April's Cold Start turns to Summer Temps in the End

The April temps have fluctuated downward then upward over the month.  We should have three days in 80 degree (F) temps then back into the 60s.  Personally, I like 60 degree temps. I can get so much more done on those days, as long as it is not raining sideways or thunder storming with hail. 

So we are finally dwindling our 59 chicks (which all survived) down to 12. We still have 18 pullets today. They are 10 weeks old.  Two will leave this weekend (Silver Laced Wyandotte and Easter Egger), and four more (2 Barred Rock, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and an Easter Egger) will leave later next week. 

We don't have a Tiny this year, but we do have two runtish pullets that need to have special care at the moment. Those two are in a safe-zone in the big pen. The "smalls" can fit through the larger openings on the dog crate while the bigger girls cannot. So those two are, at least, outside with the pullets, but still safe from the "mean girls."  It took almost a month for the feathers on the Cuckoo Marans to "start" to grow back. The Rhode Island Red was not picked down as much on her back or neck. But, yah, they are a duo and do everything together. They do venture out of the crate, but don't go far.  Keeping food and water in their crate is necessary.  They are sleeping together on the roost in the crate while the big girls all sleep up to the house, overhead.  So this is going to take some adjustment time where they, eventually, can sleep with the bigger girls. 

When it is all done, we will have the following pullets/breeds:

• 2 Rhode Island Reds (1 smallish)
• 2 Splash Laced Red Wyandottes
• 2 Black Australorp
• 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte
• 1 Easter Egger
• 1 (small) Cuckoo Marans
• 1 Lavender Orpington
• 1 Olive Egger
• 1 Cream Legbar

Once we have the sold six sent off to their families, we will start to integrate our three remaining hens into the pullet flock. We have two Gold Comets, and one French Black Copper Marans hens that are doing a decent job supplying us with eggs. For now, the pullets are enjoying the weather before their numbers dwindle again.

Last weekend, we had one bird get returned as a rooster. A Lavender Orpington came back to us as an obvious Roo, so we had to part with one of the remaining Lavendar Oprpingtons as a replacement, that I was hoping to hang on to.  Big Sigh.... But I think this is our only roo.  If the one gal who took 15 two weeks ago has a roo, I'm thinking it might be an Easter Egger, which is another breed that is difficult to "gender" at hatch. But the family is likely to keep that roo as flock protection since their birds free range on their farm. But, at most, I think we only received two roosters out of 59 day-old chicks.  That's much better than last year! Last Spring and Summer, out of a total of 50ish chicks, we ended up with three rooster, several of the chicks died before maturity, one (Tiny) was severely deformed and was not able to survive the winter cold.  So the better ratio this year of survivals and roos is a "feel better" start to the year. 

We are done starting chicks for the year.  No chick plans for the summer and we can focus on hens, eggs, and garden. 

April Snow Showers bring Cold Temps!

The weather the past few years has been so unpredictable. Last year, on April 11, we had over 6 inches of snow on the ground, killing some of my freshly planted berries and almost killed the grape plant I had planted the first of April (2022) on the assumption that the freezing was behind us. It also killed  a few of the baby trees I had planted. I was none too happy.... but, then, the heat in the summer killed most of the rest of the trees. Ugh.  

This week, the temps yesterday were pretty typical and wet.  We even ventured out a few days ago to replant some of the tree starts.  But today, we are likely to have freezing temps again, and some snow flurries. The Day Old Cornish Cross that we ordered in February, arrived today, and yah, this is what we are dealing with. Have them in garage with a space heater under their brooder and towels over the top of the mesh, trying to hold some of the heat inside. It has helped to warm the inside of their brooder warmed up to 65F, so that's not too bad. Using the large brooder warmer to ensure that everyone (25) have a place to get warmed without needing to feel distressed. Have pushed the feeder and the waterers up close to the warmer so that they don't need to get too chilled in order to eat and drink. Normally, at this time of the year, we are warmer, but, yah. This seems to be our new normal.

Oh, update on the duck. Brown duck (Diega) has been limping the past few days. I did end up catching her yesterday and she has two calluses on each foot. I brought her inside the house, which obviously was stressful as she pooped down my coat and onto the kitchen floor. Then pooped again when I put her in some warm water to soak her feet in epsom salt solution in the laundry sink... ugh! I don't see any redness or black, so that's good. Have put some grass hay on the ground in their coop to hopefully help minimize the foot stress for her at night. Don't want this to turn into bumblefoot. May try to catch her again in a day or two, to put some oil on her soles to help with healing.

Ahhh... Spring!

At Seven Weeks and In the Big Coop

We moved the left-over new flock outside into the main coop. Put our three remaining hens into an A-frame coop which they are none too happy with that move, but will put them back out in the main coop when the others are big enough to stand their ground in a few more weeks.

Today, we planted 25 Norway Spruce trees. Of the 50 we planted last year, only 4 survived. Ugh. These trees are taller than the ones I bought last year. All bare root and in the ground. Hoping we don't have another summer like the last two summers. These long, hot and dry summers are hard on our attempts to get the Christmas Trees a going.

