***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[paigepine]

I’m new to the backyard chicken laying club. My goal is to produce eggs in the large to extra large range. I have plenty of space for up to 8 laying hens along with a Rooster. I need breed recommendations for central Oklahoma along with recommendations for where to buy pullets.

 

[paigepine]

I’m in Oklahoma City and have some Lemon Blue bantams I need to rehome

Do you have any of these?

 

[Fallenone05]

Do you have any of these?

Bantams won't give you large eggs, if that's what you're wanting. You'll want breeds like Leghorns, Marans, Orpingtons, Barred Rocks and Dominiques if you're wanting large eggs.

 

[Al Capon]

Went to the Newcastle Poultry auction yesterday for the first time, thought I'd report back.

There were things that I liked and disliked about it

Likes: 1) The facility was pretty clean and adequate, as clean as a shared county AG barn can be. Attendance and participation might have been down yesterday according to some regulars due to end of chicken season and the deer gun opener, but there seemed to be plenty of area for the animals and the sales ring is spacious enough for a lot of people.

2) Registration and processing was easy and orderly. Basically, unload your birds outside the main bay, sign in at the desk with your drivers license and put your name on a waiting list. Staff works their way down the list in order to mark your cages for the sale order and move your birds inside the holding area.

3) Cages stay the property of the seller unless otherwise stated. This is kinda nice because when they say sold, the birds are removed from whatever cage they're in and handed to the buyer. That makes it easy to settle up and hit the road instead of standing around waiting for a purchaser to get sold birds out of your cage. The flip side of that is, buyers need to have cages ready for whatever they intend to purchase.

4) Everything but the goats goes thru the "sale ring" in view of the crowd. Wasn't sure if they'd do it this or not, but the staff kept busy and there was never a gap in the action due to a shortage of merchandise, in one door and out the next.

Dislikes: 1) Since this is advertised as a "poultry auction" and the name of the place is "The Chicken's Coop Auction barn", poultry should start at a certain time and keep going till poultry is done. Before poultry started, they sold goats, puppies, kittens(free), mealworms, lizards, guinea pigs, hamsters, zebra finches, parakeets, a hedgehog and probably some other stuff I can't remember. Then tossed in the poultry mix fairly regularly were rabbits. I would start all that miscellaneous stuff, everything non-poultry, an hour or two ahead of time, so poultry can begin on time. But that's just me, and who am I, it's not my sale?

2) Lots and lots of time spent selling "choice". For example, one crate had, I believe, 29 ducks in it. They sell choice and the first buyer wanted 3, so they pick their 3. Then they sell choice again and the next buyer wants 2, so they pick their 2, then they sell choice again,...you can see the pattern. Really makes for a long day. Would be nice if the sellers split up their animals in to cages of 2-4 and sell everything in the cage to 1 buyer and move everything down the road. I understand why they do this, to get the most bang for the buck from the crowd but it sure makes a lengthy auction. But that's just me and I don't run things.

3) Breeders with unrealistic minimums. I can't tell you how many times the auctioneer sold something only to find out the breeder had a high minimum and didn't sell. That wasted a ton of time. There were a couple of sellers who appeared to be selling everything they owned and they had unrealistic minimums for most of their animals. It would have been much faster if the auctioneer just started at the breeder's minimum instead of wasting time working the bids up from nothing to something that isn't going to sell anyway. But that's just me, and who again am I, it's not my sale?

4) Obnoxious children running around un-parented(not the auction's fault). Some fool thought it would be wise to turn out some 3ft. balloon swords and give them to 3 year olds to sword fight with. I mean, come on, a guy can only get hit in the back of the head with a balloon and hear "hi-yahh,..hi-hahh" so many times before he reaches his limit. At one point, my limit was reached and I had sharp object in hand ready to "accidentally" deflate the journeyman pirate's balloon, luckily Captain No-beard sprung a leak and his weapon of choice went limp, necessitating a move of the sword play and grab-ass to another portion of the barn.

I was there to to liquidate a handful of birds I hatched last Spring. I would have given them away but there wasn't any interest locally. They ended up selling for more than I wanted which was a nice surprise.

There were some surprise deals to be found if you were patient. One cage full of 8-10 Barred Rock pullets, maybe 3 months old brought $7 a bird if I remember correctly. There were a couple other instances like this but can't remember the breed, one was maybe Rhode Island whites and another was Leghorn pullets. Heck of a deal for someone. They had week old straight run laying chicks, may RIR, I don't remember, that they practically gave away, less than a $1 a chick I believe. Not the right time of year to be raising chicks, but if you've got the facilities, somebody got a good deal.

When registering, first in equals first out in the auction order. So if you don't want to stay all day, have your birds sitting at the door when they open for registration.

My dislikes are minimal, the good far outweighs the bad. IMO, this is a pretty good auction to visit, if you've got lots of free time. I give it thumbs up, and if I ever need to sell poultry again in an auction format, I'd use Newcastle in a heartbeat.

 

[allenw]

Thanks for the report, I've wondered about how some of the auctions work. The young chickens would have been a good deal to turn around in the spring when prices are up or to keep.

 

[MrsGuinea]

hey, still checking this out. I'm not on the forum often but I'm always checking info articles. I saw a reply with this link on an d post when I introduced myself.
I'm Delaney from Owasso. I have to guinea roosters I call Bill & Ted. I adore them, my husband not so much! I have 3 red hens 9 mos old & 3 Easter Egger pullets that about 5 mos old. This is my first year to raise poultry. I have my first ill RIR hen that I'm watching, hoping she'll pull through!

 

[CLSranch]

hey, still checking this out. I'm not on the forum often but I'm always checking info articles. I saw a reply with this link on an d post when I introduced myself.
I'm Delaney from Owasso. I have to guinea roosters I call Bill & Ted. I adore them, my husband not so much! I have 3 red hens 9 mos old & 3 Easter Egger pullets that about 5 mos old. This is my first year to raise poultry. I have my first ill RIR hen that I'm watching, hoping she'll pull through!

Welcome. I used to be a regular here but since the post died I've faded away. That and certain jobs have me away for months and no internet and no time. Nice to see it is still going.
I still miss my talks with others that educated me on the things I didn't know. They are still here and still LOTS of good advice just not as much okie local that there was.

 

[BenlynFarm]

Anyone near Northwest Arkansas, Southwest Missouri or Northeastern Oklahoma raise Indian Runner Ducks?? I’d really like to buy some hatching eggs.

 

[Sara S]

I’m new to the backyard chicken laying club. My goal is to produce eggs in the large to extra large range. I have plenty of space for up to 8 laying hens along with a Rooster. I need breed recommendations for central Oklahoma along with recommendations for where to buy pullets.

I’m not from ok but delewares and americaunas imo lay really good eggs, mine lay large eggs most of the time, have gotten double yolk a couple of times too

 

[CLSranch]

Anyone near Northwest Arkansas, Southwest Missouri or Northeastern Oklahoma raise Indian Runner Ducks?? I’d really like to buy some hatching eggs.

Off the top of my head, finding an auction would be the best/fastest way to find a specific breed because of the vatiety there.
Maybe you just find some one with other ducks and the could tell you where/who to go to or they have some at home.