Getting ready for my baby chicks

[Beth Kirkley]

I finished up the chicken brooder today and hauled it into the back yard. It came out pretty good. Especially for only costing me $1 (for the hinges). In all honesty, it did cost SOMEONE something. I used bunches of left over stuff of my father-in-law's - scrap pieces of cyprus wood and pieces of greenhouse roofing that he may have never used. The wood was all too short for him to use on anything, and the roofing material has been sitting in the yard for over 2 years.



The brooder is 4 feet wide, by 2 1/2 feet deep, by about 2 1/2 feet tall in the front. The door is 2'x 2' - large enough where I can even crawl inside if I ever needed to. Tonight I'll place the light in there with a thermometer to see how the temperature holds up. I bought a 250 watt heat bulb, but I may not need one that powerful.



I went with a wood floor only because I didn't really feel like spending the extra money on hardware cloth. But I didn't attach the floor, so if I decide I just hate the wooden floor, I'll be able to change it rather easily. Also, (you can't see this in the picture) I made a screened window on the right side of the door. If the box needs more ventilation, I can easily take the small piece of greenhouse roofing off to allow air to flow in.

And I've got everything else I need for the chicks. So now I'll just have to wait things out until the chicks come in the mail (should be this coming Monday morning - Feb. 21st).

Beth

[Horns Pure Honey]

That looks great beth, want to see pics of the new chicks, bye

[Jay]

Fantastic job Beth!  If you paint the floor, it will be a lot easier to clean!! But you may not have time before the chicks come. It looks grrreaaat (as Tony the tiger would say)!!

[Beth Kirkley]

Jay-

I'm seriously considering stapling some 6 mil plastic on the bottom. Then I would put paper over that, and then either straw or shavings. That way, the wood wouldn't get wet and nasty. I could always replace the plastic if needed.

Beth

[Horns Pure Honey]

I would use the plastic and newspaper, I do not advise wood shavings, they eat them and choke, straw they can snap there little ankles in, so just a little straw in the center under the heat lamp, I would also put a board on te insid like a thin 6 inch wide strip so when you open it up you dont have any fall out. Talk later Beth, bye    

[firetool]

Thats a neat design I have not seen a brooder like that before. The ceiling is a lot higher. I built my'n out of one by six boards on the sides plywood on the top. I cut a door and holes for the waters. The bottom is hardware cloth. Works good for chicks but the ducks out grow it pretty quick. So I may make allitle bigger one. Becouse I am planning on getting some geese this year to and maybe some turkeys to.

 I hope you have a good time with your chicks to. We will be getting about 25 barried rocks this spring. I currently have a mixer there are eleven total.

Good luck,

Brian

[Beth Kirkley]

Firetool-

Yeah, it is tall (not that the chickens will get that tall in there), but it just worked out that way because of my design. I wanted to use what I had around here for building, and that meant using the greenhouse roofing for the top. I had originally planned on making the lid as the door, but changed my plans. So since I decided to make the door in the front, I wanted a big enough door to actually get my shoulders through it.

(sigh) My chicks were set for delivery from the 20th to the 22nd - most likely date to be the 21st. They aren't here yet though! I hate the fact that they're coming on the last delivery date. It'll mean that it's the last day for survivability without getting food and water in them. It could mean that I'll find some have died by the time they get here. Murray McMurray is really good about refunds and replacements, but that's not what bothers me as much as unessasary death due to slow delivery. So I'm feeling a little disheartened just because my "babies" aren't here for me to start taking care of - but also cause I'm concerned for their health now during their travels.

Beth

[Horns Pure Honey]

Beth, I hope your chicks come in soon. This year I took the easy way out and went to a friend of my families and Bought 50 chickens that have just started laying, 2 new heffer calfs and the 2 sters will be here soon, some more dairy goats will be here in say 2 weeks, and I got a pot bellied pig tossed in for free. I want to get some real pigs for meat and maybe some turkeys, bye

[TJ]

What, doesn't that pot bellied pig have any meat on it?

