Colorado?

[farmerlor]

We're in Kiowa, sort of halfway between Denver and the Springs. My advice would be to make your coop as predator proof as possible. Don't know if you'll be in town or country but predation losses are the impetus behind most of us in this area learning to make fence. That includes protecting them from raptors too. If you put your birds out when they're small they'll need some cover to keep the bird predators out.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Quote:
Doing good. We just had the 2nd batch of pigs done yesterday. The first one tasted SO good! Can't wait to get this one in the freezer. How are you?

 

[Wifezilla]

Hi GW. I am just South of the Springs.

 

[coloradochick]

Doing okay. Except I ordered more chicks from Ideal to come in the end of Jan and beginning of March.

Curtis said go for it and he'll build what we need. I want to get serious about selling the eggs instead of just handing them out and horse trading for them.

Are you putting in an order this year? How are the EE's coming along?

 

[LoneCowboy]

Wow! Good for Curtis!! EE's are doing great, some are actually squatting so maybe eggs before long. I've got a load of Blue Orps in the bator right now and a few odd balls. I'm going to let my neighbor raise these and just take a few back from him. I have about 50 chickens and I still can't keep up with the egg demand. How are all your girls doing?

 

[farmerlor]

Wow, my most wondrous man has also offered to build much bigger houses so we can order more chickens! He's really getting into it I think.
I see a lot of people on BYC seem to order from Ideal. Are they better than McMurray? We've ordered from MMH all these years but now that we're starting to think about quality chickens instead of just eggs we're wondering if we should go in another direction.

 

[mylilchix]

My hubby seems to be getting into the whole chicken thing more too. It was so funny watching him go through the MMH catalog saying, "maybe we should get one of these, they look cool." I'm already making plans to build a second coop and expand the run. I have been ordering from Ideal, but it's because I was only doing small orders, 9 birds at a time and there prices were good for that.

There's also a woman out in Deer Trail that hatchs rare and heritage breeds. I'm planning on getting some true ameraucana, marans, and silkies from her this spring. I want to add some qulity birds to our group, and she's very particular about what she hatches. Can't wait!!!

Sonja

 

[coloradochick]

All the girls (and boys

) are doing good. I'm getting anywhere from 12 to 23 eggs a day

.

I'm just a little nervous about ordering more, you know how Curtis procrastinated until the bitter end on the first coop

Does the place you get your pigs done have already processed pigs that we can buy or do you have to take a live one to them? I can't raise one and then butcher it but I love pork.

 

[coloradochick]

farmerlor,

Most of my girls came from MMH last year (Feb) but Lonecowboy did the ordering and the brooding for the first 8 weeks. I decided to order from Ideal only because I didn't have to order 25 if I didn't want to (but ended up doing anyways

) and they are much closer than MMH so hopefully the shipping won't be as long and stressful on the babies.

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
Hey, we're pretty close to Deer Trail can you give me her contact info?