Colorado

[Pozees]

I never had an issue with smell prior to winter in my chicken area. I do a deep litter method on the floor and a poop litter for their roosts. I have to scrape the boards every week, strain the poo from the stall dry and add more shavings but it was fine. But since winter has hit, I'm having a harder time. I asked Sarah when they came to test my birds what the problem was as I hadn't changed anything. They said that even though I have ventilation going from the ceiling into the garage, there isn't enough cross ventiation when the window is closed. I never had issues last year from their small coops or their room during the summer with smell. It's only with winter and window closed that I am getting it.

So my brother is going to bring over a power tool (cant remember which one) to cut some holes into the wall going into the garage area for ventilation. I suspect once that happens, smell or rather the ammonia that is associated with chickens, will go away. I can't stress enough the importance of ventilation. I truly, truly, truly thought I had enough and I didn't. In the summer when I assumed it would be worse, the windows were open with a fan going so I had great air flow. I just don't have it during the winter yet. So I go out in the mornings now when it isn't too cold and open their window and make sure i close it at night for bed.

Another thing you can try is putting in a couple of those register vents intended for the floor in the house on opposite walls of the coop near the roof. That's what we did in the new coop, and so far it seems to be working nicely. Bob cut the holes with a jigsaw, just put the vent up, traced the hole, and started cutting - and they can be opened and closed, so if it gets too cold or windy I can close one or both. They don't come with screws to secure them, but you can drill through the frame and put little screws in to hold them in place.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Will you be hatching eggs purchased from elsewhere?  If you buy sex-link eggs, you will still get about 50% males, but you are correct that you can determine which are males immediately, and either sell them for less or raise them for meat.  Seems like Coloradogal bought hatching eggs earlier this year and didn't get any to hatch, but I know sometimes people have better luck.  I'm going to be buying some day-old pullets and raising them for 4-6 weeks or until they're feathered and then sell them as started pullets.  I'll try it once with an early shipment, and if it looks like it will work out okay I'll repeat it.  Next year I hope to have home breds to sell, but will still probably buy pullet chicks and raise to sell - too many people cannot have or don't want males, and don't like the risk of straight run chicks.  I don't know that there would be that much money in it, but I figure every little bit helps toward the feed bill   Trying with 30 shouldn't be too bad, I would think as long as you keep track of your costs and ensure you sell for more than you invest, little harm can occur, and it might turn out great!  Are there any local ordinances that would prohibit you from doing this?

There are no ordinances against it that I know of. I would have to buy eggs and an incubator(the biggest expense of this whole thing) but I believe Big R is having a store wide sale coming up. I will by preference get the eggs on BYC but I have seen cinnamon queen eggs listed on eBay.

 

[dennarahl]

Did kids name yours too!? LOL My nephews named mine. Guess what?! We got our second egg today! so we have 2 laying now! My hubby got to find his first one. (he tried not to act like it was totally cool, but he was giddy)

My younger daughter did. My hubby was completely geeked out over the first eggs, just as much as I was. Yay eggs!

 

[dennarahl]

#23, Abraham, at 7 months old.

I hope my Dom Perry is that pretty when he gets bigger. He's still a baby and is going through one of those mini baby molts so he's a little fuggly right now.

 

[dennarahl]

I agree, would be best to wait for a real good snow storm. No, this garage is detached. That is a lot of birds! Did you try shavings on the floor to absorb the poos?

Yeah, that was with wood shavings, but the darn birds would never leave them where they were needed and they'd get scattered everywhere but under their roosting spots.

 

[wsmith]

I hope my Dom Perry is that pretty when he gets bigger. He's still a baby and is going through one of those mini baby molts so he's a little fuggly right now.

LOL. Where did you get Perry?

 

[wsmith]

Ever have one of those mornings?

Yuck.....

 

[kmatt87]

Ever have one of those mornings?

Yuck.....

yes. Those kinds of mornings suck!

