Hudson Valley NY *chat thread*

[MeggyC]

I live in barryville in Sullivan county. I saw the organic at the tractor supply in liberty. I think I saw it in Chester also just not for chicks. I get the cold spring one from heritage most of the time. In a pinch I use the dumor starter/grower. Sometimes I just can't get out of the house to get to bullville. It's never to late to go organic. I actually think the chicks like the dumor more or many it's just less waste. The organic is a mash and the dumor a crumble. The organic keeps vital nutrients by not subjecting the food to a heat process to get it into crumble form . There are plenty of people who grow and eat their chickens on dumor so there is nothing really bad about it. It's just what you want and believe in. Raising your own is still way better then relying on the super market even if it's only a couple hundred eggs a year. Congrats on the little ones coming tomorrow. How many, what kind, where from?

Thanks for all the great info! I will have 7 chicks arrive at any time today. I ordered them from mypetchicken.com. I got all bantams since it's my first time with chickens (just thought smaller would be easier to make room for initially, although I already know I'm addicted and will be ordering some standards next year). I got 2 Mille fleur d'uccle, one white silkie, one black silkie, one buff brahma bantam, one EE bantam, and one mottled Cochin bantam. I really love all the ornamental breeds, but I knew if I wanted eggs that I would have to tone it down and get some that were a little better at laying so I tried to make a good mix. Since I placed the order though there are soooo many more I want! What do you have?

Missed this. Sorry about the delay. The fermenting food breaks it down so it is easier to digest and helps make sure the hens get extra water during the cold winter.

I use layer feed from Lightening Tree Farm in Millbrook, NY. Take a 5 pound bucket, fill half full of feed. Add water until to cover + or - 3.5 inches. (Depends on what time of feed you use...you will learn to look at it and add feed or water to get to oatmeal consistency.)Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup organic apple cider vinegar with 'Mother'...I use Dr. Braggs. You can get it pretty cheap on the internet . Let sit for 24 hours...stir once or twice. I give them a Large cooking scoop per bird per day + free feed them dry food in the winter. You know you have the right recipe when bubbles appear after a day or so. I add food and water to same bucket after removing some each day. Each week I eventually empty bucket and start a totally fresh batch.

The chickens don t care if it is too thick or too watery when you start out so keep practicing.

During really cold days I make them tuna oatmeal w a few spoons of coconut or other oil mixed in. This is just regular cooked oatmeal w a can of tuna (or some meat) mixed in and whatever leftover fruit and veggies I have. The dog appreciates a couple of spoonfuls of it as well. The chickens really were wild over it.

I use several plates to feed to make sure everyone gets some. I use 5 gallon bucket lids to feed FM or oatmeal.

Thank you! I have been doing hours worth of research on this. There are so many people who do it some many different ways and are not afraid to say why there way is best. Yours is the simplest way yet, and also the way I figured I'd start out. I have recently been reading that adding your own blend of grains to commercial feed on a daily basis is actually bad for your chickens (it's like feeding them a lot of scratch I guess and nutritionally balanced like the feed is) so I'm glad to hear your method of just fermenting the feed and only giving them extras as needed (in the cold). I was wondering if anyone did it this way!

Again, thank you both! Your information has been invaluable! I will post some pics of the little girls as soon as I can!

 

[cutipatooti]

MeggyC I like the ornamental chickens but with four young boys to feed I try to focus on Bengal cold hardy egg laying breeds. If the weather here would permit I would love some sermas. I had silkies but someone stole them from my yard this year . I had 5, blues, splash, and a really nice porcelain.

My whole flock was wiped out by a bear last year, so I had to start fresh this year. I went chicken crazy and ended up with:

Black, blue, and splash Bresse
Bielefelders
Cream Legbars
Rhodebars
Light Sussex
Wheaten Ameraucana
Altsterier
Sweedish Flowers
Sweedish Orust
Sulmtalers
Malines
Yamato Gunkei
Blue black and splash double laced barnevelders
Bantam silver double laced barnevelders.