[firetool]

HI Ryan,
 Do you have any wild hogs in the area? If so find a trapper and you could get some small ones for cheap I would think. We are over run with them down here. They are good eating though.

Brian

[Beth Kirkley]

People around here trap wild hogs too. My neighbor even traps them and breeds them - to eat. They're not very friendly. But it works for him.

Beth

[Michael Bush]

I always just put the chicks in a carboard box in the basement.   Or let their moms rais them.  But that looks quite nice.

[beemaster]

Beth:

About wild dogs... Down in North Carolina my family (old-time Farm family who started raising chickens for Perdue) had wild dog problems and they took to using sponges soaked in gravy which they left out for the dogs to eat.

The sponges wouldn't break apart and made a bowel obstruction and the dog "supposedly" died pretty quick - I can't imagine doing such a thing, but I'm an rural guy with no such problems.

They said no other animals would or could swallow down the sponges, so it targeted the dogs really well.

I worked Summers on their farm as a teen - the whole Perdue ranching thing was interesting: they supplied the coups (I'd call them more like hangars) which subdivided into many sections using huge doors that you opened up to enlarge each area as the birds grew.

You received 16 thousand 1 day old chicks (all male) and as white as snow and the food was kept in silos and blown down long tubes to the area where the chicks were. Every week (approx.) you opened another section for elbow room of the growing birds and after 6 weeks, a bunch of refrigerated trucks pulled up to the end of the building at night - all the lights inside the coup are turned off and the lights inside the truck trailer is turned on and the birds just instintively run inside the truck. When it is full, another truck pulls up and they repeat the process until all the birds are gone. Within a few days, the whole process starts over.

[Beth Kirkley]

Yeah..... I don't much like the way the big companies raise up meat birds. But, I am a meat eater, so I'm basiclly a supporter of it because I buy the meat. I don't want to stop - and become a vegetarian - but I'm much happier raising my own.

My chicks came today. All healthy, and as usual McMurray added a few extra just in case any die in transit.



You can see the two types I bought in this picture, plus right in the center is a special one that the hatchery always throws in. I'm not sure what breed the "free special" chick is. (Ryan, you want to try and figure it out?) The other two breeds are Partridge Rocks and Cornish x Rocks (the type you mentioned John, that's raised up to 6 or 8 weeks of age).

Beth

[Violacea]

Aww, aren't they cute?     We're hatching our own this year *can't wait*.  Not sure it is, but that *special* chick in the middle looks an awful lot like our Ameraucana chicks did.

[Horns Pure Honey]

If it grows with a tail it is americana but without it is arcanas, they have a bad temper, americanas are quite nice. bye

[Beth Kirkley]

Violacea & Ryan-

I think you two are right about the chick. I'm begining to think it's an Ameraucana too - and it looks like it's gonna have a tail Ryan. I don't think Murray McMurray has the auracana anyway, but only ameraucanas. If that's what it turns out to be, I might keep it. If it's a hen. I like the colored eggs they lay. And it wouldn't interfere with my little purebred breeding plan, cause I'd know which eggs were her's.

Now if it's a rooster - that's a whole nother story.

Beth

[Horns Pure Honey]

You are right Beth, MM only sells americanas. I had a few of the females, sweet little things, one was like a dog. Ever morning she would come up to are garage and lay her green egg in my cats tower house, I guess she like the comfy carpet and little windows to watch for danger, very safe. My cat did care either, lol, she scaried him and I am talking about a cat that took down a great dane, bye

[firetool]

Nice chicks Beth. I would like to know How you like the cornisX rock crosses. I have consedered getting some but was affraid of how fast they grow. I don't like having to feed cormerical feed it has medications in it. Once they are past the chick stage I let them free range.
 thanks,

 Brian

[Violacea]

. . . I might keep it. If it's a hen. I like the colored eggs they lay. And it wouldn't interfere with my little purebred breeding plan, cause I'd know which eggs were her's.

Now if it's a rooster - that's a whole nother story.

Beth

Oh but Beth, the roosters are SO pretty!  Here is ours *Pharoah*



We spent lots of time with him so he is as tame as a kitten.