Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[dustergrl]

In the excitement of my chicks I forgot to add:

Sorry for the loss of the broilers to the fox.

Congrats on #1

Cute puppies, Jim!

and what else I messed.

Sorry, Kildare!  Welcome to my world!  The garden fence is mostly up and seems to be keeping the fox from getting to the chickens now.  Also the neighbor with the dog suspect is supposed to be moving.  According to a local dog walker, they have way too many dogs and cats over there.  Someone called them in and their house was deemed unfit for humans.  Hopefully they'll be gone soon and will not leave any critters behind! 

Congrats on the expected child and grandchildren!  Still waiting for my girl to get married and provide me with grandchildren so I don't have to borrow them!

Less than half of the garden is planted.  I started with the seeds as the fence is not without holes and low spots on one side of the barnyard.  By the time I'm ready to put in the plants I started I'm hoping the hubs will have the fence completed.  (I can dream, can't I?)

Stay cool!!

Thanks wyo and irish!

 

[Celtic Chick]

Thanks for the info CherMoz. About 1 1/2 hour drive for me. I can handle that.
They look very good for 3 weeks of age.

A question for the "old timers ".... If it has to be a coop & run going forward, will I lose quality ( taste ) both meat & eggs?
My parents & family LOVE the eggs. They are amazed at the taste & yolk. The broilers & heritage cockerels on fermented feed
are a big hit ( I'm sure the fox & her kits were discussing that today ). Outside of winter, its rare I have to feed the layers. Restricted to a coop & run
( run is about 50' x 60'....4 adults/6chicks ) I now have make sure I check the feeder daily. I cant help but think I'm going to be losing flavor.

I think I have more questions now....then back when I only did broilers. Gotta a business to run...so have a good night all!

It sounds like you have a pretty decent size run for the 10 birds you have. Can you fence a section of it off & throw down some grass seed? Then when it gets decent, move on to another section. You could try laying some chicken wire over it to keep them from scratching the roots out.

We used to have the same problem with no grass in the run, but this spring we finally added a 100'x100' section to their run. They haven't killed the grass yet.

In fact, they can't eat it fast enough if you can believe that.

Congrats on the little ones, wyo. They sure are cute. I agree with Bigz about putting a thermometer in there with them. I lay one right on the floor directly under the heat source so I can get an accurate read on their level. This may or may not help with a heating pad though. I do think you might need a bulb of some sort for the evenings when the temps drop since they are out in an outbuilding.

I had some chicks in a brooder with a 150 W reptile bulb. They kept peeping & huddling despite it being 97* in there so I added a heating pad. That they absolutely loved. I turned the reptile bulb off after they were a few days old & they never seemed to notice.

 

[wyoDreamer]

It 11:40 and I just went out and checked on the little ones. Not a peep when I got out there, but the flashlight woke them up and now they are all out and eating and drinking! I put an instant read thermometer under the heating pad. It is sitting right about 100 degrees, but that is about 1 1/2" above them. The little guys were nice and warm to the touch when they came out from under the cave. They peep when they are cold, right? Because they seem perfectly happy in their cave. Hopefully, they are not too hot either. But they do not seem to be panting or over stressed at all.

 

[Cindlady]

Hi All!

Congrats on the new grand babies coming!

Well, I went and and looked at the kids new house (it's been empty for a couple of years) . He's going to have allot of maintenance to do! One of the first things he has to do is get the moss off the siding on the north side! The pool also needs to be drained, cleaned and checked. Allot of brush needs to be cleared out and it looks like the deck needs a little TLC but it's not real bad. I hope the inside is in better shape. It's been bank owned and they can be real slow to dump houses. My son is getting it for about 100,000 under what it was listed at when they first took it back. My son said the inside is pretty much move in ready, I hope so! Oh, I was wrong about distance, it's 4 1/2 miles. Still not far! BTW, If they can, they want a few chickens!

Well, Night All!

 

[Firstchic]

I was gonna ask you firstchick if you know my good friend for life..Charlie from the drive-in?

bigz

I of course have met him when he has served us, but, we have never had a conversation. As long as we are chatting here, I have another chicken problem. One of my black hens came to me with all her hinny feathers out, I did not worry too much about that as she came from a big flock (apx 70) and figured she just got them plucked out by other chicks. Today I noticed that she has lost more feathers going around upon the side of the butt. I did notice that she was picking at that area. Does she have something going on or what?

 

[Firstchic]

Looking good wyo...if you don't have enough heat and the chics are huddled..a simple clamp light with a light bulb provides a lot of heat....it's all I use in the house and works great. Good luck! I like to keep it as simple as possible, as long as it works.

bigz

I am getting new chicks too on the 19th. I have a lamp but am unsure what watt bulb or kind I should use. I think there is a red bulb in it now. Can you guide me on this.

 

[kristip]

Must be predator season...somehow a coon or few got in our coop and took 2 of our teenager pullets. Sure there is a cobbled together coop of little roosters ten feet away ( They got one of those last week) .. but to break into the big coop and take 2 babies drives me nuts. These were my sweet little olive eggers. We are not actually sure how they got in... best bet that we can find this morning is they popped the plastic roofing material off the wood beams of the roof to go in the top side. Morgan is pretty devastated this morning. need to borrow back the trap we loaned out and find another. there were at least 2 coons there last night. what is best thing to bait the trap with?

otherwise School is Out for Summer.... Woot. Kids are excited. First day with the sitter. Hoping for good days. Baseball game tonight we are going to with the Madison team- the Mallards. Should be fun!
Hope everyone is good. Think good non rain thoughts for this Friday/Sat for our rummage. Still unloading moms and my boxes. Andrew stopped counting boxes at 55... there are more... sigh..lots to go!

Have a good week everyone

 

[jvls1942]

Quote: Now would be a good time to set up your brooder,, as if chicks were coming tomorrow..
put a thrmometer under the heat source right on the floor..leave it there. check it in a few hours.
If you are in the 90*F range, good.. make sure your brooder is large enough so that there is a cooler spot the chicks can move to if it gets too warm,, somewhere in between the hot spot and cold spot is a spot that is just right..

If you have trouble getting the temp to rise, a cover over the brooder will hold the heat down,,
then you can regulate the heat by uncovering or covering the box as much as needed ..

 

[unkadan]

good morning,

Kris when I am in coon trappin' mode I use bread,,,toss a few pieces in front of the entrance and then drop a few on the trip pan in the trap,,,here it works maybe not everywhere

good luck

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,

Kris when I am in coon trappin' mode I use bread,,,toss a few pieces in front of the entrance and then drop a few on the trip pan in the trap,,,here it works maybe not everywhere

good luck

alternate plan: buy a Maremma LGD ..