North Carolina

[FVRM]

Life goals

 

[LeanneP]

I am thinking about a breeding pair of Barred Plymouth Rocks... then I will add a few more BPR hens... anyone have any experience with that breed?

We have 4 BPR pullets and they are delightful. They are very chatty when we come in and sweet as sweet can be.

 

[6275Smith]

I am thinking about a breeding pair of Barred Plymouth Rocks... then I will add a few more BPR hens... anyone have any experience with that breed?

My experience with BPRs was okay. We had a flock of equal numbers of Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, and Buff Orpingtons (all hatchery birds). Honestly, the Barred Rocks were my least favorite of the three. They were okay but they were skittish with us and a little aggressive with the other chickens. Good layers, though. For comparison, since they were all raised together, the Australorps were shy and stand-offish but gentle (and awesome layers). The Orpingtons were great. They would hop into your lap and liked to be carried around. Anyway, that was my experience with them.

 

[cwhittington]

Leaves for bedding in the chicken coop!?!? I mean...duh...but never occurred to me!! So doing that next year.

I joined a new group on Facebook, called Chicken Buy/Sale/Trade - Wake, Chatham, Orange, Durham Counties NC https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021492294531859/1028045080543247/?notif_t=group_activity

Saw some activity on there for Lavender Orps, Seramas, Marans, Ameraucanas, and Brahmas for those of you who've mentioned you're in the market...

 

[ramirezframing]

with all this chick talk... i've been thinking about getting an incubator (i'm going to be in SO MUCH trouble!)... i'm finding it hard to find the breeds i really want and price too is always a factor... and think it might be easier to get hatching eggs? any thoughts?

i've also been thinking that i want to start raising a heritage/ endangered breed... any thoughts there?

hope everyone is warming up!

What breeds are you looking for?

I would recommend going to the Smithfield poultry show the second weekend in March (the 14th). There will be lots of breeds to see and you can talk with the breeders. There will be some birds for sale outside and inside. I have breeder quality sumatras and lakenvelders, both are considered endangered. I find this odd since you can get them from almost any hatchery, but they compile the rare/endangered list based on breeding groups of 50 or more birds and only from people who say they have that many. Now the trick and what I feel makes them rare/ endangered is finding good breeding stock of these breeds. Sumatras are easier to find good breeding stock of compared to some other breeds like the lakenvelder or campine, but harder to find than some of the more popular breeds like rocks and cochins. Lakenvelders on the other hand, are not so easy to find in breeder quality. I have the luck of a great friend to thank for my breeder quality lakenvelders, and besides for mine, I know of only one other with good quality birds. A lot of breeders with good quality birds tend to not sell eggs or chicks, only started or adult birds. This adds to the cost of the bird, but it ensures you get live birds and you know what quality you are getting versus hatching eggs were the eggs may not hatch and can cost a lot themselves.

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Hatching eggs can bring you lots of good stuff....or a bunch of rotten eggs. Most people consider a 50% hatch rate to be pretty good from shipped. Local should be better. I've had shipped eggs where I got 1 egg shy of 100% and others where nothing hatched at all. And others where the eggs came broken. Some sellers back up eggs and others don't. The USPS causes a lot of damage that the seller can't be liable for, too. If the eggs are fertile and packed well, that's all the seller can do. But, you can get in birds you couldn't have gotten otherwise. I've found it's easier for me to just order chicks, unless the breeder doesn't ship chicks.


Yeah, the leaves in the chicken house thing was one of those Doh! moments! Amazed at how well it works, although it takes a quarter of my feed room to store enough to do all the houses. I did do sand. Went to the trouble of getting in a dump truck load and taking several days for hubby and me to lay about four inches into each house. It was okay, but way too much to try to clean. I had birds with poop stuck to their feet, and was expecting bumble foot any minute. I still can see it working nicely if you have the time to clean out your chicken houses daily or if you only have a few birds, though. And it looks nice when clean. However, it did help tremendously in getting the floors raised and with drainage. I had one house that was flooding in one door during bad rains. Had about 25% of the floor a soggy mess. The sand has cured that. Floor is higher and drains better. Win-win. And leaves on top of it all for bedding is another win for me. Head's up, though...You'll have to be more diligent for lice and mites with leaves!

We'll be doing another hard cull when hubby gets back from his next business trip. My goal is to get down to around a hundred birds...so I can raise up lots of chicks! Yes! Chick fever has not been reduced by the quail chicks.

I'm avoiding writing an exam. It's half done, but I need to finish. Instead, I am posting in all the fora I belong to! How sad!

 

[bephillips]

Hey all NC peeps! Does anyone know anybody on our state that raises snowflake bobwhite quail?

 

[gfiman]

Are you ready for that 4" of snow wed night?

 

[6275Smith]

Are you ready for that 4" of snow wed night?

I've got my fingers crossed. I still want my one good snow and then it can turn spring!

 

[Matt A NC]

One of my Black Copper Marans laid her very first egg today. I still get excited when a pullet starts laying, but this was totally unexpected. We bought/rescued these pullets at the end of November. The man said they were 3-4 months old, but they looked like 6 week old chicks. He had kept them in a rabbit hutch and raised them on scratch feed. On my records I estimated their hatch-date by size/feathering for mid-October.

Once here they were put on started grower and the growing began. About 6 weeks ago they started freeranging with the rest of the chickens. Now they are rather large and fat. I guess I have to update my records and move their hatch-date back a couple months. This is just a good example of what proper feed and care does. The ones he kept are no where near the size of our ladies.

Her pullet egg is small, or course, but really nice and dark.