Recent content by longshot farm

Why is whole corn bad to feed them? Are we talking about fresh corn on the cob?

I have found that 8 weeks is a perfect time to butcher. After 8 weeks, the feed to weight gain ratio isn't worth it (from what I've been told), but I have let mine go for 9-10 weeks and the 8 plus pound butchered bird doesn't fit in the vacuum seal bag. Besides, you end up eating chicken for...

I have to put my two cents in here...First, paintball guns are great. They don't mortally wound the dog, and the paint on the dog may actually make the owner pay attention to the fact that something is up. Last summer, the neighbors pitbull was visiting every day. I had decided to retire one...

At the risk of being morbid...I couldn't tell from the pics, but were their heads mangled up? This spring we had a weasel get into our coop and kill half of our hens. Weasel's usually kill by grabbing the head and I guess they just hold on until the victim is dead. Out of our girls that were...

This thread reminded... We had a cornish X hen that was too small to bother butchering with the rest of them, so she became a pet. She eventually got HUGE and layed jumbo double-yolk eggs. She lived for over a year and then we found her one morning expired laying at the feeder. Her name was...

Thanks for the replies! I am planning on placing my order with them tomorrow and it includes a dozen new buff orp. pullets that will be my laying flock for the next year. I really would hate to mess it up by ordering from the wrong people

I was wondering if anyone here has ever ordered from Privett Hatchery? I found that the hatchery that I usually use doesn't have the type of layer that I want available. I was thinking about ordering from a different hatchery. I am nervous about ordering from someone I have not heard of...

I would definitely get some. They will taste even better with a lot of TLC Sorry about that, I couldn't resist. One of our sow's milk dried up 2 days after she had her babies, so I raised 9 of them. The only problem is that the 5 we kept to raise to butcher still think I'm mom. If there...

Hi Maureen, I'll TRY to answer some of your questions. My personal preference for acquiring new birds is by mail order (there are different hatcheries on-line such as meyer's hatchery and murray mcmurray). By ordering from them, you can order just girls, unless you want a rooster. They do...

It has been a REALLY long winter. The snow banks are only about 2 feet high now, but we had 2 northeasters in the middle of April last year - the 2 biggest storms of the winter. So we feel we aren't out of the woods until somewhere around June.

After having to board over our coop window (due to a hen breaking it- and no, she didn't get hurt, and yes, I am replacing it with plexiglass), our rooster only crows when he hears us outside the coop. I guess he thinks that it's still night until the door opens. Last year I raised 15 barred...

I never called the vet. The one I use for my dogs seems to give me the blank look when it comes to most farm animals (especially pigs), but I did speak with someone from our local university (I can't remember his title, but he was in charge of the dept. that looks into issues like that). He...

Thanks for the welcome. I was really happy to find the site. After I spent half the day reading the forum, I decided I had to subscribe. It can be so difficult with birds to decide what the best course of action is when you have illness or unexplained deaths. For the last few years, I have...

Hello, I just discovered "Backyard Chickens" It looks like a great site. I was wondering if there was someone out there who could possibly give me an idea about what went wrong with my chickens last spring. I have done a lot of searching the internet and reading to figure it out, but have not...