Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[jvls1942]

good afternoon,

got an early start and finished mowing before noon,,

got our first ever, call duck egg..

going to F&F for a lawn tractor battery..
I thought I could limp this one until fall, but it seems to have given up the ghost..

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

 

[momgille]

OMG Jim if it weren't for allergies she would be mine... need that darned poodle thing and non-shedding breed... Battery on our tractor is ready for replacement too, but still takes a charge using the trickle...

 

[bigzio]

Yep, perfect day outside today here! Should be good to go Mom...and repeat the dusting of their butts and under their wings in ten days...then it should be a done deal as long as it's 5% sevin dust...the only one to use safely.

bigz

 

[jvls1942]

good afternoon,

got an early start and finished mowing before noon,,

got our first ever, call duck egg..

going to F&F for a lawn tractor battery..
I thought I could limp this one until fall, but it seems to have given up the ghost..

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

got the battery changed,, starts and runs like new.. hope it stays that way..

someone called and said he would be here after 6oPM today

to look at the call ducks.
that remains to be seen..
but, I have a feeling that this guy will actually show up..

I want to till between the tomatoes, but there are sooo many volunteer potatoes coming up..
I guess I will just bite the bullet and till them under.. any plant where it does not belong is a weed..



I made a set of hangars for my pvc out of coat hangars.. I let strings down from the pvc to tie up the tomato plants.. a trick that uncaDan taught me,,

I moved 7 baby guineas out to the chicken coop brooders..
I gave them ground oats and corn instead of starter mash.. experimenting how they will do..

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

Hello Jim, I am back.. the guy did show up and bought all of the call ducks.. yahooo..

they will be living at the end of a half mile dead end road in a 1/2 acre pond with an island right in the middle of it..

I guess I am the only one left on chz hds..

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

 

[Cindlady]

Hi All!

Sorry I was late Jim, I was re-knitting

I found a boo-boo about 1,000 stitches down! If I didn't rip it out and fix it my grandmother would have haunted me for the rest of my life! I have seen that woman rip out 3/4 of an afghan for 1 stitch that didn't look right.

I have 2 broody hens now. A young hen managed to get in the little coop with the 10 week old's, I left her, she seems just fine with them and maybe they can learn something from her.

Nothing else.... Night All!

 

[dustergrl]

Hey guys! I'm new to BYC, really loving this site! My chicks are about 5 weeks old and almost fully feathered. Do you think it's ok to stop using a heat lamp now? I'm in southeast Wisconsin so it's fairly warm now during the nights. Thanks for any input!

Hello and welcome! My chicks are 7 weeks and just off the heat lamp at night. The protocol, if you have them in a coop and not indoors, is 5* each week. So during the day they should be fine, but the minimum temp at night should be 70* at week 5. With the temps in SE WI, you may be looking at a couple more weeks of nighttime heat lamp.

Week 6- min temp 65
Week 7- 60

But it is up to you. Mine are just getting fully feathered. If yours already are, try it on a warmer night and see how they behave.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,

went for strawberries and home already,, had strawberry shortcake for breakfast..

my chicks were hatched on May 7. they have been off of heat for about 3 weeks.. many of them have been sleeping outside at night for almost 2 weeks..

I start the newly hatched chicks off at 80F.. I just keep it set there and they can decide how close to the heat they want to sleep..

they do not need constant heat.. just watch a hen and chicks.. they are out and about when it is 40F and every once in awhile they crawl under the hen and warm up, and then it is back to business as usual..

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

 

[browncow15]

Hi All

Just wanted to say thanks for letting me lurk! DH decided not to take the job at this point. I have a feeling we are destined for you're beautiful state at some point though! It's about the only place I can do what I want to do job wise. Maybe we will see you all in a few years. Anyways thanks again!

 

[momgille]

Went to the neighbors and had Crab Curry OMG was wonderful. Her father was born in India and we had that, a Indian cucumber tomato salad with cilantro and desert ... Mexican LOL Tres Leches cake. Question though now with the shells from the crab ( King and Dungeness) do you think I have to grind them or will they pick at them until there is no more to pick?


As for the temps for the chicks I can only say that my chicks are 5 weeks old and have been outside the entire time as they were hatched by a broody and they have access to her body heat any time they want... but I have not seen anyone huddling for heat whatsoever for the last week and a half... Being raised in a brooder I think you need to harden them off gradually which is the 5 degrees per week theory. I think once feathered though they should be pretty good to go right. Try them at night in the house without heat and see what they do? They will probably still huddle, which if not in a coop and only in a run makes them vulnerable to attack... happened to me couple of years ago. I didn't want the big girls to beat them up... would have been better to have been beaten than eaten

 

[Celtic Chick]

Hey guys! I'm new to BYC, really loving this site! My chicks are about 5 weeks old and almost fully feathered. Do you think it's ok to stop using a heat lamp now? I'm in southeast Wisconsin so it's fairly warm now during the nights. Thanks for any input!

and to the Cheesehead thread! Hope you like it here.

I had my chicks (from a brooder) off heat and out in the coop at 4 weeks old. That was about 2 weeks ago. They are now pretty feathered out but not completely. Where are your chicks? In the house? Garage? Coop? Some breeds are a little more sensitive than others, or whiney.

My recommendation would be to turn off the heat and observe them throughout the day. If they are peeping loudly & will not quiet down, and are huddled together in a ball, then they are cold & still need the heat. If they are almost fully feathered, they should not need heat unless they are in a drafty or damp area. Observing their behavior is the key to figuring out a lot about chickens. HTH

Cuties I love your set up, you are the most organized person ever... The chicks are now about 5 weeks old and are really fast... The other birds pay them no mind but mom is one mean bird and no one gets near them... Thinking she will get tired of it all, but also thinking we may as well put them all in the big coop now, one less door to close at night, but then they would be having layer feed. Right now I keep them separate, so all the big girls don't eat all their starter/grower up before they get to it... Must taste awfully good....

Thinking about dunking all the girls... their feathers look pretty ragged some half eaten almost. First I thought one was maybe being picked on around the neck, you know how they do that to a bird and now I am wondering about mites, vent gleet and other vent issues is really due to mites? ( Celtic my red seems to have perked up a bit) I don't see them (mite/lice) on the birds though and I do treat the coop and where they dust with DE and ashes, but with the warming weather maybe the population as exploded... I dusted the coop with Sevin and kept them all out of it on Saturday and plan on re-dusting again this weekend and the next. Is that enough or do I have to dunk them too in something like Permethrin. There are bunches of different mites they could have I suppose anyway give me some ideas all. Thanks!

Momg, that is one of the main reasons why I keep my chicks in my breeding pen until they are almost adults. Otherwise my gluttonous girls would eat all their food up. As for the dunking, I would do like Bigz said and just dust each one of them with 5% Sevin. You could sprinkle some in their dust bath too. As for the crab shells, I let them dry out & then broke them up as small as I could & tossed them out for the ladies. They loved them. I wouldn't bother grinding them. If they need them smaller, they will break them up. Besides, it'll give them something to do.