The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

I've done ice and it seemed to help but works better if you have plastic nesting material. It is more labor intensive than the cage.

I have plastic boxes with hay in them as nest boxes. I could thin the hay down a bit, and place the ice packs underneath the box. If anyone doesn't have any horror stories to share about this idea, that's something I think I'll try right away. Also, have you found that it would affect the other layers? (She switches nests according to where someone has placed a lovely egg for her to sit.)

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I don't try to break them, usually. I either let them hatch or just let them sit until they give up. I've had one stubbornly broody cornish who has been broody likely since March. She's lost some weight but I take her off the nest every day (after she hit the 2 month mark) and feed her high calorie food. The reason I try not to break them is I hate it when they scratch their face and rub their feathers off trying to escape their jail and get back to their eggs. That cornish needs to be broken, though. I gave her a baby turkey for a few hours before it died but that didn't seem to help.

As I was driving to work this morning, exhausted, I heard "in the mood" with chickens dubbed over it. I wasn't quite sure if I was hallucinating or not, but sure enough, it's a thing.

 

[vehve]

SCG, that is disturbing.

I rummaged through the freezer, and I think I discovered why it always feels full. I put three ice packs with Karins food a couple weeks ago, they're probably in the car still. But in addition to those, I found 11 frozen icepacks in our freezer. And then there's of course the two drawers that have an assortment of seagulls, rabbits, pheasants and ducks.

But Veera is now sitting on top of a couple of ice packs. Hopefully this works.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Borrowing the chicks would be a good way too. Only problem is, that I don't think people are hatching too much this time of the year anymore, or willing to risk the biosecurity issues that would come along with that. You can't just walk into some store and buy chicks around here. One idea would be to see if someone wants some olive eggers and is willing to commit to taking them, but I'm not sure how I feel about hatching chicks with winter on the way. In a month or two, a whole lot of "Oh poop, what are we going to do with our summer hens" chickens will be searching for homes anyway. That's actually something I might think about next summer. Hatching a few chicks, renting them to people for the summer, and then processing them in the fall. People are actually willing to pay for the opportunity of keeping and feeding your birds through the summer. Not too bad.

We have temperature extremes. Extremely hot and humid in summer and extremely cold and humid in winter. I hatch year round, except for January and February. I actually prefer chicks hatched in September and October. They get well feathered by the time it gets cold and I think the feather better in the cool weather. Also, their combs aren't big enough to get frost bitten and come into spring looking good. They also start laying in the spring rather than spring chicks waiting till fall to lay. The only issue is keeping the water thawed. Chicks aren't that fragile. They only need a warm spot and lots of cool space.

This is the inside of the building in October when I had 82 chicks.



This is in late November when I only had a few.


This is the outside the same day.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I, too, have horrible winters and prefer to hatch in January. I feed at least 22% protein. They are in my basement for about 4 weeks, they get a heat lamp for about 7 to 10 days, then it's ambient temperatures which are between 50 and 65. Then they go out into the coop. That's it. They're generally mostly feathered by week 4 and they do fine outside without a heat lamp in the coop. They start laying in early to mid spring, which makes them incredibly desirable around here when the swaps start up and people want started birds. Most people at the swaps are selling chicks, I'm selling POL pullets. I sell out quick. Unless they're turkens.

 

[vehve]

Quote: That's a nice coop.

If I had the space myself I wouldn't have a problem hatching them, but I think the potential customer base is a bit weak this time of the year. I'd have to keep them until POL when they would be easy to unload. Short of turning our sauna area into a huge indoor coop, I just don't have the space. That could hold quite a few chickens though. I hope I keep sane enough to not ever start considering that option

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't try to break them, usually. I either let them hatch or just let them sit until they give up. I've had one stubbornly broody cornish who has been broody likely since March. She's lost some weight but I take her off the nest every day (after she hit the 2 month mark) and feed her high calorie food. The reason I try not to break them is I hate it when they scratch their face and rub their feathers off trying to escape their jail and get back to their eggs. That cornish needs to be broken, though. I gave her a baby turkey for a few hours before it died but that didn't seem to help.

As I was driving to work this morning, exhausted, I heard "in the mood" with chickens dubbed over it. I wasn't quite sure if I was hallucinating or not, but sure enough, it's a thing.

I think you were hallucinating.

I did some major hallucinating on that 79 hour canoe race. All the trees lining the river at night looked like all the cartoon characters from my childhood - only they were 100 feet tall. Then there was the space ship and the government conspirators that tried to get me to paddle into the turbines of a dam. Why would they do that?

Pulling birds out of the nest to force feed rather than breaking them is too labor intensive for me.

SCG, that is disturbing.

I rummaged through the freezer, and I think I discovered why it always feels full. I put three ice packs with Karins food a couple weeks ago, they're probably in the car still. But in addition to those, I found 11 frozen icepacks in our freezer. And then there's of course the two drawers that have an assortment of seagulls, rabbits, pheasants and ducks.

But Veera is now sitting on top of a couple of ice packs. Hopefully this works.

It should work. Keep us posted.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

They're not force fed at all and it's not labor intensive. Release the non-broody biddies to the "great outdoors" and then grab Baldie off her nest, and throw down a handful of black oil sunflower seeds. She eats them up in peace, has a nice nasty broody poo, and then goes back to her life in the box.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It's not bad now that my numbers are down but usually any time I have to do anything unnecessary it feels labor intensive to me.

We all have our own goals and methods.

I had 8 separate flocks through the winter so had to keep unnecessary effort to a minimum.

 

[vehve]

Here we have the grumpy Veera sitting atop her icepacks.