Blount County Tennessee 4-H Poultry Project 2012

[possumblossum]

Hey folks,

Hope tonight's meeting was informative for everyone. This is just a chance for everyone to really introduce themselves and give a little background on your chicken experience. My name is Justin Davis, I have two kids participating in the Chick Chain this year, Michael (7th grade Union Grove) and Hope (4th grade Middlesettlements). This is our second year doing the poultry project, but we've been raising chickens in our family for several years.

I'll load up some pictures of my brooders, chicken runs and other items in the next few days to give you some ideas as we prepare for our new arrivals. I think this will be a great experience for everyone involved.

Here are some basics about this site. At the top of the screen, there are several menus to view. I suggest you start with the Learning Center-How to Raise Baby Chicks. The better you understand what to prepare for, the better decisions you'll make about how to raise your chicks. If you try to do this project 100% retail, you will easily spend over $100 and not get much of that back. That's why I'd next check out some of the pictures of brooders, waterers, and feeders that others have posted. As you're looking at these pictures, be thinking about what you've got around the house that will work.

Finally, I'd suggest that you check out the breeds page. It's pretty good, but here is the link to a slightly more concise, informative page. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

I'll be checking this page everyday, so please post any questions you may have. I may not have all the answers, but I can get them from other contributors pretty quick.

Thanks,

Justin Davis

 

[ben&momschicks]

I'm Karen Turner. Ben was there. We have raised chickens for several years. This is Ben's 2nd year in the 4h chicken project. He is in the 10th grade at Heritage. I look forward to your pics.

 

[cluckinalong]

The best chickens I get are from the TN A&I Fair raised by 4-H'ers. Gentle, healthy and ready to lay. These kids deserve so much credit for their hard work. This year I got two sex link's and they are jewels. Pecking order began right away b/c I had Rhode Island's and they noticed the partial black color right away. Everything simmered down and I'll get a couple more this September. Big thanks to the 4H'ers for their dedication to their projects.

 

[jmcmilli]

Hey Justin,

We missed you tonight at the Poultry group meeting, So far only a few dead birds. The rest are looking fine.

The Horrock's, Simpson/Johnson's and Waters' families are present. Only one bird from this group died.

I am showing them the website and login.

James McMillion

 

[possumblossum]

We had to make up a rained out baseball game in Maynardville. We lost two reds in the first two days. The first refused to drink and the second wouldn't eat; not sugar water, not a mash feed, nothing. They both just finally wore down. Nature's odd that way. In addition to the kids' 50 4-H chicks, I've got thirty coming from McMurray next week....Aussie's/Delawares/Columbian Wynedottes.... pretty excited about it. I've been trying to post some pics of the brooder, chicken run, etc, but I'm tech illiterate.

I'll be up by your office on Thursday to pick up 16 trees from the Soil District. Have you had any calls from the other families regarding problems or anything?

 

[Tom H Carver]

Hi Justin,
The meeting was great. Didn't get to talk but I have egg eating chickens (RI Red mix} that I'm sure I caused by feeding them egg shells not crushed up. I have placed porcelain eggs around the run and near the nesting area and watched them try with no luck to break the eggs. My next step is to wrap a couple eggs with wire and lay them on a small rubber mat and hook the wire to my electric fence box. This has sorta worked in the past with game hens but someone told me a long time ago that a chicken's memory was about 10 minutes. Whatta ya think?
Tom