Colorado

[Mtn Margie]

It's been awhile since I've caught up on BC and this thread, but I'll say it's good to see a few names popping up saying they are okay. I have wondered for days how others are fairing in all this mess. Mt.Margie a shout out, old hens stopped eating eggs thanks to your advice...yeah, going back a long way, I know.

We are just getting phones and internet back and while I live off grid and rough it in an old pioneer way (no running water, electricity), having communication to the outside world is wonderful!!!!

We live outside Estes backed in against RMNP side of town up on a mountainside. Even up as high as we are we still had troubles. Water, water every where! almost flooded the coop and took it off the mountainside and down the river below us! 2-3 feet in the coop Friday night! My poor hubby, an engineer, was setting up diversions and checking on them all night long for two nights, as he watched the water destroy everything he did to stop it. Our gals survived though! They stopped laying in all this, ugh! But they made it, just in time to start molting in a few weeks!

Our barn isn't as flooded, but fared well. Hope the hay is safe, but probably lost the lower whole level...and yeah, with the hay prices these past few summers, it would be nice if something would change that, but I'd rather have a little rain than all the devastation! My poor daughter confessed that she had been praying for rain for good last cutting for us to buy our last needs for the year, and was thrilled when it started raining, then after seeing the hole in our road, big enough to swallow a car or two, she started praying for it to stop! She's 9.

Our biggest issue right now is having no road to get in or out of our place, but so thankful to have my family be safe and no loss of animal life. Coming months are going to be extra hard with clean up and hauling water up here with no road...but we are blessed and have much to be thankful for.

Glad to hear others have made it through this craziness.

I am so glad you guys are safe. I was wondering about you as well. I do not know if it would help, but we have a pack saddle and paniers if you need them (and the horses) . The road fix is easy? with a chainsaw and covering it with timbers like how they used to in the pioneering days.

Oh well. Holler if you need something. I did see Safeway trucks heading that way on the Peak to Peak. Hugs!!!!

 

[Nurse-Mel]

Hi, my name is Mel and I live in Denver. I am new to byc and having chickens as well. So I just had a flock of 9 chickens dropped in my lap. My former significant other has left me a single mother of a 9 month old and a beautiful flock of hens, but as he was their caretaker i am clueless about daily maintenance and the routine to maintain their health. He also built their coop which I found out during our current rains is more of a shanty. I want to keep my chickens, but need just a quick one stop crash course to get over this initial obstacle. Suggestions? Resources?
Thanks for any pearls of wisdom you may be be able to provide.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Hi, my name is Mel and I live in Denver. I am new to byc and having chickens as well. So I just had a flock of 9 chickens dropped in my lap. My former significant other has left me a single mother of a 9 month old and a beautiful flock of hens, but as he was their caretaker i am clueless about daily maintenance and the routine to maintain their health. He also built their coop which I found out during our current rains is more of a shanty. I want to keep my chickens, but need just a quick one stop crash course to get over this initial obstacle. Suggestions? Resources?
Thanks for any pearls of wisdom you may be be able to provide.

There is a chicken keeping 101 in the learning center. Start there and then because they are older, it is fairly easy. Clean water, clean layer feed and oyster shell in a dish on the side. Collect the eggs daily.
There is a ton of info on this site and if you have specific ?'s, please ask us.

 

[Minchi]

Hi, my name is Mel and I live in Denver. I am new to byc and having chickens as well. So I just had a flock of 9 chickens dropped in my lap. My former significant other has left me a single mother of a 9 month old and a beautiful flock of hens, but as he was their caretaker i am clueless about daily maintenance and the routine to maintain their health. He also built their coop which I found out during our current rains is more of a shanty. I want to keep my chickens, but need just a quick one stop crash course to get over this initial obstacle. Suggestions? Resources?
Thanks for any pearls of wisdom you may be be able to provide.

Welcome, You have come to the right place. I would start with the 101 and then any questions you have after that there are many people who can answer them. I will note that if you rebuild a coop you will want to make sure that there is not a draft in it. Ventilation is good but leaving gaps all over is not as good. You can also buy premade coops from many places, locally Murdoch's or craigslist come to mind. Not locally they have a few nice one for sale at mypetchicken.com (also a great information resource, exp on breads) I would say the first thing you need to figure out is what breads you have and if they are cold hearty. If you don't know you can post pictures here and we will try to help you out. Good luck

 

[wsmith]

Hi, my name is Mel and I live in Denver. I am new to byc and having chickens as well. So I just had a flock of 9 chickens dropped in my lap. My former significant other has left me a single mother of a 9 month old and a beautiful flock of hens, but as he was their caretaker i am clueless about daily maintenance and the routine to maintain their health. He also built their coop which I found out during our current rains is more of a shanty. I want to keep my chickens, but need just a quick one stop crash course to get over this initial obstacle. Suggestions? Resources?
Thanks for any pearls of wisdom you may be be able to provide.

Welcome to BYC, the Colorado thread, and chicken raising. I sent you a PM

 

[Nurse-Mel]

Quote:
I believe I have 2 black australorps, 2 rhode island reds, 2 plymouth barred rock, 2 leghorns, and 1 americana. Will try to upload some photos.

 

[wsmith]

Quote:
I believe I have 2 black australorps, 2 rhode island reds, 2 plymouth barred rock, 2 leghorns, and 1 americana. Will try to upload some photos.

You should get a nice variety of eggs. Do you know how old they are?

 

[Nurse-Mel]

You should get a nice variety of eggs. Do you know how old they are?

We got them in Feb of this year and they were 2-4 weeks old at the time. Currently, I get mostly brown eggs and a few white and green eggs.

 

[Pozees]

Welcome Nurse-Mel, sounds as if you have a group of hens well suited for the climate, and as wsmith said, nice variety of eggs. Sorry for your recent turn of events, but perhaps it will become what my father would call a crisis of opportunity. We are happy to offer advice and answer questions as they arise. You may get different answers from us, as we each have our own preferences and just things that work best for us as individuals - I am less young than some of our other members, so what I do might seem silly but it works for me IN any case you will have lots of different ideas to try and decide what works best for you.

 

[Nurse-Mel]

Welcome Nurse-Mel, sounds as if you have a group of hens well suited for the climate, and as wsmith said, nice variety of eggs. Sorry for your recent turn of events, but perhaps it will become what my father would call a crisis of opportunity. We are happy to offer advice and answer questions as they arise. You may get different answers from us, as we each have our own preferences and just things that work best for us as individuals - I am less young than some of our other members, so what I do might seem silly but it works for me IN any case you will have lots of different ideas to try and decide what works best for you.

Trial by fire, right? I'm currently working through reading all the basics. I just didn't want to care for them inadequately because I haven't gotten to that chapter yet and yeah I'm more than a little overwhelmed. Again, thanks everyone.