TULSA area Cluckers

[chicksooner]

Glad you found a "guard dog."

Sometimes all you need is something whose bark is worse than it's bite! Are you going to keep your chickens penned now or try to train him to be poultry-friendly?

Well we managed to sell two of the 3 remaining roosters for $5 each yesterday, not too bad I guess, we paid $5 for one as a chick and $8 for the other as a cockerel and then fed them all summer LOL! So just one left, he is penned by himself now so he doesn't cause trouble with the big rooster. I will check into different feed, I don't know what the better options are there. But he has filled out a lot since the last attempt, so I think we will be processing him (and a few belonging to a friend) on Saturday. That means out of all the FBCM chicks we bought and raised this spring we ended up with one breeding pair. That's so frustrating!

How did the processing go?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Well it was going to be scheduled for this Saturday, but the guy who bought the other two roosters called back yesterday and came back for him, I guess he has a friend who wanted him! So no processing Saturday for now! That's all the extras in that batch, although I do have some more young ones we will have to deal with come spring if we don't sell them.

Hubby is taking vacation days for the rest of the week, we've already moved the Cowboy Coop to the garden, now working to finish it's auto feed/water system and the egg collection doors. Also trying to finish the garage brooders auto waterers and electric today. Picking up hatching eggs tonight for someone who needs them hatched out, we get to keep half the hatch so we will see how that goes! Moved the FBCM pair to the Cowboy Coop and growers to the split coop, no more big chicks in the garage! Woopee!

Still have one chicken in isolation from our MG scare, it's our Cream Legbar cockerel I am afraid to combine him. Need to call a vet to see how expensive it would be to have him tested.

 

[chicksooner]

The vet I used for my rooster is at Forest Trails Vet Hospital. He is an Avian vet.

I was looking forward to your processing report. I know it is something I am going to have to deal with but not sure I can handle it.

I have been contemplating adding some EE or marans for their pretty eggs. I need to work on a new coop and I have a great idea for one but not sure hubby will be on board with it.

 

[Reagor]

Can't wait to see the pictures of the finished product! So are the chickens closer to your hives now?

Chicksooner- What kind of coop are you thinking of building? I was wanting to have EEs, but I'm just not sure about using my limited space for less eggs. Maybe when I get a bigger place. These RSLs are just too nice, pretty, and consistent for me to look at anything else right now.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

We don't have any adult EEs at the moment but I've heard they are usually really good layers. Many mixes are.

The cowboy coop is now about the same distance from the beehives as the split coop, but it's on the other side of the garden fence. We got the "winter panels" cut and installed over the wired spaces last weekend but I still have to take them back down and paint them.

I can't wait to finish all these pens and be DONE with it! LOL and hubby is already trying to talk me into looking at other properties so we have the room to do what he wants to, which is 10+ breeds each with their own pens and auto feed/water systems. Yikes gives me a headache just thinking about it.

The one (and only) rooster we already processed wasn't too bad, but reading lots and lots before hand helped. There are some good tutorials here on the BYC. Make sure you have a very good sharp knife!!! And I want to get a candy thermometer to check the water temp because we did the dip and boil too hot and that made the end steps harder.

 

[Reagor]

Are you guys finished with the setup yet?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Garage brooders are done. Let me see if I can find a photo on the computer....






Need to get a photo of the other end so you can see how the feeders and waterers work. Actually the waterers were not installed yet in these photos.... we bought some cup waterers with the little triggers inside, when they reach in to drink they bump the triggers with their beak and it refills the cup. No more poopy water! Both food and water are in a 2.5 gallon bucket on the next shelf up, with PVC down to the feeders and 1/2 inch tubing down to the PVC water pipes. It did take some time to teach them to use the cup waterers. Works GREAT!!!! Once a week I pull the newspaper out into a bin and slip new sheets in. Had to adjust the feeder too, the one shown was making a HUGE mess. We found a cheap Taskforce tool bin at Lowes for a couple of bucks, it's probably 12" long and 4" wide and 4" tall, and I bent a small piece of 2"x4" welded wire over the top so they couldn't climb in and kick it around, and it works like a charm! It is too tall for day olds though, so we left the homemade wooden trough in one of the two brooders for the babies. I did bend pieces of hanger wire over it so they couldn't get in and poop in it.

The whole goal of this was to reduce taking care of chicks to at most an hour's work once per week, and I think we did it. I am very pleased. And the shelves are at the right height that the kids can go out and hold babies whenever they want, and I can already tell the batch we've had in there are much tamer than our others. They LIKE to be held while the others run away LOL!

Still haven't worked much on all the feeders/waterers for the outside coops but that's one of the chores for this weekend.

Picked up two more FBCM hens yesterday from a man up near Turley. They are in quarantine right now. I'm not near as excited about them as I thought I'd be. They are an OK start, but it's a shame we took our pick of his best ones and they are just OK quality. Definitely going to take us a while to breed up to standard. But the more research I've done on the Ameraucanas the more I realize we really lucked out and got some amazing stock, we have Meredith line which is one of the best lines there is for Ameraucana. Our newest black Ameraucana hen that we got from up near Nowata started laying this week, I'm hoping the color is just not evened out yet because it was quite green, not near the pretty sky blue that our blue hen lays. So we will see but she may get rehomed as an EE.

I am on my way outside right now to paint the winter panels for the Cowboy Coop and get them back up hopefully all while the baby is sleeping...

 

[Reagor]

Nice looking brooder! I would love to see how the watering system works. I need something other than the normal 2gal waterer. They kick up shavings in it everyday. It gets nasty quick.

If you want to get rid of a laying EE, you know who to call. I'll pay you what you want for her, too. 918-978-6966.

 

[chicksooner]

Awesome brooder! I don't have time to do anything like that so I will be using the old trusty plastic tote. I have buff orps and ee in the bator. Not many but it is a start. I would be interested in FBCM hatching eggs at some point in the future when you get up and going. True Americauna as well. Would love some brilliant blue eggs and the really dark maran eggs.

Reagor-how are your new girls doing? Still laying strong for you?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Thanks- we have spent a LOT of time thinking through what will work best. I will certainly post when we have chicks and/or eggs available. Right now the only ones laying are our RIR and BA both X with Ameraucana rooster, so they are all Easter Egger chicks. And man I never thought I would have chicks FLYING out the door in November but I just can't even hatch them fast enough to keep up with the wait list!

@Reagor, I certainly will call you if we decided not to keep that hen. What breeds did you end up getting?

OK here's the feeding/watering end. (Buckets are free at Reasor's bakery- I have lids somewhere just can't find them at the moment!) You can also see the light switch/outlet combo box mounted at the top, so we can switch off the brooder lights for the one we aren't using.



This is the big chick feeder with 2"x4" welded wire over it. You can see we started out with the black mounts we bought to go with the cups, but we just COULD NOT get them to attach well, ended up having to silicone all the way around it because it wouldn't seal right. So instead we drilled a slightly smaller hole and screwed the cup waterer directly into the PVC. Also notice we put a shut off valve on each PVC pipe, we weren't sure if the chicks standing on the cups could break them or cause them to leak and we didn't want 3 gallons of water on the floor....



This is the day-old chick feed trough with hanger wire over it. It still needs some tweaking, it doesn't flow down as well since the peck more than flick and dig like the bigger chicks do. The big heat lamp from Atwoods was too hot but I found a smaller heat lamp at Lowe's that worked great when these little guys were just a few days old.