Colorado

[Pozees]

Love to know who has the RIR in CO. I got 10 of my chickens from Estes Hatchery via the feed store. Min order is 250, great website and you can get less if you pick up yourself. Not a bad place to visit lots of cool cabins or historic places to stay and hike etc...then get your new chickies and head home.

I worry about poisoning the mice. If a mouse is dying the chickens will still eat him and then the poison will get into the chickens. I know, i'm a freik about some things. My chickens hunt mice. I saw the roos in the coop the other day stalking one. They dont get to free range so they rally for a mouse hunt like its the super bowl. I swear the hens have little jerseys with their favorite players names on the back....."mater" "mcqueen" and "mouse". lol.

LOL Nice mental image

I *think* most modern mouse poisons are not poisonous to the secondary consumer, but never hurts to carefully read labels. Will have to find that ad and post a link for the CO Reds.

 

[Pozees]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-for-sale-pickup-in-colorado-only-no-shipping

They are in Bailey, CO.

As I said, I know nothing about them, just spotted it one day when browsing.

Lisa, you have to name your team - the obvious one is Mountain Marauders of course, but you're a lot more creative than I am, you probably already have a dozen names thought up

 

[wsmith]

How many chickens to get......?

This is a question that haunts us all.

If a hen has a lay factor of .7 (she averages .7 eggs per day, or about 1 egg every 1.5 days), and you want an average of 2 eggs per day per person, and there are two people, you need 5 hens minimum. Some days you might get 5 eggs, but usually you will get three or four.

And then chicken math sets in. Many cities have chicken maximums allowed. I think Colorado Springs ways 10 and no roosters; i think.... Silkies don't count, cuz they're not really chickens. Neither do chicks, cuz they aren't chickens yet either.

What I would recommend is to build bigger than what you need now. Too much room is always better than not enough room. At least that's what I keep telling Beth..........

 

[wsmith]

So here is what I have done to get ready for my NPIP testing. (as I have to deal with federal regulations in my job, I tend to perpared for the worst inspector, which generally leads to overkill. OCPD: Obsessive Compulsive Planning Disorder)

1. All the feed is now in vermin-proof heavy duty garbage cans, and the bedding is in the new shelter.
2. After the turkey gets processed tomorrow, I will clean out pen #2, and also spruce up the main hen house. Not a whole lot to be done there. Love Deep Litter!
3. Vermin control: I have solid bait blocks and snap traps. The solid bait is kept out of the chicken areas. I will be building covered boxes with mouse holes in each end to contain the traps and the bait. The snap trap boxes will be placed in the hen house, as well as in the feed/bedding storage areas. This will be done Saturday.
4. As all my stock came from NPIP tested and clean flocks, I am not worried about them passing the pullorum tests
5. I have opted to get the Salmonella testing done as well. Pretty sure we will be fine there as well.
6. I have all my flock records in a file box, and on the computer.

After those projects are done Saturday, I will spend the rest of the time doing basic cleanup and organizing. I want it all to look spiffy on Monday.

 

[Pozees]

So here is what I have done to get ready for my NPIP testing. (as I have to deal with federal regulations in my job, I tend to perpared for the worst inspector, which generally leads to overkill. OCPD: Obsessive Compulsive Planning Disorder)

1. All the feed is now in vermin-proof heavy duty garbage cans, and the bedding is in the new shelter.
2. After the turkey gets processed tomorrow, I will clean out pen #2, and also spruce up the main hen house. Not a whole lot to be done there. Love Deep Litter!
3. Vermin control: I have solid bait blocks and snap traps. The solid bait is kept out of the chicken areas. I will be building covered boxes with mouse holes in each end to contain the traps and the bait. The snap trap boxes will be placed in the hen house, as well as in the feed/bedding storage areas. This will be done Saturday.
4. As all my stock came from NPIP tested and clean flocks, I am not worried about them passing the pullorum tests
5. I have opted to get the Salmonella testing done as well. Pretty sure we will be fine there as well.
6. I have all my flock records in a file box, and on the computer.

After those projects are done Saturday, I will spend the rest of the time doing basic cleanup and organizing. I want it all to look spiffy on Monday.

Sounds like you will get a Gold Star!

I discovered recently during an environmental audit at one of our landfills that my habit of saving everything really pays off - even stuff no one has ever told me to save, and no one has ever asked for. Delivery tickets on fuel - even though we have an invoice showing the same information - this auditor wanted to see the delivery tickets.