All the chicks I have we're straight run so I will have quite a few Roos. I have been selling my extra chicks locally. I have plans to go to one of the tractor supply tailgates at the end of September to sell whatever I don't want to keep. I got a few chick specials from the breeder and that's how I ended up with all these chicks. It was worth it as I got some pretty cool chickens. I hope the barnevelders turn out good so I can show them and so I can sell chicks. I'm really excited to see the personalities of the breeds and find which ones will work best for our family. I'm sure I will get more silkies but there are other breeds I want too... Like isbars, marans, and breda's. Chickens are very addicting. Good luck. Hope all your arrive safe and healthy.

 

[MeggyC]

MeggyC I like the ornamental chickens but with four young boys to feed I try to focus on Bengal cold hardy egg laying breeds. If the weather here would permit I would love some sermas. I had silkies but someone stole them from my yard this year . I had 5, blues, splash, and a really nice porcelain.

My whole flock was wiped out by a bear last year, so I had to start fresh this year. I went chicken crazy and ended up with:

Black, blue, and splash Bresse
Bielefelders
Cream Legbars
Rhodebars
Light Sussex
Wheaten Ameraucana
Altsterier
Sweedish Flowers
Sweedish Orust
Sulmtalers
Malines
Yamato Gunkei
Blue black and splash double laced barnevelders
Bantam silver double laced barnevelders.

All the chicks I have we're straight run so I will have quite a few Roos. I have been selling my extra chicks locally. I have plans to go to one of the tractor supply tailgates at the end of September to sell whatever I don't want to keep. I got a few chick specials from the breeder and that's how I ended up with all these chicks. It was worth it as I got some pretty cool chickens. I hope the barnevelders turn out good so I can show them and so I can sell chicks. I'm really excited to see the personalities of the breeds and find which ones will work best for our family. I'm sure I will get more silkies but there are other breeds I want too... Like isbars, marans, and breda's. Chickens are very addicting. Good luck. Hope all your arrive safe and healthy.

That is quite a flock you're building! I am excited to see how they turn out, as well! I'm sorry about your silkies being stolen and about the BEAR! We have a few that roam through my yard along with all the other wildlife in the area. Mostly coyotes and fox though :/ I LOVE seramas, after I get things really built up i would love to see about winterizing a small coop for some but who knows. I also love the porcelain coloring so hopefully one day. Many of the chickens you have now are breeds I would love to have, and I can't believe how many I have never heard of!! So much to learn! Let me know when you are going to host your swap. I would love to stop by. And send pics!

 

[cutipatooti]

MeggyC most of my chicks are between 2 and 7 weeks now so I don't have great pictures of them. They came from Greenfire farms so you can see what the adults look like on that site. I got them from GFF through RareBreedAuctions and did not pay the prices listed on GFF website. I will post some pics of my chicks later today. I have to take pics anyway for a woman who is buying all my black double laced barnevelders. If you ever want more silkies I can get in contact with the woman I get mine from. She is in olivebridge and has some really nice breeders. She has a porcelain blues and splash. I really want a buff. I am assuming that you are just keeping females. She sells straight run. Thanks for all your interest in my flock. I won't be doing a winterized coop anytime soon. I have seen people selling seramas at the tractor supply tailgates but they don't tell you they are not great in the cold. I like the idea of the rare breeds and trying to breed them to standard while at the same time protecting their existence . I will be at the tractor supply in liberty on September 20th.

 

[MeggyC]

MeggyC most of my chicks are between 2 and 7 weeks now so I don't have great pictures of them. They came from Greenfire farms so you can see what the adults look like on that site. I got them from GFF through RareBreedAuctions and did not pay the prices listed on GFF website. I will post some pics of my chicks later today. I have to take pics anyway for a woman who is buying all my black double laced barnevelders. If you ever want more silkies I can get in contact with the woman I get mine from. She is in olivebridge and has some really nice breeders. She has a porcelain blues and splash. I really want a buff. I am assuming that you are just keeping females. She sells straight run. Thanks for all your interest in my flock. I won't be doing a winterized coop anytime soon. I have seen people selling seramas at the tractor supply tailgates but they don't tell you they are not great in the cold. I like the idea of the rare breeds and trying to breed them to standard while at the same time protecting their existence . I will be at the tractor supply in liberty on September 20th.

