Our nights have been in the low 20s. If you tried to raise chickens here outdoors you wouldn't have any left in the AM.
How are your babies doing, Bruce??? Christine .... did you buy yours yet? Colby, how many birds you got? Building the run Saturday and the original 14 will be put in there one week from Saturday! Can't wait to get them OUT of my garage
we've lost a couple and the other seem to have caught a cold, thanks to the warm then cold weather. We have them on terramycin(sp) now and that should keep the healthy until the warm weather comes back in a few days. Our rooster isn't doing so well and will probably leave us sometime in the near future. Once the broilers are processed we are going to get about 12 rooster chicks, 3-4 different breeds, and start the process of picking a new one. Bittersweet. We really liked rooster and hate to see him go but the new rooster chicks will be fun to raise.
We've never had them die from colds but, left untreated, they certainly could. These particular broilers are very susceptible to bronchial problems just because of the way they are bred.
Got more done ... window in coop and holes dug, posts set in cement for run... btw, single man post hole diggers SUCK ... :D
Tony your coop looks great. I'm at ten birds right now enough to keep my and some family with eggs but not near as many as I had last year. I still want to get some more Turkey's and guineas.
I start setting up my turkey pen this weekend. We get the eggs in the first week of May and, hopefully, most of them will hatch out at the end of the month. We have never had turkeys so this will be a new experience.
Thanks, Colby! Do you have any turkey or guineas now? I asked cuz you said you wanted.to get more... Bruce, I want to get a few turkeys next year, so I will be following how.it.goes for you ... how big is a turkey egg anyway???
LOL Well, I'll let you know when they get here. I can't recall ever seeing one except in pictures. I am assuming about twice the size, maybe more, of chicken eggs. I am not very good about it but when I get the pen stuff and when the eggs get here I'll try to take pics and start a thread about our turkey hatching/growing experience. Hopefully it will be about more than smelly eggs :p.
Bruce... I look forward to that thread! BIRDS ARE ON THE COOP! Before birds.... After birds... My Dorking cockerel giving me the stink eye ....
Bruce ... would you mind telling me the meat bird step by step? What you feed them, how much do they eat, how often do you move the tractor, how big is the tractor, etc ...
Bruce ... thank you for the email! I was thinking of doing a PVC tractor. I bought 3 more chicks this week ... Australorps ..... 5 more chicks coming a week from Friday ... Started the nest boxes 6 12x12 inside dimension boxes ... Gotta finish that run!