One of the ducks is limping today. Will try to catch her tonight when it is bedtime. Easier than chasing her and the others around the field in the middle of the day. By putting them to bed in the coop, we can then grab her in a confined space. Need to check to ensure that she isn't getting a sore on her foot.

Meat Chicks will be arriving on Wednesday, and then we will be a step closer at getting our chicken meat raised for the year.

And that's the update for the first week of April, 2023.

Four Weeks and Counting Until Ready to Go Outside 2023

This is the MOST chicks we have ever attempted brooding at once. We planned on 50, and ended up with 59! All survived which is really quite extraordinary. 

We really needed another brooder for all these chicks, but we worked our way through.  We started brooding in the house the first two weeks in large boxes.  Started with two large boxes, and within a week, we needed to add another large box to handle their growth.  We had the freezing temps with much cooler than typical end of February weather. We moved the chicks into the larger, four-foot square brooders during the first week of March. We had 29 chicks in one brooder and 30 chicks in the other brooder.  This was fine at the start of the month, but now, two weeks in to March, it is no longer feasible.  Typically, we can keep about 20 chicks in our brooders from week one to week six. Um.... yah, we really needed one more large brooder. 

We decided, since 26 of the chicks will be leaving for their new homes in a couple of weeks, that we would divide them in half (based on their respective mini-flocks) to give them the added space for the next two weeks.  This helps with their flock bonding experience by reducing the stress because they won't be crowded at all for the next two weeks. We placed the other 33 chicks into our larger six-foot square pull pen.  Typically, we use this pen while pasturing and growing out our meat chickens. The chicks are small enough (at the moment) to have plenty of running, chasing around, and flying space in this larger pen for at least the next four to six weeks. We will be selling most of the rest of our chicks by that time as "left overs."  We bought extra of all breeds to ensure that if any died or any were roosters, we would still have some of each breed available for the people we presold for this winter/spring. 

We already have people interested in our 10+ week leftover pullets.  So I'm fairly certain that we will be able to sell all those extras before spring is done.

Drifting Snow Field 2023

So, the snow is still here.  Not really any new snow.  It's just moving around. With the sunshine, the icicles are growing each day and some are circling into distorted spirals. 

Chickens are getting more sunshine as the snow blows away from their coop but they are not liking this cold weather.  Doing our best to protect them from the coldest of the winds, from the east and north. Waterer warmer plate is doing its job and have been throwing a couple handfuls of scratch into their flip-proof bowls for a little extra digestion warmth for the evenings. 

Still pretty cold out, and not a lot of real melting going on. 

Snow Got Much Deeper 2023

 It kept snowing to the depth of 8 inches this morning. The ducks' coop actually acted a bit like an igloo and they stayed pretty warm.  The reason I know this it the fact that the water warmers got unplugged at some point last night or this morning.  An animal may have bumped/tripped on the cord and it was pulled out of the outlet on the house. The chickens' water was totally frozen in the trough (but not inside the fount). I checked on the duck's bucket of water, and it was starting to get some ice crystals, but not frozen at about 10 this morning. The air temps are about 25F but with the wind chill, the temps feel like they are in the teens.  

I covered the chicken's wire door because snow was getting inside a little last night. The ground is frozen inside their pen at this point, so I have spread out some grass hay for them to be able to get to their feed and to their waterer (that is now warmed). They did lay three eggs today, but I will be surprised if they lay tomorrow considering how cold it is. 

The ducks are playing in their pool, but we are checking on them hourly because the temps are freezing.  They are not venturing into the snow today since it is too deep for them to navigate. There is a path beat from their coop to their pool, and so they are traveling only to those two locations inside their pen today. I also spread some grass hay inside their coop, but only close to the walls since they don't like to walk on it and it interferes in their ability to drill holes in the ground in their coop. 

Ducks have a different circulation system in their bodies, feet and legs. They stay warmer and even in freezing temps, their feet are less likely to experience frost bite, like chickens can develop by walking on frozen ground. 

Snow Day for Hens and Ducks February 2023

We aren't getting a ton of snow, but enough that it is turning things white around here. Snow is coming in from the Northeast so we have wind panels up on those sides of the chicken coop, and the duck coop door is turned towards the South. At times, the flakes are pretty large, about the size of a quarter, but mostly just small, wet, flakes. 

Gave the hens some scratch.  We had a bad day yesterday in that it was windy and it blew their house hatch closed, locking them all inside for the majority of the day.  We knew it had to have been most of the day because there were no eggs in the nesting box. When we moved them to some fresh ground last night I put a light inside their house with some fresh water, while we did all the prep work for the potential of snow today. That way they could, at least, rehydrate before going to roost. Poor Girls. So they deserve a little extra scratch today. 

Ducks are doing great. Playing in their pool and running around inside their pen checking out the snow. We need to keep an eye on the white/fawn duck as she likes to take flight into the wind and we are having just enough wind to make it possible for her to fly right out of the pen. LOL

Update, these photos were at 2pm. By 6pm, the snow was five inches deep and still building up. When I went out to put the birds to bed, the duck coop looked like an igloo cave.