The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Amberjem]

 

[lalaland]

@armorfirelady
Hey, I hope you don't get hit too hard with the storm - same to anyone else in its path. You certainly got enough earlier this year. Hang in there!

 

[COChix]

Got my horizontal nipple waterers built and put them in the run. I put one in the run yesterday around 4:30. Took about 2 minutes until some of the girls figured out how to use it. I put the second one in the run this am before letting everyone out, pulled their other waterers and let them out. They took to it like it had ways been there. The BR and Delawares have been the ones to take the lead and have shown others. I still need to secure them against some support poles in the run and put the bucket heaters in them as well, which I will do today. Next task is building the no waste bucket style feeders and get them set up, I will be building them out of a 15 gallon plastic drum and a five gallon bucket. Surgery is a week from tomorrow and I have been trying to get things organized, meals made, chickens streamlined, etc. I am glad our girls took to the watered so easily, wasn't sure they would since we have never used nipple waterers before. Also I bought 15 nipples not realizing that one nipple waterers 6-8 birds and I have only used 9, so will have plenty to set up waterers for baby chicks this spring and to have a bucket in their free range area as well.

Hope everyone back east is staying warm.

 

[hellbender]

Alrighty now, I took the plunge last week. I have an 8 month old Buckeye pullet that's giving me the 'welfare mamma blues'.

I suppose I could have worked harder on her but she was the toughest bird I have worked with, with respect to getting them off the set. She sorta' PO'd me when she just kept coming back stronger so I decided to invest 8 fertile Australorp eggs to save her sanity.(And mine).

We have been considering using setters for a while but just not this winter...If she carries this through and takes good care of the chicks, her stock will rise dramatically around here. If she skips, no big loss and we'll just see if a little maturity will help her along when the weather warms.

 

[ronott1]

Got my horizontal nipple waterers built and put them in the run. I put one in the run yesterday around 4:30. Took about 2 minutes until some of the girls figured out how to use it. I put the second one in the run this am before letting everyone out, pulled their other waterers and let them out. They took to it like it had ways been there. The BR and Delawares have been the ones to take the lead and have shown others. I still need to secure them against some support poles in the run and put the bucket heaters in them as well, which I will do today. Next task is building the no waste bucket style feeders and get them set up, I will be building them out of a 15 gallon plastic drum and a five gallon bucket. Surgery is a week from tomorrow and I have been trying to get things organized, meals made, chickens streamlined, etc. I am glad our girls took to the watered so easily, wasn't sure they would since we have never used nipple waterers before. Also I bought 15 nipples not realizing that one nipple waterers 6-8 birds and I have only used 9, so will have plenty to set up waterers for baby chicks this spring and to have a bucket in their free range area as well.

Hope everyone back east is staying warm.

I hope the surgery goes well!

I am going to set up a 5 Gallon bucket with a float system. I will be putting horizontal water nipples on it too. It will be nice to get an auto water system going!

 

[COChix]

I hope the surgery goes well!

I am going to set up a 5 Gallon bucket with a float system. I will be putting horizontal water nipples on it too. It will be nice to get an auto water system going!

Thanks for the well wishes on surgery. Agreed, I spend a lot of time messing around with watering and feeding then birds, it will be nice to have it more streamlined.

Here is a shot of the bucket yesterday and a girl checking them out. Also a shot off the heater we are going with. The heaters are made for buckets either plastic or metal, they have built in thermostats, they are floatable or submersible and are suppose to be lower in electricity cost compared to the aquarium heaters (per reviews).

 

[ronott1]

Thanks for the well wishes on surgery. Agreed, I spend a lot of time messing around with watering and feeding then birds, it will be nice to have it more streamlined.

Here is a shot of the bucket yesterday and a girl checking them out. Also a shot off the heater we are going with. The heaters are made for buckets either plastic or metal, they have built in thermostats, they are floatable or submersible and are suppose to be lower in electricity cost compared to the aquarium heaters (per reviews).

Nice!

Did you use plumbers glue to seat the water nipples?

 

[COChix]

Nice!

Did you use plumbers glue to seat the water nipples?

I did not, there were no instructions stating to use that, but where instructions for using a 11/32 drill bit. I did use that size drill bit and the project was easy, did one bucket, filled it with enough water to cover the nipples and there were no leaks anywhere.

 

[ronott1]

I did not, there were no instructions stating to use that, but where instructions for using a 11/32 drill bit. I did use that size drill bit and the project was easy, did one bucket, filled it with enough water to cover the nipples and there were no leaks anywhere.

That is good news. I use glue when adding nipples to smaller, thin water bottles. I made two for cage water systems this weekend. I love using them for chicks--it keeps the litter dry and lessens cocci.

 

[farmerfogg]

I went out to check on the girls as well as to collect eggs, and found one of our 2 year old laying hens dead on the coop floor. I'm thinking she may have lost her balance when coming off the nest box. RIP Lady. We will really miss you