Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[jvls1942]

did I tell you my heated hose is working just fine ? I take it back.
at 5PM I went to fill the waterers for the night.. hose is frozen tight.. I always blamed it on the faulty gfi outlet,, the hose patent is just no d@mn good.. I think my dd#2 paid about $99.oo for it from F&F in Stevens Point.. Never worked decent from day one ...

Brent better get that snow blower repaired.. As long as you are ready for snow , it won't come..

I was thinking of starting some chicken eggs in the winter so I would have pullets ready in the spring.. That is the best time for selling started pullets.. I am not sure exactly when to start though.. I have to separate the breeds and that means putting them into the cold pens.. Maybe February would be soon enough. we will see..

I didn't have to carry the Asian Fowl to the guinea pen tonight, but I did have to herd them.. they went quite willingly.. I closed the door to the lean-to, so tomorrow they can't go in there.. maybe they will pile up at the door, but then I will herd them again.. they will learn..

both coops water freezes, but it still feels comfortable in there.. I don't expect any frozen combs this winter..

 

[MustLoveHens]

Evening all!
Just got back from Mad City. Had dinner with dh and BFF and her dh. We ate at Olive Garden. It was great to see them both especially since I only get to see them once a year. They leave to go back to Cali tomorrow....

The heated hanging waterer sucks! The base is very easy to twist off and I leaked. So tomorrow I'll go back to Blaine's and exchange it for another type. That sucks...such a good idea but it acts like a prototype instead of a completed product. Ah well.....

GR65- I think each and every chicken owner does what works for them best. Some use heat others don't. I use heat lamps "free choice". If my hens want a nice hot spot then they can use it. If they don't then they won't. Years ago, when I lived in Cali, I was having a nasty URI run through my flock. I'd get rid of it and it'd come back. Our whole area was having this problem. As part of the treatment, I started to leave a heat lamp on in an area that I set up as a hospital ward type of thing. Once I did that I finally was able to get rid of the URI. My chicken guru friend was the one that told me that heat would help and it did. She said that if a sickly chicken can get warm then their immune system had a better change at fighting off illness. Interesting fact about that time. It was in the dead of a hot summer in Ca. Once the chickens no longer needed that lamp I turned it off..... much to their dismay! Turned out, all the chickens would use it, some more then others, as a little warm up spot. We called it the Day Spa. I had a huge Brahma rooster that spent more time under that stupid lamp. He would spread out his wings and all his little friends would hang out under them. Strangest sight ever.
Anyway, I would say to give your heat lamp a try. It won't hurt and if it helps Sneezy then that's a good thing. A heat lamp will only heat a specific area or spot. It's not like your Girls will be at a disadvantage feather wise because they already have their winter feathers and should be adequately feathered out so to speak. So your Girls have the ability to withstand some cold temps well. The heat lamp is just there to give them a choice to toast up. Unless your hen is really sick or it's super cold out, most hens don't tend to stay under a lamp. They get to hot. My hens just use it to "recharge" their little batteries to do more Very Important Chicken Things.

Well, I think I'm going to go take some cold medication. I feel a cold coming on....maybe I should use a heat lamp on me!!!!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
We have the incubator in our kitchen area as that is where we hang out the most, once the chicks hatch we double crate them in the kitchen for about 2 weeks and then they are moved out to our heated garage that holds all our equipment and supplies for work. When we built the garage DH agreed that we could put a 6' x 6' kennel area in the one corner of the garage just incase. That area is now divided into 2 pens- one is smaller and works perfectly for DS(9)'s Bantam Leghorns, the other half hold 2 stacked rabbit pens on the back wall and the floor space holds my cuckoo Marans for now till spring as all our chickens are divided up into breed pens. The babies will stay in the garage until it get warm enough outside for them. DH will move a trailer out and put up our spare kennel panels if needed. So we are lucky that way- it sure helps the kids out with their 4-H projects.

 

[MustLoveHens]

While visions of Tree Trashing danced in his head...........

 

[Celtic Chick]

You all are in rare form today. Glad I had't been sipping on anything while reading.

H&R, sorry to hear about your son & his tooth. Glad your dog is gaining weight.

BBP, I am so sorry to hear about how those people are treating your birds. Sometimes I really dislike people and the way they think regarding animals. Are they even thinking?

Ah, Cind, I hear you on the soup sentiment! There's nothing quite like some hot, home made soup on a cold winter's evening. Yesterday I made some chicken veggie barley soup for dinner and it was delish! DH isn't quite as gung-ho on soup as I am, but the last 2 I've made, he's been having seconds and thirds, so I must be getting better at seasoning them to his tastes.

