Monday, October 1, 2012

Re: [CHICKENS-101] Re: Propane water heater for chickens

 

You plan to leave your flock unattended for 2 weeks???

 

Thanks for the reply Kate. I am just trying to find a way to solve our problem without using electricity for the 2 weeks we are gone. We don't have neighbors close by to help us.
Larry

--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "Kate Lorenzen" <starmstbl@...> wrote:
>
> Boy, I'd be leary about using anything gas-fired in a chickens coop, unless the entire thing were located outside of it and piped in somehow. The gas emissions from it's pilot light going out somehow even just once and coming home to a coop full of dead birds would not be a lesson I'd want to have to learn.
> That's just a personal opinion 'tho...

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[CHICKENS-101] Re: Pellets vs. Crumbles

 

I would suggest mixing some water in with the pellets. It worked for mine. To sweeten the deal I threw in some scratch.
Hilary

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[CHICKENS-101] Advice for newbie

 

Greetings - I'm glad I found this group! My husband and I have 3 backyard chickens (red star hens). They're the first we've ever had...got them from a farmer at about 20 weeks old. Only one is laying though. One is a bit younger than the other two and we hope she'll start laying soon. The other one seems weaker. Over the summer she suffered terribly from heat stress, I think. She was all droopy, dropped a few feathers. We put electrolytes in her water and she perked right up. Still, she doesn't lay.

They have a nice coop my husband built, not huge but plenty big for three hens. They also have a generous penned in area to run about, so they're not crowded in the least.

I'm most concerned about the upcoming winter. We have no electricity in the barn or the coop, and we live in Upstate New York. I've spoiled them rotten in the way I feed them. I actually fix them a plate a couple of times a day (feed, mealworms, oyster shells, sometimes a scrambled egg when Trixie is looking poorly, sometimes strawberries and so on). They love to run out and enjoy my company while they gobble down their meal. Alice particularly likes to be petted and held. But oy...this can't continue all winter! Could someone who lives in a very cold climate advise me on what type of feeder you use and how on earth do you keep their water available?

Someone told me they use a "deep litter" method - I think I know what this is, but if someone has advice, I'm definitely interested.

Thanks all!

Mary Beth

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Re: [CHICKENS-101] Space/housing for meat chickens

 

If you like the idea of a "tractor" but moving it seems too hard, you might want to check out Joel Salatin's book "Pastured Poultry Profit$".  The housing he uses (good pictures in the book) look easy to build, and are moved with nothing more than a hand dolly.  The one he uses is adapted from the normal hand truck, which I think could work as well.
 
I've seen these pasture "houses" used locally, and am considering one myself for another year.  Salatin's reasoning is that the meat birds don't move around much, so a "yard" isn't as good a choice for them as it is for more active birds.  The smaller portable houses get them onto a fresh, un-pooped-on patch of grass and bugs every day, but keeps their water and other feed right with them--so all they have to do is eat and grow (and poop...)
 
Rhonda.
 
 
Sidesaddle Hall of Famer
Five-time US National Sidesaddle Champion

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[CHICKENS-101] Re: Propane water heater for chickens

 

Thanks for the reply Kate. I am just trying to find a way to solve our problem without using electricity for the 2 weeks we are gone. We don't have neighbors close by to help us.
Larry

--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "Kate Lorenzen" <starmstbl@...> wrote:
>
> Boy, I'd be leary about using anything gas-fired in a chickens coop, unless the entire thing were located outside of it and piped in somehow. The gas emissions from it's pilot light going out somehow even just once and coming home to a coop full of dead birds would not be a lesson I'd want to have to learn.
> That's just a personal opinion 'tho...

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[CHICKENS-101] Space/housing for meat chickens

 

Hi, I rec'd cornish/rock peeps last week, and it's going well. I'm new to meat birds, so I started out small, just a dozen. However, if all goes well, my friend (she also got a few for the first time) and I are going to expand and get 50 next summer. Since I have a farm, they will all be kept together at my place, and she will help with feed, labor, and facilities (ie any fencing, etc that needs to be built).

I was thinking that once they're past the brooder stage (for the summer chicks next year), I would like to keep them outside. I have a sizable fenced paddock next to the barn, and my thoughts were to keep them locked up in a coop (located in the center of the paddock) at night, and forage in one of four pens that they will rotate through a week at a time (each accessed from four different doors from the coop) during the day. But when I started to think of how much coop space 50 cornish/rocks would need (knowing they would be using floor space, not perches), I began to wonder if such a coop is really feasible. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, or suggestions of types of facilities that could adequately house 50 meat birds in the last few weeks of their growth? I don't think I want to do a tractor as it would be too big to move easily and I don't want to have to get into hooking up a tractor or a horse.

Thanks,
Anne

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[CHICKENS-101] Re: Propane water heater for chickens

 



Sorry for my post coming through twice - had a bit of a computer glitch there.
                              Thanks,
                                           Kate in WI  :-)

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