Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ron on May 17, 2012, 09:15:48 AM
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After years of keeping african cichlids in my tanks I setup a tank the other day and went in a different direction stocking it. So far it's an interesting change and I'm amazed at their voracious appetite! At the same time they sure produce waste more quickly than my africans did! As a result I'm finding tank maintenance to be more demanding. :-\
I'll get pictures later today, but am excited and figured I'd let the suspense build. ;D
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Where's the dancing banana smiley?!?!
I'm hoping you came over to my side.;)
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I'll try and reverse it....... We don't care, Don't tell us!!!!! There see if that works.
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Where's the dancing banana smiley?!?!
I'm hoping you came over to my side.;)
LOL. :)
Didn't have time for good pictures last night - hoping to update this later tonight!
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You're keeping North American natives now...?
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I've kept North American natives in the past.
I've also kept a few new world cichlids in the past, as Regal suggested earlier.
What I've got brewing is a new "first". I'm guessing I'll be given a hard time once I spill the beans. :o
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I'm giving a hard time now. Intentinally dragging out a long tease like this is just plain RUDE! I'm not even interested now!!!
*whisper* I think he bought it.
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I'm giving a hard time now. Intentinally dragging out a long tease like this is just plain RUDE! I'm not even interested now!!!
Alright, before everyone loses interest I'll run down and take a picture or two right now and get them uploaded! ???
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;D
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/IMG_1690.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/IMG_1691.jpg)
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Oh so you went with a community tank? :) very cool
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Aha!!! It worked. Planning to take over the world via hen-pocalypse huh?
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How long will they take to grow up?
End of summer MCA BBQ at Ron's!?!?
Lol, j/k
That's definitely a tank in a new direction
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Aha!!! It worked. Planning to take over the world via hen-pocalypse huh?
LOL.
Oh so you went with a community tank? :) very cool
Thanks Rob. They're actually all supposed to be the same - "Cornish Cross".
How long will they take to grow up?
End of summer MCA BBQ at Ron's!?!?
Lol, j/k
Hopefully in 3 weeks they'll be outdoors and another 4-5 weeks after that they'll be in the freezer. I was tempted to do more, but figured 25 was enough to get the ball rolling again. Years ago while in high school I helped my parents raise some, so I have some past experience, but it's been a while. So far, so good. :)
That's definitely a tank in a new direction
Luckily I didn't actually have to shut down a viable tank for this venture. It's the tank I previously broke on accident (http://michigancichlid.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=159.msg1265#msg1265). I was holding on to it for as replacement panes should history repeat itself with another tank and realized it'd work great for brooding the chicks indoors.
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Nice...Didn't see that one coming!
Mike
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Yep total shocker there. Iwas gonna get 4 egg layers this year and never did. Gonna have to wait till next year im thinkin. Good luck to ya. 8) 8)
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Soooo, you're raising chicklids?
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Soooo, you're raising chicklids?
LMAO!! That's great.
When I worked at Petland, years ago, the chick lid people drove me crazy
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Just came across this....
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d102/Regalblue/facebook_292720436jpg.jpg)
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Way cool Ron. I have never raised meat birds but would love to try. I have eggs an the incubator now. Barred Rocks.
Ski I could hook you up with six layers and roo.
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Soooo, you're raising chicklids?
LMAO!! That's great.
x2!
Way cool Ron. I have never raised meat birds but would love to try. I have eggs an the incubator now. Barred Rocks.
Very nice - I've always liked barred rocks. When I was in high school I kept a mixed flock, I had a pair of barred rocks. Their temperament made them really nice to keep.
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A quick follow-up for anyone interested (I've seen a couple of names from here on chicken forums as well interestingly enough)...
Spent almost all of Memorial day weekend putting this together:
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/IMG_1714.jpg)
And then last weekend I finally got the chickens out of the tank! The tank worked decently for the purpose initially, but they grow really fast and within 2 weeks were starting to make me concerned that they could almost jump/flutter out of it. Keeping them content with food and constant fresh water, they never did make the journey over the glass, but next time I think I'll be making a bigger brooder area rather than take the tank route again.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/IMG_1723.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/IMG_1725.jpg)
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Haha, did you have them stuffed in the 55 at that size?
Yes, pun intended. Even though they're not turkeys
That's a real nice looking coop, great job.
One of those would've came in handy when my kids were younger,lol
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Ron, That dog of yours always seems to do an excellent job supervising your projects.
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Haha, did you have them stuffed in the 55 at that size?
