Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

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Jim,
I would love to see your set up. We live north of town about a mile off of K but I am in Wausau most days. At this point, and since this is our first venture, I am leaning toward using the heating pad broody method and setting them up in the garage. They seem to feather out faster this way, we will not have to worry about fire and if for some reason the chicken project turns out to be a huge disaster, we have not invested in permanent broody houses or heaters. Daughter's presentation and poster got some smiles from her father last night, and I let him know that the chicks would be in Thursday, so time was short. I think we are winning him over.....
 
I'm just curious, reading over many of these posts. Do a lot of people on here have larger chicken farms/ many chickens? Or just hobby farms?
 
chickendreams24 said:
Hi what are you planning on getting?

Some people insulate some don't. Also some people use heat lamps some don't. There is a member from the Easter hatch-a-long that was using a lamp for 16 three week old chicks that had just been moved to the coop. Their coop burned to nothing killing the chicks that couldn't escape. The only reason their adult birds lived is because the door to the run hadn't gotten closed that night. Sorry I don't mean to scare you. We do have the ability to have a heater or lamp on out there. However we only plug it in if we're out there and only if it's below zero.
Click to expand...

I do not insulate (but I live on the WI/IL border-eastern side). I do however have supplemental lighting during early spring, late fall and winter and I switch out one of the bulbs for a heat lamp if it gets below zero. I've never had a problem with frost bite either. In order to prevent fire hazards, I routinely brush down the coop of spider webs, dust and I include the lamps when I do this. Also, I have each lamp secured twice. I have a water bucket that I use for winter as it plugs in and holds 5 gallons.
RooBeeC said:
I'm just curious, reading over many of these posts. Do a lot of people on here have larger chicken farms/ many chickens? Or just hobby farms?
Click to expand...
I have .66 acres, so not a big operation here either. The hubby says I own a zoo.
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We have 7 chickens, 2 dogs, 2 cats, fish and a bearded dragon.


Oh Jim!!!!! Guess who has decided that he wants to be a chicken guard dog????? Theo has really come into his own in his 2nd yr of life. He whimpers and digs under the fence if I lock him away from the chickens now. I have him on a long leash for the time being until I can trust him 100% (maybe 99%
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). He also darted out of the fenced backyard and down the road yesterday...bad dog! All in all he is great, but he has some major digging issues!


All is good here. The garden is growing. Yes, we've has the snow, blizzard, sun, etc weather (although I'm sure it hasn't gotten as cold here), but it hasn't stunted the growth.

Sapping is done (I think). We haven't taken everything out yet, but I think it's over. We'll wait until the weather regulates though.
 
Ah, thanks for responding. Its cool to see how other people set up their chicken coops/ size of the coops. I also have a small set up, but have 6+ acres for them to roam.
D.gif
 
Idk exactly how much "yard" we have but we back up to about 130+ acres of fields the flock can roam in we are currently at 26 but are growing out over twenty chicks which we will keep some of and sell some of my total allowed this year by DH2B is 40 maybe next year it'll be 50 lol we are also looking to rehome a few of our current flock due to personalities in the flock not meshing. We have several bantams and EE as well as silkies so we want a pretty mellow flock.

This summer we are also going to start raising our own meat birds. We plan to do a few of both Cornish cross and heritage breeds.
 
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chickendreams24 said:
Idk exactly how much "yard" we have but we back up to about 130+ acres of fields the flock can roam in we are currently at 26 but are growing out over twenty chicks which we will keep some of and sell some of my total allowed this year by DH2B is 40 maybe next year it'll be 50 lol we are also looking to rehome a few of our current flock due to personalities in the flock not meshing. We have several bantams and EE as well as silkies so we want a pretty mellow flock.

This summer we are also going to start raising our own meat birds. We plan to do a few of both Cornish cross and heritage breeds.
Click to expand...
That sounds like so much fun! I think I'll have to cap my flock at about 12-15 due to space
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. But I can totally see how chicken math is a real thing!
 

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