The Old Folks Home

[Amberjem]

mmmm chocolate

 

[hennible]

... Its cutting my mouth....

 

[Amberjem]

eat it faster maybe hennible?

 

[hennible]

Don't chew just swallow... Ok I got it .... Yum chocolate

 

[perchie.girl]

morning did someone say chocolate?

I heard it to someone said chocolate

Dont eat it....its a trap

I can eat around the sharp parts

Love these morning conversations..... Bwhahahahahahah......

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:

Sorry guys​

(CNN) -- A strong storm over the Bering Sea -- the remnants of Super Typhoon Nuri -- will bring intense winds, massive waves and heavy rain and snow to coastal Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.​

But don't ignore it just because it is a sparsely populated area with residents who are accustomed to severe weather. The powerful storm will whip the jet stream, causing a ripple effect that will carry the cold air to the East Coast.​

This arctic outbreak will funnel down through Canada over the next week, bringing a deep freeze to the eastern United States, with temperatures forecast 20 degrees below average.​

Yeah, I've been watching that for the last week.
It's the result of the remains of a super typhoon that's moved into the Bearing Sea.
We'll be getting snow and low 20s this week while Alaskan warms up.

Here I keep feed in Galvanized Trash cans as well. Those plastic bins are not rat or squirrel proof. I had some and the squirrels went throuh the bottoms from under neath.

I Have kept feed of some sort for 47 years in Galvanized cans... sometimes with a padlock to keep the human pests out too. If you keep the feed in the bag humidity seems to be a non issue.... but here the the humidity is at around 10-15 percent 20-30 percent on rainy days.

Oh also since I was feeding 25 lbs at a time I paid the extra and bought 25 pound bags... So I didnt open the bag till it was time to feed.

Though I would really like to buy a hopper so I can dispense the feed from the bottom.... Those come in plastic but they are off the ground on steel legs

deb

It's more often between 60% and 90% here than low humidity. 30% is low for us.

I've been using those bins about 4 years and no rodent problems. It's pretty tough stuff. I haven't even seen chew marks.

I had stacks of 5 gallon pickle buckets in a breezeway between the breeder complex containing all sorts of seed. No issues for about a year and this past spring squirrels finally chewed through the one holding sunflower seed. They first chewed the edge of the lid till they could reach the bucket edge. They opened 2 very neat holes on opposite sides of the top. When I'd walk out there a squirrel would jump out and run away. Rather than get rid of the bucket and move the seed, I converted the bucket to squirrel traps. I hung #110 body traps on each side of the bucket suspended from the roof with the trigger at the hole. I'd set them at dusk and at dawn, I'd have a couple dead squirrels.

It's from a store called Trader Joe's (a chain predominantly in the west, I believe) and there's a forum thread on BYC with a club of those that have hatched their fertile eggs. Kind of a novelty, kind of a challenge. Those that live in CA have a better hatch rate than those of us elsewhere. I had 3 of 12 that formulated this time, but only one hatched. Luckily I had other eggs going so the chick is not lonely. I usually use the TJ eggs as filler in the incubator. At $2.99/doz it's the cheapest fertile eggs out there!

We have Trader Joe's here but they don't carry them and the dairy guy didn't know what fertile eggs were.
The Whole Foods carries fertile eggs but they come from a farm in Wisconsin, travel to the Midwest distribution center in Chicago and then get shipped to all the stores. They're usually about 2 weeks old by the time they get here. I tried hatching a dozen once but they were all clears.

Here's the TJ hatching thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...cery-store-egg-hatching-club-are-you-a-member

Hard to keep track of who posted what sometimes. I was quite a few pages behind. Please forgive me.

I looked on ebay and there's no eggs for white leghorns for sale right now except one and the description doesn't make me think they're purebred.

I'd love to have some leghorns again. They were such sweet birds, but died very early.

I had some black leghorns for a few years recently. One went broody often and raised several broods for me.
Here she is.


