I made a home -made brooder, [Chicken Condo]-- it is working well, -- it has 200 Hy-line brown chickens in it, -- so far all 200 are still alive, [this has never happened before] I usually expect about 5% mortality, --
Home made Brooder
Looks very efficient.
congrats it works. Wow I wouldn't want that many at one time to deal with lol
Look's very crowded to me. To a point it's very effective concerning staying warm, but would not want to be in there with them. I need elbow room and I have to wonder how many of the weak will be trampled before you know it...Just my thought, but maybe you'll loose none...Good luck...Haystack
I have to agree with Hay it looks like they are very crowded but maybe its just the way the picture was taken.
I thought they were just pushing up front to get the food.
It reminds me of the ones I used to see at the feed and seed store when I was a kid. I loved going there and looking at the chicks.
Very creative contraption! How are they getting water?
they have automatic waterers, --[bowl type] they have to be cleaned [dumped and swished] morning and night, as they get some poop in them, -- the individual pens are 50x36, inside measurements, -- there are 40 chicks in each pen now, -- soon they will be split into another group, to reduce chick numbers/cage, --I used plastic 1/2x1/2 hardware cloth on this model, --thinking it would not rust as soon, -- the negative thing about the plastic is --the floor is much more dirty then the wire flooring, [I assume it is the larger diameter of the mesh/ smaller opening] I recieved 200 chicks, so far mortality is still 0, -- the picture was taken after feeding time, to get some chicks in the picture, the trays under the mesh flooring are plastic sheeting [made for shower walls] from Home Depot, -- they slide out for cleaning, they have to be cleaned each day now to keep the air quality in the room exceptable [not great] there is an exhost fan in the top corner to vent when the temps get too high [on warm days], and a circ fan [on all the time] moving the air around to maintain constant temp top and bottom condo's, -- the heat is controlled by a thermostat set at mid height on the wall, -heat is from a cheep electric heater, from WM.
another pict, of the exhost fan in the top corner,
the temp control is a unit from Grainger, -- it should have been one with a narrow span from on to off, -- but I had this one from a greenhouse app, -- it has 10 deg between on and off, -but it works and no one seemed to stressed by cool temps at the day-old stage, --
Looks like a great setup. What are your plans for so many chicks?
I have a mkt for free range brown eggs, --, -- the Market wants 600/day, -- will see if they sell these 200 first, --
Sounds great Michael. Congratulations on keeping them all alive. So you are raising them for egg laying, and going to sell the eggs to the local grocery store? 600 eggs is 50 dozen a day.
Pretty awesome if I understand this right.
Wow! That is a tall order. How do you set up nests for free range hens?
the pasture I let them roam in has a fence around it, the grass is mowed when ever it gets tall so there is no good place to lay eggs, [or the ones out there are easier to see], -- the hens have access to the henhouse all the time and that is where the feed and water are also, -- they are locked up every night in the coop to keep them from being eaten,- in the coop is a bank of nest boxs, that they [mostly ] lay in, --the bottom of the nest box is made from 1/2x1/2 black plastic hardware cloth, and the eggs roll out to a tray in the back, so they can't step on them with poopy little feet.
That is awesome! If you ever have time, I would like to see a picture of the nesting box.
Me too. That sounds like a great setup. How many layers do you have now? I wish my chickens could free range but we have predators.
right now I only have about 30 laying, [ about 50 chickens]-- I have predators also, -- so I lock them up at night and we have a pyraneese [probly spelld wrong] Dog. I also have a dairy cow in with or near by the chickens, -- she chases everything that doesn't belong out there. but-- I still lose some from time to time, -- Eagles. and red tailed Hawks, mostly, -- but if I miss getting one in at night she won't last long,-- coons, possms,owls, fox, coyote, etc, etc, --a little while back I forgot to close the door to the coop,, --by morning I was down 20 birds, -- [what a mess]
I have a camera that works when it wants to, -- I will try to get a nest box pict [or 2]
Great. I'll be looking forward to it. We have coyotes and bears.
