The Old Folks Home

[LindaB220]

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.

Love the coop. The inside is so cute!! I'm going to be hatching around 15 each of SG Dorkings, and 15 or so Basques and Coronation Sussex in Sept. I like the idea of them starting to lay in the spring.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I wanted to add... for anyone beginning to feed yogurt to your birds, if they're not used to it, go slow. Only about 1 Tbsp per adult large fowl. For 1-2 week old chicks, knock it down to about 1 tsp each. It will give them diarrhea if they have a lot of it to start out. As they get used to it, for adult large fowl, you can increase it slowly up to about 1/4 cup each.

That can get expensive if you feed it outright. That's why I mix it into my fermented feed... about 1/2 quart container divided between my 3 and 5 gallon ff buckets. I have two because one is for the adult birds and has more stuff in it. The other is for the babies which has just Flock Raiser. With the apple, it can multiply right there in the ff and then more inside the birds. I take a whisk to the yogurt in my bucket and then add the apple/water mix plus more water and whisk it all together so it mixes easily into the feed bucket.

 

[vehve]

Veera is being a little sneak. Last night I put her up on the roost in the evening when it was dark, hoping she'd just stay there for the night. I did the same today, and that little sneaky broody had laid an egg in the evening. There was a mini 29g egg sitting under her, the other Alho's have laid today already, and the Sussex who might produce a similar color isn't laying yet in my opinion. So maybe I still have time to turn this broodyness around before she gets too serious about it. I don't know if she'll stay on the roost, but I think it's worth a shot.

 

[Alaskan]

Seagulls? We don't get to eat seagulls.....you do? I would think they would be oily. Hummmmmm

I was wondering why no one picked up on that one 

Those birds are for training the dogs. I guess some people might eat crow (those we have too, forgot about them in the freezer) or seagulls, but I haven't tried. I did see a TV show where they made sweet and sour crow with rice. Didn't seem half bad.

Here it is actually illegal to kill seagulls. It is even illegal to harass them.




Superchemgirl!!!!!! ARG!!! And major envy! And such glorious glorious space! You probably can't even smell the chickens from your living room!

I am with you on the no heat to the coop.

I can NOT understand how people heat their coops! I keep reading on the Alaskan groups how they heat their coop to 40 or even 55F!!! And they don't want their dear sweet chickens to suffer at all. Some "only" heat if the temps get to 20! And then there are also posts about how the entire foot froze off!

I don't understand.

1. Spending that much money on chickens makes me almost enter into spasms. I heat *MY* house only to 55F!

2. I think that good vents (lacking in many of these coops) is much more important.

But then, I live in a warm spot, I think that I have only hit -15. I gotta say, if you live where it goes to -60, yep, you probably do need to heat the coop.

 

[vehve]

Quote: Here it is actually illegal to kill seagulls. It is even illegal to harass them.

Superchemgirl!!!!!! ARG!!! And

major envy! And

such glorious glorious space! You probably can't even smell the chickens from your living room!

I am with you on the no heat to the coop.

I can NOT understand how people heat their coops! I keep reading on the Alaskan groups how they heat their coop to 40 or even 55F!!! And they don't want their dear sweet chickens to suffer at all. Some "only" heat if the temps get to 20!

And then there are also posts about how the entire foot froze off!

I don't understand.

1. Spending that much money on chickens makes me almost enter into spasms. I heat *MY* house only to 55F!

2. I think that good vents (lacking in many of these coops) is much more important.

But then, I live in a warm spot, I think that I have only hit -15. I gotta say, if you live where it goes to -60, yep, you probably do need to heat the coop.

Here the seagulls are often referred to as flying rats. Some species are protected, but others are found in vast numbers, especially in cities or near land fills.

I like having the option of being able to heat the coop. I insulated it, since I didn't see any harm in doing that, and because the heater I bought only cost 7 euros, I put that in there as well. I don't intend to use it, except if we get freakishly cold weather, but if it gets wet in there, I can turn on the heat to improve the evaporation of moisture in the day while the chickens are in the run. I do still need to figure out something for their water though.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Here it is actually illegal to kill seagulls. It is even illegal to harass them.

Superchemgirl!!!!!! ARG!!! And

major envy! And

such glorious glorious space! You probably can't even smell the chickens from your living room!

I am with you on the no heat to the coop.

I can NOT understand how people heat their coops! I keep reading on the Alaskan groups how they heat their coop to 40 or even 55F!!! And they don't want their dear sweet chickens to suffer at all. Some "only" heat if the temps get to 20!

And then there are also posts about how the entire foot froze off!

I don't understand.

1. Spending that much money on chickens makes me almost enter into spasms. I heat *MY* house only to 55F!

2. I think that good vents (lacking in many of these coops) is much more important.

But then, I live in a warm spot, I think that I have only hit -15. I gotta say, if you live where it goes to -60, yep, you probably do need to heat the coop.

I close off parts of my home in the winter so I don't have to heat them. We've gotten about as low as -30 and the birds are still fine. They're not exactly running around and happy, but neither am I at that temp.
Is your coop attached to your house? How much land do you have?