When I was young we kept about 100 leghorns. I had a few recently that I rescued from the feed store that didn't have food or water. Sadly, the mink got them.

another way to make those bucket traps is fill em up with a bout six inches of water and toss in enough bird seeed or scratch to float on the top layer.... mousie sees seed hops in and drownes

Probably would work with packing peanuts too... Looks like food or bedding.

deb

I've had drown mice in buckets of plain water that were sitting next to a stack of feed bags. They must have just slipped off. Bait works better though.

When buckets get old and the rim gets brittle and won't seal properly, they become mouse traps.

cc where ever do you find these bins? my coop storage is getting smaller and smaller but i do have 8' ceilings so I can stack all the way up.

Mine came from the local handyman/true value hardware store. I think they were on sale for under 20 when I picked up these 3.

Electricity is significant for us as well.

We pay around 25cents a KW.

Chickens add around 30-40 bucks a month between heating and dehumidifying

Thank God I dont have to keep brooders warm over winters. One week 24/7 then 10 days just at night.

Ours is 10 cents but we've had 5 rate increases in the last 7 years.
That's one reason I'm not joining the NYD hatch this year.
When we moved here15+ years ago, our average electric bill on an annualized basis was about $85. I almost never have one below 100 now and summer before last I had some in the high 300s. It doesn't help that before I use the first Kw, there's a $3 municipal charge, $4 energy efficiency investment charge and a $5 fuel adjustment charge.

The gas company charges $20 up front every month whether I use any gas or not. I use gas from November through March but pay $140 for the other 7 months just because I have a meter attached to the house.
The same extraneous charges are on phone bills too.
Charging for nothing is one of the things that upset me with the way things work in this country.

Woah pricey. Gonna have to add these to my wish list.

The shipping is a killer.

Oh, and regarding totes, if anyone has goats... I highly recommend them for a hay feeder. Much less wasted hay.



This goat feeder lasted about 2 years before the current goats destroyed it last weekend during the blizzard lockup. Now the bottom is cracked and the hay gets wasted. We'll be making a new one of these tomorrow to replace the cracked one. This feeder wastes much less hay than the traditional open bar feeder.

Very clever

I do have chocolate in a rat zapper.... I wonder what I will catch.

Maybe a brown one - light chocolate.

 

[Amberjem]

ok I have a question for peeps, so the breeds of chickies I am looking at are generally meat/layer, I was thinking of having a layer breed just one to pump out egg production that will get along with my other chickens is friendly and will produce for a long time as I wouldnt eat em I had thought maybe a leghorn maybe a brown leghorn any thoughts or options you might suggest?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Amberjem, you'll get a lot of opinions because everyone has their favs. I recommend this chart as a guide.

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf

This one is helpful too.

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

 

[ronott1]

ok I have a question for peeps, so the breeds of chickies I am looking at are generally meat/layer, I was thinking of having a layer breed just one to pump out egg production that will get along with my other chickens is friendly and will produce for a long time as I wouldnt eat em I had thought maybe a leghorn maybe a brown leghorn any thoughts or options you might suggest?

Do you want brown or white eggs?

Watch out though--just because leghorn in in the name does not make them good layers. Mille Fluer leghorns are terrible egg layers--lay like a lot oh heritage RIRs--less then 200 eggs per year. Actually for a lot of HRIRs, 200 is a "goal" and 150 ish is considered good.

I would check if I were you but I think brown leghorns are a bit low in egg laying too. They come from breeders and most breeders care about showing and not egg laying

Golden comets(note: golden comets are not the same as a red sex link. They have a special rooster to make them)
black sexlinks
red sexlingks

Are high volume brown egg layers. Get them from a hatchery too.

Pearl leghorns

Are very high volume white egg layers

Austra whites

are high volume beige to white egg layers.

If you wanted one of the best dual purpose egg layers, Pita Pintas are stellar.

 

[ronott1]

Amberjem, you'll get a lot of opinions because everyone has their favs. I recommend this chart as a guide.

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf

This one is helpful too.

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

I agree!

Other than the selfish plug for pita pintas, the ones I posted about are tops in the charts.