The Old Folks Home

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks CC. I don't have any extra sheds that are not full to use like that. We are building our new pens and I will have 6 grow out pens for chicks of different ages or breeds. I appreciate your pics and help. Later on I may have to do something different. Last year I did put 30 some chicks in a 5' brooder in DH's tool shed, and he told me NEVER again. lol

Well, this building used to be my tool shed. Now it's the brooder house. This has forced me to move the generator, compressor, riding mower and other large equipment outside. I'm making a box for each of them since I'll probably never be able to get them into the brooder house again. I'm making some mouse proof boxes I can drive them into and lock up. (no more mice nests in the engines).
I still store all the non mechanized garden tools in there. I just ignore the dust.

chickencanoe- I am soooooooooooooo jealous of your setup!!!

I have chicks in a brooder in my front bedroom

they will be going into a brooder cage inside my coop that has it's own pophole and run as soon as they feather out, or it warms up, whichever comes first. could get snow during the night by mid week.

I made all that stuff with things I had on hand. (apparently I have way too much junk on hand).
There's a loft in that building. I can put the brooders on their side and slide them onto the loft when not in use (I. e. summer). After doing so, there's still room on the loft for the paver saw and outdoor Christmas decorations.

The brooders are based on the old Ohio brooder setup. There's a ceramic fixture on both ends inside. The toggle switches allow heat emitters to be turned on independently and a duplex receptacle on each brooder allow powering one from the other or things like fans, lights, radios, etc..

 

[Highcotton]

my first eggs. On my bday.

Good news and happy birthday. What a great combination. I hope you hqve a wonderful day.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Swanny girl Pearl is producing an egg every second day.

My gift yesterday was a warm egg after coming back from my afternoon run...another one to make my hands tremble and my heart soar. Oh pinch me...is this REALLY happening!

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She can have ALL the romaine and spinach her heart's desire...Blacks are only about ten to 20 pound (pens are small compared to the cobs) and to see them produce these size of eggs...maybe commercial factory farmers should have had their genetic engineering scientists focus on swans for contributions to the egg industry...bwa ha ha...

Green eggs and ham anyone?

AWESOME coop CC...beautiful addition to the property AND functional. What are the dimensions...guessing maybe eight feet by?? Love the colour scheme--I'm a sucker for use of white trim! Never say us old folks don't know how to work it! LOL

Brooding...well after the incubator Buster does his job...

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I use a coupla different setups but never anything that was made originally for that purpose! LOL I use to cruise hardware stores and Crappy Tire and one of the clerks would ask the "May I help you?" question and I would have to decline because I was sopping everything up and thinking..."so what could this do for helping me with the critters?" I even went so far as to buy a plastic downspout splash guard (not sure what they are really called?) as the slide part to a puppy training play set...

Summer of 2001
That's Fixins' sister Java in the middle of the photo about to take the puppy plunge down the SLIDE! Whee hee hee!
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There was a tire suspended for jumping thru, balance beam (bottom of photo--Fixins' bro is about to attack it), teeter totter (far top left...just a plank and a round rolly chunk of firewood)...the slide...tunnel and water hazard (more like shallow drinking bin you could climb in!).

I know, deranged but I earned it...lived this long to be a great, big bother! Don't really want to discuss the kid's tent set I bought just for that tunnel for the pups...bwa ha ha. Keep telling my son...give me grandkids so I can justify having a sandbox for the dogs to play in!

"Grandma...Fixins won't shove over and quit toppling my sand castle I'm trying to make!"

"Play nice and no throwing sand you two!"

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Then there was the trip with the three pups to the local petting zoo so they could be exposed to the sights and sounds, smells we don't have here; like the Zebus, donkeys, peafowl (never had those!), horses...yeh...I had to have it all for them puppers. Raised my own kid in hand me down clothes because that's all we could afford at the time as a young family but being able to be financially stable enough to fully plan the puppyhood in my later years, was just down right scary! Told you I was out thar!

