Placing the waterer on top of bricks or a block keeps the chickens from pooping in, scratching shavings in, and otherwise de-fowling their drinking water....
Any other helpful tips, tidbits, or advice for new chicken keepers?
Chicken Keeping 101
Hi Jenks!!! Don't know how many birds you have but, your so right. Birds will foul anything they can! I estimate the height of the birds and attach their feeders at least one inch above their chest. And I use feeders small eough that they can't stand in them. I always use hardware cloth for the doors of my pens and then I go to the second hand store any buy a couple small stainless steel bowls about three-four inches deep and the same across. I drill two 3/16 holes and put bolts and washers through the bowls and hardware cloth, and bolt them down. That way when I open the door, the feeder comes out to me and I don't have to reach in and disturb the birds. I fill the feeders (two per pen twice a day) If you can keep them from fouling the waterers and feeders you have eliminated the most frustrating part of raising chickens. Good luck to you and have a great evening. Haystack
This may be more advanced than 101--but I would like to hear from more experienced keepers to see if what I am observing makes sense. It is advice that I never really considered before, but now seems to make sense.
I've read in several places that old timers advised letting your broodies nest on the earth instead of in boxes. The theory was that moisture from the earth would help with the incubation and hatch. I have three broodies going now in a very hot, dry climate. One is in a plastic dog crate with wood shavings (her choice) and just lost a chick that pipped but did not emerge--when I opened it, the chick was perfectly formed, not stuck to the shell and almost totally dry--still in the egg! She is nesting basically on plastic surrounded by very dry shavings...I just sprinkled some water around her.
Another hen is in a nest box--high up. She has not hatched anything yet this time, but last time she was in the same box and her chicks did not emerge from their shells--when I reached in to clean them out they were still alive and almost fluffy in the shell--they were fine once I got them out. Her nest is also in shavings and very dry.
We have had an extreme heat wave and no rain. In a climate with higher humidity, letting them nest on the ground might not make a difference...but my successful hatches with broodies have been three pullets that brooded on the ground under a lavender bush--and during the end of our rainy season.
Has anyone else in an arid climate had trouble with RH using a broody? I just assumed that they would produce enough moisture--but I guess that this may not always be true.
Jenks that drinking water hint doesn't work for us. We tried it, we still do but somehow the little boogers still get stuff in their water.
Catscan, we had a broody sit on eggs on the ground. We kept trying to get her ro go in a nest but she kept rolling the eggs out and sitting on the ground so we finally gave up and let her there. She had 5 eggs to start, 2 ended up bad, maybe not fertile, 2 others never hatched and she ended up with one baby. Not sure if the ground sitting contributed to any loses or not.
All our other hens have been sitting in nests on their eggs and they have had a good hatch rate. We only had 1 bad egg amoung them, all hatched, lost 2 to a snake when they were less than a week old. So far we have had 20 chicks hatch and survive. Right now we have 5 hens sitting on eggs, all in nests.
We have very hot weather as well. When I check the eggs for non marked ones (other hen jumped in and layed) the eggs are always quite warm. Guess we will see what we get out of this batch of broodies.
Ah good stuff thanks! Mine are still real short, but putting the water up on blocks has eliminated cleaning the waterer 3x's per day....they'd fill it up within minutes full of shavings....Maybe I have too deep of shavings?
I put my waters up on a 2x4 so the little ones can stand on the sides to drink.. yes, I had to cut down on shavings too..
I also put the feeder up on a block of wood..
That is too bad they are hatching right now Catscan.. even if they could wait till this weekend when it cools a little they would have a better chance. I don't think there is much you can do about humidity now.. Too bad.. :(
The humidity here right now is outrageous....typical in GA, you sweat just stepping outside....I will try that with the feeder...
I think I rather shrivel up here.. LOL I hate to sweat..
Catscan, could you maybe put some damp rolled up towels or other absorbent material around the nesting area? I lined my nesting boxes with linoleum, so they are dry too, but we don't get that kind of dry heat here that you do. I figure it could not hurt to try....
I went out last night and sprinkled water on the shavings...but damp paper towels might do it better, Moxon. It seemed that the earlier successful broodies were much "damper" when I reached under them--sort of sweaty, if you know what I mean.
