Colorado

[Latestarter]

I don't think our cream legbar is going to make it. She took a turn for the worse about mid-day. She stopped eating and drinking. The BLRW is eating and holding her wings normal, no more fluffed up look. She's tried to fly out of the aquarium I have them in multiple times. I had to put towel over it to keep her in. I don't expect the legbar to be alive by morning.
This means the BLRW will be the only one in her flock left.

I guess I will just have to keep our silkie roo and make our own silkie/EE mixes.

The good news is we got an offer on our house today.

Bad news is they don't want the chicken coop so we have to find a buyer for that. The new place comes with one so it wouldn't be worth the move.

Anyone interested in a 4x4x4 coop with 4 external nest boxes and a 60sqft chicken wire run attached?
$100 and you move it and it's yours (in the middle of June)!

Congrats on selling your place so quickly! I think CL will take care of your coop problem pretty quickly. Seems more and more folks are becoming interested in chickens So sorry about the loss of your chicks :-(

 

[Percheron chick]

I'd move the coop. You can always use a grow out pen, meat pen, turkey pen, overflow pen... You could never replace it for $100. I'm not enabling.

 

[jime]

Happy Mother's Day everyone! We have snow here. Poor girls outside. I took down the plastic sheets we use to block the snow a few days ago (before this storm was predicted) thinking we wouldn't get snow and to make the coop look nicer to potential buyers (our house is on the market) and didn't get a chance to put them back up. Their area was damp this morning. Usually our house provides a break for that area and they don't get it too bad but this storm seems to be coming from a different way and is blowing right on them. I'm going to go out and shoo the little ones inside the coop. I don't think they'll figure it out for themselves. Luckily it's not too cold with the snow. I went out in a light jacket and was fine.

The remaining 2 little ones made it through the night. They are eating and drinking but mostly sleeping. None of the other ones are showing signs still.

We came to an agreed offer on the 5 acre place. We've had the inspection done and the appraisal has been ordered. Now we just sit and wait. We don't close until 6/13 since DH starts a new job this week and he has to work there for 30 days for his income to count.

I'm already researching how much horses and cows can eat and how much hay is going for. DD and I took a trip out there yesterday and I like it even more. I was planning on planting some trees on the edge of the property and as we walked it, I ran into a row of trees with irrigation and everything! I don't know what kind of trees they are and they need some pruning but hopefully I can get a list from the current owner.
I took some pics of all the wildflowers growing and am identifying them now. We're trying to come up with a name for our little farm.

Great that you got the house.Make sure that you check the laws, is 1 animal unit per 1/2 acres =1 horse =1 unit, 1 cow=1 unit so you could get 10 horses or cows but to be honest that is too many animals I have 3 horses and they really do damage in my 10 acres.
Read really good your zoning if you are residential, or agricultural residential, all those laws are really confusing.
I don't know if you have horses jet but I will recommend you get easy keepers, mine for example I have an Andalusian, an a Gipsy Vanner and my my trainer's horse here who is a mix QH with TB and he is a pig my other two on the other hand are really easy keepers, I get hay for 11.00 a bale and get 200 a year but by the time my other 200 come I still have 50-80 bales of the first ones.

 

[trsturself]

I'd move the coop. You can always use a grow out pen, meat pen, turkey pen, overflow pen... You could never replace it for $100. I'm not enabling.

I think the same thing but I think DH is done with it. I think he wants to build a new one if (when) we need another. The new place has a pretty good setup as a start. This is the coop on the right is the roosts and nest boxes on the left is an enclosed area then this whole thing is in a large enclosed area. If we need to we can setup this area on the left as an additional coop for broodies/breeding/meaties/sick/injured/etc.

Great that you got the house.Make sure that you check the laws, is 1 animal unit per 1/2 acres =1 horse =1 unit, 1 cow=1 unit so you could get 10 horses or cows but to be honest that is too many animals I have 3 horses and they really do damage in my 10 acres.
Read really good your zoning if you are residential, or agricultural residential, all those laws are really confusing.
I don't know if you have horses jet but I will recommend you get easy keepers, mine for example I have an Andalusian, an a Gipsy Vanner and my my trainer's horse here who is a mix QH with TB and he is a pig my other two on the other hand are really easy keepers, I get hay for 11.00 a bale and get 200 a year but by the time my other 200 come I still have 50-80 bales of the first ones.