October - Chantecler Bantam Project birds in therapy tub​

Repurposed a stainless steel therapy tub as the ultimate brooder...was a chattel out of a sports industry store in the big city. Got a few things salvaged from there that make me laugh...instant ice maker and a towel warmer...not sure what to use those for but I guess summer beverages and winter strained cold tired muscles? Need to hire a personal trainer to bring me the iced drinks and HOT towels...yeh right--head freeze and burnt RED neck! LMBO

The tub is tall enough I don't have to worry too much about loose chooks in the Duece Coop...well not at the brooding age anyhoo.

I also have a more traditional farmy stock waterer I use to use (deep horse water trough) and you can repurpose one, even get it for free if it has a small hole in it. Great for you to brood the babes in, a small hole is not real issue for what we intend to use it for. Real problem though if you need to use it as a water stock though!

Since I hatch everyone at the same time in the same incubator...on any given day during hatching season, I may have turkey poults, ducklings, chicken chicks and even pheasants all ready for brooding. Then throw in that I will not brood bantam sized ducks with heavy weights and the same in the chooks...bantams and standards are kept separated as they grow at different rates. I even find the bantams slightly more intelligent than the bigger birds and conflicts can break out between them over that...hilarious really as the widdler ones are more brainy and therefore can get themselves into quite the predicaments. Brainy is not more mighty!

Purchasing one large style of brooder was not an option and besides...I still look at some of those "industrial" brooders and wonder...do the birds get accustomed to humans growing up never to see natural light or even light past the red glow of the heat lamps??? Yuck! Reminds me too much of a commercial chicken meat barn...raised in the bloomin' dark like mushrooms...don't want 'shrooms...want birds that look me in the eye and interact with me as their devoted keeper. "Wad yah bring us today! Got any minced GREENS or that nummy egger yolks and yogurt?"

So out of necessity, I looked at the green grocery store shopping bins and thought, those would work rather handy dandy. Good shape for economic shelf use, good shape for food/water one end, heat the other, not too large, cheap cheep (five buck?), easy to clean, can stack together for storage...yuppers...I was sold on so many levels!

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I use two tye wraps on one side as hinges for the lid and a chunk of hardware cloth for a lid, cut wider than the bin and one edge folded over. Because ducklings JUMP right from hatching...I often place a coffee can I am using to hold starter on the top...don't want to find webbered fiends all over the place on the loose! LOL

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Oat straw (never sawdust or shaving--find the babes eat this instead of their foods and an impacted crop is a nightmare that don't need to happen!) is awesome and keeps even the waterfowl UP and out of any spillage. We use oat straw exclusively and you never see me state that baby waterfowl are messy because by using marbles in their water dispensers (to keep them from drowning themselves--their mantra at hatch is to "kill oneself by drowning in the drinks!") and making frequent top ups of water to their water cups...they drink the water, not play in the excessive amounts we offer to say chickens or turks. If we give waterfowl (other than Mandarins which are wild and seem more sensible about water sports!) only a certain regimented amount of water, they don't drain it out into their space to make it a water park nightmare! You don't see landfowl play "let's make mud pies" like you see waterfowl do.

WATERFOWL: Use oat straw and limit to frequent adequate water infusions with marbles in it (dollar store, cheapy cheeps or is that QUACK or HONKs?).

I use what I label "rodent" cages (pictured below with the blue bottoms and privacy tenplast pieces on sides) after they out grow the green bin brooders. I have three and think they are intended for gerbils I guess?? They are now located on a shelf on the back wall of my hallway in the Duece Coop. I have sturdy metal hangers for the heat lamps to be suspended from with added security strings should something go wrong. Heat lamps are tres dangerous and can cause fires easily!

I never EVER use a heat lamp without first thinking..."What fire hazard am I creating that can be avoided?" I always clean the dander off at regular intervals, too.

I use to brood in the garage but found the dander an issue. If flies about into everything...blah!



