Travelling long distance with chickens in the winter

JDemaris · Dec 24, 2013

Our chickens are now 7 years old. Been in a coop every winter in NY with temps down to 25 below F and been fine. We sometimes use a light (not a heat lamp) to extend the light hours to get more eggs. Never had any problems. Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. We DO use a water heater.

We recently stuck them on a trailer and took them on an 800 mile drive to northern Michigan. Now they have their own personal RV. Still no heat and temps have been down to 10 below 0 so far. We’re about 30 miles from the Michigan Mac Bridge that some New Yorkers built to connect the two Michigans.

The camper was on a small farm I bought here. A Chippewa Indian lived in it full time while he was clear cutting 100 acres of woods for a local logger. Now the chickens have it. An old RV makes a great portable chicken coop.

TomA in CA · Dec 24, 2013

Our chickens are about that old and we were not getting many eggs so we got some new ones. Buff Orpingtons, RI Reds, Light Brahmas, and Barred rocks. They had just started to lay and we got 4" of snow and temps down to +20 which is rare here in the CA foothills. They stopped laying. Did yours stop laying after the trip?

randallinMo · Dec 24, 2013

I love your chicken house! Now that's a "mobile chicken house"!! I'm sure glad YOU get to clean it out though! That's gonna be a job with all those nooks and crannies. Yep............you got yourself a TRUE red-neck invention there!

howdy1960 · Dec 24, 2013

Congrates on getting outa this state
Norm from just north of Syracuse NY

randallinMo · Dec 24, 2013

There is probably an electric cook stove and generator on the back of that trailer. 'Word has it that JDeMaris was too tight to stop at any restaurants along the way. He'd just stop and fry up a few eggs along the way. Gotta hand it to him.....he thought this trip out!!!

Spook · Dec 24, 2013

How many eggs are you getting from 7 year old chickens? Mine are 3 and 4 years old, and hardly lay at all.

2badlybent · Dec 24, 2013

Right you are Norm. I wish more people would leave this area ,Northern NY, and let the rest of us enjoy this great area. Better yet, wouldn't it be great if NY city were its own state?

JDemaris · Dec 24, 2013

I'm all for letting New York City become it's own state. Heck, let them get their own water down there too instead of taking our's. Let them drink out of the same places they dump their garbage - i.e. the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean. NYC's water comes from some reservoirs 200 miles north and they are constantly trying to regulate land use in rural NY watersheds.

In regard to getting enough people to leave NY to make it better? That would only work if the State and Towns also lowered the taxes, provided less services, and want back to one-room school-houses (which I'm fine with). City people keep moving in and demanding city-type services in rural areas and we all have to pay for it. I'm afraid if they all left tomorrow - the services and government/school jobs would still be overpaid and there would just be less of us to foot the bill. I've lived in NY state for over 40 years and I don't know anywhere in the state that is anything like it was back then. The central Adirondacks comes close though. I get nine school tax bills every year in NY and three more in Michigan. Yet - we home school out last kid and pay for everything out-of-pocket. The entire state of NY is starting to get a little scary in regard to home-schooling. Michigan is much better - so far.

JDemaris · Dec 24, 2013

My daughter works in Syracuse and lives in Cazenovia. Used to be a big Deere dealership there when I was a Deere mechanic.

JDemaris · Dec 24, 2013

If we put the light timer on so it's light in the coop until 8 PM every night we'd get maybe 3 eggs a day. Now with it dark from 5 PM until 7 AM - we're getting 1 egg every day or so. If these chickens weren't my little kid's hand-raised pets - they'd be soup or stew or coyote food by now. I certainly wouldn't of built them a travel-trailer and hauled them 800 miles.

showcrop · Dec 24, 2013

(quoted from post at 11:00:36 12/24/13) I'm all for letting New York City become it's own state. Heck, let them get their own water down there too instead of taking our's. Let them drink out of the same places they dump their garbage - i.e. the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean. NYC's water comes from some reservoirs 200 miles north and they are constantly trying to regulate land use in rural NY watersheds.

In regard to getting enough people to leave NY to make it better? That would only work if the State and Towns also lowered the taxes, provided less services, and want back to one-room school-houses (which I'm fine with). City people keep moving in and demanding city-type services in rural areas and we all have to pay for it. I'm afraid if they all left tomorrow - the services and government/school jobs would still be overpaid and there would just be less of us to foot the bill. I've lived in NY state for over 40 years and I don't know anywhere in the state that is anything like it was back then. The central Adirondacks comes close though. I get nine school tax bills every year in NY and three more in Michigan. Yet - we home school out last kid and pay for everything out-of-pocket. The entire state of NY is starting to get a little scary in regard to home-schooling. Michigan is much better - so far.

J, You used to live in NE VT right?

JDemaris · Dec 24, 2013

Yes. A little town named Albany. Not far from the
Canadian border where Newport Center is, along
with the big lake with a name I can't ever spell
correctly (Meth- something- Maygog).

Back in 1976 I bought a new centennial edition of
the Ruger Security Six pistol in .357 magnum at a
local grocery store in Newport Center. I then went
down to the river and tried it out shooting at
frogs. A Newport cop pulled up and I thought I
was going to be thrown in jail. NOPE! He just
wanted to see the new Ruger pistol. He was also
carrying a Ruger double-action. He looked at it
and then handed it back to me -advising me not to
shoot so close to town. Good heavens - if I'd done
that in NY today - I'd be in prison for awhile,
I'm sure.

showcrop · Dec 24, 2013

(quoted from post at 11:59:25 12/24/13) Yes. A little town named Albany. Not far from the
Canadian border where Newport Center is, along
with the big lake with a name I can't ever spell
correctly (Meth- something- Maygog).

Back in 1976 I bought a new centennial edition of
the Ruger Security Six pistol in .357 magnum at a
local grocery store in Newport Center. I then went
down to the river and tried it out shooting at
frogs. A Newport cop pulled up and I thought I
was going to be thrown in jail. NOPE! He just
wanted to see the new Ruger pistol. He was also
carrying a Ruger double-action. He looked at it
and then handed it back to me -advising me not to
shoot so close to town. Good heavens - if I'd done
that in NY today - I'd be in prison for awhile,
I'm sure.

I drove through Albany not too many years ago taking the scenic route home. My Ford 9000 was sold originally in Hardwick.

Travelling long distance with chickens in the winter

JDemaris

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TomA in CA

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randallinMo

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howdy1960

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randallinMo

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Spook

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2badlybent

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JDemaris

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JDemaris

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JDemaris

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showcrop

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JDemaris

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showcrop

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