Last month on the farm was spent raising baby laying chicks, raising meat chickens, and adding a new pet/worker to the farm- Thora the Great Pyrenees.
The gardens have been pulled, turned, and prepped for winter. We still have expansions to make in one garden but we can do that this winter. Though it has been pretty productive, there is still much to be done. J.Tom has been cutting trees for firewood and kindling. The front porch is full and there are a few other places he has stacks of wood scattered about for drying.
I just put the laying chicks out to their coop this week (November 15th). The meat chickens will be butchered Wednesday, Nov 18th. JTom is working on final plans for the pet chickens’ big coop. I have been working in the basement to get things finished and unpacked down there. There isn’t too much left to do, so hopefully we will have that done soon.
We have spent much of our time after dark by the fire inside. Thankfully the fireplace is also a furnace, and the heat is pushed through the air ducts to warms the house! It is wonderful! We’ve had some cool, misty days here in Kansas the last few weeks too, and I love a fire on a cool fall day.
We do have 3-4 too many rooster in our laying chicks, so they will be going back where they came from in exchange for 2 more chicks each. Hopefully most of those turn out to be hens! Apparently, if a chicken has a red crest and is under 4-5 months old, it has a 99.9% chance of being a roo. =( So .. we will keep the barred rock and RIR-looking roos; the other boys will go back.
We finished the month of October with s’mores at the fire pit- it was perfect!
I will update in a few weeks for the month of November.
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(a typical chick feeder at farmer supply stores) because they will roost on it, knock it over, poop in it, and throw the feed out ‘erywhere! (did I mention they are dirty little things?)
to prevent them from falling in or drowning if they do fall in (something to catch their footing and hop out).
– cedar bedding will cause respiratory illness in poultry. PINE. PINE. PINE. Say it with me now .. PINE bedding.
in the brooder to keep the temp. You can tell if the chicks are too warm by how spread out or how much panting they are doing; too cold by how piled up they are. When they act too hot, raise your brooder light up. Each week you want to cool them off by 5 degrees until their temp reaches that of the outside (or there abouts- once they are fully feathered they can keep warm), so raise it up a few inches each week. For us, raising fall time chicks, they will need to get acclimated to pretty cool temps here in Kansas. I got a thermometer and taped it in the brooder because it was $1.79 at the tractor supply store … so it is up to you.
size; I made it BIG since we got 15 chickens. You can use just about anything for a brooder0 totes, boxes, make one by taping boxes (like I did), or buy a kit.
to get them ready for nibbling on sand, dirt, and rocks outside. Our chicks enjoy scratching around for the grit.