Four grocery store bins with various species of poultry​

Call ducklings in one of the brooder bins


Sweet turkalls - lots of marbles in feed...now peck the shiny. Turks love to bite the sparklies...shiny...must have shiny!

I get the button snaps on my jackets tugged on..."SHARE the SHINY!"



Poult having the first drink
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I always dip a turk's beak in the water (all babes but extra important with turk a lurk bambinos)...get them into training like their mother does...turks in the wild stay with the fam for six months to learn how to be a turkey; what to do, where to go, how to stay safe and find food/water, good night roosting areas, etc. Heritage turks are not dumb, they just need some training, so I guess they are born with less instincts to do it on their own like other species.

Turkeys are very curious (sometimes overly cautious too and you'll see chickens rush in whereas the turkeys hang back and just peer at the potential problem; studying it). Turkeys will often end up in situations where they regret they just had to know what was on the other side of that fence, too! Impulsive at times when they know they know better--nothing funnier than rescuing remorseful turkeys! They will then send out alarm calls for Mom/Dad to come save their sorry butts. If your heritage turkeys are acting dumb and getting into too much trouble...I guess you as their parent have failed to raise them up right and keep them safe.

Harumph!

So cute...saying HI...ready or not...we are here!

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I find the bantam Call ducks to be the most tender of the babes and they require the most "brooder" time. Once I see some feathers on the chest, they are good to go outside in the Duck Barn (with no heat) and deal with whatever weather is thrown our way. Turkeys and chickens are far more resilient than Calls but I would be terribly disappointed if I was producing fist sized turkeys and standard chickens...har har. I think the more exhibition typey the Call, the slower the start but they ramp up pretty well and are surprisingly tough ducks as adults. FTD!

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My photographer SIL is to come by sometime today and she said she would show me how to take photos of those Chantecler cig rolly papers with the spectacular water marks on them...eeeeee.... I love JUST love learning how to do new things.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Dragonfly216]

Except for the dead of winter (like this past horrendous one) The chicks go right out into the coop when they come out of the hatcher. It is basically a storage shed on a concrete slab. Nothing (except bears) can get in there.

Oooooooh I love your set up! Can the adult chickens get in there too, or is it sectioned off from them? Is that metal that you use for the sides? Love it!

 

[Dragonfly216]

Tara, I love the swan egg! They're HUGE! I knew they would be big, but wow! And the babies are so adorable! What a nice big incubator. I've been hoping one of my chicks will turn out to be broody....fingers crossed! Otherwise, I think by the spring, I may be making a homemade one or trying to find a nice, cheap used one. I hope to find someone either upgrading or getting out of incubating and buy theirs. I just can't wait to try to hatch my own babies!

 

[ozexpat]

Tara, I love the swan egg! They're HUGE! I knew they would be big, but wow! And the babies are so adorable! What a nice big incubator. I've been hoping one of my chicks will turn out to be broody....fingers crossed! Otherwise, I think by the spring, I may be making a homemade one or trying to find a nice, cheap used one. I hope to find someone either upgrading or getting out of incubating and buy theirs. I just can't wait to try to hatch my own babies!

you really should make one as its so much cheaper. converting a cooler can be done for $30

 

[bamadude]

you really should make one as its so much cheaper. converting a cooler can be done for $30

is there a link for 1 u recommend? Ive been eyeballing the still air little giant at tsc. Seems like its pretty much a cooler tho. Seems alot of people modify them to get a fair hatch rate

 

[insanity]

Last week my frizzle cochin and my silkie hatched out 6 chicks,all are doing well. Today I got 2 turkeys and hoping it would work I gave them to the hens. It worked.The frizzle kinda looked at them funny but when they started cheeping she ran right over to them. Then when an older bird pecked 1 and made it cry the frizzle defended the baby turkey.I am so impressed with broody hens,I hope these girls do this every year.

 

[bamadude]

Thanks every1 for the happy bdays. This is my favorite thread on byc. U old timers are cool.

 

[Bunnylady]

Should I do my special trick here, too?

(or have you seen that one?!)