Surviving Minnesota!

[Cluckies]

So DW and I rediscussed adding more laying hens to our flock this year and still think we should. Still deciding what kinds but I think we will do speckled Sussex, a few brown leghorns, and some barred rocks at least. We like the diversity in the flock. Maybe a few red hybrids. We have 1 gold comet and she is one of our favorite hens.

I love me Gold Comet as well, very nice personality. very friendly. First one with a greeting and to come running to see me. talks alot too! this is her when she sees me

 

[KlopKlop]

Well..................I happen to be one of the rare few that LOVE winter and snow.  I probably should have been born an Inuit or something of the like.  Any temp over 70 makes me really uncomfortable and heat and humidity is completely intolerable for me.  Spring here in my part of the woods means nothing but wet, muddy, yucky clothes and boots for months on end.  Getting to and from the house is a chore, actually an extreme sport.  Rubber boots are the only things we can wear and loose them half the time in the muck.  Yeah, I would like to skip spring.  Then I have to wait an eternity for the water to recede from the garden in order to plant.    

I like winter except January type weather. Cold, blustery and endless grey days. The sun was out this weekend and I went snowmobiling, that was really nice.

 

[KlopKlop]

I love me Gold Comet as well, very nice personality.  very friendly. First one with a greeting and to come running to see me. talks alot too!  this is her when she sees me   

Ours is named Lucile and she used to wait by the door at evening lockup and get a tummy scratch before roosting when she was a pullet. Now she is one the head hen in that coop and doesn't have time for that childish nonsense. They grow up so quick!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Coffee: The boys are so cute with their little yellow girls. It is interesting that one of the boys is smaller. I hope he does well for you. I think he has a very good prospects in your loving hands.

My first round and subsequent round (keep in mind smaller numbers) of chicks I brooded...I used non-medicated feed as well. I quickly learned about the benefits of a capful of ACV in the water for pasty butt...and I'm suspect of natural methods until they've proven to work for me. But ACV is plastered on here to work and I really do think it does.
It seems to work on a small brood of chicks and I think clean waterers and clean bedding make a huge difference with coccidiosis. Good Handwashing before handling chicks AND after handling chicks. IDK....I think medicated feed is probably fine too. 1/2 life of the medication would wear off after a certain point you would think. After the switch over to layer feed. These little birdies can be tricky business.

 

[lvie]

I just started raising chicks last spring but I did not use the medicated feed. I did all the hand washing stuff and doted on them by cleaning the brooder each morning. I also put the electrolytes and vitamins in their water and still do. ACV is wonderful stuff. For them and for us. The health benefits are amazing. It seems to me that I used wood chips immediately in their brooder and also checked them a.m. and p.m. for pasty butt.

I love the changing of the seasons and relish each season for the weather that it brings. I am a true Minnesotan and could not think of living elsewhere. Visit for a while - sure. Any place a person goes has their pros and cons. Snakes, bugs, hurricanes, - no thank you.

One of my friends got bit by a brown recluse up here in Minnnesota. They do not get as big here as they do in the south - yet. But they are lethal little spiders. Don't like lethal.

 

[NathanZee]

NO NO NO they do not get them on a whim!!

They get them because some 10 year old 4h girl bats her eyes and pleads with you to take them with the puppy dog eyes. Us being only human to not recognize demon spawn when it comes in the form of a 4h girl whose Dad ( most likely the devil himself) is beaming at the way his demon spawn is selling their evil wares!

Now that sounds like a challenge .. Lol.

NO NO NO they do not get them on a whim!!

They get them because some 10 year old 4h girl bats her eyes and pleads with you to take them with the puppy dog eyes. Us being only human to not recognize demon spawn when it comes in the form of a 4h girl whose Dad ( most likely the devil himself) is beaming at the way his demon spawn is selling their evil wares!

Some get them on a whim, some get them because of no self control but still know nothing about them.

Now that sounds like a challenge .. Lol.

It is!