On the other hand...Louisa, the Welsummer, just hatched a Silkie! There are 11 more Silkie eggs to go, but it is really encouraging. When I checked at lunch, nothing--then after work he was there and already dry. She is in a nest box and I think, although it is dry, it is not as bad as the dog crate.
I do know what you mean. They usually have a definite humidity under them. I notice this also in particular with my sitting duck. She goes out for baths and comes back to sit. Very wet.
Congrats to Louisa!
I was thinking of a mister... or spay bottle to mist the shavings.. Normally, we would freak at having wet shavings.. The fact that the baby dried so fast is indication as to how dry it is right now!
Any news yet Catscan?
Two chicks and a pip!
i hang my feeders and and waterers just above chest high, and then they cant get anything into them..works good..they tip their heads when they drink anyway, so it actually makes it easier for them..
cindy
Ah, Cindy, you mean "chicken chest high". I was trying to figure out how my birds would eat and drink out of a chest-high feeder or water. Then I realized....their chest, not mine! LOL!!! It's a good idea - I like it! Keeps them cleaner and less subject to contamination. Good tip!
LOL yea that would be funny watching them trying to eat or drink at our chest high!!! it has worked for many years that way..
Congrats Catscan.. Okay.. What color and you just can't get away without pics..
Home for lunch:
Five Silkie chicks and a pip! It looks like two light blue, a black and a very light partridge that may be a splash. The pip is more of a zip and looks like it will be black.
So ZZ, what did the breeder tell you about them? (These were eggs that were sent to ZZ by mistake--they were suppose to be Serama).
Back to the salt mine.....
Oh cool.. I'll email her... I was more concerned about getting what I paid for rather than any info about the silkies! Never got the Serama eggs.. :(
So cool.. a great hatch so far!
Sounds like a great hatch Catscan! I love the light blues...
Home from work--the zip hadn't escaped so I liberated him and then another one that was fully pipped--Louisa does not seem as fond of the chicks as she is of the eggs--seven out of twelve on the loose! ZZ learned that they are bantams--too bad because I had a lot of people wondering if I had Silkies to use as broodies--one man wanted them to hatch doves!
They can still be broodies.. especially for Doves! Dove eggs aren't that big??
Dang...
I guess he will have to hand feed the baby doves?
This morning I checked and I have 6 chicks--the first one I liberated did not make it (it had been pipped/zipped for a long time). There were only two eggs left (at one point I had twelve--guess I forgot to count how many I removed over time) and one of those was a stray bantam. So Louisa did well, despite the heat. The one remaining Silkie egg looked full term, but smelled bad--so I guess it died before they started to pip.
I put my chicken waterers up on two or three of those square concrete pavers--the big ones. They are very stable and it keeps the chicken from kicking stuff in.
Also--if you have an incubator with eggs running--adding new eggs part way through is like adding ice cubes--not only do you have to reheat the incubator--you have to heat the new eggs to get the temp up. I just did it and the temp dropped to 87 and took 20 minutes to get up to 93--still waiting for the full 99.5. Normally the temp shoots right up after candling and only drops to 96 or so.
Catscan wrote;"ZZ learned that they are bantams--too bad because I had a lot of people wondering if I had Silkies to use as broodies"
I thought all Silkies were bantams, and wonderful broodies for any eggs. Do they also exist as "standards"?
Margo
Hi catmad! Silkies are smaller than most standard chickens and are wonderful broodies. But there are bantam Silkies as well, which are smaller than the "standard" Silkie and so can cover fewer eggs.
I have Nankins and Dutch Bantams, which are both wonderful "broody" breeds. But they are also both bantams and can only cover about half as many eggs as a standard Silkies. Poor things try to cover everything you (or the other chickens that keep laying in their nest box) give them, but they just can't cover more than 3 or 4 standard chicken eggs--I think they were historically used to brood pheasant and other gamebird eggs which are smaller.
I just assumed that people who wanted Silkies for broodies would like the larger ones.
Live and learn!! Now I'm wondering what I have in the new flock. They are among the smallest, but others (which I think are Cochin Bantams, they were listed as "Assorted Feather Footed Bantams) are about the same. Guess I'll have to do some web-wandering to see what I've gotten myself into :). They are listed in the catalog simple as Black Silkies.
Thanks!
Margo
If I only want eggs.....and I have the roo Fugazi and love him. He's getting along well with all the girls, but now I'm wondering what I was thinking. Why would I want fertilized eggs? I need to seperate him?
