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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 12, 2023 5:03:40 GMT -5
OK. I could have set eggs yesterday but did not. I lost 3 chicks yesterday due to 2 escaping the pen & 1 I had sick in my bed for a week died. Actually 9 escaped the pen, but 2 went into thorns I had to get on the road & a pair of breeding Hawks are hunting here ATM...them 2 chicks are gone & the 1 in my bed passed away, I gave the body to the dogs. I have a grey bird I want to name MJB but if it's a hen I can't I have 2 black birds I'll have to see where the Roosters are. The one that passed away in my bed was the only black bird in that bunch. I will update soon!
EDIT: I will update with video, sorry for any confusion.
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Post by Poopface on Mar 15, 2023 12:30:05 GMT -5
Wifey sent me this picture today. Apparently, our 2 week old chicks are deathly afraid of an apple core.
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 20, 2023 14:04:17 GMT -5
3/20 update: BUMP!
Just trying to get back in my rhythm.
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Post by Poopface on Mar 20, 2023 17:02:20 GMT -5
3/20 update: BUMP! Just trying to get back in my rhythm. Just watched the video. Any consideration/ability to set up a small solar panel to power a resistance heated chicken waterer? Might make life easier for you for the small babies. |
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 20, 2023 22:51:39 GMT -5
I do have 4-25watt, 1-100watt and 10-400watt panels. I'm supposed to have 10 more 400watt panels coming soon. I also have several 1000gallon reservoirs that never freeze, it's just I have to haul water back and forth from them when the plumbing freezes over or any other issue. How much would something like that take?
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Post by Poopface on Mar 22, 2023 18:58:49 GMT -5
I do have 4-25watt, 1-100watt and 10-400watt panels. I'm supposed to have 10 more 400watt panels coming soon. I also have several 1000gallon reservoirs that never freeze, it's just I have to haul water back and forth from them when the plumbing freezes over or any other issue. How much would something like that take? Are you asking about how to get the water from the reservoirs to the chickens? Depending on the contours of the land, you might be able to plumb it so you can gravity feed from the larger reservoirs to where the chickens are. |
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Post by Poopface on Mar 22, 2023 19:59:53 GMT -5
Chicken math is a thing! We got 7 egg chicks three weeks ago. I picked up 22 broiler chicks yesterday plus an unknown “I didn’t know why the hatchery gave us these extra black ones do you want one?” chick from the Amish yesterday. Today my wife went out to Tractor Supply for more egg chick feed when I got home. She texted me that they have Silver Laced Wyandottes, “lets get some now instead of waiting 2 weeks” for the plant nursery/foofy feed place to get them. Meanwhile we’re giving a friend two of our 2+ yr olds that tend to get aggressive vs noob chickens. And of the 7 we got 3 weeks ago, we strongly suspect 2 are roosters and we might sell off a few of the remainder just so we don’t end up with too many layers. Oh, and 2 of our layers are senior citizens that we keep just to bring sanity to the coop. So.....I have 42 chickens on my property at the moment with 34 of them under a month old and all of those in brooders in my garage with 22 of them slated for the freezer in ~10 weeks and some still-to-be-determined number to be sold or given away depending on factors mentioned above. 🤦♂️  |
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Post by Poopface on Mar 26, 2023 12:23:45 GMT -5
Spent a while completely cleaning out the egg bird from and coop yesterday afternoon. After that we cleaned out the two brooders being used for the meat and egg bird chicks.
In the course of cleaning the meat brooder saw we had 3 chicks with the beginnings of pasty butt and had to deal with that. Despite temps being lower and those 3 chicks being a little damp, all 3 made it through the night. Yay!
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 27, 2023 10:25:40 GMT -5
I have 1 undersized chick who keeps getting mudd butt as well, I think this may be why it is undersized perhaps...
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 28, 2023 8:48:33 GMT -5
3.28 update!
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 28, 2023 15:58:47 GMT -5
Unexpected addition...
Sugar's brothers & sisters will be sent to the pound in a few days due to the fact the owners won't chain the dog & it keeps walking to the middle of the road as usual. terrible thing is the puppies follow her where ever she goes.
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Post by Poopface on Mar 28, 2023 17:26:46 GMT -5
Unexpected addition... Sugar's brothers & sisters will be sent to the pound in a few days due to the fact the owners won't chain the dog & it keeps walking to the middle of the road as usual. terrible thing is the puppies follow her where ever she goes. Good looking dogs. Pit mix? |
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 28, 2023 17:46:14 GMT -5
Unexpected addition... Sugar's brothers & sisters will be sent to the pound in a few days due to the fact the owners won't chain the dog & it keeps walking to the middle of the road as usual. terrible thing is the puppies follow her where ever she goes. Good looking dogs. Pit mix? 3 way mix the mother is Beagle/Pit, the father is AM Bulldog. Good looking litter, they are in SC. |
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Post by Poopface on Mar 28, 2023 17:54:05 GMT -5
Good looking dogs. Pit mix? 3 way mix the mother is Beagle/Pit, the father is AM Bulldog. Good looking litter, they are in SC. I never would guess Bulldog is in there. Good thing, too. My wife would trade me in if she could get an AM Bulldog. 😂 |
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Mar 28, 2023 18:01:21 GMT -5
Jackson is closer to Brit Bulldog than an AM Bulldog as an AM Bully (being a reverse bred AM Staffy & AM Pit). Looks wise because they have messed that Brit Bulldog up, American bulldogs are way healthier & breathe better.