Luckily I have them.

I have full confidence your birds and Mayah's will test clean, is Kristy coming to do them? Nice gal. Is anyone else here at the forum participating in this round of testing? She told me last summer I was the furthest south participant, so if I don't have enough birds to warrant a site visit next year I'll probably load them all up and meet her at her State Fair hotel again.

I really argued with myself about the value of the certification, but I keep coming back to the "Whew!" I got when I saw all the clean tests That made it totally worth it to me.

 

[wsmith]

Maybe we can all do our recertification at the same time next year?

I think it will be Sarah Millonig who will be here.

Record keeping is very important if you want to track things, note trends, etc. On the computer I use chick'n track'n. Works good, and is way easyl. This keeps track of the finances only. Everything else I have made myself, mostly utilizin Excell files, etc.

I plan on selling and shipping fertile hatching eggs, as well as selling chicks locally stating next year. Not a "hatchery" per se, but selling chicks anyway. NPIP allows me to also participate with a couple of other Dominique breeders in a joint breeding program. That may or may not happen, but we all had to be NPIP certified.

 

[Pozees]

Maybe we can all do our recertification at the same time next year?

I think it will be Sarah Millonig who will be here.

Record keeping is very important if you want to track things, note trends, etc. On the computer I use chick'n track'n. Works good, and is way easyl. This keeps track of the finances only. Everything else I have made myself, mostly utilizin Excell files, etc.

I plan on selling and shipping fertile hatching eggs, as well as selling chicks locally stating next year. Not a "hatchery" per se, but selling chicks anyway. NPIP allows me to also participate with a couple of other Dominique breeders in a joint breeding program. That may or may not happen, but we all had to be NPIP certified.

That would be great

Never heard of chick'n track'n, where can I learn more about it?

Tracking is what tells us whether we are meeting any goals we might have set for ourselves, and shows trends that can warn us before something goes awry. I can't say I've tracked food utilization and laying yet, mainly because the 7 girls I have right now were obtained purely for home egg use, but as I migrate to activities similar to those you anticipate I will be tracking everything. I don't see myself being in position to have fertile eggs to hatch and sell for probably another year or so, but I do plan to buy more chicks than I want to keep next year and sell the extras as started pullets once they feather out enough to give me some idea what I have. For me, the biggest challenge will be trying to assess them and make good choices - as a rank novice in that arena I expect to make mistakes, but it's a learning curve. Hopefully I can get some input from others and learn learn learn

 

[wsmith]

http://www.chickentrackin.com/

The program costs $15. Nothing fancy, but works well. They also have a free trial download. This is for finances only. It does not track egg production or breeding. It does some basic reports, and also show the results in bar and pie graphs. Very simple.

Every day I input the egg production for the day, and make notes on weather and an other factors for that day. The spreadsheet I made averages the monthly production, totals the monthly production, and also averages the yearly production and totals it too. I will be making one to track hatch rates and breeding lines as well.

How are the temps at WM today? You are only about 3 miles from my place as the crow flies when you are at work........ You need to swing by some afternoon.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I worry about poisoning the mice. If a mouse is dying the chickens will still eat him and then the poison will get into the chickens. I know, i'm a freik about some things. My chickens hunt mice. I saw the roos in the coop the other day stalking one. They dont get to free range so they rally for a mouse hunt like its the super bowl. I swear the hens have little jerseys with their favorite players names on the back....."mater" "mcqueen" and "mouse". lol.

That is a very valid concern. Poisoned animals do move around a lot looking for water and or a dark place to die.

 

[Pozees]

http://www.chickentrackin.com/

The program costs $15. Nothing fancy, but works well. They also have a free trial download. This is for finances only. It does not track egg production or breeding. It does some basic reports, and also show the results in bar and pie graphs. Very simple.

Every day I input the egg production for the day, and make notes on weather and an other factors for that day. The spreadsheet I made averages the monthly production, totals the monthly production, and also averages the yearly production and totals it too. I will be making one to track hatch rates and breeding lines as well.

How are the temps at WM today? You are only about 3 miles from my place as the crow flies when you are at work........ You need to swing by some afternoon.

I am actually home, I work from home on Fridays and it's 43 right now, but I'm headed up to the landfill in a couple of hours to pick up a wooden box one of my coworkers brought for me. Are you home today?