Acclimation Mooove

The chicks all survived their first few weeks, and now they are in the garage acclimating to the cooler temps.  We have a 75watt red light on top of the large dog cage to help with heat, especially at night.  We have foam/poster board attached around the sides to help prevent drafts and keep heat inside, plus it also helps to keep the shavings in the cage. As a backup for heat, I put a space heater outside the pen, that blows warm air in towards them. They seem to be adjusting for now, but it is a warm day, today. We'll see how they react to the cooler days that are coming up. They are in their "long neck stage" getting more feathers and starting to fly, so they are liking this larger space.  

On Wednesday, the meat chicks will be arriving so everything is cleaned up and ready for the next batch coming in.  In a few weeks, we will attempt to sell the three Orloffs as "back yards" to someone in the Portland area that wants to start with an adult flock of three. 

March Madness Welsummer Chick Flock

March Madness is not simply for basketball.  Around here, we have March Chick Madness. We try to start our flock rotation in March.  We did not do this last spring, and although it's not that bad, what we seriously missed was the new flock's transition as egg layers while the older flocks are moulting. This year, will be different again in that we will be transitioning in the new layers while also trying to raise a few meat chickens during the summer months. The meat chicks will arrive the middle of April. 

We picked up four Welsummer chicks (pullets) yesterday and they are adapting.  It's always such a strange shift.  The first few days (usually about 5 days), the chicks seem too small for the brooder, which is, essentially, a small animal cage with high sides.  But by the end of the week, they will be all over the floor space, starting to flap their wings, and by the end of the second week, they will be too big for our brooder cage.  We have a larger, alternate brooder space ready to move them out to the garage by that time.  After a month, they will be almost ready to go outside! We will have our next batch of chickens and will be starting all over.  So this year, we will have 10 chicks in total for the spring fling.

It's hard getting good photos with the subdued lighting with speedy little balls of fluff.  This is the best I could do, today. These gals hatched approximately March 12th or 13th. We know that they are females because of the black markings on the sides of their heads, behind their eyes. Whee!

Some people ask us why we don't use straw or wood flakes in the brooder.  We find that the new chicks' legs and feeding habits get a better start on a firm, non-slippery surface. So we have cut-up an old sheet into sections that we change out every day during the first week. Then, by the second week, we usually transition in some aspen shavings along with a sprinkling of diatomaceous earth (DE) because the aspen has less odor than the pine (never use cedar). The DE helps to cut down on loose stools and helps to reduce the lice situation that sometimes shows up about this time.  We always use food grade DE. And by week three, the chick fecal smell is so bad, that it's time to move them out into the garage!  I hand wash the little sheets in a mild bleach solution; letting them air dry so that there is not a chemical smell for the next use.

New Chick Spring Prep

Spring is rapidly approaching and this is a time for planning for new chicks.  We will be getting some more Welsummers and since they take a bit longer to mature, we are getting them in mid-March. A month later, in mid-April, we will pick up some Cornish Cross for meat purposes.  

We will try to sell some of the older hens in the summer, around July so that we can ensure that there's room for the new Welsummers who should be ready to start laying in September while our remaining hens are moulting. The Cornish Cross mature more quickly, so getting them in April should not be a problem as we transition the Welsummers into their own coop.  

We have plenty of coops for any new chicks, so we will not need to scramble this year, like we have needed to in the past. Whew!

Layers getting back to Work

The weather had a big impact this year. The snow, wind, freezing rain and freezing temps had the hens out of sorts in a major way.  The last really frigid day was January 18 (ten days ago).  The lone Orloff with the Welsummers started laying eggs right away, but the rest had held out.  So we were only getting one egg per day for the past eight days from our "little" coop group. 

On Thursday, L and I cleaned up around the pens, took the old worn out bungees and plastic tarps off and re-covered the pens with fresh plastic and added a few new bungees for better tie downs. Checked the lighting and timers, looked over the hens for any freezing types of injuries, and made certain that the bedding inside the coops was fresh and clean. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we got one egg per day from the little coop. Today we received two eggs from the little coop (Welsummers) and one egg finally, from the big coop (Orloffs).  So, thankfully, the layers are getting back on track.  