 

[vehve]

Quote: This goes a bit off topic already, but I like watching a TV show called Grand Designs, it features some pretty ambitious unique house build projects, mainly in the UK. There is an Aussie spin off too. I find it amusing when they talk about double glazed windows, and refer to them as "super high tech". Here, triple glazing has been the norm for probably 30 years, while really environmental builds use quadruple glazing. Insulation seems to be a pretty foreign concept in many parts of the world too. I think in many parts of the world people could save on their AC bills quite a lot if they would just insulate their houses to begin with. And heating would be cheaper too.

*Edit* I even built double glazed windows for the coop.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add... for anyone beginning to feed yogurt to your birds, if they're not used to it, go slow. Only about 1 Tbsp per adult large fowl. For 1-2 week old chicks, knock it down to about 1 tsp each. It will give them diarrhea if they have a lot of it to start out. As they get used to it, for adult large fowl, you can increase it slowly up to about 1/4 cup each.

That can get expensive if you feed it outright. That's why I mix it into my fermented feed... about 1/2 quart container divided between my 3 and 5 gallon ff buckets. I have two because one is for the adult birds and has more stuff in it. The other is for the babies which has just Flock Raiser. With the apple, it can multiply right there in the ff and then more inside the birds. I take a whisk to the yogurt in my bucket and then add the apple/water mix plus more water and whisk it all together so it mixes easily into the feed bucket.

Yogurt is easy since it's available all over but I use the following product for a probiotic.
http://www.gro2max.com/
It is formulated specifically for chickens and can be mixed with feed or water. I use it in baby chick water and start my fermented feed with it.
I also add a plain kefir with 11 active cultures in the FF.

Veera is being a little sneak. Last night I put her up on the roost in the evening when it was dark, hoping she'd just stay there for the night. I did the same today, and that little sneaky broody had laid an egg in the evening. There was a mini 29g egg sitting under her, the other Alho's have laid today already, and the Sussex who might produce a similar color isn't laying yet in my opinion. So maybe I still have time to turn this broodyness around before she gets too serious about it. I don't know if she'll stay on the roost, but I think it's worth a shot.

The small egg probably came from the young bird. They usually don't lay if truly broody. That would create a protracted hatch. The later ones would die when the hen came off the nest to care for the first chicks.

Here it is actually illegal to kill seagulls. It is even illegal to harass them.

Superchemgirl!!!!!! ARG!!! And

major envy! And

such glorious glorious space! You probably can't even smell the chickens from your living room!

I am with you on the no heat to the coop.

I can NOT understand how people heat their coops! I keep reading on the Alaskan groups how they heat their coop to 40 or even 55F!!! And they don't want their dear sweet chickens to suffer at all. Some "only" heat if the temps get to 20!

And then there are also posts about how the entire foot froze off!

I don't understand.

1. Spending that much money on chickens makes me almost enter into spasms. I heat *MY* house only to 55F!

2. I think that good vents (lacking in many of these coops) is much more important.

But then, I live in a warm spot, I think that I have only hit -15. I gotta say, if you live where it goes to -60, yep, you probably do need to heat the coop.

It hit -19F one night last winter.
Ventilation is better.
Bacteria, viruses and fungus thrive in a warm moist environment free of good ventilation.
If it was -60, I probably wouldn't raise chickens unless they were Orloffs, Chanteclers and Jaers.

Here the seagulls are often referred to as flying rats. Some species are protected, but others are found in vast numbers, especially in cities or near land fills.

I like having the option of being able to heat the coop. I insulated it, since I didn't see any harm in doing that, and because the heater I bought only cost 7 euros, I put that in there as well. I don't intend to use it, except if we get freakishly cold weather, but if it gets wet in there, I can turn on the heat to improve the evaporation of moisture in the day while the chickens are in the run. I do still need to figure out something for their water though.

As much as I've preached against it, I do put some heat on my Penedesenca roosters if it gets in the single digits.
I'm going to make rooster apartments in one of the buildings and probably go into winter with 4 adult roosters each year.

Heating chickens tends to raise humidity. It is also more stressful for them to be cozy at night and then walk out into a stiff 0F breeze in the morning. Then, what happens when the power goes out. If they haven't been acclimated to cold, they could die going from balmy to icy overnight.
There's no good way to provide that much heat and still give the birds the ventilation they need. Respiratory diseases come to those that coop up their birds too tightly.

Chickens' ancestors are jungle fowl who's range extends to the Himalayan foothills. That means they can handle a wide range of climates.
Further, many of the breeds we keep were developed in the same cold climates in which we live. And, they didn't heat hen houses a couple hundred years ago.

 

[vehve]

Quote: She's only had the one off day in between, so she hasn't properly gone broody yet. The roo is still completely ignoring the Sussex, and her comb isn't that red either, so I highly doubt that she's laying. Also, she's a complete wuss, so I don't think she would have gone into the same nest together with Veera with all the hissing and squealing she does whenever someone approaches.

 

[vehve]

I thought Silkies where a little silly looking, but I just saw a picture of a Polish in the calendar competition thread. @bamadude I think your next breed has been discovered.