# It's Saturday night



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

It's Saturday night and all of us are sitting home talking about chickens

how long have all of you out there had this condition?

So what should we call ourselves?

chicken nuts?

chicken-formers?

far out fowl-ers?

I would say we all need to get a hobby 

but it looks as though we already have one 





piglett


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I think the hobby has crossed into obsession lol.
I've worked on farms since I was little, so my "chicken loving" started way back. But it's only been very recently that I've delved into having my every own, all to me, flock. Though I did have a pet chicken in college who lived in my apartment. She went to reside with my inlaws for a few weeks while me and hubby were first moving in together and during that time a weasel killed her. It was then a few years before hubs and I bought our first home and the first thing we got was chickens. Now I'm up to my eyeballs.


----------



## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Its like a virus it catches and once you catch the chicken virus you are hooked on it. I have more eggs coming next month. I couldn't help myself


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

hildar said:


> Its like a virus it catches and once you catch the chicken virus you are hooked on it. I have more eggs coming next month. I couldn't help myself


i have to stay out of TSC or i come home with chicks that i don't need

i now have 6 CX & 6 bantys in the brooder


----------



## Chickie-babe (Feb 23, 2014)

The root of the problem is called chicken math. You plan on brooding three chickens, you come home with 6. One turns out to be a rooster which you can't keep so you give him away. You find 2 pullets to replace your beloved rooster. One of your hens becomes broody so you put fertilized eggs under her. She hatches 8 chicks. Two are roosters and so on...


Sent from my iPhone using Chicken Forum


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

Chickie-babe said:


> The root of the problem is called chicken math. You plan on brooding three chickens, you come home with 6. One turns out to be a rooster which you can't keep so you give him away. You find 2 pullets to replace your beloved rooster. One of your hens becomes broody so you put fertilized eggs under her. She hatches 8 chicks. Two are roosters and so on...
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Chicken Forum


or you find a 1/2 priced incubator in craigslist

the only problem is it will hold *180 eggs*


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Or, in my case, chicken math means "I'll take 3 of these and 4 of these... Oh I like them, give me 10, aw you also breed this? Well mark me down for 6. Oh look, aren't they pretty... New bloodlines? But of course!... Oh I've always wanted those - better get 5..." 
... You are getting the picture. I'm not even getting started on hatching, I have 4 broody Barnevelder arriving in three weeks that I'm told are just dying to hatch out some eggs, and my EE are being quite frivolous...


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

Fiere said:


> Or, in my case, chicken math means "I'll take 3 of these and 4 of these... Oh I like them, give me 10, aw you also breed this? Well mark me down for 6. Oh look, aren't they pretty... New bloodlines? But of course!... Oh I've always wanted those - better get 5..."
> ... You are getting the picture. I'm not even getting started on hatching, I have 4 broody Barnevelder arriving in three weeks that I'm told are just dying to hatch out some eggs, and my EE are being quite frivolous...


i don't care how many i have in warm weather

once the grass dies the freezer gets filled with all the non breeders

i can't feed 100 birds all winter

but 20/30 is ok


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Winter is definitely difficult. I have been researching for months now on how to best winterized my coop in anyway possible short of adding heat and I think I have a good grasp on what will be best to keep the birds going. I feed meals of fermented (which freezes in about 15 minutes) and free choice scratch grains. I am hoping my numbers will be well below 100 going into winter as the cost is astronomical.


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

Fiere said:


> Winter is definitely difficult. I have been researching for months now on how to best winterized my coop in anyway possible short of adding heat and I think I have a good grasp on what will be best to keep the birds going. I feed meals of fermented (which freezes in about 15 minutes) and free choice scratch grains. I am hoping my numbers will be well below 100 going into winter as the cost is astronomical.


we had to stop with the FF last winter

it froze before they could eat most of it 

i now need to start two more batches

we use 5 gallon buckets & always leave a little so it keeps "making"


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I use two 10 gallon garbage bins and alternate them daily, so when I replace the feed in the evening it has a full 24 hours before it's disturbed. With 40 birds If I did not add anymore feed to the bucket, I'd get 3 days out of it. I need to get a much larger can this year lol.
It's definitely harder to feed in the winter, I pour some boiling water on it so that it is warm by the time the hens get it, and hopefully they can gobble it up before it freezes, but it is wasteful, by the end of the week there's near an inch of frozen for on the dish to be chipped off.