EDIT: I will keep you all updated as she develops.
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Apr 10, 2023 7:39:24 GMT -5
4.10.23 After a long 4 days of storms the sun has emerged for the benefit of the farm but the the detriment of 2 lives.
I try to stay upbeat & I don't always report losses right away, due to the fact I do care for my animals even when putting them and their products on my or others plates. So useless losses effect my mood sometimes as culling does not as much because it is for a cause.
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Post by gus169 on Apr 10, 2023 7:59:21 GMT -5
we lost a japanese bantam to a snake recently. it got into the coop. I didn't put wire under the bottom when I built it. I guess it was only a matter of time. I'll put some mesh in now
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Post by Poopface on Apr 10, 2023 8:08:01 GMT -5
we lost a japanese bantam to a snake recently. it got into the coop. I didn't put wire under the bottom when I built it. I guess it was only a matter of time. I'll put some mesh in now I recommend 1/2" grid hardware cloth. At least in America, anything that gets in vs full-grown birds will get pecked to death. |
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Post by gus169 on Apr 10, 2023 8:17:16 GMT -5
we lost a japanese bantam to a snake recently. it got into the coop. I didn't put wire under the bottom when I built it. I guess it was only a matter of time. I'll put some mesh in now I recommend 1/2" grid hardware cloth. At least in America, anything that gets in vs full-grown birds will get pecked to death. Thanks mate. I'll check it out |
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Apr 10, 2023 8:26:51 GMT -5
we lost a japanese bantam to a snake recently. it got into the coop. I didn't put wire under the bottom when I built it. I guess it was only a matter of time. I'll put some mesh in now I mesh all the bottom part of my enclosures going at least 6 inches down but usually more than that because I go outward as well. This helps the vegetation regrow into the ground locking the mesh into the roots rather than just going down into soil (makes it real hard to burrow/dig into the enclosure). EDIT: I then sew the top part of the mesh to the standard sizes of chicken fencing with spooled wire. |
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Post by Poopface on Apr 10, 2023 8:53:51 GMT -5
4.10.23 After a long 4 days of storms the sun has emerged for the benefit of the farm but the the detriment of 2 lives. I try to stay upbeat & I don't always report losses right away, due to the fact I do care for my animals even when putting them and their products on my or others plates. So useless losses effect my mood sometimes as culling does not as much because it is for a cause. I'm sorry to hear about that. That really does suck. I agree that it's harder to take when it seems senseless.
I've lost a layer to hypothermia last year. I cleaned off her plugged vent, but didn't do a good enough job drying her before putting her back in the run. She didn't even make it through the rest of the day. My fault. |
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Post by Poopface on Apr 10, 2023 8:57:13 GMT -5
we lost a japanese bantam to a snake recently. it got into the coop. I didn't put wire under the bottom when I built it. I guess it was only a matter of time. I'll put some mesh in now I mesh all the bottom part of my enclosures going at least 6 inches down but usually more than that because I go outward as well. This helps the vegetation regrow into the ground locking the mesh into the roots rather than just going down into soil (makes it real hard to burrow/dig into the enclosure). EDIT: I then sew the top part of the mesh to the standard sizes of chicken fencing with spooled wire. I typically build a frame out of 4x4's the same dimensions of the coop base. Once the frame is built, I partly sink it into the soil and put 1/2" grid hardware cloth on the underside. I overlap ~3" and sew it up with the wrap wire that comes with the rolls of hardware cloth.
Once located, I bore holes 1' from the outer edges and one in the middle for the 8''+ long sides and drive rebar through it to keep everything from shifting. Thus far, no predators have gotten inside the coop in 5 years.