I'm just really thankful that we froze spare eggs last summer for the moulting season. The remaining frozen eggs covered us for this down time.   

Getting the turkey coop cleaned and ready for the Spring chicks. We're going to order ten from the farm store; four Welsummers and six Cornish Cross for meat.

Just some more Snow Days

So far, this snow has lasted and lasted and lasted for days.  Temps are not rising above freezing, even on the sunniest of days, so we are not getting much relief. We took the heavy covers off the chicken pens to allow for the sun to shine in with the clear vinyl tarps covering for some warmth to stay in the pens.  So far, the hens are surviving, but no egg laying in this freezing weather.  Their survival is more important than the eggs. 

The photo of the Turkey Pen that was totally snow covered two days ago, now has only a little snow on the top.  You can tell by the tops of the tree branches that the wind, typically 15-30 mph from the East, is moving snow (not melting it). Hence, the snow on the screen of the turkey pen has simply blown through the openings. 

Other photos are our back yard and the golf course across the valley, which is more visible than usual with the bare trees and the white expanse of lawn. Sorry for the blurry.  It's cold and hard to keep the camera steady. 

Spring is on its way and that means more chicks.  The plan this year is to use the Turkey Coop and Pen for some meat chickens.  We will get some more Welsummer chicks for "updated" younger layers for the flocks. The Welsummers seem to be better, more consistent layers, and their attitudes are better than the Orloffs.  While we have loved our Orloffs, we can certainly understand why this breed is not a favorite for most.  They are stand offish and, um, clichy when attempting to blend others into the group.  We have had a few that are downright mean. Those were the ones we ended up thinning out of the flocks. But for the most part, they are even tempered, they are not super noisy, easy to maintain and hearty. So those are the perks. The non-perks are that they are not consistent egg layers and their eggs are not large. 

Well, back to getting some stuff cleaned up around here. 

Another Snow Day in 2017

This is the first snow buildup received in our region in several years. In the open areas that are sheltered from the wind, the buildup is about six inches.  It started snowing yesterday in the afternoon, and it is still snowing lightly. So, who knows, we might end up with a foot?  Chickens are protected.  They have essentially given up on the egg laying idea and just huddling together for warmth.  We throw in cracked corn to help the fat buildup for them. Aside from that, keeping their feet and heads protected is the most important which is why we have worked extra hard to keep the snow and ice out of the pens.

On the turkey pen, the interesting observation is that the snow finally stuck to the wire to the point of  building a dome since we did not have any tarp/plastic over that pen at this point. We only have a tarp over the coop section. Here are a few views from our perspective today.

2017 New Year Cold Start

This first weekend of the new year has been colder than typical for the PacNW. We have snow today, albeit tiny little flakes. The day started with 20mph winds at 21 degrees F at about 10 this morning.  We took extra precautions by putting boards and more tarps over the pens, along with heavy icefilled tires and cinder blocks to help keep them in place. We were getting gusts up to about 50mph which would not only knock stuff over, but the windchill would drop to -1 degree (F). 

By 2, today, it warmed up a bit to about 25 degrees F as the snow was falling and the wind was gradually dying down to about 10 mph. 

By the beginning of nightfall, the winds were gone but the temps were starting to drop to 23 degrees.  We set up small waterers (1 quart) on paint cans inside each coop and a cup of cracked corn on paper plates to help the hens since they were certainly not inclined to leave the coops.  As the snow started falling, we went ahead and closed up their coop doors (to the pens) long before it got dark.

Tomorrow we are likely to wake up to freezing rain.  But with the heavy tarps on the pens, they should be fine should they decide to venture out, after today. 

And the aftermath of Ice/Freezing Rain. The photos are not of our coops, but show the impact of the freezing rain.