Bay Area BYCers!

[jtaylormade]

Quote:
And the winery I work for took the Sweepstakes RED wine! Woot-Woot! 2009 Sawyer Vineyard Zinfandel! (so yummy!)
Dawn (of Wilson Winery, Dry Creek Valley)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/65263_imag1441.jpg

Woohoo!! I will have to look around for them I love a good Zin. I dont know why but i never hought to enter the honey to be judged...DUH next year though - maybe we can give Hector's Honey some competition

 

[jtaylormade]

Quote:
And the winery I work for took the Sweepstakes RED wine! Woot-Woot! 2009 Sawyer Vineyard Zinfandel! (so yummy!)
Dawn (of Wilson Winery, Dry Creek Valley)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/65263_imag1441.jpg

way cool, congrats and it is yummy

Glad you liked it, what kind of ice cream did it go on?

BTW, our dinosaurs....I mean Buff Laced Brahmas are all doing very well, its become very apparent how fast they are growing since our broody rejected one of her hatched baby bantams. Sooo cute she snuggles under all of them, and is now about 1/2 the size of the Golden Laced who is by the way the household favorite she kinda stands out hehe.

I will try to take some pictures after the madness of Harvest Fair.

 

[cherylcohen]

Oh I love how those brahmas are such gentle giants aka dinosaurs! I can put a day old in with chicks that are weeks old and they, just like yours, take the little ones in, instead of pecking them like I've observed with alot of other breeds

 

[PetRock]

We just have the one Buff Brahma in our flock but she is the gentlest, sweetest girl! She is my favorite lap chicken and I think that she would love to be a house chicken if I would let her! She was an impulse feedstore buy and not in the plans at all for our backyard flock. But she has won our hearts! I do wish that she would stand up for herself a little more so the older hens wouldn't pick on her so much. I love it when she sees me come out the door and runs full steam for me! She looks like a tall sailing ship crossing the yard with the wind in her sails! She's not the fastest chicken in the yard but she is impressive when she runs!

 

[cherylcohen]

Quote:
Ah how sweet, I'm really enjoying them. Unfortunately I'm just not at the ranch enough. I'm in the middle of writing an agreement with the ranch and have put together a revamp of the coops. I'm not sure they will go with the bright colors but I'm going to do a more brick red farm house type coloration as well. Trying to learn google sketchup...it's arduous for sure.

The best part, because they are turning the whole ranch into a permaculture system they have a ton of used wood, chicken wire etc. I couldn't afford to redo my pens if I couldn't use their materials.

 

[jeremy]

So are your chickens allowed any time to free range at the ranch Cheryl?

To be on grass, scratching for bugs and grit, getting good daily exercise, etc. ...

Or will they be confined to those breeder set up pens year round? The pens do look like they'll be cute.

 

[cherylcohen]

Quote:
The pens are quite large and of course, since everyone knows that the most important thing to me is having happy chickens, they have tons of fun things to play with, great snacks and tons of exercise. The whole area is dirt with alfalfa that I bring in every other week. They scratch all day, have dust bath areas etc

Why would you EVEN question how I raise my chickens when you've seen how well my birds are taken care of. You say this...."To be on grass, scratching for bugs and grit, getting good daily exercise, etc". ... like you are questioning my ethics or something. I'm tired of this.

 

[jeremy]

I was asking a simple question? You posted pictures of a pen set up, that I also complimented, am I not allowed to be curious?

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Ah how sweet, I'm really enjoying them. Unfortunately I'm just not at the ranch enough. I'm in the middle of writing an agreement with the ranch and have put together a revamp of the coops. I'm not sure they will go with the bright colors but I'm going to do a more brick red farm house type coloration as well. Trying to learn google sketchup...it's arduous for sure.

The best part, because they are turning the whole ranch into a permaculture system they have a ton of used wood, chicken wire etc. I couldn't afford to redo my pens if I couldn't use their materials.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/41441_asienna_ranch930.jpg

That looks like a good setup, especially if those doors open to the outside instead of to each pen. I have some that I made early on where I have to go through each pen to get to the last pen and it is a pain. It is always interesting to me to see how other people set up their bird "cities". I have also found here that my cages have to run north to south as the rain or hot sun usually comes from the west. I have the backs facing west. The coops inside off the ground look exactly like the cages a lot of people use for bantam ducks.

Walt

 

[cherylcohen]

Quote:
Ah how sweet, I'm really enjoying them. Unfortunately I'm just not at the ranch enough. I'm in the middle of writing an agreement with the ranch and have put together a revamp of the coops. I'm not sure they will go with the bright colors but I'm going to do a more brick red farm house type coloration as well. Trying to learn google sketchup...it's arduous for sure.

The best part, because they are turning the whole ranch into a permaculture system they have a ton of used wood, chicken wire etc. I couldn't afford to redo my pens if I couldn't use their materials.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/41441_asienna_ranch930.jpg

That looks like a good setup, especially if those doors open to the outside instead of to each pen. I have some that I made early on where I have to go through each pen to get to the last pen and it is a pain. It is always interesting to me to see how other people set up their bird "cities". I have also found here that my cages have to run north to south as the rain or hot sun usually comes from the west. I have the backs facing west. The coops inside off the ground look exactly like the cages a lot of people use for bantam ducks.

Walt

good point about the doors, I purposely put them inside because I didn't want to build stairs as the area goes up a slight slope. But I get what you are saying