Colorado

[redmacbear23]

Good to see fellow mountain types out there! We live south of Walsenburg in the Spanish Peaks. FYI-there is a poultry sale and trade in Penrose(West of Pueblo)every 1st and 3rd Saturday, at the feed store. Don't know if it goes on during the winter. We have 3 horses, also known as Yard Art, 2 Labs, 1 Chihuahua, many, many cats, Proud parents Sully and Bitsy-Mottled Cochin Bantams and their daughters, Gold Lace Wy, Gold Lace Cochin, White Wy.

And the problem with watching chickens for half an hour????

 

[zoelovesmom]

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I have been getting organic, soy-free and corn-free feed from http://www.highaltitudeorganics.com/. It's inexpensive and she does distributions around the Denver metro area every 6 weeks or so.

I don't know if your chickens would like it or not; mine prefer the store-bought feed with corn, but when this is all I give them, they'll eat it.

I have a couple of problems with the feed from High Altitude. One is that it's loose (not sure what you call it - not crumbles or pellets, just loose grains and stuff), so there is a lot of spillage and waste. Two is that it's hard for me to estimate how much I'll need over a given time period (I'm new to chicken keeping). So last month, I ran out of feed a week before the distribution. I bought organic pellets at the feed store, and I find that there is a lot less waste with those. But I prefer to feed them soy and corn free food if I can.

 

[Mommato5]

I also buy from high altitude organic. I pick up in Boulder. I agree with how loose it is and how much spilling there is. We just built a pvc feeder and hopefully that will cut down/eliminate the waste. So far so good. You just need a deep container otherwise one of my girls in specific will just shovel it right out.....I like that it is soy and corn free and my girls eat it just fine. They don't eat oyster shell or any other source of calcium (however they do free range all day) and their shells have always been perfect! Their feed is about .40 a pound and you can buy as much or as little as you need instead of having to buy a 50# bag from the store so it's nice for backyard chickens who don't need that much all at once. I also misjudged how much I would need but was able to mix in some scratch to make it last until the next distribution.

 

[zoelovesmom]

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Can you post pics of your PVC feeder? I bought this one on ebay, and it spills out way too much. I had the metal hanging kind like this before, but it was too big for my small coop. The PVC one that I bought it just the right size and nice and up and out of the way but it totally doesn't work w/ the feed from High Altitude.

I agree that it's really nice to get the smaller quantities from High Altitude. Just a little tricky to figure out how much is enough. But I'm sure once you figure that out, it's a really good deal.

I also wish there was a closer distribution for me. I'm in Highlands Ranch, and my closest distribution is 40 miles away in Golden. With a young baby who hates the car, that's no fun. I was unable to go to the last Golden distribution because family was in town, and we were busy w/ Halloween stuff during the Boulder distribution.

 

[Mommato5]

We are in Loveland and go to the Boulder distribution 45 minutes away so I feel the long drove pain.

The obdurate feeder that we made just holes on top of the horizontal pipe for them to reach into. We need to make the holes larger, though. For now I just have about a pound of feed (for 4 chickens) in a small plastic container until we get those hole wider. Surprisingly it is working great. LOL They have to stick their heads in so they can't shovel it out and it's big enough that all 4 can't eat at the same time.

 

[Luvducks]

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WELCOME!!!!!! I just sold my 2 horses which were Yard Art. They were beautiful but I am not in a position to feed them properly this year. I never get rid of animals! I purchase them!
It was for their benefit. They left on Sunday and I miss them. I will just spend more time with the other critters.

 

[wsmith]

Colorado Folks,

We have broken ground on our new chicken compound!!!!!!!!! ..... (Think Chicken Run, the movie)

Here is a photo from yesterday afternoon before the snow and wind started. It was a balmy 52 degrees. I am the one in the brown jacket.

Some friends came over with their skidster with the auger attachment and punched the holes for me. 78 holes in all. !

In the photo background you can see one of the small houses I am building. This one has no sheathing or roof right now. There will be 4 of these, two larger ones, and a larger hen house when we are done. The whole job only took a little over an hour. If I were to have dug these by hand, I would have lost weight, but they would have taken me close to 26 man hours to dig.

Aren't good friends great!

 

[stickers]

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Hi there, welcome back to Colorado! Ive seen your website and you have some beautiful birds hope you are bringing some with you. Good luck with the move.

 

[OwensMom]

wsmith, chicken compound sound ominous!!!! What breeds will you raise? Good thinking with the auger. We've dug enough fence post holes to know hand digging is torment!!

Welcome home to all new arrivals coming back to CO!!

 

[wsmith]

We love "Chicken Run" I called my wife Mrs Tweedy the other day...... She just scowled at me...

I just laughed. (We've been happily married for 26 years)

We will be raising Dominiques for us, and a few Ameracuanas for some friends. Our friends want chickens but can't have them at their house, so we agreed to house them. She wants to be able to know which eggs are hers....... so we told her she can have chickens that lay blue and green eggs, and ours will be brown. They will assist with the feed, and have already helped with some of the building.

We'll have about 4000 square feet for the main hen house run area, with two pens each with 256 square feet, and another 4 pens with 128 square feet each. The larger two pens will be growout pens for juveniles, and the other four can be used for breeding, roosters, or quarentine pens as needed. They could even be used as brooder pens.

One step closer now. We have 7 acres in rural southwest El Paso county. Zoned R-5