Surviving Minnesota!

[holm25]

Uh oh BC did you break out the church lady cook books?? We have those from churches all over Minnesota that are old! They were handed down through the past generations!

 

[duluthralphie]

I told the city I'm taking my over-the-limit chickens, illegal roosters, 125lb dog, overweight orange cat, fish, and moving 1 minute north to East Bethel!

But really, I technically live in East Bethel. I figured I should be legit. It is funny though because my mail is either addressed to Ham Lake, East Bethel, Andover, or Anoka. Get with the program USPS.

And now you are way closer to me too, Ham Lake is lot further away than East Bethel is.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am thinking of lining my coop with that shiny stuff too.

 

[meltedviking]

Welcome Melted Viking. I think you very much have the right idea already about not heating the coop. you will find me moderate on my position in that I don't like exposing my birds to -15 or less. So I've made a small investment of a Cozy Legs Heater from Target --$30 bucks. Cluckies and Erlibird on this thread also use this nice piece of winter equipment. It is low wattage (150 watts) and takes the edge off in the coop for those dreadfully bad nights. It is 3x the expense of a $10 lamp. but for $20 more I have peace of mind that my coop won't burn down and my birds won't become deconditioned to the cold. It's a middle of the road option if you want to splurge. Hens do the under the wing tuck as you've noticed. I think Birds definitely are ok in those temps bodily...it's just those fringes that get nipped without feathers. Feet/ Combs/ Wattles. I add lower roosts in the winter to avoid broken toes, feet and easy warm up spots.

Do you do anything to prevent your girls from contacting this heater (I would imagine it gets pretty hot)? I have considered using a flat panel like this, but my coop isn't really set up for it. We live in a semi-urban area with a local chicken limit, so we have a very small operation. The coop is 16 sq feet (which seems fine for our three girls), and I don't know what I could do to keep the heater away from them.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am happy to report Bert Junior and his wives have all moved into the new coop! I went to gather eggs and all of them were inside huddled together, on the floor, but at least in the coop.

I got one warm toad egg! I am so happy I hope it hatches, I will put it in with my next batch. It was on the floor in the nest the "dumber" hen made. Yesterday's toad egg came from the nest box. The day before from the floor nest. I assume that means at least two of the chickens are laying.

I am boiling my frozen eggs to bring out to the girls today. I found one frozen egg on the floor under the heat lamp in the layer coop( I know the dangers of heat lamps, I am choosing to ignore them). It is not warm enough for an egg to lay on the cement and not freeze. I assume one bird is too lazy to go to the cold nest and lay an egg.

I want to build more coops but it is too cold, so I guess I will work in the basement on brooder spaces and setting up more incubators.


Ethel was in the rafters again today, I have not seen her out of the for two days. I was worried she was afraid to get down. The coop was not designed for the longer flight path turkeys need to get up and down. So I reached up and helped her down. I am not sure she appreciated my gesture of kindness all that much.

 

[KlopKlop]

Klop, you should be able to get roasted soybeans at any feed store of consequence.  I used to feed it to my race pigeons as part of their ration.  They were not fond of it, and it was always the last thing they ate. I switched to Austrian Peas for that part of the ration although they are much more expensive.
The activists in the U.S. have given soybeans a bad rap as relates to animal feed, but that is uneducated nonsense.
The Japanese people are some of the healthiest and most long lived in the world, and they consume much soy based food stuffs.

I called the feed mill and they sell whole roasted and meal

Meal= $8.50 / 50 lbs
Whole roasted = $20.60 / 50 lbs

Good deal!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Is that a heating panel BC?? Your roo is beautiful!!

It is a Low Wattage ( 150 Watt) Heating Panel. About $30. For a big coop I don't think it would do much if anything on a super cold night. But for my 6 x 7 coop that's lined with Reflectix. It makes about a 15-20 degree difference. Yesterday it was -24 out, I had -10 in the coop. And Thank you holm on your Compliments on Roger. He is quite sparkly in his own way. His flaws are that he has a missing toe and most of his combs and wattles gone. Love Roosters though, he's our most social bird.