Yes, pun intended. Even though they're not turkeys
Lol. Yeah, things were getting quite packed in the tank and I was happy to get them out. They filled up ~65% of the footprint by the time I moved them out. I would have done it sooner, but I kept waiting on their adult feathers to fill in better since we went from 80F nighttime temperatures back down to 42-48F nighttime temps around that time.
That's a real nice looking coop, great job.
One of those would've came in handy when my kids were younger,lol
Thanks. I like how almost everything turned out, except for the wheel mechanism. I kept testing it as I was building it, making sure the wheel setup could handle the weight. Once I finally got the roof on, it was time to move it out towards the field area instead of right by the building. I went about 6' and the wheels splayed in opposite directions and have since only gotten worse. I'm not happy with it, but to make due at the time I simply pulled it on the ground with a tractor. Now I'm moving it daily to fresh grass/clover using pipes slid underneath to roll it. It's not as nice as the wheels should have been, but it's working out and I can pull it by hand. The wheels are still helpful to leverage it up when sliding the pipes in and out.
Ron, That dog of yours always seems to do an excellent job supervising your projects.
Yep, she's always around and trying to help out. :)
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Sure looks good.. ;D ;D
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Nice coop Ron, I like that you built a chicken tractor. I'm on BYC.
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Thanks guys.
Mighties_keeper - I haven't joined, but I have been lurking heavily on BYC for the last 5-6. I stumbled across some of your posts from ~2009 IIRC. I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the tractor in the avatar.
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What kind of meat birds are they?
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What kind of meat birds are they?
McChickens??? :P
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What kind of meat birds are they?
Cornish X's
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The http://www.poultrypress.com/contents.html
is mostly about show poultry, but it contains a coupon each month for Purina feeds.
They offer a sample issue for $3.00. Generally the coupons are worth at least $5.00 each.
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^ Thanks for the heads up.
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Any updates?
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No picture updates, but I can get some this weekend. They're getting bigger and I'm almost through the first 150#s of feed. I picked up another 150# last weekend that should see me through to the end (or I may need 1 more 50). They're also eating a lot more active and eating more greenery than when I first put them out. I'm looking forward to comparing the quality of the meat to grocery chicken.
The mobil coop is working out decent. The birds are having a noticeable fertilization impact on where they've been previously. It's taking about 1-1.5 weeks for the grass poop to disappear and the grass to green up nicely.
I have started having problems with predators and lost 1 chicken a week ago. The birds are in a fenced area so larger predators are kept at bay, but smaller ones like fox, raccoon, opossum, etc, can slip under the gate at the entrance. Some preventative measures around the coop in addition to my dog waking me up at night when she notices things in the yard so I can run them off have helped thwart the problem.
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Maybe make a trap for the varmints??
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A quick update since I emptied the camera and am posting pictures. I'm hopefully coming to the tail end of this. Everything was going well until the heat. The heat has really put a damper on things since I keep losing birds to what I believe are strokes invoked by the heat. 3x daily cold water changes, an extra shade cloth over the pen, and a fan on them, has curbed the problems a bit, but I'm still checking them every 1-2 hours to keep spoilage to a minimum. Hopefully the heat breaks this weekend. :(
It's weird to think that just 5-6 weeks ago I was concerned about them at night because it was dropping into the low 40s. The weather this year really sucks.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/chickens.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/RonARCF/chickens2.jpg)
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For some reason I just can't seem to eat a chicken that I've raised. Don't really like eating a chicken I've witnessed being plucked either. Wish is kinda funny, cuz being Puerto Rican, my family has raised and eaten chickens for as long as I can remember. However, it just doesn't sit well with me.
I remember my uncle trying to teach me how to "ring a chicken's neck" and that poor chicken must've suffered a thousand deaths as I tried to get it right.
Anyway, good luck with yours. :D
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Sorry Emil but the image of you ringing a chicken neck made me LOL.
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Sorry Emil but the image of you ringing a chicken neck made me LOL.
Same here... Seems like you could just backhand it's head right off
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I don't know why, but all this talk about killing chickens reminds me of the Swedish chef on the muppets chasing after the chickens with his butcher knife!
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Sorry Emil but the image of you ringing a chicken neck made me LOL.
Same here... Seems like you could just backhand it's head right off
Back then I hadn't hit my growth spurt yet. :D
I don't know why, but all this talk about killing chickens reminds me of the Swedish chef on the muppets chasing after the chickens with his butcher knife!
Lol.
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Emil are you telling me you were little at one time. Lol I can't imagine that.
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Emil are you telling me you were little at one time. Lol I can't imagine that.
Lol.