Any Northern Farmers with chickens here ?

[MD Dog]

Got a question before I order my first chicks. What do I do with them during the winter, throw feed ? But won't it fall into the soft snow ? :P

 

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[MD Dog]

Thanks TT, Appreciate the help. Just starting out with chickens again this year got in over my head last year and had to give all my chicks away so I'm going slow and learning this time. :P

P.S. I think you forgot the link

 

[MD Dog]

Best cold hardy breeds ? We get brutal winters where I live. Sometimes -30 with wind chills down to -50 Snow can get really deep, with averages as high as 300 inches a winter. That's around 24 feet of snow a season. But we usually top out around 200 inches.
Combos or egg layers and meat hens separate ?
Roosters, do I need one if I don't plan to raise chicks from eggs ?

 

[MD Dog]

Thanks again TT ! Your a big help !

 

[Noodle]

Tx gave you a good site to go to. Another is cacklehatchery.com . That's where I ordered most of mine from to begin with. Some I got locally. Chickens are hardy. Just give them a good shelter in the winter, with food and water and some heat, and they'll be fine.

 

[River Rat]

All great advice. I do know that their combs will & can get frost bitten. So a good sturdy enclosed coop will be a big help.

RR

 

[diggemall]

All great advice. I do know that their combs will & can get frost bitten. So a good sturdy enclosed coop will be a big help.

RR

So will their toes. Coop should be as draft-free as possible in the winter.

A Heat lamp on a low temperature thermostat isn't a bad idea either.

Lastly, check out comments on some of the poultry sites (like backyardchickens.com) before ordering - Although we have had great success in years past ordering from McMurray, they were having some health / high mortality issues last I had heard.

Diggem'

 

[MD Dog]

Thanks everyone. I think I've decided to make the coop a bigger deal than I originally had planned. My property is pretty remote with all kinds of critters running wild. I even saw a really cute red fox hunting a bunch of ground hog holes the other day. With all the water around I'm guessing we have racoons, I've seen skunks and we have plenty of hawks that hunt the area too. So Instead of my first design which would have held up to four standard breed adults.


Now I think I'm going to do a larger shed style that will hold 12+.


I wanna get into some of the exotic breeds just for fun.


I need more hobbies since I retired last year. I would MD every day but my old body just can't take it. Just two more question on your thoughts about the run. Should I bury some fencing under the run to keep out digging predators ? If so should I fill the run back in with the original soil or something else like pea gravel ?

 

[lonesomebob]

We had Rhode island reds, The rooster named Max would attack anything but people and me. The yard was clear of dogs and other varmits. he would hop on and ride them pecking all the way to the property edge. Real neat old bird. Bob

 

[Kentucky Kache]

You are a lucky man to raise the chicken. The egg is one of the great foods. Actually, so is their roasted heart.

I prefer the liver.

 

[MD Dog]

You got any Pictures TT ? I don't think I want that many birds, but maybe a scaled down version. Sounds like you have everything set up just right.

 

[MD Dog]

A blue print would be fine just something to show how it's laid out would help allot.

 

[diggemall]

Your talk about the extreme cold got me to thinking

My grandparents place had a large coop (big enough for 5 or 6 dozen birds, easy). I had never given it a lot of though before, but grandpa might have been pretty smart, after all. The coop was slightly dug in to the side of a south facing slope. Low ceiling (7 feet or so) and had glass windows on the south side. The walls were insulated, too. Sort of an 'earth-bermed' coop. Might make sense if you have a south-facing slope somewhere. That would let you steal some of the earths warmth to help keep it from getting as cold in the winter.

Diggem'

 

[MD Dog]

Wow great TT, that's just what I needed. Thank you too Diggem. My land is flat but I see know reason I can't back fill above grade as long as I get 4 or more feet of earth protection I should be good to go. Hmmm Maybe I should go with Cinderblock instead of wood ?

