Texas

[SChunn]

Does anyone have mottled or calico cochin bantams around North Houston? Looking for a few eggs.

 

[Derangedplanet]

Sadly jersey gal passed, mysteriously about 2 weeks ago. Her only egg that was broodiee by silkie momma was pushed out and froze during the storm...

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'll let you know if I manage to land some jersey or eggs. I did get the polish pair. Currently they're outside in 3 dane sized kennels all zip tied together and tarped. Plus a tub with bedding to sleep in. I don't have the energy to get a real coop up and running atm. My whole body hurts. Turns out covid round 2 sucks almost as much as last year's round one.

 

[electrycmonk]

I use pex now instead, it has greater expansion capability in cold weather, so it bursts less often.

Also, you can run a heating wire on metal pipes, connected to a battery, it is set up so that when it gets cold the wire heats the pipe just enough to stop the freeze.

These storms seem to happen every 10 yrs, I want the system to take care of itself when I get too old to do emergency fixing.

PEX is awesome looking, I totally Grant you that.

Sadly I already have a lot of PVC so I was mearly getting the absolute minimums parts. And given my frame of mind/fear if "oops" I also got 3-4 of these few itwma in case I had a major error. Which has happened before and more certainly will again. I . Am . Human. After. All.

 

[electrycmonk]

I use pex now instead, it has greater expansion capability in cold weather, so it bursts less often.

Also, you can run a heating wire on metal pipes, connected to a battery, it is set up so that when it gets cold the wire heats the pipe just enough to stop the freeze.

These storms seem to happen every 10 yrs, I want the system to take care of itself when I get too old to do emergency fixing.

Part 2:
As this is well stated as the band-aid, I Will be building the well house 2.0 within the coming 2 months. So *that* will likely see a combo of PEX and PVC, plus a few Galvanized pipe parts to adapt from the threaded holes in the galvanized tanks.

 

[electrycmonk]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'll let you know if I manage to land some jersey or eggs. I did get the polish pair. Currently they're outside in 3 dane sized kennels all zip tied together and tarped. Plus a tub with bedding to sleep in. I don't have the energy to get a real coop up and running atm. My whole body hurts. Turns out covid round 2 sucks almost as much as last year's round one.

Fwiw I have an old thread of North Texas Roo's for sale /good home. Nicki is the orange and dark brown Polish. If you wanted to see his coloring.
As of right now Big Gray, Coco, & Poledark are my 3 Roo's watching the big girls. And I will gladly appreciate the eyes open for a new Momma gray 2.0+ at some point in the near future (?)....

 

[electrycmonk]

I've got a friend from Michigan and all he's been doing is bit/complaining about how unprepared we are here in Texas. Heck, I don't even own a heavy coat! I keep trying to tell him to get his head out of his heiney and teach us some things we could learn about how to deal with this cold, but he's lost in the political morass. ::sigh:: If you could point me towards a website or any information about how they prep pipes in the north/midwest-north, I'd appreciate it. It may be overkill for down here, but if it means I never have another busted/frozen pipe, I'll be happy.

Lesson#1 (and admitting my bias in disclaimer) after working at Home Despot while in college, I have sworn off that chain, as much as possible.
So, I use Lowe's - primarily.
1) Insulation for the walls. I like the blue foam sheets with the foil on one side.
A) easy to cut and trim
B) very light weight & layerable to increase R-value or stagger over the seams to block out drafts much better.
This stuff is usually blue with foil backed. Here the 4x8 sheets run $12-30 each.

2) Pipes will get the soft foam tube that you see HVAC service folks put on the pipe from the outside unit up to the wall.
3) the pipe wrapping cable that is a low voltage and gets zip tied to the pipes. It's goal is to keep any pipe it's wrapped to as aax.of 59°F goal....

 

[Derangedplanet]

Excuse my heathen level cropping but this is what I bought today

 

[007Sean]

Excuse my heathen level cropping but this is what I bought today
View attachment 2542930

Did ya pay $40 or did you get a obo?

 

[Derangedplanet]

Did ya pay $40 or did you get a obo?

I paid the 40. Because he was actually super cooperative with the fact I'm covid positive

 

[NickyPick]

Lesson#1 (and admitting my bias in disclaimer) after working at Home Despot while in college, I have sworn off that chain, as much as possible.
So, I use Lowe's - primarily.
1) Insulation for the walls. I like the blue foam sheets with the foil on one side.
A) easy to cut and trim
B) very light weight & layerable to increase R-value or stagger over the seams to block out drafts much better.
This stuff is usually blue with foil backed. Here the 4x8 sheets run $12-30 each.

2) Pipes will get the soft foam tube that you see HVAC service folks put on the pipe from the outside unit up to the wall.
3) the pipe wrapping cable that is a low voltage and gets zip tied to the pipes. It's goal is to keep any pipe it's wrapped to as aax.of 59°F goal....

Noted. I saw today, when I expanded my walk outside my gate and down the dead end road, that the neighbor with the chicken barn (had 800 hens at one point, now it's for sale and has his cows while he gets his new place fenced), had his outdoor well pipes wrapped in what looked like attic insulation. I am definitely going to do more than the black foam stuff next winter. Especially on the barn pipes. I think, around the well, which is in the back yard (and a bit of an eyesore already), I'm going to build some kind of interesting looking insulated hut over it. Going to have to do some research on that - how big, what kind of insulation, but I think that's the way to go.

Got 45 eggs today. Dang, even in the freezing cold, they didn't slow down. I've got almost 100 hens and about 6 regular customers. I don't advertise anymore because none of my customers (except 1), is the 1-2 dozen request. They all want 6-12 dozen at a time. I think they're either re-selling or buying for extended family. Either way, I get my eggs sold, feed is completely paid for and we are all happy.