Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[cuties]

Hi guys
I've been stopping in and keeping up on reads. Seems every time I type more than a few sentences in loose the whole post!
Things are going well here. Kiddos are loving being back at school. Syd rides almost every day. Best thing we ever did for her
Keeping super busy with work and chores. I am so excited that the BLRW pullets have begun to lay. Can't wait to see how some pairings will go this year!

 

[cuties]

Looks there! I didn't loose that one!

 

[momgille]

Cuties... Hoping any day now here before mine start laying... Sometimes I just want to reach down and give a little squeeze

 

[jvls1942]

Looks there! I didn't loose that one!

or this one,,
makes me sooo happy..

 

[jvls1942]

Cuties... Hoping any day now here before mine start laying... Sometimes I just want to reach down and give a little squeeze

awhile ago, more than a few weeks ago, I bought 6 black production hens,, they still are not laying.. as soon as we butcher off the rest of the meaties, I will start feeding the black ones laying formula.. the days are getting shorter, too.. might have to turn on a light,, If there is no response, we will be making a lot of soup ..

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

 

[brentonc]

A couple nights ago we had salmon for dinner and had a little leftover. I jumped on BYC and saw lots of people saying they gave their birds leftover fish, so we gave them some and they loved it. Pretty sure that feast made me some chicken friends.

Fastforward to today. While putting the ladies to bed for the night I noticed that the coop has taken on a definite fish smell - yuk! Looks like I am cleaning the coop out tomorrow and starting over.

On that note - do you keep water INSIDE your enclosed coop space, or just outside in the run, or...? Right now I have both and wonder if some water spillage is contributing to the growing 'aromatics' of the enclosed coop space.

 

[dustergrl]

Brent, I have my water inside my coop but have a 5-gallon waterer w/nipples so it doesn't make a mess. It doesn't seem to increase smell for me.

We are up to 5 pullets laying! Eleven more to go. I will have to start buying layer feed now. Jim, how old are your production pullets?

 

[Cindlady]

Hi All!

Jim... with it spinning that fast you would either have chicken nuggets or soup! LOL

Nothing new here..... Night All!

 

[Huntress78]

So after being chickenless for most of the summer I finally found some hatching eggs and started a new flock. Three, five week old Dark Brahmas, two, eight week old Buffs and two project Golds. Feels good to be greeted by happy birds when I go out to the coop again....the Buffs are sooo sweet and friendly!


Because I didn't have cockerels for the freezer this fall I'm doing a batch of meat pullets. Another week or two and the freezer should be full and I get my layer coop back. Started with 60, lost one at three days old and one has a bum leg....about the same problems I had raising straight run a few years ago.


Jim, I had to laugh at your high powered plucker...my boyfriend built a tabletop model a few years ago and the first time we tried it out it shot a plume of feathers 15 feet in the air! I was standing there eyes wide/mouth hanging open and he calmly said 'yup, gotta gear it down a little'.

Stacy that is an outstanding build! Wonderful reuse of materials...good job!

Brentonc, I've done both...water inside or out depending on the circumstances. In the pic above of the chicks, there is a quart waterer around the corner, in the bigger walk-in coops I have water inside (on a heater base for winter), but in the smaller breeder coops where there is less space I water outside. For these I use a heated dog dish in winter...put an inch of water in the heated dish then set a stainless dish inside and fill. That way you can remove and clean the stainless without having to unplug the heated one. In good weather there are also waterers in the pens. It might be overkill but I think it's good for the girls to stay hydrated for good digestion and egg making.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,

I water outside,, I like to keep the coop as dry as I can,, In the winter I water inside just to keep the water from freezing ..

Once I caught a huge carp,, I split it open and tossed into the chicken yard.. the chickens picked it clean.. but for awhile after, the eggs smelled like fish,, I think it was just from the chickens stepping on the fish and then going in to lay their eggs..

I am also building a table top plucker,, I have a light commercial drum type plucker besides ..
I bought it over 40 years ago,, I have never had to replace a single finger on it .. I did upgrade the motor..

Today I will put the slower motor onto the Whiz Bang plucker..
Go online and there are several U Tubes tutorials on the whiz bang.. watch how slick they take the feathers off..

If you decide to build one, contact me first,, I have made at least 20 improvements of the original plans..

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