I am in no hurry to go out and check on the birds.. I can tell from the kitchen window that the coops have not burned down, that is good enough for me until after I have my coffee..

Not sure if they ran back in, I sure in the heck did.

Dave, if you are so heII bent on going outside, why not come over here and check my chickens ??

You guys made me laugh. Who said that, Ghost, about why the heck do they live here since they hate the cold? Isn't that the truth? The older I get, the more I dislike winter. TG I have such a wonderful DH. He went out to take care of the critters for me yesterday & today. I sure hope they're right about it being 40* for the next few days.

Dave, love the pics of your kitty. She's pretty.

MLH, that is a pretty good price for those heated water bottles, but I don't think my rabbits have figured mine out yet. I also have a heated dog dish which they use all the time but it gets dirty fast with the chickens scratching & flapping around. I have one of those small heated bowls that hang on the cage, but those are no fun to dump out & clean, unless they changed the design. I've never heard of a heated hanging waterer. I hope they get the bugs worked out of it. That's a bummer that it was a lemon.
Quote:

Who? That little angelic looking kitty?

 

[FrenchToast]

Hey all !!

Been reading all the posts to catch up but way to much to comment on !!! Since I too have CRS by the time I'm done reading. Doesn't mean I'm not thinking about ya all and the cold weather !!!

Today has been one of those day !!!! DH waits til the last minute to pack the stuff to go to the dump so I'm hustling him along cause they close at 4pm, then I decide to ride along because I wanted to see the neighbor that works there. He had bypass surgery a few months back and haven't seen him. Anyway then we drive to town to get gas for the atv and tractor.
I was driving. All the way there I was like, "What is this smell"? It was bad !!! We looked at Butt Dog, not her. Get to the gas station and Dh pumps the gas, I took his glove and wiped a spot I saw on my jeans. Then smelt the glove, yep it was something on my pants !!! What I thought, then it dawned on me. I had left some old eggs out in the basement. And Dh didn't bring them to the dump the last time he went. Well, when I picked up the bag it was leaking, Yep good old rotten eggs !!!! YUCK !
SOOOOO, he gets back in the truck and I asked if he could hand me the hand sanitizer that was on his side of the dash. I was looking over and pointing to it !!! I pulled away from the pump, BANG !!! As I turned to the left and HIT THE GOSH DARN METAL PIPE !!! that was protecting their lovely pumps !!! I actually had to back up to get off of it !!!! Sounded terrible !!! Well, then the cussing started !!!! I remember pulling into the outside of the pump and it was a tight squeeze to exit and with snow piled up it was even tighter.
Got home and DH said you can hardly notice it because it is down real low but I sure can notice it. It is not small dent !!!! JC if it ain't one thing it's a couple dozen of another around here. That poor truck. DH can't seem to get the hang of backing up a trailer and our rear side panel has a huge dent in it. Then a few years ago I hit a couple of turkeys so the front bumper and blinker light is damaged. And then there is the cap window that broke (who knows how that happened) that he patched up hillbilly style. He learned one thing moving up here to Kentuck country hey?

And now this !!! Oh well, at least I have $850 new brakes and $661 new tires on the old Jeloppy !!!

Cleaned out an incubator that I had forgotten to clean. Going to put in some lavender split silkies and paint cross silkies. Keeping fingers crossed on the paints. My lavender cross silkie chick is doing real good (the one I found near death, cold and neglected from its mom). Have it in with a silkie/cochin cross.

Both kitties posted are really cuties !!! Little devils !!!

Speal\\king of little devils. My two cats, Mother and Son are spending all day and night in the house these days (they were strays left here and ended up in the house) because of the cold. Sure can tell, the litter box is overflowing, of course cleaned that out before we went to the dump. Holy cow they are eating good !!!!

Another thing with them, for some reason the Mama (Whisper) hates her son (Nash). She growls and hisses at him all the time. All he has to do is look at her. Have no idea what gives. It's been real bad lately, they must have cabin fever !!

Well, time to unwind. busy day tomorrow I hope. Dh was crabby today, hopefully tomorrow will be better so we can get the coop lights and heat lamps working. Plus I need to deworm the horses and goats.

Oh and speaking of pigs !!!

Squiggy, Squeaky or whatever we are gonna call him is a houdini !!! I lock him in the coop he shares with 3 chickens when I leave so he doesn't start roaming the neighborhood or ??? and just as I was ready to leave yesterday here he comes walking up to me when I went outside.
The coop has a garage door that we can close but it also has two swinging doors that have 1"x1" heavy wire so we can leave the garage door open for ventilation. Well, if you latch it you can still push it open from the inside. So I put 3 bunge cords on it to keep it closed.
Well, that saying "PigHeaded" is correct, That little bugger pushed hard enough to get that open and stretch those bunges. Went to bring him back and the bunges were still attached !!! And I swear I had put him in to begin with.

