Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie the thought of a morning without coffee spooks me. Dont forget the old sock coffee trick. It brews a better cup if you double up your socks of course. 

I had coffee!

I boiled water on the stove and poured it through the filter on the coffee maker. I am fine. had I not had coffee I would be as grouchy as I will PM the rest to you....

 

[Cluckies]

First meal worms I ordered were from PetCo. Small 1/2 inchers that needed more growing time. They are from the Darkling beetle. They are non flyers -just crawlers. They need warmer temps to have the speediest cycle. 75-80 degrees. They get 70 in our house.

. I keep them in the mechanical room in the basement. Rubber made bins with small holes drilled in the cover. They cannot crawl up the sides and get out the holes. I use two bins about 16x20 inches and 4 inches deep.
Clear. So I can tell if I need more fruit. Two bins. One for momma and papa beetles and one for tasty treats. I also freeze the wheat bran after I buy it for one to two days to kill off any grain mites. That may want to explode and turn my mechanical room white. Then I add it to the mealies. Cleaning out the mealworms poop and separating them is a dusty dry sorta gross job but the power of the mealworm cannot be denied with chickens.

Brainerd run is being delayed until tomorrow night. DD wants to go along. Cannot turn down some time with a 13 year old who will be grown up too fast. Soakin it up.

Ok, I just got a chance to looked it up, I got my meal worms through amazon by Garden at Home here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IYNTSXK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00, they came and were all alive even in February of this year, like I said, had to pick them up at the post office.

When I cleaned the aquarium, I kept the left over powdery stuff in case there were eggs in there, yep, there were, I checked it the other day and there are tons of tiny meal worms in there...

Yes, I agree, do not turn down time with a 13 year old, they do grow up so fast. Mine will be 25 in a couple months. where does the time go?

 

[KlopKlop]

Sigh... my naughty hound dog tonight...

I was out picking eggs. I put 3 eggs in the carton and turned back to the nest. turn back around with more eggs and there were only 2. At first it didn't click. 5 eggs in the carton and turn back to get more eggs, then there were 4. She was stealing eggs and eating them! what a pooper!

On top of that DW said that today when she was at work (our hound is a therapy dog at the nursing home) she left Dixie sleeping under her desk when she went to grab something. By the time she came back Dixie had crawled up on top of the desk and reached a rice crispy bar from 2 shelves up that a resident had given to DW for a lunch time treat. She is such a lover but can get into reaaaaally mischievous moods!

 

[KlopKlop]

So let me get this straight. the rainbows from Hoover are rainbows crossed to rainbows?

So whatever went into a "rainbow" in their firts generation is what we get from them now?

Are the red rangers a breed or a mix? I assumed all the meat birds were a mix and not really a straight breed is that correct or not?

I should say a lot of my birds came from Hoover and I really like the birds and the service they gave me. PLus all the packing peanuts.

Sorry... I need to slow down and think about what I am saying here. My fault...

I specifically asked if they are hybrids, he said no. I asked if they would breed true and he said yes. So as far as Dixie on Dixie breeding, that is an assumption not a confirmed fact. Sorry for misleading a little. That being said, based on the 2 answers the hatchery provided I would expect that to be a true fact if he was being honest.

I did a bunch of research on the breed before i ordered them and it basically sounds like they were a breeding project to be a DP breed. Somebody bred several breeds in succession selecting for desired traits and then worked on repeating that. That was in the early 2000's which should have allowed time for the breed to 'Settle'. I can't find the exact pages when i looked again just now but i also remember people writing about them in threads 10+ years ago saying their breeding was inconsistent and then more feedback recently that indicated beter results. It was enough to convince me to buy them back in april.

There is an old, dead Dixie Rainbow breed thread on BYC and i copied this from the first post:

The Dixie rainbow originated from years of mixing several breeds but the breeding now is a rainbow to rainbow , they are good to moderate layers app 280 to 300 per year, they are average growing birds and will start to lay app 20 to 22 weeks, the hens will reach app 7 lbs, the egg color is brown and the chicks are very cold hardy birds.

Perhaps we should revive the thread or start a new one and see if anybody else on BYC has them or is interested? could be fun.


And i agree with you about hoovers. I couldn't be happier with the birds and the service provided. Their strain of CXs are really good. my largest were close to 11lbs after being cleaned not including gibblets or necks. I will be going back there this spring for more CXs and maybe turkeys if i can convince DW. plus maybe something else fun to add to the flock to account for attrition.

 

[Cluckies]

Sigh... my naughty hound dog tonight...

I was out picking eggs.  I put 3 eggs in the carton and turned back to the nest.  turn back around with more eggs and there were only 2.  At first it didn't click.  5 eggs in the carton and turn back to get more eggs, then there were 4.  She was stealing eggs and eating them!  what a pooper!

On top of that DW said that today when she was at work (our hound is a therapy dog at the nursing home) she left Dixie sleeping under her desk when she went to grab something.  By the time she came back Dixie had crawled up on top of the desk and reached a rice crispy bar from 2 shelves up that a resident had given to DW for a lunch time treat.  She is such a lover but can get into reaaaaally mischievous moods!

