We have a pallet coop. To block drafts I've used straw bales and they've worked great. New & better coopbeing built in the spring. We use deep bedding, and i cook them up beans & rice. Been taking fruits from our freezer to them as well. We rarely have kitchen scraps, but they get those too. Hysband asked if they can have deer cirn...ill look that one up. End of deer season, so the remaining unused feed could come in handy. Really live how you teach & include your son. Stay warm y'all
Straw bales are great for insulation!! Sounds like you guys got it all figured out to me, great work! Thank you, I appreciate that! I love including the kids in everything we do and I love it even more when they actually like it 😂. This kid specifically loves working outside in the garden and coop with me!
I like to give my chickens bell pepper seeds and cayenne pepper flakes and seeds. Helps raise the temp. Mine are picky eaters as well and unfortunately, they dont eat to much of the table scraps we give them. This current winter stirm hit the Midwest pretty good and I had to add a heater to the coop because the water container that has a heating element froze. This summers going to he a big revamp on the coop. Going to pull the wall panels of and add insulation and maybe even adding something to the ceiling to help insulate it better.
He’s definitely one of the smartest kids I know! Too smart sometimes when he is trying to get away with something 😂! You’re welcome, thank YOU for watching!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead 😂 HE does a great job. You are a great dad teaching him and then letting him teach us. He will be able to make it in this life. ❤️😊
Remember that a chickens body heat equals about a 10 W lightbulb. So if you have 10 chickens, it says if you have 100 W bulb in your coop. Another reason why chickens do not need heat. Keep them dry and out of the wind and they can tolerate quite a lot of cold.
I was doing same stuff today. NJ gonna be in teens at night for next 2 weeks with 30’s high for days. Put out 7 heater waters. Hate this time of year! I have heat plates in each coop. It brings temps up 10-15 higher than outside. Spring and fall are my favorite
Thank you so much for your tips.it’s -6 this morning and they are as sassy as ever. My first winter with my girls. The corn was so appreciative. We do field corn and saved them some.
I should have just kept my big mouth shut 😂. It really does, it works so well! They’ve even been giving us more eggs! Probably from a lot of different reasons.. but still!
It was -7 here last night. So the last three days they've been getting a lot of corn and black soldier fly larvae. My chickens are devious. They hate to walk in the snow. And every time I throw down straw for them to walk on it just snows again. So I'm feeding them inside the coop. I even put the water in there even though I really really didn't want to. I'm going out three and four times a day to break the ice off the water.
Brandon you should let all them chickens in your house so they dont get cold.😂😂😂😂 ( Sorry I had too. Gotta have some humor to the cold you get up there. I gotta hand it to you I could not do that cold anymore. Been in Florida for way too long). Oooo - 14 that is nuts.
Lucky for us it didn’t get as cold as forecasted! It’s been snowing for 12 hours now and it’s very cold but it’s not -14 thankfully! JUST warm enough to not let them in the house 😂. Florida is beautiful, I don’t blame you!
Thank you for all I've learned from you,, gardening & especially the chicken videos I'm a new chicken mom (well, going on 2 years) .I love the change you've decided to make, including your son (family) now in the videos is awesome. You guys rock !!!!
It really helped our son take care of his chickens during the ongoing arctic blast!! It helps to have information like this and given by such charming people!!!❤️❤️
I have been watching a few of your videos. Good stuff! Honestly, if i was you I would get meat rabbits. I have some myself in northern Quebec (think like Alaska weather). 2 does and a buck(a trio) would get you about 180lbs of meat yearly. In addition to this, The waste after processing is about 12 to 15lbs x 5 times a year. That can all be fed to chickens. Thats what I do. The other thing is that Btw this is 5 litters a year with a 6 week break during summer hot weather. A hanging hutch caged system would be perfect. No constant cleaning. No smell, no noise. Kids love them. Your cold weather isnt a problem. You can sell kits and the 💩 can be sold. Its by far the best menure and it doesn't need a menure pile. Fresh can go straight into your garde. I sell a 5 gallon pail 10 to 15$. With your garden, the scrap cuttings that chicken dont eat... well they love them. Feed would be 6 to 8 - 50lbs bags yearly. 25$ a bag at harbour freight. If you feed them only pellets. I cut that by half with stuff from garden. So yearly cost of meat is less then a buck per lbs. If you are interested. I can help with good YT ressources and breeds to choose.
Had about 8-10" the past 2 days here in Delco, ID. Most of it in blizzard form. Had the drafts all buttoned up but the blizzard was too much. Had a pile of snow in the coop this morning. Removed half the deep litter and reengineered the vents. Replaced the litter, and done. Been a busy day.
That sounds like a busy day for sure! We just spent about two hours digging ourselves out down here as well. We got about the same as you did but it’s HEAVY snow. Glad you got it all buttoned up though!
Suburbs! Our area used to be all farmland but over the years it’s becoming more city. Next door to me is a goat dairy farm, two doors down is horse property, but directly behind me is now a subdivision.
Oh absolutely! It’s definitely something that has kind of been lost over time, but I think since Covid it’s something that’s been coming back. We will see!
He really did! I would find a way to close them. My mind goes directly to caulking but I’m unsure how it would work on that shed or in this cold so I would have went down a rabbit hole of ways to cover it. Worst case scenario I could have puttied it until I found a better option 😂
We were at 9 degrees last night with a light dusting of snow. My newest water heater in their 5 gallon bucket didn't work at these temps so I have set a timer on my phone to bring out hot water every hour. And I fed them a hot breakfast of their feed mixed with scratch grains, some fruit peels or puréed fruit and I'll be digging out the pumpkin seeds and guts I saved for them from the deep freezer to give them a little variety. It's 10 degrees right now, feels like -2. Also, cute kid.
We had -35ish wind chill and as a newer chicken owner I made the mistake of letting them choose to go out in the run. I put up a tarp to block wind but it didnt work too well. My rooster and a couple of hens have severe frostbite.
My chickens are 4-5 months old. Good layers, but too many options on the web site. What should I feed them? I want to raise turkeys this year. What feed is best for them? Thanks
I have very limited experience with turkeys so I can’t help much there! We use scratch and peck feeds, they are an amazing product but are pricey. Looking into good organic options are a great way to go but honestly you can even feed the cheaper foods and supplement with your kitchen scraps to help give them some extra nutrition in there! We did that for years!
I feed all my chickens, no matter their age, grower feed. And I put oyster shell on the side. That way they get more protein. You don't have to worry about calcium overload. You don't have to worry about older or younger chickens, eating the wrong kind of food. I've been doing it for years and it works great.
Scratch and peck is great food. I can't afford it anymore because now I have 15 chickens but back when I only had five I definitely bought it. It's good stuff. Fermented and it's even better.
I have that same worry with grapes and people make fun of me. With my kids I’ve always been terrified of feeding them whole grapes and that transferred over to my chickens too and people make fun of me for cutting those up before giving them to my birds 😂
Our first year having chickens(10) and for some reason several are molting and i thought they did that in the fall not really bad but a little naked around a couple of there necks thats manly why iam worried.
