Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[barbiegirl]

I am gonna be a page hpg here !!!! its been a busy week here! e We have puppies! and I got my first egg this morning!!!!!!

Congratulations on your puppies and first egg! Awesome

 

[sharron]

I am gonna be a page hpg here !!!! its been a busy week here!

We have puppies! and I got my first egg this morning!!!!!!

congrats, gorgeous puppies, also congrats on the egg

 

[Kramerfamilyof4]

Sounds like the way to go. I'm considering adding a couple of Black Copper Marans next year just because I want the darkest eggs I can get. Gonna wait till the 5 Welsummers all start laying though first. Maybe one of those will be laying real dark eggs. If it happens to be one of the ones I gave to my Aunt I just might go over there in the dark of night and pull a little switch on her. XD
nah I couldn't do that honestly. She's also my Godmother and I love her too much. But if she does end up with a real dark egg layer I'll definitely have to look into getting a rooster to breed her to maybe.

So many options. So many possibilities and so many ways to go. I've got to get a plan together and stick to it. I do have a tendency to get lost in corners. And there are so many pretty corners when deciding which chickens to keep and what to keep them for. ^_^


Oh! and...
It's snowin' in Buck Mountain.


We're only supposed to get 1 to 3 inches today. But it's snowing like it means it out there right now and they are sending the kids home from school at 8:30.
What ever happened to the days when we'd be sitting there in school all day watching the snow coming down and getting deeper and deeper and glaring at the overhead speaker willing that voice to come on saying we were getting out early? Or getting up to a foot of snow and running right to the TV to watch the wraparound waiting for our school's name to come up as a delay or cancellation and never seeing it? Eh! Kids today.

Hi Katt!

How exciting, I live in Barnesville too!! Nice to know there are more chicken farmers in my area! How long have you been keeping chickens? I am new to the chicken world. I just got my chickens a couple of months ago. A buff brahma banty pair, buff cochin hen, dominique hen, and Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. I never thought I would say this, but I LOVE them!! They are so fun to watch. I finally got my first egg on saturday and I thought it was from the banty because it was so small, however, I just found another today that is MUCH smaller and almost round. but a much darker brown. So I'm not sure who is laying!! Unfortunately, they are laying them under my deck and NOT in the nesting box!! I'm working on that little issue right now!! Any suggestions on how to go about getting them to lay in the boxes?

Are you on FB? I am apart of a poultry group and there is a lady trying to organize a meet-up to talk chickens and whatever else comes up, in our area! So exciting to meet people that enjoy chickens like I do!!

I found out that school was cancelled while at the bus stop from my WNEP test alerts!! Did you receive a call from the school?

Michelle

 

[rdilbarova]

Quote:
OH MY! Congrats, they are so cute!

 

[LisaYolkUm]

This is my first winter with chickens also!

I spent some time using my extendable snow brush thing ......that is supposed to be for a car.....to clear snow off the tarp of the picnic canopy I have up!

Yesterday I put dry leaves in a pile under the tarp in the center so they would have a warmer and dry area to stand on................today the leaves are all wet!

The snow tends to come in from the sides.

Should I be worried?

I know wet and wind are the two concerns for winter for chickens?

They are staying inside currently and I put their food inside for them.............the water bowl is outside and they will need to venture out to drink.

I am hoping that as long as the inside of the coop stays dry they will be okay............ie go outdoors............walk on the cold wet leaves or snow.............and then warm up inside.

do you all agree or no?

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

This is my first winter with chickens also!

I spent some time using my extendable snow brush thing ......that is supposed to be for a car.....to clear snow off the tarp of the picnic canopy I have up!

Yesterday I put dry leaves in a pile under the tarp in the center so they would have a warmer and dry area to stand on................today the leaves are all wet!

The snow tends to come in from the sides.

Should I be worried?

I know wet and wind are the two concerns for winter for chickens?

They are staying inside currently and I put their food inside for them.............the water bowl is outside and they will need to venture out to drink.

I am hoping that as long as the inside of the coop stays dry they will be okay............ie go outdoors............walk on the cold wet leaves or snow.............and then warm up inside.

do you all agree or no?

Snow and rain come into the coop sand-area..not a lot but enough to make the edges a bit damp..it dries, sometimes it does take awhile.
The run here is pretty wet..i had leaves in the run too..they get wet..i think life goes on...haha...i am new to this to...
**That was a question i had..how wet is TOO wet?

...well, i guess if they were standing in it all day there would be an issue...but from what i have been told/read...if they have somewhere to get out of it.. and dry off a bit...they are good to go. Now, i repeat..I am new too..so take it how you want

...

i am not worrying about them...it is cold, they go in , it is wet- they go in...the run is damp/wet because of the leaves, but it's winter...so...they do have the sand area to go to and they do...a lot! They take care of themselves pretty much..they are chickens...I am trying not to over think this whole thing..K.I.S.S...