I am going to check out GFF, so thanks for the info! I am not ready for any more this very moment, but if I ever wanted more silkies can you give me the information of your woman? I would love a porcelain and a splash at some point. Or I could just let you know when I'm ready if you would prefer lol. How do you find out when the chick days at places like tractor supply, call them? How do you know when people will hosts swaps outside/ tailgates?

So, my chicks came in on Tuesday evening! I was waiting all day long, called my post office several times asking if they came. Finally, one postal worker told me they wouldn't be in until Wednesday because he could see that they were still in the Newburgh location at 4pm. well, to my surprise I got a call at 5pm that they were in! they were so cute. I could hear them chirping through the entire post office lol. all the kids that were there wanted to see them and thankfully they were all alive so I can now say that I would recommend and use mypetchicken.com again. I took a few photos, although they are not great. some are from the Thursday and some are from today.

This one is Sunny (sunflower). I think she is my buff brahma. She is my most docile and sleepiest chick. She's so sweet and she just falls right to sleep in my hand. She also puts up the least amount of resistance when I try to handle her.




This one (below) is Rose, my mottled cochin (I think). She is my bravest one- the rest sort of flutter a bit when I reach in, but she comes straight out at me and stands up tall like she is protecting the others. She is also not afraid of my dog (who is obsessed with them, he sits and watches and protects them). She also will wonder around and inspect new settings. She usually separates herself from the group and acts like a watchdog a little. I think she might be the head of the pecking order but I could be wrong bc idk how this stuff really works yet.



The next one is Queen Ann's Lace (Queenie) and the one after her (the lighter one) is Lavender. They are my mille fleur d'uccle (I call them the twins because I couldn't tell them apart at first). Queen is a bit of a drama queen so that worked out. She chirps and cries at everything. I am a bit worried about her though because she pants sometimes when she is laying down. I checked my brooder and its not too hot (just under the 95F that they suggest) and I also have it so there is a hot (95F) area and then a cooler side in case they begin to get too hot. There is also plenty water and I don't see her getting pushed around so I'm not sure what's up with that. Also, sometimes she will stretch and leave her wings down for a bit (like less than a minute, but I don't see any of the other do this so). Any thoughts?



Lavender is a little more docile and brave than Queen, but still doesn't like to be handled as much as some of the others.



This is my EE bantam, Olive. She is a bit feisty and quite pushy with the other birds. The second day she just about hated me and hated being handled, but I picked her up and held for a few hours that day and ever since she has been ok with me holding her. She gets a little startled when I reach in, but she will be the second one after Rose to come at me. She and rose actually play with me when I take them out of the brooder. They chase me around and are not afraid of their surroundings; the others just sit and chirp for now. Olive is a little bit of a bully and actually monitors the food intake of some of the other birds. She will eat it straight off their beak if they let her. She is also my biggest chick so far. I have just about a million photos of her because I just think she is so pretty! lol





Next up: The Silkie sisters. The black one is Poppy and the white one Lily. Poppy is my little runt of the mix. She is so much smaller than the rest. At first she did get picked on, now they are not so mean to her but she does get last dibs on everything. I noticed that she cleans everyone else (their butts in particular) and no one cleans her so I pay her special attention. You can probably see in the photos she was due for some special cleaning attention at the time of these pics.



My little Lily is about as calm as can be. She and Poppy both shiver a bit when I hold them and are not very brave when I take them out of the brooder to run, but I just love that I can count on them to cuddle. I think Lily is going to be pretty and oddly she is one of the bigger chicks (second or third biggest I'd say). One strange thing though, I caught her twice when she sleeps she stretches out and stays like that (see photo below).



is it normal?




