The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lazy gardener]

Tea chick: I bet your girls would eat Romaine out of your garden!!!

 

[nicole63021]

I know you guys will laugh about how cold we were here in Louisiana recently (like we laugh, all in good fun, when we hear people complain about the heat in the summer), but it did get cold here for several days. I have never had to break ice out of waster bowls multiple times a day bec it didn't get above freezing. We don't have heated bowls bec we don't normally need them. Our Louisiana thread had so much advice on managing the cold. I have a new admiration and appreciation for you guys that deal with intensive cold. I did put Vaseline on their combs and wattles. If you have a big heat wave with lots if humidity, just ask me. Lol
BTW, thanks for some of your health hints. I ate chia in my oatmeal this morning.

The "best" part of living in the St. Louis area is at one point you have 100+ degree temps with 80+ percent humidity and you feel like your wearing the air it's so thick, then you can be sub zero with wind chills and the snow. I think the worst is the "wintery mix" though. Temps right at 32-33 degrees and precip, but which kind? Rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow? All of the above! Wish I lived somewhere like you do, but DH at one point said Chicago would be nice

. Glad your chickies did just fine!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Depends upon your mood at the time of the post.

Ah ha. I wondered bec once I was pretty sure the poster meant dumb husband and another meant da** husband, but most often it is in the context of something really nice.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Are there any great deals on the ecoglow brooder out there or is there a sale season for it? I'm thinking the one for 20 chicks is what I would be interested in most as the other one is quite large.

Maybe someone on here has upgrated to the large on and wants to sell their smaller one?

 

[TeaChick]

@ MrsRebecca:
I built my first "coop" out of sheet metal roofing. As soon as I met someone who already raises chickens, the first thing she did was to give me some pallets she had so I could build a wooden coop.
Another idea to go along with Delisha's about the doors, old barn, etc is that some places own their pallets (some places lease them and, therefore, cannot give them away) but places that do own them will sometimes give them to you when they don't need them or can't use them anymore. You're not likely to get shiny, new, or pretty pallets, but they'd be free and you can take apart some of them to make others more solid. I'll take some better pics of my new coop, if you'd like and show you what I mean, but I agree with Delisha, metal isn't a good material for birds' houses.
If you don't mind the work of it and you have trees where you don't want them, you can use them either as the frame or log cabin style.

 

[TeaChick]

I have to ask bec I see it all over: I think DH refers to husband, but what's the "D" stand for?

It stands for "dear". Some women say it depends on the context, but I always mean "dear". =)

oohh and she has such incredibly beautiful Orps! and a road trip to Delisha's - who wouldn't sign up for that? (careful Delisha, one day you'll open your door and find a caravan of NCK thread folks on your doorstep)

I'm in.

BTW, Lala, what breed(s) do you have that lay white eggs. All the breeds I have lay brown; I'm going to have to hatch my Leghorn eggs to get white egg layers and I don't like the Leghorns I already have; I'm just using them for their eggs and I'll use them in breeding pens as additional hens.

 

[TeaChick]

thanks... and I like the larger minis, but Sunny is my current service dog, and I would want to train up another as backup, so I would need another Standard. (and no, another breed isn't an option, i don't deal well with shedding and dander). As it is, Sunny went into 'active duty' about a year before I had planned to retire Shadow.

I understand.

I hope you find a good one when you need it. =)

 

[TeaChick]

Are there any great deals on the ecoglow brooder out there or is there a sale season for it? I'm thinking the one for 20 chicks is what I would be interested in most as the other one is quite large.

Maybe someone on here has upgrated to the large on and wants to sell their smaller one?

Maybe building a brooder and then using a heat lamp might be an option. =)

Tea chick: I bet your girls would eat Romaine out of your garden!!!

I bet they would!!!
I have a container garden and they eat the oregano and tomatoes out of that. They even tried the jalapenos!!! lol There was only one beak mark in the two that had been tasted.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: I have a homemade wooden brooder and I'll have more as I need them from cardboard boxes. But the savings in the electric bill can add up fast. less than 20 watts compared to 250 watts for the red bulbs. I use the red bulbs for about 2 weeks then gradually change the bulbs to decrease heat. But this year I plan to hatch frequently and that means lots of red bulb time.

 

[lindz8504]

I have a homemade wooden brooder and I'll have more as I need them from cardboard boxes. But the savings in the electric bill can add up fast. less than 20 watts compared to 250 watts for the red bulbs. I use the red bulbs for about 2 weeks then gradually change the bulbs to decrease heat. But this year I plan to hatch frequently and that means lots of red bulb time.

Have you looked into an Ohio brooder?

http://morningjoyfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-build-ohio-brooder.html

You could probably scale it down to suit your needs....