodness I keep a full water'er overnight. never needed it before but did this am..) Fire out... poor chicks piled on top of each other trying to keep warm.. so ran back to house grabbed a regular light bulb, the red heat lamp had actually changed shape, almost a cone shape and has a hole in the end of it. ( guys went hunting this am and have the camera Ill take pics to show. or I may take it back to TSc and get my money back I don't think it should have done that.. ????
anyway it just goes to show when you have that Feeling somethings not right... act on it..

blessed be
)O(
Pink

 

[Larkspur88]

Scary! Your intuition may have very well saved your life!

 

[RockerHen]

That happened to me one time too! I was trying to see if a heat lamp worked, was clicking on and off, nothing happened, so I set it facedown on a rag. About ten minutes later went into the shed to check on a hen, and there was smoke everywhere and flames coming from the heat lamp!! I didn't have water on hand to put it out, so I used dirt. I guess it took the lamp a while to turn on or something. Mama hen was freaked out but thankfully ok. So I can relate with ya on fire experiences! Glad nobody was hurt.

 

[pinkwindsong]

Having the new girls from Susanne I can really tell how young my girls are, I never had anyone to compaire them too.. now they look so little..

All six are doing great today. eating and talking to the other girls, no angry bickering yeahhh.. I still know its gonna take a few days for them to all get used to each other but Ill have a nice little flock..

have a great day going to the simpsonville family days to check out the chickens that are being shown..

)O(
Pink

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I always tie or bungee cord my heat lamps up to the wall or something solid. The last few winters I have anywhere from 8-10 heat lamps going in the brooders so they have to be as safe as possible. I have had several friends to lose their brooder barns over a heat lamp fire. I tried to learn from them.

I never put heat lamps on chicks that have feathered out and they usually have jumped out of the brooder bins anyhow and gone onto the floor so they can do without unless it gets below 25 at night.

I am glad no more damage was done for you all but remember in the future to use the metal loop that comes on them to attach to something secure as the clamp is NOT a secure source. And the ones with the switches on them, usually a brown or black base, are an extreme fire hazard. Use the ceramic based heat lamps. Yes, you may have to unplug them but I have mine plugged into a power strip/surge protector and just unplug the whole mess at one time.

When I would have the yearly fire inspection meeting at the vet clinic where I worked for almost 20 years, I would always make sure the Fireman giving the talk and inspection would let the employees know that even though something is turned off it is not a guarantee that it won't start a fire. I always unplug my microwaves, toaster, can opener, coffee maker etc when not in use because they can still start a fire. When these things are plugged in they still draw a bit of power so to keep our power bill here at home under $300 a month we unplug all we can.

Stay safe everyone!

 

[Joycats]

Quote:
It's a scary thing Pink. Happened to me (a few times) over the winter. I've learned to zip tie the clamp to the heat lamp and then zip tie the clamp to the brooder box or whatever is holding it. The birds jump and bounce the lamp around loosening the bolts and it falls apart. I actually had fire burn a hole through the bottom of my brooder box, not once but twice, with chicks in there. Everyone survived, they were able to go to the outside "porch" area of the brooder with plenty of fresh air. After the third or fourth fire, I decided to switch over to sand in my brooder areas wherever possible. It's much safer. The zip ties seem to have worked well too.

 

[Joycats]

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One of my mille fleur d'uccle hens is being shown there. Let me know what you see there.

 

[Joycats]

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want to trade that marans roo for a cuckoo marans cockeral?

Sorry - I already have two cuckoo marans roosters. I try to keep multiple roos in my breeder pens whenever possible. These guys were raised together and get along great. Not sure they'd appreciate a new kid in the flock. I'll keep you in mind though as I often have customers wanting cuckoo marans and I don't have any available for sale right now.