 

[psladky]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was girl scout cookies and cleaning. We recieved our little serama eggs Saturday! Trying to tell the husband they can be little house chickens. I just got some lavender orphington eggs through the mail today. I always candle them to check for cracks I can't see. I noticed 7 out of ten eggs are very porus. I know I read that people do not have these hatch, but I'm hopeful. Has anyone had luck with porus looking eggs? Thank you

Looking at this picture I don't think I have a promising career as a hand model

 

[duluthralphie]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was girl scout cookies and cleaning. We recieved our little serama eggs Saturday! Trying to tell the husband they can be little house chickens. I just got some lavender orphington eggs through the mail today. I always candle them to check for cracks I can't see. I noticed 7 out of ten eggs are very porus. I know I read that people do not have these hatch, but I'm hopeful. Has anyone had luck with porus looking eggs? Thank you

I have not noticed a difference in the porous looking eggs over the others, but I have read the same. I am sure when hatching 10's of thousands of eggs it makes a difference, when hatching the small number I do, it is not noticeable.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

New to the site but this is what I was looking for! I just moved to central Minnesota from about 30 min south of the twin cities! We went for renting town house to 30 acres in the woods splitting wood to keep the house warm total flip! But I love this way of life! I'm
New to living like this learning new things everyday! I'm going to get some chicks in the spring!

Welcome to the site! We recommend you get around 50 chicks, 30 ducklings, 15 Belgian Red cattle, 15 more chicks, a few fainting goats, and an alpaca.

Holm, I am getting this little guy ready for you to show. I am getting him accustomed to being surrounded by Purple.

I think he wears it well... BTW I am going to be naming him soon..





Also look how well he looks in a chalice!





He looks like a natural hatched champion to me!

I feel concerned that you have purple lace so freely laying around the homestead

If I could find them a 2x3 inch TV my DW would probably buy it for them. She is spoiling them too much!


I have had one person lose 2 chicks, that is all out of my Creamettes I have sold ( about 20 so far). They have been kind of nasty about it blaming me for their losses. I have offered to replace the chicks, that does not seem to satisfy them as they have not taken me up on the offer, Anyways I have made up an instruction sheet I am sending home with the chicks from now on. As a side note it appears the people that have lost chicks are either new to chicks and are not people with a farm history.
I am hoping this will help. they all claim to know everything about raising chicks, but maybe this will help.


Any thoughts on additions or things I should remove would be appreciated.


Thank you for purchasing my chicks.

These are some helpful hints for raising healthy chicks.

Do not expose them to your other chickens or anything used by your other chicks for at least a month. If you have a pathogen that is dormant or harmless to your current birds it could kill the chicks until they are a tad older.

Please start them on chick grit as soon as you can, it will help them to digest feed and lower cases of pasty butt. Pasty butt is not an inherited condition.

I suggest you give them a probiotic. I give mine a little powder probiotic over their feed. Yogurt will work too, be sure it does not “sour' before they eat it.

Chickens are not vegans, they are omnivorous, please give the proper feed.

Do not put them on wood chips for a week, keep paper under them (on top of the chips”) ingesting wood chips can kill them. I find having grit available cuts down on chip eating. I do not raise mine on wood chips at all.

Dead chick is normal. 10% is not excessive. Losing one or two happens. Some simply fail to thrive, they only spend 21 days as a “fetus”. If something went wrong inside the egg they will die. It happens.

If you have excessive losses, review your procedures, did you disinfect properly? Follow safe handling of feed and implements?

Keep them warm! 95-99 degrees for the first week, then drop it about 5 degrees per week.

And I cannot emphasize this enough. DO NOT HANDLE the chicks for the first 2 weeks! Normal socialization with humans in the first two weeks is just reaching in to feed them, letting them examine you hand and that is it. Handling them more than that will kill them. They are fragile. After 2 weeks you can take them out and hold them for short periods as they get older the time can be longer.

You always hope that people would really know this stuff before getting chicks, but this will hopefully send the point home. Losing chicks suck, yet it happens. Many folks are too quick to point fingers. This should be obvious to anyone owning poultry, but maybe mention to have fresh water available at all times. I can see it now...."you didn't say to give them water"......lol

 

[Rhetts]

Good point @MinnesotaNice

@duluthralphie Why do you have purple tulle just laying about to dress up your chicks???