I am sure I sound ignorant, but I honestly did not know you had bears in Kentucky.
we have black bears here and 2 kinds of Panthers, ----Florida panther, [same as Mountain Lion, and Black Panthers, left over from those that escaped from the Tarsan, movie people a long time ago, -- I have one female Black Panther, that brings her Babies up from the swamp to show me, in the late spring, [most years], -- she is probly about 300 lbs, --[anyway pretty big] We also have monkeys [also escaped from the movie people] from time to time, they are also very hard on the chicken population, -- but-- the Monkeys usually don't come up this far from the river, --
I had to rebuild my rabbit pens with a perch built into the cage for the rabbits to hop up on to, and a metal back, and roof, so the rabbits can get away from them, as they [monkeys] reach through the cage sides and bottom, and pull them apart.
Is it legal to shoot the monkeys? I wonder what they taste like.
We had black panthers in La. Last year we had a bear and her cub denning on our hill but all they did was get into the garbage. The bear are getting so plentiful here they opened a short season on them for hunters. Just a few days ago the first legal bear was taken here in a long time. It weighed over 250#.
The coyotes are a nuisance there are so many of them. You can take as many of them as you can shoot.
Well Michael if your going to supply fifty doz per day, I hope you have several large coops as that will take around six hundred chickens to supply that many eggs...Now if you only had Noah's ark that would be great but who's gonna clean up all the poop...LOL Haystack. Have a great day.
He could go into the fertilizer business. Lots of people who raise rabbits for the market also sell manure. No sense to waste it.
Looks like he has water plumbed in there, so no problem on spraying it out. That's really nice. My horse lot has no water.
I saw this video where they were producing methane to cook with, and maybe even heat their house, unsure on that part. They put cow manure in this tank that was buried. Somehow it made a slush and produced methane they piped into their home. How neat is that? Chicken manure can do the same.
One man that runs a dairy uses his manure to make methane to produce electricity for his farm.
Farmers used to always make their own alcohol and run their tractors and trucks. Probably why it was outlawed. We can't have self suffiency here. No way.
Um, yep I'll be quiet now so as not to get political.
Monkeys are not protected by any game laws, -- [Black Panthers are the same, -- ] they are not a native species, -- I hear some do eat Monkey, -- I have not tried it, -- they are very fast moving in the trees, -- but down by the river they sit and watch you float by,
-- I do a lot of vegetable growing ,-the poop will all be used, --I have toyed with the idea of making another digester, -- but I may grow turnips, and beets ,and feed them to the livestock, and run some through the still, -- it stores better/ easier, than methane.
Still as in moonshine?
I always thought it would be neat to have a monkey. I'm sure people would pay to have one, if it is legal to catch and sell them.
alcohol, [for what-ever purpose] stores easier than methane, and is easy to use, -
- I am not sure, --but --I think I would get more energy from manure by using it as fertilizer, and growing a sugar/nutrient rich crop for feeding the livestock [and family] and things for the farmers MKT,, and making alcohol, then I would just converting the manure to methane, and trying to store it all until I could use it in my gas stove or generator - the compressor I used to have was expensive, and used a lot of power compressing the gas for storage]. other methods of gas storage are large and un-sightly-- and it is amazing to me how much gas a generator can use in an hr,
-- for just cooking , it is a good thing as a small system is just fine, --but when you start to run engines with it, -- it takes a big system.
I have known several people with monkeys for pets, -- I would never want one, --they are very cute, -- but-- they have a lot of negative behavior issues, --
I don't think I would want one.
I prefer my pets not be as smart as I am - no thanks!
Nest box
more nest box
nest box cont--as you can see it is not perfect, -- but I have about 99% les poop/dirt on the eggs, --
Thanks for posting the pics. Where is the tray part you mentioned? It sounds like a great idea. My pens are both makeshift at this point and they get muddy so the eggs get pretty dirty at times. Do you put any nesting material such as straw in the nests or do they not need it?
the first pict is of the tray in the back of the nest box's, [with the lid held up]
I use no bedding materials, as they just get dirty, and soil the eggs, - The second pict shows the inside of the nesting area [poop and all], -- the 3rd pict is of the front of the nests [where the chickens enter], --
here is another pict of the back end of the nest boxs, [where the eggs roll to]
had some trouble today, -- the power co turned the power off while I was at work, [to work on the lines] -- the chickens got cold and freaked out, -- all see to be alive, -- but very upset, -- will see if all are OK in the AM, -- it is 22 deg here