cheap and easy waters and feeders

 Ive found that using rabbit feed hoppers with lids work  well for my chickens, they stay clean and I can feed them from the outside, they also filter out the dust in food through the wire.

Rabbit water bottles keep water clean and I can do it from outside, also it gives the chickens more room inside the coop.

 This is what my old waters looked like because my roosters would spend most of there time keeping an eye on things from on the water, and they would have to be cleaned daily. The price feeder from above is about $9 and I used my old water bottles from when I had rabbits, so I don't know how much they cost.

New Porcelain chicks

 This week I had some new chicks hatch and I thought I would do a short post on them, above is my breeding flock which has 1 Porcelain rooster and 4 Porcelain hens, and when I ordered 5 from a hatchery I got lucky and ended up with 1 rooster and 4 hens.

 Here is Silver Bell the hen that incubated the eggs, and here's two of the four Porcelain chicks, the other two were probably under the hen.

 Here is the 2 chicks learning to eat and drink.

The chicks personality's are a lot like there parents they love eating shredded pieces of grass from my hand , the other thing is they are very friendly and don't run away when I pet or hold them, which the parents also love eating grass from my hand and are all very friendly.

Incubation

 

 First to start incubating you must have a rooster in order for the eggs to be fertile , then gather some eggs , you can store eggs at 55 degrees for up to ten days in order to set all the eggs at the same time and so all eggs hatch around the same time, if you put eggs under a hen at different times all the eggs might not get incubated long enough to hatch, above is whats called natural incubation this is a brooding black Austrolorp.

 Hatching eggs in an incubator is called artificial incubation, it takes 21 days for a chick to hatch, on the 20th day the chick gets so squished that it breaks a little hole in the egg where it gets its first breath of air then rests for 3 to 8 hours then chips around the shell then pops out exhausted.

 Above is two chicks that hatched early , chicks also need special feed such as chick starter because foods such as lay ration have extra calcium that can seriously damage their kidneys.

 This is a Black Mottled d'uccle that hatched on time.

 This is the early Porcelain chick from above.

 This is the same chick from above at about 2 months old, below is his dad at the same age, chicks get fully feathered at 4-6 weeks cockerels learn to crow at 6-8 weeks and pullets start laying at20-24 weeks.

This is Platinum at 2-3 months old compare to how much he looks like his son,

Waddle to the Pond~ My Ducks Released In The Morning

Ice Water For the Chickens

               This is my flock of bantams hatched out this past August by some very industrious & broody hens.The black chickens are purebred Bantam Cochins , unfortunately most of them are roosters. They sleep overnight in an old shed, then during the day I let them out in the fenced in area in the back of our home. 

The other day the water in the bucket had frozen overnight and was ice. It was fun to watch the chickens head for the water, then perch on top of the ice while seeking the melted spots.I did add some hot water on top to melt the ice a little.

The white chickens are Silkie & Bantam White Cochin crosses, and again, these are mostly roosters. So far this arrangement has worked out. They sleep in the shed, then get out during the day to browse, peck at things, play, fluff themselves in the loose soil ( when it is not frozen) then they return to the lighted  shed for the evening.

It is important to remember to keep your chickens supplied with plenty of water during freezing temperatures.I usually find myself taking buckets of hot water out to my chickens , and they love it.

All last spring & summer, I added apple cider vinegar to the poultry water. I read that it helps poultry in many ways. Helping prevent coccidiosis is among the supposed benefits. If you show your poultry, adding vinegar ( 1 Tablespoon per gallon) to their water at home will allow you to add it to the water in their show cages, making it familiar and a boost to their health during the stress of showing, where often the poultry are there for a few days.

Remember, water is very, very important in the production of eggs, and chickens left for long periods of time without water will stop laying, and even die,besides, who wants to deprive their chickens of a long tall drink of water anyway? "Water makes up a large portion of the hen's body and is a major constituent of the egg. Water helps to soften the feed and aids in its digestion, absorption and assimilation.If hens are deprived of water for only a short time, egg production will suffer." Raising Poultry The Modern Way by Leonard Mercia

Cochins

                     The Chinese Shanghai fowl came to England and America in 1845.  The name of this Asiatic breed was later changed to Cochin.  The earliest were more or less buff in color.  Its striking appearance, due to great size and profuse soft feathering, distinguished it from all other breeds at the early period. Cochins created a sensation in England, resulting in a great boom for the "Cochin   China," as it was called in the days of "Cochin craze."
 In England Cochins  are called Pekins ,  Cochins come in bantam and standard both make excellent pets  there also good for meat and eggs and come in many colors including Buff, Blue, White , Black,   Splash, Lemon Blue, and many more . there are also frizzled Cochins. Cochins are also the second most popular bantam breed after the Old English game. Info above is from the   American Standard of Perfection.

                                      This is my Grandmas flock of Cochin bantams which include Black, Barred, and Red Cochins.                                    

                This is a photo of her frizzled white Cochins.

The Three Amigos~ Bantam Black Cochins

 The 3 amigos, bantam Cochin roosters who live together in our vegetable garden. When released from their pen in the morning...

 ...they spend the day scratching around the garden for bugs , worms, anything tasty.

 They sometimes jump the garden fence to follow

 the ducks. The ducks know even better places to find food. Under the bird feeders, in the sheep pens.

It is fun to watch the chickens watching the ducks who watch me to see if I am handing out food. In the evening the roosters watch the ducks pen themselves up and receive their nightly grain or bread, then the roosters run to their pen to receive the same. Routine rewarded by treats keeps them safe for the next days' happy wandering around Cedar Pond.( And for my viewing pleasure)