.it is working for me.& mine..you have to get comfortable with what is going to work for you & yours.

Just try to keep in mind that our ansestors had done this whole "thing" without the help of commercial this & that, electricity and so on...so if they did it then,...ain't no thing but a chicken wing

now!! Sorry...had to do it

- Danielle

***Hope everyone is well and safe...the REAL cold weather is coming...going to be brutal out there. Having to heat these old houses is not an easy thing...hope this winter is not going to be too hard on all of us! Time to turn on the ovens and bake something!!!!

I am gonna be a page hpg here !!!! its been a busy week here!

We have puppies! and I got my first egg this morning!!!!!!

Beautiful Puppies and nothing like the first egg!! How many are there?? I tried to count them hahaha, think I see 8? Love their coloring!!! Merle?..Brindle?IDK

 

[kchron01]

I went out and shoveled some paths in the run, then tossed some scratch and meal worms. That brought them out and they seem to be getting used to the snow under their feet. I think as long as they have a dry coop to go into they will be just fine.

 

[Brittany7]

We have 10. 7 boys and 3 girls! Everyone is doing great! We have 3 blue merles, 3 harlequins, 2 blacks and 2 whites with some black spotting.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

We have 10. 7 boys and 3 girls! Everyone is doing great! We have 3 blue merles, 3 harlequins, 2 blacks and 2 whites with some black spotting.

10!!! OMGosh

Too much cuteness there

...so awesome! Glad to hear everyone is well, doggies and their owner!!

 

[Katt66]

Hi Katt!

How exciting, I live in Barnesville too!! Nice to know there are more chicken farmers in my area! How long have you been keeping chickens? I am new to the chicken world. I just got my chickens a couple of months ago. A buff brahma banty pair, buff cochin hen, dominique hen, and Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. I never thought I would say this, but I LOVE them!! They are so fun to watch. I finally got my first egg on saturday and I thought it was from the banty because it was so small, however, I just found another today that is MUCH smaller and almost round. but a much darker brown. So I'm not sure who is laying!! Unfortunately, they are laying them under my deck and NOT in the nesting box!! I'm working on that little issue right now!! Any suggestions on how to go about getting them to lay in the boxes?

Are you on FB? I am apart of a poultry group and there is a lady trying to organize a meet-up to talk chickens and whatever else comes up, in our area! So exciting to meet people that enjoy chickens like I do!!

I found out that school was cancelled while at the bus stop from my WNEP test alerts!! Did you receive a call from the school?

Michelle

Hey there! Such a small world! ^_^
We only built our coop this past spring but we always had chickens when I was a kid. My Mom mostly kept Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. With a brief heartbreaking forage into Cornish Rocks which the supplier did NOT tell us would not live if kept longer than a few months.

I'm on Facebook, and would love to look into that poultry group. Getting together would be fun. Might feed the addiction too though. XD I'm already having visions of trading hatching eggs and unwanted pullets/cockerels back and forth. I can see it now, da Hubby is gonna kill me. XD

I had just sent the kids off on the bus this morning at 6:45, went inside to start some laundry and I swear it was like five minutes later I got the automated call saying Elementary was cancelled and Middle School and HS were being left out at 8:30. I don't know what they were thinking. Why did they even send the kids in if they were going to send them home at the first snowflake. Eh oh well. Kids got a free day off to play in the snow anyway.

And were home to see my older daughter's favorite chicken, our Buff Orpington, Dumpy lay her first egg.


Now we've got four chickens total laying eggs. My White Leghorn, Angel, the Buff Orpington, Dumpy, and the Gold Laced and Silver Laced Sebrights, Kinda, and Pepper.
I just noticed today that I can tell the Sebright's eggs apart. Kinda lays the slightly thicker lighter colored ones every single day. And Pepper lays the longer thinner darker ones every three days or so. Kinda's are shinier too. I think because she lays more frequently. Her eggs don't spend as much time getting color added to them because they move faster. At least that's what I've figured out from researching how and why eggs are colored like they are.


I've got a motley colorful flock and big dreams of a bright colorful rainbow carton of eggs. The Welsummer and EE's won't be laying till late spring. But so far I am so excited just looking at this picture. They're so pretty already. I can just envision those green/blue and dark brown eggs in there yet too.
^_^

As for getting them to lay in the nest boxes, I think I was lucky. My Angel was the first to lay and she used the back box. Everybody else just followed her lead. Seriously, every time she'd lay an egg the other slightly younger girls would follow her up to the coop and stand around peeking in at her. Like they were trying to figure out what the heck she was doing. Whatever it was was pretty interesting.

That and I don't leave them free range unless I'm out with them or keeping a close eye on them from the house. They lay first thing in the morning, all before noon. And they're locked in the run until after that.