Maine - Page 262

Quote:

Originally Posted by gracejr 

I'm thinking I may be able to go up to the one the end of this month.  That should also be plenty of time to get the coop and run finished, hopefully!  Will threads for those ones be started as the date comes closer? I'd love to be able to get an idea of what will be available before driving that far, kwim?

There are threads for the swaps in Augusta, Wilton, Lewiston, Sanford, Skowhegan, and I think Waterville.

I saw the Augusta one dated for this weekend, but didn't see a link to the one on the 28th I think it was. Does all the info end up in the same thread regardless of date?

Check out this thread.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/622571/maine-chicken-stocks-swaps-and-shows-2012/140#post_8714469

I hope you find one close to you.

I think Augusta or Sanford will be our best bet. We're about 45 minutes from Sanford, a bit over an hour I think from Augusta.  Though Sanford we wouldn't be able to go until May 19th at the earliest. Augusta we could do the 28th, just not the one this weekend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gracejr 

I think Augusta or Sanford will be our best bet. We're about 45 minutes from Sanford, a bit over an hour I think from Augusta.  Though Sanford we wouldn't be able to go until May 19th at the earliest. Augusta we could do the 28th, just not the one this weekend.

I hope you find what you are looking for. Be careful when it comes to chicken math.  We started out with 6.  Now we have 20 hens, 4 pullets, 6 chicks, 13 eggs in the incubator, and 1 dozen more hatching eggs due tomorrow.  For some reason, chickens are very addicting !

LOL   I'm already failing at chicken math. I originally said we'd start with 6. We don't even have the coop here yet (saturday the shed comes, then converting it!) and I'm already easing myself up to a max of 12.  The shed is big enough for 24.  You can see where this is going.     I'm making myself stay at a 12 max this year, I don't want to get overwhelmed, but I'm sure we'll be getting more next year!

So what is the consensus on Marek's vaccines? It can only be done to day old chicks, right? We have a neighbor across the street with chickens, down the road with chickens, my mom now has chickens, so I'm assuming exposure is possible.

Do most of you raising chicks vax for it? I'm guessing I am much safer going with vaxed chickens only, right? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by gracejr 

 

superchemicalgirl - Maybe.  With the cost of gas I'm not sure about driving that far, so we'll have to see. What sort of colors are your mixed pullets? As long as they're gentle and decent meat/egg crosses, I just want to be able to tell everyone apart.  Any black, barred or speckled ones? Something easy to tell apart from the BOs or EEs? What are the olives?

 

My OE/EEs are mostly black, but some have different types of black coloring (some have gold around their neck). The brown egg layers are colorful - mostly gold, brown and tans.

I got them from an online egg swap here so I have no idea what the parentage is except on the OEs and I can't tell them apart from the EEs.

are you going to be selling the incubator?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by klf73 

I am so bummed. I had about 16 eggs go into the hatcher and only have 4 chicks. I went and grabbed an LG at TSC to hatch in because I couldn't find my homemade bator that has a fan and electric thermostat. I will most definitely NOT be using it again. I am so unhappy. There was nothing wrong with these babies and all were moving great when they went in. I have 2 thermometers in there and the floor says 99.5 and the one on top of the eggs said 101. I have never used still air and would have bought the fan but they didn't have it. I had both vent holes open, which it says to do for hatching  . I didn't get a single lf gl polish out of the 8 eggs that went into the hatcher. I would have hatched in my brinsea but had set eggs from my jubilees...

I have 1 jubilee orp x cream legbar baby and if they can be color sexed then this one looks like a pullet. I then have 2 blue breda and 1 splash. I candled real quick and one breda still looks ok but everything else looks dead. I am so done with shipped eggs. I know it is not only the shipping as my own had difficulties and I need to put effort into finding my hatching bator soon....LG sucks, wish the stores would carry a better bator...

I don't vaccinate for mereks but I have never had a problem with it. if you have it in your soil, then you need to vaccinate any chicks you get. you may not have it in your soil (spread by birds that had it). my thought is, I don't like to over vaccinate, if I had mereks, all the chickens would die and from that point on I would have to vaccinate any new ones.

I raise lots of chicks and I do not have a very large coop so what I do is in the fall, i weed out my population so I only keep back the best birds and I limit myself for my 8x8 coop to 13 birds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gracejr 

So what is the consensus on Marek's vaccines? It can only be done to day old chicks, right? We have a neighbor across the street with chickens, down the road with chickens, my mom now has chickens, so I'm assuming exposure is possible.

 

Do most of you raising chicks vax for it? I'm guessing I am much safer going with vaxed chickens only, right?