The Middle Tennessee Thread

[TShelton54]

When shipping eggs they need to be marked Pressurized cabin only. When they are air shipped and put in an unpressurized cabin the air cells rupture when high altitude is obtained. I have received shipment like this in the past also.

 

[Raven1]

One of my mini pigs had her piggies Sat. night. 4 were still born but 1 was alive. I have them packed in straw with a heat lamp but only holding out a little hope to get the little one thru till Weds. She(Momma) was running with young boers before I got her and was pretty sure she had been bred. Sad really she is only about 8 or 9 months old. Was surprised any were alive.
I hope everyone stays as warm as they can, be careful!

 

[apteryx]

I have that tape on the front pipes.... the chickens eat it though. I have heat tape on those pipes. Still froze. I have all the water drained from the pipes in the back so not worried about the pipe back there, just the fittings with water in them.

Wow, for the water in the pipes to freeze with the heat tape and insulation, that is a tough problem to solve. The best solution that I can think of is to have a heater in the 55 gal tank and a recirculating water system (like the instant hot water systems you can put in your home) to keep warm water (e.g. 50 F) flowing through the pipes to prevent freezing. The two problems with that are 1) setting this up would add a lot of cost to an otherwise good, cost effective watering system, and 2) I think that you mentioned that you don't have power where the water is.

 

[FeyRaine]

Well our 3-4 inches of snow turned out to be a dusting…..kind of disappointed. Girls are doing well, I use the layer method in winter and was surprised how warm it was in there, our coop is 10x10…..their water did freeze but I just use one in the coop and then switch out with the other twice a day and they are doing fine….4 eggs from 6 girls today.
FayRaine…I was told never to give the chickens apples, onions, avocado and potato skins (from reading blogs)…..how do yours do with the apple? It sounds like a good idea.

?? Can't think why no apples for chickens (no apple SEEDs I get). Anyway, several yrs ago DH & I were managing a 300 tree orchard and the chickens got peelings & windfall (wormy part rotten) apples by the 5gal bucket full to pick over & eat as much as they wanted Aug-Oct. (They got their reg feed also) those birds did fine, in fact 4 yr old hens from that group are still laying, and I've hatched their eggs just fine also. And I did not dig out ever apple seed either, so I'm sure they ate a few here & there, I kinda thought of it as natural de-worming.

I mean they can't do w/o liquid water entirely, the apples during a hard freeze (for the rabbits) were just an emergency measure, the actual temp those days was -20, & we had windchills a couple nights that year of -50 (when that was forecast we gave rabbits & goats dry feed & apples then sealed them into the barn for 48 hrs blocking all the cracks ground to 8 ft up, they all survived fine.

But chickens free ranging in orchards is a natural control for most orchard pests, and that means eating the bugs & the fallen fruit, I really can't see why it would be a problem, as long as they do get the option for grain ration also, and calcium for the hens of course...

If anyone has a link so some scientific reason not to feed apples pls let me know, meanwhile, my birds LOVE them.
(The Turkeys were terrified of over ripe peaches, but they are timid of everything new).

 

[Cinny]

FayRaine…..you got me to thinking and I went back and checked the blog "Fresh Eggs Daily" and you are right….apples are fine as long as you don't give the seeds, the seeds contain cyanide although in small quantities so if they eat a few it's ok….. in fact she puts peanut butter in cored apples and gives them as a treat. Don't think I'll do that but I do always have apples around and will start giving it to the girls….thanks for your response and sharing.

 

[heirloomorps]

Everything is frozen here but it's not THAT cold... only when it's windy. I think it feels warmer than the freezing rain we have been getting recently! It's currently a tropical 18 according to the car thermometer.

Hope everyone's birds did ok.

 

[Penny Hen]

One of my mini pigs had her piggies Sat. night. 4 were still born but 1 was alive. I have them packed in straw with a heat lamp but only holding out a little hope to get the little one thru till Weds. She(Momma) was running with young boers before I got her and was pretty sure she had been bred. Sad really she is only about 8 or 9 months old. Was surprised any were alive.
I hope everyone stays as warm as they can, be careful!

Find a warm loner sock and cut it to make a jacket for the piglet.

 

[MayDayMel]

My birds still have water thanks to the aquarium heater, but they don't want to come out of the coop long enough to go to it lol. But they did come down for some warm grit water and a fresh salad

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
The one with heat tape has electricity but this does not happen often around here so not going to worry about it. We also knew when we did the waterer out back this was possible. We will NEED to build a little hut for the tanks so the fittings do not bust. We can use something to keep it warm in there in the extremes like this. We just can't use the nipples and that is ok. didn't have them before this summer anyway LOL..

SO this was my day. Waterered everyone out front and took a quick look around the inside shop and discovered ALL THOSE WERE FROZEN TOO

we had to scramble to get water in every pen.... but we did it without too much trouble. Only one pen didn't have frozen water.... the heated brooder LOL. Anyway i didn't fill them up much and we had to re-water everyone after a few mins. Then we looked out back. The water pans were frozen but not as frozen as I expected.... We managed to get the ice out and they still had enough water to drink.

One more day and we should be done with the hard stuff..... ICE lol.

 

[DMRippy]

One of my mini pigs had her piggies Sat. night. 4 were still born but 1 was alive. I have them packed in straw with a heat lamp but only holding out a little hope to get the little one thru till Weds. She(Momma) was running with young boers before I got her and was pretty sure she had been bred. Sad really she is only about 8 or 9 months old. Was surprised any were alive.
I hope everyone stays as warm as they can, be careful!

That is sad.... poor girls. I hope the little one makes it

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