Anyway, I know I have been trolling these treads talking about my illusive chickens that were on their way for so long I thought I could at least share them now that they finally arrived! Please excuse all the poopy pics!

. I'm not positive about their IDs, but I tried as best I could to look up the pics on MPC website so those are my conclusions lol. Any thoughts on Queen and Lily?

Oh, I gave them a bit of FF today... THEY LOVED IT! I am thrilled because I keep hearing the frustrated tales of those who's chickens won't take to it.

Also, do any of you give your chicks vitamins and electrolyte mixes regularly? I bought some of the single packet ones for chicks and when I went through all of those I picked up a bottle of DURVET brand V&E from TS. Anyone ever used it? I wasn't sure on dosage so I have to look it up of call. Also, the lady in TS said they shouldn't be on V&E for long (not after 2 weeks) or they become immune to it and it won't help them if I need to use it as a treatment for illness...? Any thoughts on how long I should keep them on it?

Sorry about the long post! Thanks everyone!

 

[Joanmcm]

Cute chicks! That is a normal sleeping, sunning position. It is unnerving when you first see it. I kept waking my first chicks up. Poor things!

They look like a little chick carpet when you have 50 doing the same thing.

 

[MeggyC]

Cute chicks! That is a normal sleeping, sunning position. It is unnerving when you first see it. I kept waking my first chicks up. Poor things!

They look like a little chick carpet when you have 50 doing the same thing.

Ok thanks! Definitely unnerving! Thankfully I didn't wake her since I could see she was still breathing lol. Just wanted to make sure it was ok and there were no other health issues underlying so thank you for putting me at ease!

 

[MeggyC]

Hi all! Question... My chicks are now about 1.5 weeks old and they just started sneezing. They have been shaking their heads a little bit, almost like they are wet (but they are not) or their ears are bothering them for almost the whole time I've owned them. Also their stools look pretty healthy except the occasional watery/frothy one here and there, but mostly healthy. They are all active, eating, drinking, growing with the exception of the one who has been and remained the smallest (she is also developing a scissor beak ). Also, no discharge from anywhere, no swelling, nothing noticeably painful, no growths or lesions, no discoloration. Just a little moist spray if they sneeze onto my hand. What should I do? I have been giving them a vitamin, electrolyte (durvet) for almost a week and before that they were on those probiotic , electrolyte chick packets. I don't want to treat them with an antibiotic unless I'm pretty sure they need it. What do you think? Dust? Cold? Disease? HELPPPP

 

[LSzajko]

Good Evening Everybody~

I hope all is well. Welcome MeggyC and any other new peeps....too many posts to catch up on. I've been busy doing nothing much.
Where has the Summer gone?


Have a nice weekend !

 

[cutipatooti]

M

Hi all! Question... My chicks are now about 1.5 weeks old and they just started sneezing. They have been shaking their heads a little bit, almost like they are wet (but they are not) or their ears are bothering them for almost the whole time I've owned them. Also their stools look pretty healthy except the occasional watery/frothy one here and there, but mostly healthy. They are all active, eating, drinking, growing with the exception of the one who has been and remained the smallest (she is also developing a scissor beak ). Also, no discharge from anywhere, no swelling, nothing noticeably painful, no growths or lesions, no discoloration. Just a little moist spray if they sneeze onto my hand. What should I do? I have been giving them a vitamin, electrolyte (durvet) for almost a week and before that they were on those probiotic , electrolyte chick packets. I don't want to treat them with an antibiotic unless I'm pretty sure they need it. What do you think? Dust? Cold? Disease? HELPPPP

I would try posting under emergencies/diseases or raising baby chicks if you get an answer here. Not sure what's wrong with your little ones. I had one arrive in shipping doing the head shaking thing. It most likely had something fought in its throat but it went away. I had a chick with scissor beak . It got so bad she could not pick up any food. We had to end her suffering. She was the biggest in size but weighed half of what the others weighed. Hope they get better soon and that the scissor beak is only a mild case.