Minnesota!

[lalaland]

Our favorite little Rosie (Rhode Island Red) has been puffed up. Drowsy on the roost...comes down to eat once in a while. Noticed her poop is watery with lots of urates and just a few little green poos in it. Got her up to the house tonight and keel bone is pretty prominent, cloaca is empty, but can feel a mass in her abdomen. She'll be 2 in 3 months. I'm thinking EYP. Kids and I are bumming. Reading a lot from Speckled Hen...she had this go through her hatchery stock a few years back and now only buys breeder or heritage stock. Right now she's got a little spunk and is up and down on her roost and eating with the others in the run...but...I'm not liking her prognosis from all my reading tonight.

Oh how she has charmed us.... I don't know quite what to do with this one....

I am so sorry to hear this, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[FoxyChicken]

Well it has hit 31* ABOVE ZERO! today and the girls ventured out for the first time since November...



They even found some scraps of grass that were exposed by the plow


Ginger decided to roost up on top of a snowbank for quite some time, she seemed to be gazing over what used to be a lush green lawn.... it's their first winter so I'm not sure she understands it will come back.

 

[Sotabrew]

I wish we could grow our own. We leased a hay field last year and hired someone to cut and bale. But we have nothing lined up for next year. We have 85 acres of land. All of its wooded, except some swamp and the pasture where my horses are

I refuse to cut down forest to farm. So, if we buy more property it will be cropland.

Minnie, do you happen to have any Black Orpington roosters for sale?

BlackBrookPoultry have you read the Growing Fodder pages at all? Im starting to look into it myself...

 

[goose4]

Spent some time today trying to rake out some of the worst of the frozen chunks out. I did not have much success. I raked out some straw with the poop. Some of the chickens went out since they have something besides snow to stand on. I hate to think what the barn will be like in the spring with 50 chickens 9 geese and 8 ducks spending the winter there.

 

[Cebarmlds]

Bogtown chick- I ordered one of the flat radiant heaters after reading about yours, thank you for the information. Ordered from Amazon free shipping!

Here is my panel heater!

 

[aussiegal318]

Bogtown- I had to look up EYP. I really hope that's not it or it's not too severe. She's a pretty girl.

Blackbrook- I was at a conference today that also mentioned growing fodder using aquaponics. It was in reference to alpacas. Foggy Bottom alpaca ranch in Isanti is going to have a seminar on it this June. I think I may need to look into it myself.

I hope I can do a little stall & coop cleaning tomorrow otherwise it's going to be a mess in spring!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Erlibird: Flat panel looks fab! I hope they hold up, now. They're so much safer than those lamps. Your coop from the inside looks amazing. Are you insulated too? Sand doesn't even look too cold there. Real nice for your girls.

Thanks for your thoughts, Aussie. I'm afraid it probably is serious. She's not roosting tonight--letting her sleep in a nest box tonight. I'm sure I'm just prolonging the obvious but we've tried some comfort measures with some antibiotics and trying some aspirin. See if we can give her a little time. her appetite is still there a bit and she seems to have a little zip yet. But we won't let her go too far if it's looking bad.

My coop too has some "mounds" to deal with. I'm going to have a happy garden, I hope, this coming summer!

 

[Cebarmlds]

Erlibird: Flat panel looks fab! I hope they hold up, now. They're so much safer than those lamps. Your coop from the inside looks amazing. Are you insulated too? Sand doesn't even look too cold there. Real nice for your girls.

Thank you Bogtown Chick. I do hope they hold up!! My coop is completely insulated. What you see is zeolite on the poop board, I love it!!! and the girls love it!!!!!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

BlackBrookPoultry have you read the Growing Fodder pages at all? Im starting to look into it myself...

BlackBrookPoultry have you read the Growing Fodder pages at all? Im starting to look into it myself...

Sorry for the double quote. I have thought about fodder, but not sure I have the space it would need. Going to do more research now . . .

 

[jbher]

Hi All! This is the first time I've posted in this thread. I live in Hudson, Wisconsin - however we are a part of the Twin Cities so I feel like I am actually located closer to more people in Minnesota than Wisconsin. We recently passed a new ordinance to allow backyard hens in our city. Because we are only allowed to have 5 hens, my friend and I are hoping to purchase our day old chicks locally (in Minnesota or Wisconsin) versus going to the big mail order hatcheries. However we're having a really hard time finding breeders or people that sell all or most of the breeds we are looking for. And I imagine it would be really difficult to go to many breeders and get chicks the same age, at the same time. Not to mention the fact that it would be nice to get sexed chicks since we are only allowed 5. I'm not sure what we would do if we had to order straight-run... what do people do? Order many of each breed then try and re-home the rest?

We are open to suggestions for breeds (we would like a colorful egg basket) but so far - we are really hoping to get some of the following (my ** means we really want them the most):

**English Orpington (love the blue or lavender or splash variety)
**Barnevelder
**Wheaten Ameraucana
Astralorp
Wyandotte

Does anyone here have suggestions for anyone that does sell day-old chicks in any of these breeds? We won't be ready until probably end of April for the chicks...

I look forward to getting to know you all better

Jen