The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[Buckeye Amy]

I caught a coon one time on half of a leftover McDouble.

I have used EMPTY sardine cans. Incredibly, it works.

 

[KF0002]

Move to hatcher done. Two clears and one halted development. There is one more that might not hatch but I'm not sure so it stays. Total of twelve in lockdown. Started out with fifteen.

Our chicks should be hatching pretty close to the same time. Fun! Mine are due on Tuesday.

 

[KF0002]

I have used EMPTY sardine cans. Incredibly, it works.

Bleh if I had a can of sardines, they could just have the whole thing. lol

 

[The Moonshiner]

Bleh if I had a can of sardines, they could just have the whole thing. lol

Same.
I started using the dog proof coon traps. They worked really well with just a little bit of dry cat food dumped in them.
At the store one day I saw some kind of nasty fish oil paste stuff. I got a tube of that and after loading up with the dry cat food I'd squirt a little goop of that in there.
I'd have a coon by morning. You just don't want to get that stuff on your hands or it takes about 3 weeks and 3 days for the smell to go away.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I figure it won't hurt much. Still I guess it goes to show how distracted the issues I've been having are. Had a lady wanting Spitzhauben eggs and now I have to push that back until the pen is done being secured because the Silver Ameraucana roosters had to room with the Spitzhauben. Sigh. Turning out to be a great year.

That sucks. Hopefully things will get turned around for you and everybody. Rough seasons are no fun at all.

 

[NagemTX]

Our chicks should be hatching pretty close to the same time. Fun! Mine are due on Tuesday.

Mine are due Tuesday as well. Just night time.

 

[NagemTX]

Same.
I started using the dog proof coon traps. They worked really well with just a little bit of dry cat food dumped in them.
At the store one day I saw some kind of nasty fish oil paste stuff. I got a tube of that and after loading up with the dry cat food I'd squirt a little goop of that in there.
I'd have a coon by morning. You just don't want to get that stuff on your hands or it takes about 3 weeks and 3 days for the smell to go away.

Catfish bait would probably work too.

 

[NagemTX]

I'm going to look for those dog proof traps.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Started collecting the things to hillbilly electricity down to the chick house.
I've done the extension cord thing for years and it's worked but there has been a few issues in the past.
I want to not have to worry about issues.
I'm far far from an electrician so it's trial and error. Not ideal when working with electricity.
I understand not overloading a circuit but there can be weaknesses in the circuit that I didn't think about in the beginning. One cord is far far better then linking 2 or 3. If you daisy chain them you not only have to protect the ends that you link together from the elements but that connection becomes an unnecessary weak point. I've had an end fail and go bad I'd suspect from overheating inside the plug and melting a connection. More on that later.
I've also learned that the longer the cord is the more it has to struggle to carry the current. I'm about 165' from my nearest outlet. I don't normally use the 125 or 250 watt brooder bulbs. Mostly it's regular 60, 75 or 100 watt bulbs so in theory a handful of those aren't a ton of wattage or amps they'd pull. Of course smaller gauge cords are the most economical but ya running over 100' especially over 150' really reduces what they can handle and the heat build up that can cause is no joke. More on that later.
A 12/2 cord is what most consider heavy duty and it's rated to handle way more amps then I'd ever try to pull. That's what I've used because it was supposed to be plenty and they're easy to find at garage sells or auctions so I could pick up a like new super long one without much trouble.
Not this time. I went all out and did the overkill thing again.....

I went with the lighted ends not only cause its cool. (That is important ) but because it's also see through so if I get an issue with overheating causing scorching or melting inside I should be able to see it and catch it.
Ya this thing is heavy to say the least. Carrying the box inside was like carrying a bag of feed.
My plan since it's almost impossible to find a 10 gauge 200' cord is to run a dedicated circuit to an outlet I put in the garage just for this project. I don't know a lot about outlets but I've heard I need a decent 15 Amp outlet. More overkill because better safe then sorry. I went with this 20 Amp that seems to be about as heavy duty as I could find. Outlets are important. More on that later.
Oh ya and I went with a red one and a red cover plate because that's cool too.....

 

[KF0002]

Fancy! Red is my favorite color.