Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[zeke]

He's gonna be lonely and I'm gonna be happily busy.....if he comes home with us. After all we are just on a 4hr trip to meet the pup. I did get food and a collar just in case.

Just goin to see the pup... who are you trying to kid ... Your want that pup and we all know it.. Good job on taking the kids along,, you can always blame them... A lesson I m sure you learned from Cooties in your previously mentioned phone chat.. I ve had dealing or two with Mel and she is the master negotiator... You ve been well coached !! Congrats Jim ,,, this is a slam dunk.. Your gonna Love that puppy!!! On a diff, note,, I will be needing a few guinea eggs or 6 keets or so as i lost the 4 I had a while back thanks zeke

 

[wildsam]

My, took me some time again to catch up reading...

Was very busy up here. Lockdown on the duck eggs and the taking care of the 4 brown leghorns. We do not insulate our coops as the chickens stay in with the ducks and stay toasty warm that way.

Then yesterday we had our first 3 ducklings hatch, this afternoon another. Two more externally piped and have partially broken some pieces of shell. Now the waiting game of patience and put your hands behind your back to NOT TOUCH and maybe help. Gosh, sometimes I think it is extra torture from God that ducklings can take up to 4 days to hatch...

Congrats on the tom, bigzio, and on your new bator/hatcher sclark, and of the soon to be rehomed last puppy Jim! Of course I don't doubt a moment that cs is going home without it. Hehe. Kids AND a puppy?! Sure thing to bet!

My pit girl is fascinated watching the birdies in the brooder tub. She don't even mind having her ears right on the heat lamp for long periods of time! The newest dog (SO's sons) loves the duckies and since he is Boxer/Beagle I'm contemplating to see if I can make a herding/duck watch dog out of him. Any ideas how to go about that?

Got another 8" of very wet and heavy snow up here. And the drive was just starting to dry up a bit. Now there will be even more mess
Hope your driveway isn't too bad Stacie! Gotta really come down sometime to have you show me around all your birdies! And of course, take a crash course on making one if those homemade bators of yours

That's it for now, besides me counting down the days til his son is leaving for trucking school on 19 May. Keeping my fingers crossed that they have a cancellation and he goes earlier! Talking about a 24yr old lazy pessimist that tests my nerve strength every hour he can... Urgh! So night all, til next time...

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I picked up 2 bourbon red poults today and put them under my broody turkey. After about 3 hrs I took them away. I payed $10 each for them. I can't risk that clumsy thing stepping on them. If she's still on the nest in a month I'll give her more.

 

[Hurley]

This afternoon I have to take Dora to the vet.. one of her dew claws has curled around and poking into her.. I tried nipping it, but it is too painful .. I was going to keep them trimmed, but alas, I just never remembered to do it..
Annie bought one of those battery powered nail grinders awhile ago.. they are useless.. as soon as it touches the nail, the wheel stops spinning .. maybe a Dremmel would work ?

.....jiminwisc........

I use a dremel with a sanding drum on it for all of my guys. Works great, especially if you need to keep the nails short in a show clip. My dogs hate the nail trimmers but don't mind the dremel at all. Just make sure you keep hair away from it, that'll pull and make them resent it. If you have dogs with hairy paws, pantyhose works great, but it over the paw, pop the nails through, trim, keeps the hair away. With my guys, I just use a finger to hold the hair back while I trim.

I take dews off at 1 day of age. Easy peasy.

 

[jvls1942]

thanks Hurley, good tip about the hairy paws..

these dogs have long hair on their feet .. you can hardly find the nails..

wildsam, if your dog has beagle in him, one of the things you will need to do is get him a good hearing aid.. I had beagles for a time, and they seem to go deaf once they are 15 feet away from you.. the guy I bought a beagle from told me that a good days hunt with a beagle is if you bring it home with you.. I have made more than one trip back to the woods the next day to pick up my or my brother's dog.. you just toss your jacket on the ground near where you had the car parked and put a packet of dog food on it.. the dog will be there the next morning ..

I have to go talk to Annie about spending some money.. I want to buy a flock of guineas.. 24 of them.. then I need to arrange transportation.. Oh brother Daaave ...

.........jiminwisc...........

 

[jayoung34]

I am in Amery. I have my bantams in an insulated coop, but not my large fowl. Leghorns aren't very
hardy. They would benefit from being protected from the elements as much as possible.

Thanks for the reply. How big would suggest the coop to be for 6 Leghorns? Will they utilize the run in the winter time or mostly just stay in the coop? If they stay in the coop more often then not in the winter time should I make the coop bigger?

 

[jvls1942]

Quote: make your coop as big as you can afford to right now.. It is nice to have extra space to store feed sacks and chicken equipment that you might use seasonally.. ie. heated waterers , feed pans , meds, cleaning suppllies ..

you might (will) eventually get more chickens.. and this is not the group of people to try to convince otherwise ..

you might want to make space for a brooder area..

If you are building anyhow, make it worth your while.. a large coop is just as easy and quick as a small one..

remember to make the door WIDE enough to push a wheelbarrow through..
you want enough to be able to use a sh!t fork without hitting the walls..

If I had to do it over, I would make an overhead door so that I could get my tractor bucket inside for cleaning ..

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

One of my coops is 8x8. That would comfortably house 6 birds. I would give them the option to go into the run most winter days, but if it's below zero maybe leave them locked up.

Edited to say: Honestly, most people would probably put 20 birds in an 8x8. But it's nice to have extra room for new additions and in case they do need to stay locked up.

 

[chikenscratch]

Ours is 10ft long x 7ft high x 5 deep overall. That includes a small indoor run & nesting area. We have 6 hens, 2 rabbits and 11 hatchlings waiting to be. Thes are very tight quarters but without the hatchlings works well overall. I free range mine during the day so only the rabbits are inside. Are you planning to keep your inside all the time?

 

[chikenscratch]

Bl4- pm me with your addy and number. I plan to leave here at 6 & would be by you around 8:30-9