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Post by >^\}VULTURE{/^< on Apr 10, 2023 9:02:05 GMT -5
4.10.23 After a long 4 days of storms the sun has emerged for the benefit of the farm but the the detriment of 2 lives. I try to stay upbeat & I don't always report losses right away, due to the fact I do care for my animals even when putting them and their products on my or others plates. So useless losses effect my mood sometimes as culling does not as much because it is for a cause. I'm sorry to hear about that. That really does suck. I agree that it's harder to take when it seems senseless.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I've lost a layer to hypothermia last year. I cleaned off her plugged vent, but didn't do a good enough job drying her before putting her back in the run. She didn't even make it through the rest of the day. My fault. Bothers you the most when you put effort into something to only have something else come up... it's like really? Oh c'mon give me a friggin break, I'm trying over here! |
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Post by Poopface on Apr 10, 2023 9:17:14 GMT -5
We're heading out of town for a few days coming up over the weekend. Long enough that we can't leave them alone. I don't know the chicken tender nearly well enough to give her the keys to get into the garage while we're out. We've planned on introducing the garage layers (12) to the main flock soon, but this pushes things earlier, unfortunately. As such the new "temporary" coop has to be built far faster than we'd planned. That meant this was a working weekend despite having some people in town for Easter. Unfortunately, it once again became a case of "requirements creep" for us. So our temporary coop/chicken tractor is far beefier than I was originally sold on. Walls and floors are scavenged from about 10 or so pallets.
I still need to mount the roof, install the hardware cloth over all faces, find and install wheels, build and install an access door, and figure out some means of dragging it as the still-wet pressure treated lumber is still quite heavy.
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Post by gus169 on Apr 10, 2023 9:38:58 GMT -5
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Post by Poopface on Apr 12, 2023 12:36:26 GMT -5
Roof is on and tar paper mounted. Wheels mounted to the coop side (in shadow on left below). Door is made and mounted. Hardware cloth is mounted all the way around. All that's left is the hardware cloth to get mounted to the top of the run. Then need to move it to the chicken yard this evening.
I'm quite glad that I've gone away from using fence nails to mount the hardware cloth. Trying to drive those in, keep them from skewing or splitting the lumber just isn't worth using the nails. I use either 1" or 1 1/4" deck screws and 1/4" fender washers is a bit more expensive, but infinitely easier to use, way faster to install, and allows for reconfiguration of the setup at a later date if I care to. I started implementing that approach when I put my first extension on the original coop and won't go back.
I'll mount the shingles when we get back from the weekend. We'll cover it with a tarp for the weekend just to protect against potential rain. |
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Post by munkeeee on Apr 12, 2023 12:43:55 GMT -5
for years I have wanted to get a garden up an going in my yard, but sadly due to the layout it would be quite difficult. The best area for a fruit/vegetable garden along the fence line would not get any sun until early afternoon, then have the full sun until sundown. Not to mention in my neighborhood there is an environmental center that caters to and houses all kinds of critters that visit the area at nite, not causing any destruction, but could still cause trouble.
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Post by Poopface on Apr 12, 2023 14:15:38 GMT -5
for years I have wanted to get a garden up an going in my yard, but sadly due to the layout it would be quite difficult. The best area for a fruit/vegetable garden along the fence line would not get any sun until early afternoon, then have the full sun until sundown. Not to mention in my neighborhood there is an environmental center that caters to and houses all kinds of critters that visit the area at nite, not causing any destruction, but could still cause trouble. Are community garden plots available? We rented one the next town over when we were in our townhouse. Was dirt cheap and an excellent learning experience for us. We made A LOT of mistakes early on. |
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Post by munkeeee on Apr 12, 2023 14:28:31 GMT -5
for years I have wanted to get a garden up an going in my yard, but sadly due to the layout it would be quite difficult. The best area for a fruit/vegetable garden along the fence line would not get any sun until early afternoon, then have the full sun until sundown. Not to mention in my neighborhood there is an environmental center that caters to and houses all kinds of critters that visit the area at nite, not causing any destruction, but could still cause trouble. Are community garden plots available? We rented one the next town over when we were in our townhouse. Was dirt cheap and an excellent learning experience for us. We made A LOT of mistakes early on. in my area there are quite a few, but sadly they are relegated to that area/neighborhoods HOA, or some are through churches. The few that did spring up that were more "communal" were always getting trashed or picked over by thieves. I would love to have a small one in my yard for things I use when I cook |
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Post by Poopface on Apr 12, 2023 20:54:55 GMT -5
Are community garden plots available? We rented one the next town over when we were in our townhouse. Was dirt cheap and an excellent learning experience for us. We made A LOT of mistakes early on. in my area there are quite a few, but sadly they are relegated to that area/neighborhoods HOA, or some are through churches. The few that did spring up that were more "communal" were always getting trashed or picked over by thieves. I would love to have a small one in my yard for things I use when I cook I don't blame you.
After our first two-year foray in using the garden plot flamed out, we did "square foot gardening" at the townhouse. We had a few of those in the back yard (northern side, got southern sun) to grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and a few herbs. I also built an elevated garden box planter that sat on the front porch and got decent, but not fantastic sunlight on the southern side of the house but partly obscured by a crab apple to the south and large red maple on the southwest. We planted smaller stuff in there, mostly herbs and leafy greens. Maybe something like that might work? Or are you too shaded?
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