Well fertilized eggs can be eaten just like all the other eggs. Just collect them daily and refrigerate them. No development will occur. No problem!
hmm... OK. It really just put a whole new spin on it for me... LOL
OK, my young ladies just spent their first day outside yesterday. The peacock has decided he likes them and was showing them the ropes all day. Ten Buff Brahmas by the way. (They are not allowed on his swing).
They saw a spider (one of those large, hairy one with the colored markings). They fell upon it and tore it to sheds and I think they ate it. Or tore it to microscopic level, I'm not sure which. Anyway, is it ok they for them to eat spiders? Can they get sick if the spider is poisonous or even bites them? Next, there is a wasp in their coop. Should I get rid of him or will they take care of it themselves?
My tip is that I hung their water using a chain and a couple of 'D' rings at their chest level. It does woble if they try to perch on it but they caught on fast and don't try to mess with or in it now. Also tacked shade cloth on the outside of the wiring around the bottom of the raised coop. The peacock had this "man-cave" under there but now that the chicks are out and about the has decided to share. They seemed to really like it during the hot part of the day and also the dogs can't see them under there so they have privacy and yet the breeze got through fine.
My chickens definitely eat spiders and I have not seen any problem with it. I don't know if the toxins that affect humans necessarily affect chickens in the same way - they are generally neurotoxins so I think that they probably would, but only if the spider bites them. Ingesting it should not have hazardous effects because it's not introduced to the bloodstream in the same way. The wasp....not sure...anyone else have experience with that? If the wasp is within their reach, they would probably take care of it.
My chickens also eat mice (whole) and small snakes. I had no idea that they would do that, but they do!
Wow! MICE? What about ants? I've been moving the run around the paddock and avoiding ant piles, but they eat the strays... I love that though. If they are to roam eventually, would they know not to step in the pile?
Also, my fly control....permethrin in the barn when they are outside and not on their stuff. What-if anything- is there that's safe?
I use permethrin dust on my chickens to control mites. It is safe to use on them in the dust form, so I do not worry about it. I also use it on our sheep & goats.
We don't have the fire ants here - I'm not sure if that is the kind you are talking about. My chickens eat ants but we don't have a lot. I don't think they would know not to step in a pile. Would the ants swarm them or something? I don't know what to say about that one! My chickens also eat ticks which is great.
With the mice, if we get one that drowns in a water bucket for the goats, etc, and we throw it on the ground, the hens fight over it. Sometimes they catch a live one. They just position it in their beak with the head first and just swallow it. It kind of freaks me out because then you can feel it in their crop. There is always a big kerfluffle when somebody catches a mouse and they run after the mouse catcher all over the yard, so it's hard for the catcher to get a quiet moment to properly swallow the mouse and it usually changes hands (beaks) several times before someone eats it. Our Muscovy ducks also catch and eat mice.
My neighbor's chickens are over on my property every day and they completely attacked a fire ant mound that was on the side of my compost pile. I knew it was there and knew the moment they discovered it because it looked like a feeding frenzy. I have no idea if the ants relocated or if the chickens somehow got them all.
My chickens won't eat fire ants. They watch me stir up a mound and stand back with "no thanks" looks on their faces. Maybe I need a different breed.
MITES? I best start inspecting mine then> Oh dear.....
They don't just eat them off each other? Can I get the mites? Oh EMM GEE.
No, those mites are species specific and will not be interested in living on you!!
They don't eat them off each other because they are tiny and under the feathers. To check for mites, ensure you are in good light (bright day) and carefully lift the feathers on the chicken's neck and around the vent area. Watch for very small tan colored mites moving around. They lay eggs, often around the vent or neck/head feathers that look like little clusters of white stuff at the base of feathers. It is hard to eliminate them completely but regular dusting with lice/mite powder helps a lot.
You....you can't bathe them off them? Well....at least I know I can use the permethrin....
Gee. I am in over my head. I don't know enough!!! They are out in the run for the second night in a row....
My cat was shot and finally came home last night....Going to do hot compresses to keep it draining....
OK, how do you get the mite/lice dust through all those feathers and down to the skin where the little beasts are?
I think some people mix it in with the sand/dirt they give them to take dust baths in. Mine free range, so I guess I would need to use some sort of "puffer"?