Colorado

[ryan820]

234 pages of Coloradan post, OMG.

Well I'm just introducing myself here... new member, living in Parker and we have 3 buff orpingtons. Just wanted to say hi!

 

[Wifezilla]

Buff chickens or ducks?

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Quote:

 

[coloradochick]

Morning Ryan

 

[ryan820]

Chickens! I didn't know there were buff orpington ducks! I have a long history with ducks... love them! But that was when I lived in Pennsylvania (family farm, where I grew up).

So is there an active community of BYCers in Colorado? Does anyone else tie their chickens down when it gets windy? I kid.

My wife and I and little baby Anna and dog, Lucy, moved from our last Air Force assignment to Colorado (we left service) and made life in Colorado Springs. As nice as the Springs is, it wasn't for us. My wife is originally from Parker and it is minutes from work so we moved to an apartment in the interim to stabilize the funds and have our baby girl. But then the housing market got decimated, which allowed us to score the home of our dreams, still in Parker, but this time on 3/5 acres, in a wonderful house, overlooking our mountains. Thankfully, the previous owner was the original and quite elderly and had moved to CA to be with his children and grandchildren-- so no benefiting from someone else's loss. I don't know why I mention that, but I'm glad it worked out that way.

The first year was making this place more livable for us. Lots replaced and updated and redone. The land is a blank slate-- a few trees but nothing substantial and is quite flat (we're atop a hill).

This year we turned out attention from the inside, to the outside. With the exception of planting 35 trees (one for every year the previous owner lived here and didn't plant any!), we did nothing outside. But this year we have a 400 sq ft garden tilled, mended and ready to grow natural vegetable goodness. And of course, we also have our chickens now. They're still quite young and living in our solarium. Smells terrible but I keep them pretty clean by removing old litter and replacing it with new every day-- sometimes twice depending on how much the three little pigs are eating. So much poop....wow!

No other livestock outside, or inside (except for a marine aquarium-- they're rather needy too). I have too many hobbies.

Anyway, my reason for doing these things is simple... I have 3.5 acres of land, albeit not good dirt, it is still space that can be improved greatly with the addition of organics and in horse country, there is never a short supply. That space can then grow food we can live off of and enjoy and know its not lacking in nutrition or trucked from CA or flown in from Chile. I guess I'm becoming more aware of my food source more and more in my older age and it frightens me to think that most of my food comes from a place I know nothing about. I never doubted the reputation or honesty of the people who grow, harvest or butchers my food, but it seems unnatural to me to not know where my food originates.

Enter chickens... know idea where this will eventually go but as an accomplished gardener, I can tell you my next stop is a greenhouse! I think I've got the wife convinced, now all I have to do is convince my money to stay around long enough to make that happen.

Sorry to ramble! But that's a little of who I am and why I've joined BYC. I love this site! And I mean this as no insult at all...but we're all a little crazy here! LOL I love it.

 

[I'mACountryGirl]

Hi Ryan!! Welcome!!! I, too, live outside of Parker. I'm about 20 minutes east on 60 acres and love every inch of the difficult dirt!! I have a nice buff orp rooster that I am planning to rehome if you would be interested in him. I hatched him from eggs I got from an excellent breeder - he's less than a year old. Let me know if you're interested and again, welcome to BYC!!! Kimberly

 

[coloradochick]

Hey Ryan, like your sense of humor

After the talk with your money.......let us know how that all works out for ya

We're having that same issue here also

And hi Kimberely

It's beautiful down where you all are at

 

[ryan820]

I'mACountryGirl :

Hi Ryan!! Welcome!!! I, too, live outside of Parker. I'm about 20 minutes east on 60 acres and love every inch of the difficult dirt!! I have a nice buff orp rooster that I am planning to rehome if you would be interested in him. I hatched him from eggs I got from an excellent breeder - he's less than a year old. Let me know if you're interested and again, welcome to BYC!!! Kimberly

Thanks Kimberly. For now I'll pass but who knows, maybe we'll be interested in letting our hens hatch a clutch next year. We didn't get a roo on purpose this year, as you can imagine! I think for our next peeps, it would be fun to incubate them ourselves. I hatched hundreds of birds before but never chickens (mostly ducks, pheasants and quail for the family farm in PA).

I have family that live in Agate, Colorado-- have to pass through Elizabeth on our way to visit them. They have a beautiful place out there but man, is that a far drive!

Hey Ryan, like your sense of humor

After the talk with your money.......let us know how that all works out for ya We're having that same issue here also

Thanks! I like to laugh and in an attempt to make myself laugh, I invite others to come along.

As for the money sticking around...I should tie it down along with my peeps on a windy day.

So I don't want to put the cart before the proverbial horse, but does anyone know of someone in the area that will butcher chickens for you? Haven't decided what the ultimate fate of our current chickens will be but I need to control the potential damage done to wife and baby if our hens end up on the grill once their egg-laying years are gone. I'm really enjoying them so they very well could just become pets, but the idea is food, right? I've invited enough animals into my life that depend on me enough already!​

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Quote:
Hi Ryan. I get into Parker a couple of times a week. E-Mail if you'd like to talk. We have 12 adult chickens and 51 chicks plus 6 more coming friday, and possibly 46 of our eggs hatching tomorrow or the next day.

AND we have have 4 goats (with goat babies due any day now).

when it gets really windy, i actually do NOT let out my eggers to freerange because some of them are kinda small. my black australorps are heavy enough to hold there own. and we get huge wind gusts here on the ridge ... upwards 50/60 mph. i know you were kidding, but i'm actually not!

kimberly/imacountrygirl: sounds like we're neighbors. give me a holler too!

BYC people are the best.

p.s. many thanks to all who are giving extra healing thoughts to my family. my son's health is still tenuous, so we really appreciate it.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Quote:
<SNIP>

Hey Ryan, like your sense of humor

After the talk with your money.......let us know how that all works out for ya We're having that same issue here also

Thanks! I like to laugh and in an attempt to make myself laugh, I invite others to come along.

As for the money sticking around...I should tie it down along with my peeps on a windy day.

So I don't want to put the cart before the proverbial horse, but does anyone know of someone in the area that will butcher chickens for you? Haven't decided what the ultimate fate of our current chickens will be but I need to control the potential damage done to wife and baby if our hens end up on the grill once their egg-laying years are gone. I'm really enjoying them so they very well could just become pets, but the idea is food, right? I've invited enough animals into my life that depend on me enough already!​

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we're having a chicken party in august (we get together to butcher our own chickens ... a way to learn). feel free to join us. i think to be legal, we all have to do our own (but someone correct me if i'm wrong).