showlow
60 posts
Oct 10, 2008
10:25 AM
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Does anyone have any tips on keeping hatchlings warm in the Winter? I am considering breeding into the winter because I don't have very many breeding pairs. I would like to have a kit ready to fly as soon as I can. I am in N/E Arizona, it gets down to 20 degrees pretty regular. My loft breeding area is draft free, but not insulated. Any tips or ideas will be apreciated.
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Electric-man
2078 posts
Oct 10, 2008
10:58 AM
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When mine need help, is whem they hit that pin stage( between down and feathers). There is about a week there that the parents cant cover both babies and they start feathering out. If the weather dips on those nights, I keep plenty of the $1.00 hand warmers around like you put in your gloves, and I put them about and inch under the pine needles. It seems to work, been doing it for 2 winters now.
I have used my daughters reptile warmer in the same way, but I don't have electric out there and the dogs won't leave the ext. cords alone. I've wondered how warm Tony's water warmers get, might set the whole nest bowl on one if it is just a low grade heat.
I don't care for heat lamps, they get too hot and I don't want an accident. Plus, their inefficient(sp).
If you use electric in any way though, please use ground fault receptacles, specially if water is present. They work!
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Val
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Oldfart
841 posts
Oct 10, 2008
11:43 AM
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Hey Bob, My breeders and any holdover birds are in a contained area that is open to a central point,that they do not have access to. In this central area I use a self contained oil heater(looks like a small radiator) that has a thermostat and even though my brood loft is also not insulated it does a great job. I ran it almost continually with a maximum increase to my power bill of 10 to 15 dollars a month. Granted I'm in southern Ohio and we have had mild winters for a while, but I still think this style of heater is a good choice.
Thom
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kopetsa
1726 posts
Oct 10, 2008
12:47 PM
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I have babies all year long even in -60 F (including wind chill).. Mine is heated of course
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Andrew
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Ragin Rollers
57 posts
Oct 10, 2008
1:23 PM
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Hey Bob,
How are things going up in the cold country,I was just wondering on what strain of Roller you finally ended up getting.
Russ.
Ragin Rollers....
Goodyear Arizona.
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showlow
61 posts
Oct 10, 2008
8:10 PM
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Russell--I have mostly birds from Richard Apodaca. He lives in Apple Valley California. Richard has been raising and flying Rollers for many years and has very good stock. I am lucky to have him for a freind. How about you? What family do you fly?
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Indy
22 posts
Oct 11, 2008
5:53 AM
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I have never tried either of these myself but I was at a Racing Homer breeders loft one time and he had some of those little candle warmers that he used in his nest. He built wooden platforms with I think 1x3's with plywood on top to place them under and put the nest bowl on top of the platform. Another nest warmer I remeber reading about in a pigeon mag. some where is someone took a reptile warmer and placed it in I think a cake pan or something filled with sand to hold the heat and placed the nest bowl on top of it.
I was at a guys hose one time and he had a bunch of mixes pigeons in a big fly pen maybe 12x30 or so and he had various next boxes nailed up to post and old dog houses up on cement blocks and old camper shells on the ground were the pigeons would nest. I was over to his house one time in about Jan and it had gotten down to right at 0 the night before and we were in the pen looking at some Old English Game bantam chickens that shared the fly pen with the pigeons and he looked in one of the nest boxes and pulled out two babies that could not have been more than maybe 1-3 days old. The next time I was over there I checked on the nest and they were both there at about tree weeks old. I could not believe it. I used to help him catch extra birds about twice a year and take them to the local sale barn and leave him a dozen or so for breeders. Those pigeons bred year round and he was always getting overpopulate with them.
JohnL
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