Hahaha she sounds really smart,sounds like she is very food motivated, stinker, lol

 

[KlopKlop]

Hahaha she sounds really smart,sounds like she is very food motivated, stinker, lol

You hit both things right on the head! She would walk through fire for a scrap of food and she is too cleaver for her own good! Both things are things that you can't even be mad at her though... she just looks at you with those eyes and floppy ears....

 

[SleepyOwl]

Hi all, here is what I did to hopefully keep my chicks from getting burned anymore. I raised the plate much higher, hung some fabric on two sides to hold in heat, and put the heating pad under the whole thing. (I had it under half before, so they could get further away from too much heat if they wanted.) So making a little more of a cozy space vs using the heat plate physically. Granted, it is a nice night, but it measured at 70* just sitting on top of the wood shavings (on top of the heating pad.) That was without giving the shavings more than a couple minutes to heat up, and without babies snuggled together for warmth. They are almost a month old, so hoping that is enough. Will get extra heat to add if they ever seem too cold.

The chicks, you can see the one with the worst burns towards the right. The others who had the problem seem to be healing up.


The "nest".


Here is the set up. The light isn't for heat, it's LED. I just added the light during the day because they don't really get enough light in there. It is the inside of a chicken tractor, so when they are just a little bigger, I'll start letting them out into the run part during the day.

 

[Cluckies]

@SleepyOwl Let us know how it works out, looks real cozy!

 

[KlopKlop]

So this is basically how I am envisioning things went at the blanch ranch last week as he prepared for friends giving

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1014677100229

 

[duluthralphie]

So this is basically how I am envisioning things went at the blanch ranch last week as he prepared for friends giving

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1014677100229

That is one funny video!

Guess who's knees are hurting?

It is a double whammy tonight. I have a hard time sleeping when the moon is full. I think I am descended from a long line of werewolves. Then my knees are killing me. I am guessing we are in for another weather change soon. I have not caught the weather as I was too busy Grandpa daycaring.

Anyway you cut it, I am stuck awake in pain at 3am. I bet you guys love to hear about my aches and pains. When you get to a certain age it is all you have left to talk about. Well, that and the foolishness of youth, and it youth being wasted on the young.

Hi all, here is what I did to hopefully keep my chicks from getting burned anymore. I raised the plate much higher, hung some fabric on two sides to hold in heat, and put the heating pad under the whole thing. (I had it under half before, so they could get further away from too much heat if they wanted.) So making a little more of a cozy space vs using the heat plate physically. Granted, it is a nice night, but it measured at 70* just sitting on top of the wood shavings (on top of the heating pad.) That was without giving the shavings more than a couple minutes to heat up, and without babies snuggled together for warmth. They are almost a month old, so hoping that is enough. Will get extra heat to add if they ever seem too cold.

The chicks, you can see the one with the worst burns towards the right. The others who had the problem seem to be healing up.


The "nest".


Here is the set up. The light isn't for heat, it's LED. I just added the light during the day because they don't really get enough light in there. It is the inside of a chicken tractor, so when they are just a little bigger, I'll start letting them out into the run part during the day.

I do not quite understand the "nest".. You are just going to have to invite me over for coffee so I can see it!... Or send lots more pictures!

I am wishing I was still asleep, I have so much to do tomorrow, I lost two and a half days with daycare. When I got home it was dark, I saw I had a few turkeys that did not go into the turkey house. Stupid things. If I can catch the Guinea hen doing life, and throw her in a cage I will let the turkeys out tomorrow to free range. They should be fairly easy to put back in and Judy is here to help me, she has the day off.

I might lose Saturday too, my BFF that I own the cabin in Togo with has an International 240 with a back hoe up there. We used it this fall and the hydraulic cylinders are needing to be re-packed. It has a wide front on it and it is worn out, so it needs to be rebuild, instead of us doing it in the woods, he wants to bring it down here and we can do it inside one of the sheds.

We are not going to do it until warmer weather, but it would be good to get it moved now. I don't know if I have room inside a shed for it right now so we might just have to cover it. I have my sawmill in the bay I do my mechanic work in, and I have the bobcat, truck, boats, 4-wheelers and feed in the other bays. And the other shed, is just full of junk and a camper.

I need more buildings! I am think we need a good old fashion barn raising class here, but build a shed or garage instead.

The guinea got over their fear of the big silver water tank and went into the coop tonight on their own. They are the stupidest birds alive! On Sunday when I tried to put them inside they would get about 20 feet from it and run/fly everywhere like a covey of quail taking off. Then they would regroup and scream obscenities at me. LOUDLY!

Well, time to try and get another hours rest.

You hit both things right on the head! She would walk through fire for a scrap of food and she is too cleaver for her own good! Both things are things that you can't even be mad at her though... she just looks at you with those eyes and floppy ears....

I have one of them too. I have caught her trying to sneak an egg away from us. I do not see the egg when she has it in her mouth, but her body language gives her away. We can tell she is doing something she knows she is not suppose to do. We tell her to "drop it" and she does, and out rolls an egg!

In the summer when the chickens lay wherever they want, I think she gets a few daily. I have tried to break her of it to no avail. I may have to go back to the shock collar (electronic brain) on her to see if she can learn. The problem is she is smart enough to know when she is wearing toe collar and when she is not. It is a PITA to have to put it on her whenever she goes outside. She has not taken them from the nest boxes that I know of.