Thanks for the recipe! @Bogtown Chick , do you use the "Julie" recipe or "Diane"?

That heater is a lot larger than what I thought. Eh, I'll check it out.

I do the Julie recipe @MinnesotaNice . 3/4 cup sugar is enough. If you only have all purpose flour in the house, I have the notes below that show you how to turn it into self-rising flour.
Call Target before you make a run in. I ordered it on-line from them because I couldn't find it in the Brainerd and Grand Rapids stores. And this was 3 years ago...too. So you might have to find it on Amazon or something if Target decided to remove it from it's heater line-up.

Uh oh BC did you break out the church lady cook books?? We have those from churches all over Minnesota that are old! They were handed down through the past generations!

I adore those Church Lady Cook Books. They always put the best of the best in there. The tried and true!

That's cool you have such an awesome cookbook selection!

Do you do anything to prevent your girls from contacting this heater (I would imagine it gets pretty hot)? I have considered using a flat panel like this, but my coop isn't really set up for it. We live in a semi-urban area with a local chicken limit, so we have a very small operation. The coop is 16 sq feet (which seems fine for our three girls), and I don't know what I could do to keep the heater away from them.

At 150 watts I can put my hand on it still. It is hot but not burn your skin hot. I have mine up high but I think a person should mount it lower to the floor and let the heat rise. I just don't have a spot lower that will accommodate it and not have it get pooped on either. A smallish coop might have trouble accommodating it. there are also smaller sized kennel heating pads I think and seeding mats (Cluckies has those here and there in her coop I believe.) They give out little bits of radiant heat like this. She didn't think they did anything she said but she saw her birds turn towards it on a colder night and so now she thinks they get a bit out of it.

If you do reflectix do just bits at a time. I think Cluckies said her girls were afraid to go in the coop after she applied it. I did 1/2 my coop one day and a week or two later the other half. The birds did fine with it. I didn't realize my procrastination may have saved my birds from a major freak out. LOL.

 

[jerryse]

Geee what a busy thread . My morning chores are done . Chickens and wood . I use a Charmaster wood / oli combo . Set some eggs last night . Auto sexing EE project . Trying to get a early crele cockerel with 2 barring genes . Crele is what I want .
I have been researching raspberry and dewberry . Looking to breed my own Boysen / Logan berry type for the far north . My native northern dewberry is shown as native way into Canada . So now I would like to find the Alaskan raspberry for breeding with them . I could use Latham or Boyne or even the wild reds from Longville .
Nobody has tackled this since Boysen was introduced nearly 100 years ago . They are not hardy even in zone 5 .

 

[duluthralphie]

Geee what a busy thread . My morning chores are done . Chickens and wood . I use a Charmaster wood / oli combo . Set some eggs last night . Auto sexing EE project . Trying to get a early crele cockerel with 2 barring genes . Crele is what I want .
I have been researching raspberry and dewberry . Looking to breed my own Boysen / Logan berry type for the far north . My native northern dewberry is shown as native way into Canada . So now I would like to find the Alaskan raspberry for breeding with them . I could use Latham or Boyne or even the wild reds from Longville .
Nobody has tackled this since Boysen was introduced nearly 100 years ago . They are not hardy even in zone 5 .

I thought boyson berries were those wild nearly raspberry looking things that grow wild around my cabin. Well into zone 3.


Could you post a picture of a Crele ?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Oh my Gosh Jerry you blow my mind with your genetics aptitude for birds and fruit! I've got a patch of wild raspberry canes just off my yard if you want to take a splice. LOL.

Where were you when I was writing tests for Genetics at UMD 25 years ago? To my own credit, I had a young female professor who was rumored to attend keg parties and was ornery as H-E Double Hockey sticks come Monday Morning. She was a great orator but for some reason my notes never corresponded with what I was getting tested on. I know I should blame myself for not preparing well enough...but I think my Professor's tendency for drink had a bit to do with it too. I was also told that some male students did get better grades and it wasn't because they were smarter than the girls.... AHEM.