The Old Folks Home

[Wisher1000]

The research I found was a bit different. I think they developed in Belgium in two different districts with different climes and that the hen feathering is a result of the breeders eliminating the need for double breeding. Let me see if I can find the article....

 

[Highcotton]

Having winter cold here, I have taken a hard look at the SS roosters. One with bigger waddles is also narrow so he he soup.  Not much to make a roast!! lol 

Providing enough food and water I think is key in the cold regions: if they are thirsty they don't eat. THey need plenty of food to keep warm. I think adding scratch at the end of the day would be helpful as they seem to always have room to stuff in more. lol

I'm scared to depend on electricity too. I do it in a pinch but not regularly.WE have a history of the power going out when the wind blows--- it hasn't happened in recent years since the new line was added but I haven't forgotten the hours without. 

A neighbor always started her chicks in a pen next to the big wood stove. It had 2-3 feet space all around for safety so the chicks really had a lot of room to run around. Makes me wonder how chicks were started 125 years ago when .

I have seen chicks in a box behind the stove. That seems to have been common. That was in South Alabama so I don't know what they did where it really got cold.

 

[chickisoup]

Raised my first batch (a WHOLE lot of years ago) the way my granny did. A big box behind the wood cookstove in the kitchen where you kept a couple bricks either in the oven or under the firebox. At night you banked the firebox and dampered down the flu and you took those warm bricks, wrapped them in something soft, put them in the box and the chicks would snuggle up to them like it was their momma. Cover the box with a towel, leaving one corner open so they had a place to go if they got too warm. That was it. Blowing snow outside, toasty little fluff balls inside. No electricity required.

BTW - my two children each got one of those bricks in a dishtowel as well in the foot of their beds under the covers. Toasty toes all night.

 

[ozexpat]

Raised my first batch (a WHOLE lot of years ago) the way my granny did. A big box behind the wood cookstove in the kitchen where you kept a couple bricks either in the oven or under the firebox. At night you banked the firebox and dampered down the flu and you took those warm bricks, wrapped them in something soft, put them in the box and the chicks would snuggle up to them like it was their momma. Cover the box with a towel, leaving one corner open so they had a place to go if they got too warm. That was it. Blowing snow outside, toasty little fluff balls inside. No electricity required.

BTW - my two children each got one of those bricks in a dishtowel as well in the foot of their beds under the covers. Toasty toes all night.

we had an english Aga stove that ran on coke on our farm in oz. We would fill the lower oven in it with bricks too. perfect bed warmers

joey kangaroos lived in a sack hanging on the front

 

[tnspursfan09]

we had an english Aga stove that ran on coke on our farm in oz. We would fill the lower oven in it with bricks too. perfect bed warmers

joey kangaroos lived in a sack hanging on the front

Daisy hogs the area around the wood stove. The older she gets the closer she sleeps to it in the winter. Don't think she could fit under it, though.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I only know of the farmers wife that kept thos chicks by her big hot wood stove in the living room-- stove installed left of the door so she could keep an eye on them from the kitchen easily.

This will be my first winter in a few without chicks in the house . . . feels kinda nice.

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote: Thanks, Chick, that was sweet of you to think of me and look that up, but right now, I am going to concentrate on the Silvers. I may get some Goldens in a few years. I enjoyed looking at that site, though!

With the current temps I'm getting I set up a second heat lamp and closed the chick door. The coop is holding at about 40 even at night. We got to -23 last night. The problem is now the humidity is at almost 75 percent. Any ideas how to bring it down without freezing the chickens out? If I open the vents the temp drops to 0 in about half an hour.

I think I would try to figure out a way to create just enough ventilation to move most of that humidity out and keep the temps in the low 30's (o F.) Then try to lower the heat and just keep them out of the wind. Now, I admit that -23 is extreme and frostbite is a concern, but it is more of a concern in higher humidity than in dry air conditions. What is the humidity outside the coop? Chickens are very susceptible to poor air quality and I am afraid that yours is more than just humid. That is a huge difference and is causing conditions that may not be good for your birds. I don't heat my coop at all but our winters are much milder than yours. My birds are fine outside even when the temps are in the teens during the day and single digits at night for over a week at a time. I would be concerned that the electricity might fail and your birds would be too accustomed to the added heat to suddenly adjust. Just a thought........
Having winter cold here, I have taken a hard look at the SS roosters. One with bigger waddles is also narrow so he he soup. Not much to make a roast!! lol

Providing enough food and water I think is key in the cold regions: if they are thirsty they don't eat. THey need plenty of food to keep warm. I think adding scratch at the end of the day would be helpful as they seem to always have room to stuff in more. lol

I'm scared to depend on electricity too. I do it in a pinch but not regularly.WE have a history of the power going out when the wind blows--- it hasn't happened in recent years since the new line was added but I haven't forgotten the hours without.

A neighbor always started her chicks in a pen next to the big wood stove. It had 2-3 feet space all around for safety so the chicks really had a lot of room to run around. Makes me wonder how chicks were started 125 years ago when .
I don't know about 125 years ago

, but my Grand-pa did talk about small chick stoves in a small brooder room off of the main house.

Scott

 

[Wisher1000]

I just love the thought of those chicks snuggled up to that towel-wrapped brick in their box. It just resonates to a simpler time, when getting candy was a rare treat and the best gifts were homemade. I never experienced those times (I grew up in the 60's and going to the Country Club for swimming, golf, tennis, and dinner on Sunday) I don't know why I am so nostalgic this season, probably because of Dad. I love his stories of that time in his life. My paternal grandfather was a share cropper. Dad was the youngest boy out of thirteen children. He was born in a house with only a dirt floor and started working the farms as soon as he could do anything to help. He talks about being 7 and having to take the mule to the creek for water. He took him the mile in the morning at daylight and in the evening after the plowing was finished. If it were really hot he might have to take him when they stopped for lunch. He talked about getting a whipping on more than one occasion for running the mule, but that sometimes he was too little to stop him from running, he did good just to cling to his back. Dad said his Mom would order 100 chicks in the spring and by the time they arrived, she would be down to just a few layers from the previous year and a few that had survived the pot because his mom was attached to them. As they grew, the roosters were the first to be eaten, then when the pullets started laying, the older hens would be eaten, and finally, they would eat the young layers as the next spring order was arriving. He said that when they arrived, it was not unusual for over half of the chicks to be dead and sometimes the whole flock would die from some disease. They didn't get to eat chicken very often, only on Sunday if company was coming or on special occasions. He said they lived mostly off of biscuits and whatever was in the garden or cellar. When he started school, she made a big breakfast, biscuits, gravy, bacon if they had it, grits, and oatmeal. Then she packed two biscuits for each of them to take to school for lunch, and after chores at night they would have something hot like vegetables and cornbread. He said that nothing went unused, and it............... listen at me, going on...........

 

[ozexpat]

.......... listen at me, going on...........

please go on

 

[superchemicalgirl]

please go on

I agree. I was enjoying the story and then it just...