MARYLAND THREAD!

[CristinaB]

Yep, we are almost neighbors!

I have cream legbars, Swedish flower hens, Euskal Oiloas (basque hens), and ameraucanas (black, blue wheaten & wheaten). How about you? What chickens are you keeping?

I keep Speckled Sussex, French Copper Marans, Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers

Thinking about trying to add Legbars this year but need to wait for a pesky zoning approval to get approved before I spend any more money or time on my flock. In Frederick County if you have less than 3 acres you must have an agricultural exception on your property to keep chickens. My hearing is on the 23rd!

 

[HaplessRunner]

I keep Speckled Sussex, French Copper Marans, Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers

Thinking about trying to add Legbars this year but need to wait for a pesky zoning approval to get approved before I spend any more money or time on my flock. In Frederick County if you have less than 3 acres you must have an agricultural exception on your property to keep chickens. My hearing is on the 23rd!

How unfortunate to have to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to raise chickens!

Maryland is a beautiful State and the people in Maryland are great! I have been involved with running clubs in Frederick and elsewhere and many other activities in Maryland. That said, having grown up about an hour south of DC, there is totally different mindset when you cross the Potomac River going north. While I work in Rockville, MD, I happily live in VA. When I moved back east from Illinois with three young sons, I had several priorities. First, I did not want to entertain the opportunity to pay Maryland taxes and second the State of Virginia is blessed with many fine universities which my sons attended. Lastly, I did not want to endure an intrusive government that is very happy to regulate every aspect of my life. Sorry for the rant but government intrusiveness and unwarranted taxation always pulls my chain (and yes, I do work for the Federal government).

I live on five acres near Lovettsville, VA and there are absolutely no restrictions on farming activities in my agricultural zoning. No second guessing me on how many chickens, cattle, horses, etc. (I only have chickens, btw). And no obtaining approvals for agricultural activities.

I wish you the best on your hearing. Hopefully, you will find some sanity among people who know nothing about chickens. PM me if you would like to get together to trade chicken experiences and check out each others setup (observing biosecurity, of course

).

 

[CristinaB]

When I first moved into this state I knew nothing about chickens. After finding out about the joys of chickens from a friend (who is in Lovettsville too btw) I decided to start my own little flock. I cannot say enough good things about the experience.

Of course, where there is joy, there is always someone who wants to destroy that joy. And my neighbor (a renter) who has nothing better to do with his time than play video games all night and collect a paycheck from the government for being too "crazy" to work decided that my birds were keeping him awake in the mornings when he was busy sleeping after a long night of gaming. He started calling animal control for every little thing. My property is not very large, just about 2 acres; most of which is uphill. I have had to learn the hard way that chickens love to escape and explore new places to forage and lay eggs.

After the last call to animal control, he called zoning thinking that they would force me to get rid of my flock. He was very wrong. Amazingly, Frederick County was supportive of my hobby and were very helpful teaching me what I needed to do to keep my flock. It probably helped that this guy next door called them telling them that it was their duty to force me to rid of my chickens, which is ridiculous in itself. Even though the process is a slow one, and it cost me 100 bucks I am glad to have found out about the agricultural exemption process so that I can stay legal and in the clear with the county. Showing up to a hearing is not the worst thing to happen but it is stressful.

I will need to move my flock up the hill to a location that is 50 feet from all property lines. This is hard for me, especially due to the nasty winter we are experiencing. My ladies have been staying warm in their coop close to the house where predators leave them alone most of the time. I have built that coop up to deter any predation and the design was a good one. Unfortunately moving the coop up the hill is going to be really difficult without a forklift, loader or some other type of farm implement that I just cannot get ahold of. So frustrating! Eventually I am going to lose that coop and have to build a new one, but time is not on my side and hopefully the county will allow me the time I need to build a new coop up on the hill. Moving the ladies up there will be within zoning guidelines but will put them in harms way. I am going to be spending a lot of time worrying about my ladies. Even worse is that I was in the process of growing my flock of egg layers when all of this hit, so I have a bin of silkies in the house and a gaggle of hens growing out in a pen that is way too small. I feel terrible about this but spending a huge amount of money on new housing is going to be impossible until I know for sure that my birds can stay. I don't blame the county as much as I blame the worthless, sack of poo that lives next door who has nothing better to do than whine about my chickens.

Rants aside I would love to get to know other like-minded chicken owners around this place. I rarely get to talk to others about my endeavors to learn chicken keeping and growing my own food. If you happen to need help building or creating spaces for your chickens let me know, I am always happy to lend a hand to a fellow chicken keeper.

Are you raising them for Eggs? Food? Show? Or all of the above?
I had planned to sell my eggs as the demand is high for fresh, colorful eggs. I also eat the boys when they are not breed worthy. So far my quest to find a quality Black Copper Maran to mate to my beautiful girls has proven fruitless and the gorgeous speckled rooster I found ended up being too aggressive to keep. Of course, every time I acquire a rooster the neighbor goes crazy, maybe he should have thought about that before he moved out to the country.

Stay warm my friends!

 

[mdchickenlady]

Tucking my "girls" in for a cold winter night in Joppa, MD!

 

[mdchickenlady]

 

[CristinaB]

Tucking my "girls" in for a cold winter night in Joppa, MD!

Oh my! Look at how fluffy they are!

Today was glorious in that there was sun shine for them to enjoy before the bitter winds started to blow. My girls were having so much fun playing in the yard. We have some young pullets that are now old enough to roam the yard with the big hens and it was a sight to see them learning how to climb the "chicken tree" and how to select the best places to dust bathe. Chicken TV is never boring around my house.

 

[Kiomey]

Hope everyone is stayin thawed!

 

[TurnipTruck]

So, my son gets off the school bus crying today. I asked him what was the matter. He said that the kids on the bus were laughing at his chickens. He was so upset. The cure, we got some mill worms and sat on the porch and feed our chickens some treats. I explained to him that sometimes kids are mean because they wish they had what you had or just don't understand how cool the things you have are.

"Dad we have cool chickens," he said.

"Yes we do little man. Our chickens are pretty cool."




P.S. I've only refreshed water 5 times today, but it appears we've made it through the worst of it!

It was 6 with a windchill of -13 when I first went out this morning!

 

[SunnySkies]

I think it was colder tonight than it was this morning here! My face still feels frozen!!

My duck bucket froze completely solid. And I managed to break three waterers. How?

First one slipped from my fingers and hit the concrete in the garage, where there is now an ice rink. The waterer exploded and that was that.

Second one broke the red bottom when I pulled it off the ground.

Third one cracked when I added warm water.

The dog bowl cracked too.

UGH. I scrambled around looking for something, anything to water birds in! I found a couple small buckets and took a Tupperware bowl from the house.

One of the chicken feeders cracked off from the top when hubby tugged on it, not realizing it had frozen to the ground, and it cracked. It's still useable though.

I can't run electricity....the coops are scattered over 7 acres. Besides, electricity in coops and barns makes me nervous.

We were very worried about the hogs, but they have done well. The chickens have even done well....they find warm,out of the wind, spots and hang out for the day. Horses have handled it the best....they stand with their heads down in the round bale, eating nonstop, lol.

 

[Kiomey]

Yeah I stick to the rubber bowl/bucket thingies and just refill multiple times during the day. It's kinda theraputic to turn em upside down and stomp the ever-loving Ice chunks right out of em! xD My red based one cracked the moment I tried to refill it too... *le sigh*