Oh trust me, I checked and rechecked all the zoning laws for all the cities/counties we were looking in. I have a spreadsheet of them all. LOL!
We are planning on eventually getting 3 horses (older easy riders) and 1 dexter cow. That's good to know about easy keepers. That's not as much hay as I expected, but I always like to estimate on the high side of things so I don't come up short. I have a spreadsheet for all this too. I'm an information and planning junkie!


Our cream legbar died a few hours ago. It's been a tough 2 days of chick losses. We've only lost one this old before (hail storm). It's much harder than when they are a day or two old and you aren't attached to them as much yet.

 

[Percheron chick]

50 small square of hay a year is extremely low. You would need about 1/2 your annual forage requirement taken care of by pasture. I estimate 4T per horse (a normal horse) per year when all their forage has to come from hay. That's only 20# a day. If it's bitter cold, you can go through 2X a night just to keep them warm.

$11 for a 60# bale is crazy high. That's $363/ton. Prices have been elevated the past 3 years but it should be down under $180/ton with the rains. I just paid $125/T for 4x4 grass/alfalfa. You have to do the math to know what you are paying. We were seeing a lot of short bales (45# bales or lighter) and they were passing them off at the bargain price of $8.50!! Lucky me. That's still almost $400/ton!

 

[trsturself]

50 small square of hay a year is extremely low. You would need about 1/2 your annual forage requirement taken care of by pasture. I estimate 4T per horse (a normal horse) per year when all their forage has to come from hay. That's only 20# a day. If it's bitter cold, you can go through 2X a night just to keep them warm.

$11 for a 60# bale is crazy high. That's $363/ton. Prices have been elevated the past 3 years but it should be down under $180/ton with the rains. I just paid $125/T for 4x4 grass/alfalfa. You have to do the math to know what you are paying. We were seeing a lot of short bales (45# bales or lighter) and they were passing them off at the bargain price of $8.50!! Lucky me. That's still almost $400/ton!

I did my figures on 30lbs/day and $170/ton (that's what I've seen on craigslist right now). I figure for 3 horses it would be $140/mo. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[jime]

I payed the 11.00 on 2013, but 9.00 on 2012 I hope this year is on the 9.00 range because it gets expensive, I must say that the hay (mix) I get is really good quality.
But even the 11 was lots cheeper than 15 or 16 that Big R was asking for or Elizabeth Country corner.
I don't go by craigslist because I am afraid that the hay won't be good, I know of people that has really good luck with that but better safe than sorry.
Your 30 # a day sound really good estimate, I don't feed that much a day but like I said mine are easy keepers the vet grade them on the 8 (10 been obese)This year I stared with the fodder as well and that will help with the hay bill as well.


Percheron chick: I do not feed 50 # I get 50 # left over of the 200# , sorry sometimes my english is not good, when I write makes sense in spanish but guess not much in english.

 

[Percheron chick]

You average 150 bales a year for 3 horses so 50 each.
If your horses are fat than you would do better to buy a lesser quality hay that you can feed more of. Buy the good stuff for the TB. An 8 needs to be on a diet.

 

[Percheron chick]

30# each is pretty generous. That would be 90# a day or 2700# (1.35 ton) a month. $230/month. You can find decent hay on cl but there are also lots of pretend farmers that don't have a clue how to put up hay.

 

[jime]

Oh now I get you, yes that will be right but the QH is the pig.They do go on pasture in summer and I feed the fodder. Like I said I am not expert but the vet is at least I hope and he keeps telling me to short their intake because they are too fat.
I guess it depends too on the work they get. Mine can only be riding on some of the spring,summer and some of the fall.
My neighbour on the other side buys 500 bales a year for 2 horses, but her horses are fat and she pasture them as well she put hay on their pens all day (if they are in) she said they need to eat all the time.
Mine only eat twice a day that is it.
Now everybody is probably thinking that I starve my animals to death.
I guess every body does what it works for one.