 

[coloradogal]

Hi guys, question for you. I was looking at different ways to make some extra money this year and am debating hatching chicks for sale. I was thinking a sex link breed so as to avoid the classic issues of straight run sales. Anyone have any advise or input for this? Good idea, bad idea, beware of ____. I don't want to hatch 30 odd chicks then be unable to sell them.

Eggs coming to this elevation from a much lower elevation have a much harder time hatching. Do a web search for hatching eggs and elevation. I have never had a good hatch rate with eggs purchased elsewhere and I've tried it three times. Each of those times, I've added my own eggs and had almost all hatch. I suspect some breeds do better than others as Wendell seemed to have a decent hatch rate on his Dominiques. I had a zero hatch rate on the colloncas sent from the east coast, a zero hatch rate of the cream legbars sent from texas and a 40% hatch of the silkie eggs from washington. Of the silkies that hatched, only 2 survived to make it to this point. Each time I added my own fertilized eggs, my hatch rates were almost 100%.

If I were to give advice, I'd say to get an incubator first and try it without putting yourself too far out as far as investment. Find out the ins and outs of doing it on a small scale first and go from there. So much depends on what your ultimate purpose is.

I know it sounds silly but I incubate my own eggs because I get to choose things like egg color and temperament of the mothers and my roo. I try to only breed hens that have good production or in the case of my marans, pretty egg colors. I suppose for me personally, that's why I don't mind giving the babies away for a donation. I want to try to get a stable landrace flock that is healthy and for that, I need the diversity of the original flock. I know that you can't do that because of where you live but having that choice to breed only the best of whatever trait you desire is nice.

Whatever you decide, I'll be here to give advice and I do wish you well. I'd much rather buy a bird from someone local than I would from a hatchery far, far away. The marans I bought from the local lady are so much more robust than my hatchery ones and the eggs are much darker. My hatched chicks seem to be much sturdier than any hatchery chick I've ever gotten too.

My only caution is buying an incubator from Big R. They tend to sell passive heat and from what I have been told, they suck badly. Ohhh and perhaps you can get pre-orders from family/friends. My incubator hasn't stopped all year even after I swore they'd be the last batch because friends/family are always asking for new chicks. I'm working on setting up the 5th coop area for some friends coming this Spring and helping another family figure out what their needs are and making it work with the space they have. A huge reason I got my NPIP is because I've helped so many people get their flocks going and it just felt irresponsible to help them and not be NPIP certified. For me, I couldn't have looked myself in the mirror if one of my birds were infected and then passed that infection on to other flocks.

Ok, I've started rambling so I'll stop.

 

[wsmith]

Eggs coming to this elevation from a much lower elevation have a much harder time hatching. Do a web search for hatching eggs and elevation. I have never had a good hatch rate with eggs purchased elsewhere and I've tried it three times. Each of those times, I've added my own eggs and had almost all hatch. I suspect some breeds do better than others as Wendell seemed to have a decent hatch rate on his Dominiques. I had a zero hatch rate on the colloncas sent from the east coast, a zero hatch rate of the cream legbars sent from texas and a 40% hatch of the silkie eggs from washington. Of the silkies that hatched, only 2 survived to make it to this point. Each time I added my own fertilized eggs, my hatch rates were almost 100%.

I brought hatching eggs up from sea level (VA), and got about a 60% hatch, but I have heard from more than Mayah that big elevation changes for shipped fertile eggs create hatching issues. Apparently it has to do with air pressure changes. I already have an order from some folks in SW Washington, and will be sending extras to them because of the hatch rate issues. They live at 34 ft.

As Mayah said, buy local if you can, and either hatch them yourself or buy extra chicks from a local breeder.

I am now rethinking some of my breeder pullet options, now that it looks like Abraham (aka Mr, Pig) may end up being over SoP weight. Unless I can put hiom on a treadmill and a diet....... If he is overweight by March, I will go with a couple of smaller pullets so the offspring is smaller. Of course, those big meaty Dom roosters are SOOOOOO yummy......