So Dh locked up last night and closed the garage door and the gates. This morning he comes in the house and said guess who greeted him when he got outside? And he swore he closed the garage door. He said it was two inches up off the ground.

He didn't close the swinging doors since he closed the garage doors.
So we shall see tomorrow morning what the little stinker is up to. DH said he bungeed the swinging doors tonight. I bought some new latches (3) to put on the swinging doors !!!
Maybe I should name him Houdini or Houswiney the swine !!

Man those D@m cats won't stop fighting !!!! Really getting on my nerves tonight !!! It's not like Nash is doing anything, she just hates him !!!

Poor Nash !! Has a B!tch for a mother !!

Ok, gotta do more searches on Pigs, btw Jim I ordered bunches books from the library on Peafowl. So maybe I'll learn something about them.
Well, sounds like crabby pants dh is in a better mood, I hear him making love gutchie goos with Butt Dog !!! See if it lasts til morning !!! Every man should have a small dog, it's good for them !!!

 

[Cindlady]

Hi all! Looks like there was allot of nice chatter on here today! Too tired to say much... been busy. Jim... that Thai Fowl I got from you is defiantly a hen. .... at least the roster thinks so!

Night all!

 

[tiki244]

Good Morning,

I can tell it is going to be warmer today. At 7 am already when I watered the chickens it was fairly 'nice' out. No frozen water today.t I would rather use a heat lamp than buy 5 heated waterers. Optimal temp in the coop (for me)would be just above freezing.

MLH what a cutey pie! MLH funny about the heat lamp

Sounds like one of those days FT.!!

What a nice set up HandR.

I have thought it would be nice to hatch chicks for the sale at Neillesville in April. Heard POL pullets go for a pretty penny. But seems my chickens lay well up to about the time I want to collect hatching eggs, then they take a couple months break.

I do have a few silkie babies(a couple weeks old) in my lil coop. 3 from my blue pair. These are the first babies I have hatched from them since I got them. They are 3 yrs old. Well a hen hatched them not me. And 4 from my black hen Mocha. Also 3 yr old and also her first chicks. They are in there with their mamas.


I think I need some more coffee. I am really surprised I am the *second* one to post this morning. err I mean *third*

 

[Terri O]

Good morning! I think DrH and Jim sleep in on Sunday mornings Kris...we get to post "first" and it is nearly nine here! I was the one up to let the "wold pack" out and to feed them this morning...all DH did was complain that the coffee was too weak. I think it is fine. It is weird...we make it the exact same way and he always says that mine is weak...I have one reply-"make it yourself then!" Today I said nothing...

FT--you have quite a life there...I always wondered why they had those pipes around the pumps...actually I knew--I just wondered what kind of people actually hit the them! (now I know)

It probably moved in front of you!

I always seem to do the dumbest stuff when I am driving with DH too...otherwise I am fine.
It did seem slightly warmer out this morning...the toilet wasnt frozen either! I thought it was cause I turned the heat tape on

maybe not. When I was in the basement doing that I noticed that something has chewed holes in the wall into the bathroom down there! I could see sunlight coming through!

I guess I better get something in there to plug up the holes...they are good sized...I think a possum could fit through!
I hear ya about leaking waterers MLH! I thought your new one sounded intriguing but I was skeptical for sure! It just doesnt seem right to me that water should "hang!" Well mine leaked and it wasnt hanging! I have those easy clean ones and I have no idea why it started leaking all of a sudden...I took it apart and cleaned it all out about 2 weeks ago...it was yucky inside and I thought that was why it leaked...it has been fine until yesterday. It leaked about 3 gallons of water all over my already wet chicken bedding! I think I have to reset the base it is on--it must not be level enough.
Made another cookie tin waterer heater yesterday so I will get it outside today. I wanted to take a pic of it for you FT but I cant find that blasted camera AGAIN! The last pics I took I posted on here...dont know where I set it down.

I swear that thing has legs!

All that talk about soup...I have just a little bit of split pea out on the porch (giant refrigerator) and I think I am going to heat up a bowl for breakfast...by the time I do that JIm will have posted so I can spit some of it at the monitor while reading!

Have a fantastic day everyone! BigZ--I hope you get your blower repaired! Terri O

 

[tiki244]

morning Terrie. Sure is quiet around here. lol Yey with me having spotty internet it is hard to keep up with the swing of things around here. lol I think I may have to go through my old mags and find a patterns for the cookie tin waterer.