The Rhodebar thread!

[Ihilani Coffee]

I love my premier heat plate! That said, I only use it in the feed room of the barn, not the outside brooder. Feed room rarely gets below 50 so I have had no trouble.
I am not to hopeful even for those 4 that made it to lockdown. We've m
lost power twice over the last 2 weeks, one was a long time. Bators got down to 70. We will see. I didn't have the battery backup charged... I won't make that mistake again. Have Rhodebars and HRIR on the ground but haven't hatched any F1 yet. When the power went out I had almost 100 F1 eggs in 5 staggered settings.

I'm SO sorry to hear that! I hope at least some of them get through. The Brinsea site says 55 as a low temp I think. I've been to single digits twice since December, very unusual here. We're a balmy 38 right now. The heat lamps are a cost of doing business, but it seems to be a lot when you add it up on a monthly bill. Our barns are on a separate meter, so I'm able to track it in a way I wish I couldn't...

 

[RedRidge]

I'm curious what the barn bill difference is and how many hay lamps you are running to make that difference? I have heat lamps running also, sometimes for lambs as well as chicks, but I also have a lot of stock tank deicers.

 

[melroseladi]

Sheri with as much hatching as you do what do you use for brooders and grow out pens? I just put more eggs in the bator, F1's and RC, and I don't know what I am going to do with them, lol. I have 3 of my SC Reds sitting on eggs now so I am hoping they hatch out at least a few, I really need a replacement for my SC rooster. I only have the 1 RC rooster and 1 RC hen so I am really trying to build that flock up a bit.

So, I was woken at 3 a.m. with peeping, jumped out of bed to see if the early bird had hatched but it was only zipped. This morning it has zipped about 2/3 of the way around so hopefully it will make it out of the egg successfully sometime today. It is doing a lot of peeping then resting.

Penny

 

[RedRidge]

Well if we keep loosing power I may not have many chicks at all...

But, this is what I'm doing right now...
I have the bators in the basement and have a pen set up in the corner on the concrete floor where I covered it with cardboard (for warmth) and then puppy pads. I have a small brinsea brooder plate in there, and the chicks stay for a week.
Then they move to the feedroom where the large premier heat plate is. They stay there for a week or two depending on space.
Then they move to the outside brooder. It has 2 elevated halves each with different height heat lamps.
Once they are feathered out they move to the dirt floor, ground level part of the brooder until I find growout pens for them. I have part of a "stall" area I have used in the past, but this year I will also be using the breeding pens once breeding trios are broken up. Which may be a while between the frozen eggs and lost electric for bators.
We'll see...

The other thing I do to save room... hope know one thinks this is cruel, but it has been very informative....
I have a portable chicken tractor I use for non-keepers. Sometimes you have non-keepers as early as 6 weeks (or earlier really according F1 chick down), so all birds get put in the portable tractor.
It doesn't matter age or sex.... once I know I'm not keeping them or selling them, they go in the tractor.
This not only makes a lot more room, but it tells me a lot about hardiness of different breeds and temperaments.
It's a little bit of a survival of the fittest sort of thing. I used to only add new birds or chicks at night, but now I don't even do that. It's amazing how well they settle into a new pecking order and everyone does fine. I have 8 cockerels in the pen right now and they all get along great. They need to be processed and I just haven't gotten around to it. I wouldn't toss chicks in with them, or a single hen, but I'll process them over the next month sometime and start the process all over again.
You can learn a lot by doing this... who gets frostbite and who doesn't (because while there is shelter it is not totally enclosed). Who the bullies are and who the lovers are. Who acts tough but really isn't. I have never had one get killed or seriously injured by the others, so I find the information about temperament and hardiness invaluable.

So... Back to the brooder.... We suspect this was an old rabbit hutch and we converted it to a brooder when we bought the place almost 3 years ago. We simply enclosed the bottom and added plastic corrugated type cardboard for flooring under the shavings to prevent rotting.
The red buckets are water with nipples on the bottom.
The left side has a lower lamp for more warmth for younger chicks.
This pic has day olds, so there is a separate waterer with electrolytes also, but that first day is the only day they don't drink out of nipples - a LOT less mess this way.
The partitions are removable to make 1 large or two small areas on each level.
In this shot I think I have a d'Uccle with a bunch of RIR chicks she hatched last year (I use d'Uccles as broodies).
It makes a good place to hatch and raise chicks for the first few weeks.

 

[melroseladi]

Thanks Sheri, that was very helpful. I know this has been a crazy winter this year and you have gotten nailed. I am hoping our fowl weather is about over. I have an outdoor brooder I need to finish up and I have the materials to make another one. I really want to work on these Rhodebars while still working on my HRIR flocks.

Penny

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I'm curious what the barn bill difference is and how many hay lamps you are running to make that difference? I have heat lamps running also, sometimes for lambs as well as chicks, but I also have a lot of stock tank deicers.

Years ago when I was "only" raising meat chicks and replacement pullets in June/July the bill was $15 month higher per heat lamp, so I know it was not due to stock tank heaters. My tank heaters are plugged into Thermocubes and then only when it's going to get cold enough to freeze the water, not all the time. Last month I had a $60+ barn electric bill when it's usually $15 (7.2 cent/KWH here) and that was primarily the heat lamps (2-3 for different age pens). Does that help?

 

[melroseladi]

First F1 out of the shell and resting.


Penny

 

[melroseladi]

Second chick out of the shell and 6 more have pipped, as far as I can see. I had to grab the first one out of the hatcher as it was pecking the eggs that had pipped as well as pecking the little toes of the second chick.

Now I have a question, just what the heck am I supposed to be looking for? Chick one has no spot on head, does have chipmunk marking, and eye liner. Her coloring is very reddish with the black line going down head and back.

Second chick is still wet but is looking very much like the first chick did when it hatched.

Penny

 

[RedRidge]

Once they are dry please post pics.

 

[melroseladi]

Will do Sheri. I have First hatched under the heat plate and my lights off so she would stop peeping, lol. She is more redish then brown and her stripes don't seem as pronounced as the pics I have seen of the Rhodebar chicks. Although she didn't fluff up to good down her back yet and even had chips of egg shell stuck to her back so that could be what is making the stripes not look so pronounced.

I am just a bit confused as to if I should be hoping for more females or males, lol.

Penny