Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Gypsi]

Now, Bee, you're walking in my woods. Surely someone as frugal as you wouldn't buy a fancy electric doohickee to do the job of a $2.49 file?

Every time you fill the tank, file the chain, and you'll never have to grind it.

File went up to $3.49, I've got one. Used it last Friday...(and I don't even have a woods, but I do have a woodstove.)

 

[Beekissed]

Now, Bee, you're walking in my woods. Surely someone as frugal as you wouldn't buy a fancy electric doohickee to do the job of a $2.49 file?

Every time you fill the tank, file the chain, and you'll never have to grind it.

That's the Ol' Bat's gift...not mine.

She's 78 and gets impatient with the filing. She won't really listen to me about the angles and such. Dad used to do all that for her. I don't want to show her up with the file nor do I want to imply that electric sharpeners are for sissies. She's new to all that and she needs to find her own way....and far be it from me to make her feel bad about it. Even if I could.

She raised 9 kids and a difficult husband, homesteaded without anything that any normal woman needs or wants~like running water and electric, has gut and processed more deer than you have ever killed in your life~chickens too, raised enough food in gardens to can 200 qts of each veggie or fruit each year...on a wood cook stove..in the hottest part of the summer, raised up half the grandkids, lives on a fixed income which Dad doled out in very small pieces to her, she does all the plumbing, painting, roofing, electrical wiring, lawn care and weed eating, wood gettin', bill paying, cleaning, and truck detailing and maintenance, dealt with a husband with ALZ and can work circles around you and me both...guaranteed.
YOU tell her she doesn't deserve to have an electric sharpener for her saw....

 

[Gypsi]

I'll rest my case.

 

[galanie]

I'll rest my case.

 

Good to see you back, Gypsi!

 

[loanwizard]

113 pages..... Take a brief respite and look what happens....

Been whining about the POL pullets not laying..... Got into the hay bales last night and found 55.

80 birds and up to 2 dozen per day, but now gonna have to watch the bales or move them.

 

[Beekissed]

113 pages..... Take a brief respite and look what happens....

Been whining about the POL pullets not laying..... Got into the hay bales last night and found 55.

80 birds and up to 2 dozen per day, but now gonna have to watch the bales or move them.

Stretch deer (plastic black netting) around/in front of/ over the stack to keep 'em out. It's pretty cheap and they can't really fly over it if you get the tall stuff.

Or...could retrain them to the nest. Or..could let them have that one nest and just take out it each day like you would the other nest boxes.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Loanwizard,

Your sig line has the quote wrong....

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you'll never see him again and he'll spend his last dime on a boat.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

Loanwizard,

Your sig line has the quote wrong....

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you'll never see him again and he'll spend his last dime on a boat.

LOL!!!!!! You are probably quite right!!!

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

"How do I get some of these birds you ask ??? they are out there all over the place, you just have to look beyond your hatchery nose. Shoot !!! go down the road or out to the country for a Sunday drive and see flocks raised by people who don't even know Hatcheries exsist, that's where"

Al and others,
I think maybe y'all underestimate a little bit the difficulties us non-OTs face in trying to get into chickens or any small-ag enterprise or hobby these days. I'm 32, and though I am only 2 generations removed from my strawberry and tobacco farming ancestors, I was raised by a generation who scorned anything farming related. I grew up in a very rural area, where the prevailing mentality was to get out of there ASAP and never look back. Only the poor and uneducated were interested in farm stuff, people told me. Now, after pursuing academia and hating it, I'm back in my hometown, on the same 10 acres of land, and having an unbelievably hard time getting good information about how to raise animals and a garden. There are a lot of people my age that I know who want to learn these things--I was even at a party the other night where I heard a group of 20-something girls talking about canning (which is of course a little silly since they don't raise any food to put in the jars, but that's beside the point). There are farmers at my church, but they are the kind with 600 acres who only raise corn or cattle and nothing else. Then there are the small yuppie farms who show up at the farmer's market, which all have chickens but only hatchery stock. I try to talk to the old guys selling turnip greens out of the backs of their trucks, but it turns out they get their eggs from the store. And the feed store? Staffed almost completely by kids from the local high school. I did business with one lady with a backyard flock, and she knowingly sold me 6 chickens with CRD, then moved a few weeks later.
So here we are, no money and no information. No wonder we get sidetracked by what the internet offers!
Now I get it, a lot of people have a lot of superficial trendy interests and will never put in the effort to get better at any of them, but if someone's read 1200 pages of an OTs thread because there aren't any OTs living down the road willing to give them the time of day, they're probably at least trying. I ask where to get real DP birds that don't cost the $100 I saw on a breeder's website because I have literally combed the tri-county area with no luck.
So don't get frustrated with us. I bet there are a lot of others like me who feel like they are living in a time and place bankrupt of common sense, work ethic, and an appreciation for things that last. We can't learn in a vacuum!

I hope this doesn't sound disrespectful--I don't mean that at all!! I appreciate everything y'all say on here and I bet the questions newbies ask are frustrating as all get out. I guess I just wanted y'all to know that we're not always being stupid, we are just kind of floundering out here on our own.

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

This is a common, common question. How do I find breeder quality birds? There is no yellow pages, and many of the best breeders have no websites. Hatcheries do a bang up job of selling their products, complete with nice photos.

First, hang out in the heritage or breed thread of the breed you really want. Read a few hundred pages. You'll see names dropped right and left. You see these breeders often mentioned or they themselves will post. Or, you'll hear things like, "Bill Smith has great XXXX and ships eggs or will be selling birds". Stuff like that. Every breed has a club or national club. Top breeders are often listed on those clubs websites. It is a process, but many times, people will refer you to someone.

It's the dead of winter and stock is in moult this time of year!!! Keep that in mind.

Attend poultry shows. Breeders are there selling off excess stock, particularly in autumn. Finally, Duane Urch has a site and sells most breeds and has top stuff. What's the name of his website? Purebred Poultry or something like that.

The prices are NOT that high. $5 a chick is far more common. Shipping, however can be pricey because you're shipping live animals and they have to go priority. Finally, pm people you meet on the various breed threads here. You'll find many are super helpful and not stand offish at all.
Others? May never even reply. Take that as a no.

This is great, thank you!
Oh yeah, forgot about winter. It's that thing you northerners get, right?

Maybe, just maybe, it will freeze hard enough to kill all the bugs this year. *crosses fingers*