Colorado

[Adam7]

okay looking at the Elizabeth website and made my dision... i want them all! but Huby said NO! Adam7 you said will be going up their around the mar 1st? if i pitch in some gas money can we car pool? i would really like to go and see the store. i can only get seven more and i dont want all of the same breed so looking at their list for Mar 1st i picked five breeds that are going to be at Elizabeth but the other two breeds and going to be at Kiowa. I'll make the trip ether way but i think it will be fun to go with others.

Hey that sounds like it would be lots of fun! Unfortunately it is my sons birthday and my trip out there is going to be a mad speeding rush in and out to avoid the wrath of my wife I wouldn't have time to browse and look around really, nor would I have time to go to the other store. Apologies.

As to the breeds you picked; ALL of them sound fantastic! You happened to pick 3 of the 4 types that I am getting! The Americana, Marans, and Gold Star.

I have a home made pvc pipe feeder set up. It works great. I will post up some pics this evening if you would like. I went from the chickens wasting a lot of food to them wasting very little.

I am very interested in seeing this as well. Just one more excuse to come check out your setup! I might take that as an opportunity to bring my wife and convince her my chicken madness is justified!

Trying to find Black Copper Marans chicks, and it is impossible!!! Oh I sooo should have ordered chicks a month ago, because they are sold out (((

Have you looked into hatching eggs?

 

[Adam7]

I'm expecting chicks this weekend! I found someone on craigslist in Black Forest selling them. Looks like maybe there were buying hatching eggs and then selling the chicks? I can't remember the name of the farm though. Anyone familiar with them?

Now to get the coop built

If they are from the farm I seem advertising on CL from Black Forest, which I only seen one so most likely it is, then they come from Ideal Poultry. I asked because she was advertising sexed day olds and I wanted to know how she sexed them, come to find out she ordered them that way.

 

[ktmikal]

Chickenfest 2013 update:

I am looking for one of those water balloon launching things that use surgical tubing... I need one to modify and use for rubber chicken launching...... Don't want too much range on it...

You can find anything on amazon.com! I bet you could find one at toys-r-us too!

http://www.amazon.com/CX-Blaster-12...024942&sr=8-6&keywords=water+balloon+launcher

It does say it will launch up to 120 ft...that's not far, right??

 

[ktmikal]

Huh interesting. Yeah, it has to be from the same place. Well I guess we will find out! Hopefully it isn't a ripoff.

 

[ktmikal]

Anyone in the Springs area have any excess hardware cloth, plywood, or shingles? I'm in need to build my coop!

 

[samsr]

I have a home made pvc pipe feeder set up. It works great. I will post up some pics this evening if you would like. I went from the chickens wasting a lot of food to them wasting very little.

Here are some pics of my pvc pipe feeder. I have the hopper located in the shed next to the coop and then there is a hole where the feeder portion comes out into the run area. It works quite well. If I were to change something about it it would be to run everything in 4 inch pipe instead of adapting it down to 2 inch where it goes through the shed wall. I have to go out and shake it once or twice a day to get it to gravity feed right now. If it were all 4 inch pipe it would work much better. It definately saves on the waste expense though. I am going through about half the amount of food that I was. if you are going to put it outside then I would put a cap over the hopper portion so rain doesnt get into it. I think my total cost was about $8.00, as I had a lot of the items laying around.

 

[Pozees]

samsr, that is a great design, I love it! If I went back to feeding just dry I would use it in a heartbeat. Right now I have a free access feeder with crumble but my chickens get fermented feed every morning and don't eat much crumble. They forage during the day as well. Because of the damage they have done to the gardens around the house we are probably going to fence them in to a specific area this spring, but they will still have lots of forage area, and when grasshopper season hits I'll turn them loose for as long as it takes to erase the population regardless of what they do to the gardens.

 

[WendyGeisler]

Yep- ordered hatching BCM eggs and they arrived frozen. Not sure I want to repeat that again.
I am thinking chicks might be easier, then hatch my own later!
Most all of the big hatcheries are sold out.

