The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

KI4Got: Saw what you posted on FB on the Silkie you just had hatch from Leigh's SFH eggs and laughed my butt off.

This is why I take my pencil with me when collecting eggs. I have had similar happenings. Hatched a NN instead of an EE. Now if I had of sold those eggs as EE someone would sure have had an ugly chick(depending on their opinion of NNs of course)!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Your extension cords shorted out? That's not good. I bought the heavy duty weather ones (their blue) then zip tied them to the fence to keep them out of the water. They are plugged into a gfci outlet in the garage so a short or water will trip the gfci letting me know something somewhere is wet.

Well...I need a re-set and it is all different today but not finished. Here's the story. (And I'm going to get scolded for sure on this.

)

I have extensions (

) running from the pole barn to the hen shed. My husband had started to wire the hen shed with regular household-type electrical wiring and a regular outlet inside. The plan was going to be to have an electrician run a real, underground electrical to one of those things like you'd have at a campground (sorry, I don't know what the correct term is) where there would be outlets on a standing board that the wiring in the hen house would then plug into. (Like a trailer at a campground electrical hook-up to give a visual.)

So...we never got the electrical wiring done (just putting off for various reasons - one being the thought that we might move the hen shed to a different location). So the extension cords were running from the pole barn out to power the outlet that was wired in the shed.

Now the electrical cord was placed under the shed (shed is about 18" raised off the ground). It had one of those reels with outlets on it and it was sitting under the shed with the internal wiring for the shed plugged into it. It was then covered in a plastic container to keep moisture out. Worked great for 2 years.

However...this amount of snow melting and another inch or so of rain yesterday has the water rising under the shed which is there the problem was.

In the barn....where the extension cord plugs in, I have one of the gfci outlets plugged into the wall and then the extension plugged into that. THAT IS WHERE THE ELECTRIC SHUT OFF and it worked like a charm. So.....yes, I have it plugged into a gfci outlet.

And...I have YOU @armorfirelady to thank for that.

(And @aoxa to thank for her relentless warnings about fire, learned through her own tragedy.) When I saw how you (AFL) did yours and that you could get the gfci outlet that plugs in to a regular wall outlet, I went out and put one in there right away.



Now it's time to really wire the thing right. But can't until the ground thaws!

We couldn't even get the wiring off the ground last night because the framework that is under the hen house is frozen into the ground and the wiring is under it. In the photo below, look under the window down to the ground. See the frame with the hinges? That "predator" frame (all around the whole shed to keep preds from getting under) is hinged there to access the electric stuff under it. The extension cord runs under there but the bottom frame is frozen into the ground immovable. We had to access it by unscrewing the hinges and forcing it down. But we were unable to get the wooden frame unfrozen. So that extension is frozen in there and we abandoned it's use last night for a different, temporary route.

 

[aoxa]

Well...I need a re-set and it is all different today but not finished. Here's the story. (And I'm going to get scolded for sure on this.

)

I have extensions (

) running from the pole barn to the hen shed. My husband had started to wire the hen shed with regular household-type electrical wiring and a regular outlet inside. The plan was going to be to have an electrician run a real, underground electrical to one of those things like you'd have at a campground (sorry, I don't know what the correct term is) where there would be outlets on a standing board that the wiring in the hen house would then plug into. (Like a trailer at a campground electrical hook-up to give a visual.)

So...we never got the electrical wiring done (just putting off for various reasons - one being the thought that we might move the hen shed to a different location). So the extension cords were running from the pole barn out to power the outlet that was wired in the shed.

Now the electrical cord was placed under the shed (shed is about 18" raised off the ground). It had one of those reels with outlets on it and it was sitting under the shed with the internal wiring for the shed plugged into it. It was then covered in a plastic container to keep moisture out. Worked great for 2 years.

However...this amount of snow melting and another inch or so of rain yesterday has the water rising under the shed which is there the problem was.

In the barn....where the extension cord plugs in, I have one of the gfci outlets plugged into the wall and then the extension plugged into that. THAT IS WHERE THE ELECTRIC SHUT OFF and it worked like a charm. So.....yes, I have it plugged into a gfci outlet.

And...I have YOU @armorfirelady to thank for that.

(And @aoxa to thank for her relentless warnings about fire, learned through her own tragedy.) When I saw how you (AFL) did yours and that you could get the gfci outlet that plugs in to a regular wall outlet, I went out and put one in there right away.

 

[lalaland]

Leah's mom great article. I'm itching for warmer weather so I can put that hardware cloth I scored cheap around the coop. I've been lucky so far & I know it. I will feel much better after it's up.

Lala only a few more weeks.........Mother Nature has to run out of that white stuff sooner or later........

I know. sigh. I'm just whining. Feeling better after a cup of coffee. And I get to work from home today, because of the storm, saving hours of commute not to mention white knuckle driving. So I am lucky!

Wow, lala. I thought I had it bad last night when I was trying to get electrical wires out of 3" of water that had shorted out everything to the hen house. In the dark. In the rain. Almost 2 hours.

Besides

how did you get that door unfrozen?

I find cussing a fine lubricant which does wonders. And body slams against the door helps too.
I would much rather deal with snow than electrical wires, dark, rain and cold! Sounds scary too! glad you are safe.

 

[lalaland]

KI4Got: Saw what you posted on FB on the Silkie you just had hatch from Leigh's SFH eggs and laughed my butt off.

This is why I take my pencil with me when collecting eggs. I have had similar happenings. Hatched a NN instead of an EE. Now if I had of sold those eggs as EE someone would sure have had an ugly chick(depending on their opinion of NNs of course)!

that would be a surprise, wouldn't it?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Told ya I'd get scolded.

 

[ki4got]

KI4Got: Saw what you posted on FB on the Silkie you just had hatch from Leigh's SFH eggs and laughed my butt off.

This is why I take my pencil with me when collecting eggs. I have had similar happenings. Hatched a NN instead of an EE. Now if I had of sold those eggs as EE someone would sure have had an ugly chick(depending on their opinion of NNs of course)!

LOL for those who didn't see, one corner of my hatcher always seems to shrink wrap chicks. I had a large batch of Swedish flower hens from Leigh I am hatching (haven't checked them yet this morning) and this one had been zipped a while but not pushed out, so I took it out of the incubator and popped the cap off and out jumps this solid black blob! expecting a SFH, I was quite literally stunned for a second and almost dropped it. my next thought was wow. ugly chickling.

 

[lazy gardener]

AWWWW! I think it's adorable. I'm having some serious issues here. Can't wait to get my hands on some chicks... and the temptation is so great to start some eggs to go along with the chicks I'll be picking up from the hardware store.

 

[lalaland]

LOL for those who didn't see, one corner of my hatcher always seems to shrink wrap chicks. I had a large batch of Swedish flower hens from Leigh I am hatching (haven't checked them yet this morning) and this one had been zipped a while but not pushed out, so I took it out of the incubator and popped the cap off and out jumps this solid black blob! expecting a SFH, I was quite literally stunned for a second and almost dropped it. my next thought was wow. ugly chickling.

sweet! first time I've found a silkie at all appealing!

 

[chicalot]

LOL for those who didn't see, one corner of my hatcher always seems to shrink wrap chicks. I had a large batch of Swedish flower hens from Leigh I am hatching (haven't checked them yet this morning) and this one had been zipped a while but not pushed out, so I took it out of the incubator and popped the cap off and out jumps this solid black blob! expecting a SFH, I was quite literally stunned for a second and almost dropped it. my next thought was wow. ugly chickling.

Ahh.what kind is it. Glad it made it out!