 

[diggemall]

Wow great TT, that's just what I needed. Thank you too Diggem. My land is flat but I see know reason I can't back fill above grade as long as I get 4 or more feet of earth protection I should be good to go. Hmmm Maybe I should go with Cinderblock instead of wood ?

Harder to insulate, but much easier to sanitize...............................

Diggem'

 

[Noodle]

I'm in Louisiana where the temps are fairly mild in the winter. They still quit laying in late winter. If the temps drop low enough, we put out some temperatory heat, but that's rare. We've been down to mid-teens with no problems. But they do need supplemental food in the winter. No bugs around to feed off of. Quite a bit of difference in northern states and southern states as far as care of chickens go.

I saw a show on tv where folks were advocating chickens as backyard pets. You don't eat pets. By the time you build the cages you see advertised on tv, buy the food you need to sustain them in cold temps, and consider varmits killing them, you can buy eggs and dead chickens in the store a lot cheaper. But not better, in taste or entertainment, by any means.

 

[packerbacker]

Yes, you can run a low wattage light on a timer in the henhouse to make them think it is light outside. That will increase the egg production. Egg farmers will have their sheds lit up 24 hrs. a day.
Raise the meat birds separate from the egg alyers. They will eat different foods. The best bird for meat is, by far, the Cornish Cross. They are big breasted and grow super fast.
I'd also raise the exotics separate from the others so it looks like you need to build 3 chicken coupes. Actually, you can raise the meat birds during your warmer months and fill the freezer with enough birds to last all winter. Don't need much more than a little pen and some shelter for them.
Here is a link to a good thread about the meat birds. Have fun. My son and I have 17 laying hens that really put out the eggs. Some Rhode Island Reds and some Araucanas.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27940

 

[diggemall]

you got the entertainment right....chickens are a never ending source of fun....

It isn't always the chickens that provide the entertainment

A few years back, our grandson was trying to get one of our hens to let him handle some of her chicks. She kept running him off. So, he decided it would be easier if he looked like a chicken. With just a little help from Grandma.....................

 

[Noodle]

Even if you have a very small yard (fenced), one or two chickens can be a delight. They have personalities just like cats or dogs. Raise them from chicks and they are special. I found an egg one day a few years back and brought it inside, set it up on my washing machine, and put a light on it. Few days later, I came home from work and it was cracked. (hot summertime) Next morning it had begun to really break open and I found a chick. Had to go to work. When I got home, the chick was still laying there in the cracked-open egg looking pathetic. I picked the chick up out of the egg shell and stuck its beak into a bowl of water. I figured it had been without water long enough. That was ReRun, my most majestic rooster. Huge Rhode Island Red. He still eats out of my hand 5 years later and is an absolute sweetheart. He has spurs 3" long, but is not aggressive except for certain other aggressive roosters, never humans. He loves his "ladies" and protects them daily. It's really a study and I encourage others to observe and test their chickens.

P.S. ReRun (initially WeeOne) loves dog and cat food. Every evening he invites himself into our greenhouse, where he knows we feed our 12 cats and 2 dogs. We allow him in, since he is special. When he has finished gorging himself, whether he's full or not, we pick him up and take him back outside. If you've never had the opportunity to pick up a rooster (or any chicken) in the daytime, you haven't lived. However, ReRun is very compliant. He knows we're going to pick him up, and he doesn't object. Once we pick him up, he chuckles and rears his head and talks sometimes for the trip back outdoors. We wrap our arms around him, pinning his wings, and cuddle him close. And walk outside. He says something, but we figure it's congenial and keep going. He's a sweetheart.

Noodle

 

[MD Dog]

you got the entertainment right....chickens are a never ending source of fun....

It isn't always the chickens that provide the entertainment

A few years back, our grandson was trying to get one of our hens to let him handle some of her chicks. She kept running him off. So, he decided it would be easier if he looked like a chicken. With just a little help from Grandma.....................

Wow Diggem, now that thars funny, I'm surprised jeff ain't moved that post to comedy central.