 

[Pozees]

Shed and Chicks update:

Chicks arrived this morning, P.O. called at 7:30 am, picked them up about an hour later, got them situated in the bins, they don't have enough room for more than a week, so we need the shed to be dried in by the weekend. Some are pre-sold and will leave this week, but the rest are either pre-sold as started pullets or not sold yet, so they will be needing more room fairly quickly. I had planned on going to work this morning until McMurray emailed me about shipping, so I worked a few hours from home before I could go out and get to work on the shed. Between that and picking up/situating chicks, I didn't get out there until 12:30, which left us about 4 hours before we started to lose light and Bob's shoulders started reminding him of his age, so we got five trusses up. Three to go tomorrow and then we install one of the windows before we start siding. Hoping to at least have siding started if not finished by the end of tomorrow (I am on vacation the rest of the week although I will work from home an hour or two every day while we wait for temp to come up). I figure Wednesday we will finish siding and hope we get the doors and other window in. Thursday and probably Friday roofing. Saturday paint first coat floor and do trim work on exterior. Sunday second coat floor and paint siding.

I'm dreaming, huh? Just have to do our best.

Issues with chicks are that 4 Silkies arrived dead, but all were extras, and one Barred Rock arrived with a twisted neck - like 180 degrees, should never have been shipped - and had to euthanize. Frequent checks during the day all resulted in chicks eating, drinking, sleeping, running about, and doing pretty well. I could have stayed down there for hours staring at them, but there was work to be done

Right now I have the Black Silkies in with some of the White Leghorns, which won't last long due to growth differences, but for now they seem to be doing fine together. In the picture my finger is blurring the bottom, but you can get the general idea. There just isn't much room for growth, and I bought the biggest bins I found. Wanted smaller feeders but this was all Big R had, they take up way too much room and I may switch to something else to give more space. Waterer is 1 gallon - smaller would again give more space but they will go through it and I don't want any chance of dehydration. For a few days this will work.

 

[wsmith]

Shed and Chicks update:

Chicks arrived this morning, P.O. called at 7:30 am, picked them up about an hour later, got them situated in the bins, they don't have enough room for more than a week, so we need the shed to be dried in by the weekend. Some are pre-sold and will leave this week, but the rest are either pre-sold as started pullets or not sold yet, so they will be needing more room fairly quickly. I had planned on going to work this morning until McMurray emailed me about shipping, so I worked a few hours from home before I could go out and get to work on the shed. Between that and picking up/situating chicks, I didn't get out there until 12:30, which left us about 4 hours before we started to lose light and Bob's shoulders started reminding him of his age, so we got five trusses up. Three to go tomorrow and then we install one of the windows before we start siding. Hoping to at least have siding started if not finished by the end of tomorrow (I am on vacation the rest of the week although I will work from home an hour or two every day while we wait for temp to come up). I figure Wednesday we will finish siding and hope we get the doors and other window in. Thursday and probably Friday roofing. Saturday paint first coat floor and do trim work on exterior. Sunday second coat floor and paint siding.

I'm dreaming, huh? Just have to do our best.

Issues with chicks are that 4 Silkies arrived dead, but all were extras, and one Barred Rock arrived with a twisted neck - like 180 degrees, should never have been shipped - and had to euthanize. Frequent checks during the day all resulted in chicks eating, drinking, sleeping, running about, and doing pretty well. I could have stayed down there for hours staring at them, but there was work to be done

Right now I have the Black Silkies in with some of the White Leghorns, which won't last long due to growth differences, but for now they seem to be doing fine together. In the picture my finger is blurring the bottom, but you can get the general idea. There just isn't much room for growth, and I bought the biggest bins I found. Wanted smaller feeders but this was all Big R had, they take up way too much room and I may switch to something else to give more space. Waterer is 1 gallon - smaller would again give more space but they will go through it and I don't want any chance of dehydration. For a few days this will work.

Now you have to come get the brooder boxes so they can run around with lots of room!