Well, the cooler weather is upon us, and that means time to clean the coop and prepare for winter! It took my son and my husband and myself an entire day to empty out the coop…everything that wasn't nailed down found itself outside in the yard – cages, drop pans, fans, shelves, windows, plastic drawers, all feeding equipment – nothing was left inside! Greg vacuumed every square inch, while Erik and I washed and disinfected (using bleach) all cages and equipment…basically everything that came out of the coop got washed and bleached, and then was left to dry out in the sun! The entire inside of the coop, after being vacuumed with a shopvac, was washed and disinfected with Oxine, which is safer and non-toxic to the birds. I use Oxine inside the coop so that I don't have to worry about the fumes from chlorine, since I can't get sunshine into the coop to help kill germs and negate the fumes. After drying in the sun, back went everything that came out! I will admit, my back was sore for the following two days (OK, maybe three days… ;-))
The fans were put away, and the windows are now in place. The heater is also in place and set to go on at night if the temperature drops too low. Which reminds me, I also need to buy another one of those beauties to put in the brooder room…Erik has been busy taking pictures of the birds slated for the upcoming auction, which will remove some of the birds currently residing there, but I'll still have a dozen or so babies in there that are too young to leave the nest yet, so to speak ( :laugh: and :-(( )! We listed some of the birds on the BYC auction site today, the rest will be listed tomorrow, then Erik will list them on the site and link them to the actual auctions. Then, he can send out an email to everyone who signed up for sale notifications…Whew! Boy, what would I do without him??? :kissed: I'll be sure to make a quick post when all the birds are listed and linked, just to make sure everyone knows about it!
I recently bought 5 seramas, a rooster and 4 hens. I lost 2 last night for no apparent reason. I had them out in the yard the day before, cleaned he waterer and feeder with just water, no chemicals, and 2 gone this morning. The temperature dropped down to around 40 degrees, since I’m new to this breed, I was wondering if you thought the temperature might be the problem. I am in Kentucky, so this time of year the weather is unpredictable, one night it may be 40 degrees, the next 65 degrees. I am also interested in knowing when you list more seramas for auction.
Jacob-
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss! Seramas are sensitive to cold, and 40 degrees is about the lowest they can tolerate without having problems. It’s hard to say for sure, not knowing their background, but I can say that my coop has a heater in it that comes on when the temperature reaches 45 degrees, and a drop from 65 to 40, especially since they were in brand new surroundings, might have contributed to the problem. Of course, I’m assuming that they had no prior health problems…I think you should definitely look into some sort of heat source for your birds (at night)…Check out this post for more info on “winterizing” for seramas… http://www.pixiechickens.com/1331/winterizing-th…d-the-chickens/
I am in the process of listing birds for auction right now, and should (hopefully) have them all up Tuesday evening. Thanks for asking!