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

Fiere said:


> I use two 10 gallon garbage bins and alternate them daily, so when I replace the feed in the evening it has a full 24 hours before it's disturbed. With 40 birds If I did not add anymore feed to the bucket, I'd get 3 days out of it. I need to get a much larger can this year lol.
> It's definitely harder to feed in the winter, I pour some boiling water on it so that it is warm by the time the hens get it, and hopefully they can gobble it up before it freezes, but it is wasteful, by the end of the week there's near an inch of frozen for on the dish to be chipped off.


we were using a couple stainless steel pans for the FF

if froze as fast as we put it in the pan


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I use the rubber livestock feed tubs. Not as easy to clean, but don't freeze to the dish and are easily beat out when it does freeze.


----------



## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

We just feed ours a ration of field corn and scratch in the winter months, along with any scraps we have. Scraps are essential for mine they get pieces of meat and vegetables in it along with grains, so all in all they are getting what they need to survive the winters.

Fiere I would say with the coops to put sawdust and shaving in the walls for insulation that is what my dad always did. We lived in Maine and some nights it would easily reach 40 below, so he put sawdust and shaving between the walls instead of insulation. Then felt paper on the outside so the sun would help to warm it up quicker.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

The only thing with sawdust and/or shavings is that if it gets wet it moulds. Great if you live in a cold dry climate but on the island we are anything but dry. It's the dampness that's the killer here. Our new coop is just getting a few damaged bags of fibreglass insulation that hubby can get for nothing from work, and plywood outside and inside. I was thinking on doing board and batten outside and saving some money but it'll take forever for me to do it that way. It's a big toss up. 

I don't give any supplemental heat to my birds in the winter as we are prone to storms with power outages, so the sudden lack of heat will kill the birds. We just make sure the coop is very dry, with no draughts, and go from there. I'm also going to wrap the run with plastic this year so the snow can't blow in. I had major issues this winter with 4' of snow in the run and no way to get the door open to the run let alone the coop. Learned a lot about what not to do this winter, that's for sure.


----------



## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Fiere said:


> The only thing with sawdust and/or shavings is that if it gets wet it moulds. Great if you live in a cold dry climate but on the island we are anything but dry. It's the dampness that's the killer here. Our new coop is just getting a few damaged bags of fibreglass insulation that hubby can get for nothing from work, and plywood outside and inside. I was thinking on doing board and batten outside and saving some money but it'll take forever for me to do it that way. It's a big toss up.
> 
> I don't give any supplemental heat to my birds in the winter as we are prone to storms with power outages, so the sudden lack of heat will kill the birds. We just make sure the coop is very dry, with no draughts, and go from there. I'm also going to wrap the run with plastic this year so the snow can't blow in. I had major issues this winter with 4' of snow in the run and no way to get the door open to the run let alone the coop. Learned a lot about what not to do this winter, that's for sure.


My dad used to use the old fashioned snow fence to keep the snow out not sure if they still have that around or not, the last time I looked it was all made from plastic not the old wood slat snow fence. In Maine we were use to 4 feet of snow in any storm.

My chickens down here this year refused to leave the coop and walk in the 4 inches of snow that was on the ground. It was funny watching them. I even had to shovel paths for them and a few couldn't wait that long and tried to fly to the porch, they never made it that far, and instead of going the rest of the way they ran back to the coop as fast as the could. Only my Turken was bold enough to walk around in the snow.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

With the wind we get up here, anything with slats won't work to keep snow out. I know the fence you mean, though. A full plastic wrap will eliminate the wind and rain as well as snow so the chickens will be able to come out and about in the run as they please, as mine are no different, once the ground is white they hide. I put down straw for them but that just creates mess in the spring and is a waste of straw lol. 

I've never been to Maine but I can't see the weather being much different. I'm about 10 hours NE of the border there.


----------



## chickenmommy (Apr 30, 2013)

I was just outside spending time with my chickens when a few of them started jumping on my shoulders and back and just sat there relaxing lol. I love my babies


Sent from my iPhone using Chicken Forum


----------



## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

just put 32 eggs into the hatcher
most buff orpingtons but also some 
imported English blue or splash orpingtons 

i also set 17 French Bresse eggs


----------

