Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Quote:

We have had chickens for the last couple of years, however I sold all of my flock recently in order to make room for the new breeds I am bringing in. I am going with strictly heritage breeds to go along with my heirloom gardening. This is the niche I am going into with my business, "Obermeyer Heritage Farms." I help people get into gardening and be more self sufficient. I will also sell vegetables and eggs. In the future we plan to expand our vegetables, offer fruit, and expand into beef and pork. We are starting small due to not having our own land right now but praying God will give it to us at the right time.

Welcome to our forum. You came to the right place. I too specialize in some Heritage breeds and imports. But am pretty limited on breeds. I had so many different breeds it was a nightmare. Now I have so many colors it's an even bigger nightmare. I raise my birds for my own pleasure and sell offspring to help support my habits!!! I love gardening as well. ..but time is always a problem. I don't grow as many heritage veggies though simply because I want things that have been bred to be more disease resistant.
I can't imagine trying to do that without owning your own property. You have my best wishes that you find a place soon.
Yesterday was just a crazy day. I started getting congested really bad in the evening and now I have a sinus infection. I think the warmer weather must have caused some trees to start budding. I have some severe allergies to some tree polins. I had some more chicks hatch during the night and now have two of the English orps hatched. Woot!
I'm going to fire up a third incubator now so I can hatch different breeds at the same time. Keeping chicks sorted is becoming a night mare these days. I think I'm going to have to start hatching different breeds and colors on different days as well in order to keep them straight. That will be a bit of a pain because I like hatching larger groups as opposed to smaller ones.
I need to order a new hatching tray for the geese and peafowl eggs as well. The one I have is full and I have lots of eggs left to hatch. I need it now though and GQF can be so darned slow about shipping. The weather isn't cooperative but the birds are definitely thinking spring.

 

[Trish44]

Quote:
Welcome to our forum. You came to the right place. I too specialize in some Heritage breeds and imports. But am pretty limited on breeds. I had so many different breeds it was a nightmare. Now I have so many colors it's an even bigger nightmare. I raise my birds for my own pleasure and sell offspring to help support my habits!!! I love gardening as well. ..but time is always a problem. I don't grow as many heritage veggies though simply because I want things that have been bred to be more disease resistant.
I can't imagine trying to do that without owning your own property. You have my best wishes that you find a place soon.
Yesterday was just a crazy day. I started getting congested really bad in the evening and now I have a sinus infection. I think the warmer weather must have caused some trees to start budding. I have some severe allergies to some tree polins. I had some more chicks hatch during the night and now have two of the English orps hatched. Woot!
I'm going to fire up a third incubator now so I can hatch different breeds at the same time. Keeping chicks sorted is becoming a night mare these days. I think I'm going to have to start hatching different breeds and colors on different days as well in order to keep them straight. That will be a bit of a pain because I like hatching larger groups as opposed to smaller ones.
I need to order a new hatching tray for the geese and peafowl eggs as well. The one I have is full and I have lots of eggs left to hatch. I need it now though and GQF can be so darned slow about shipping. The weather isn't cooperative but the birds are definitely thinking spring.

Danz why don't you look on eBay for hatching trays & see if anyone has any on there first. Yes GQF is really slow about shipping, you can't get in a hurry when ordering from them for sure. I'm glad that most of my chicks are different than the others so I can tell them apart. Otherwise I would be in the same boat as you with all of the breeds I have.

 

[chicken danz]

I had been really careful to keep breeds that look different. It's just that the Coronations and the newer lavenders and whites all look a lot alike. Now I have English hatching and those donated Jersey Giant eggs really threw me for loop. Then the brahmas obviously bred with the blue gold rooster more often than the others which made more blue colored chicks. Thank goodness they had feathered feet. I don't need the trays that you normally buy that are plastic. I need the metal trays for side setting really big eggs. I ordered a new metal tray today and some more auto waterers. I just hope they get here soon. I found a couple on Ebay but by the time you paid their shipping it was a lot more.
I haven't fired up my hatcher yet. I want to make some repairs to it and put a new gasket on it before I use it. I can take some wire and make my own temporary big egg egg tray if I have to. Looks like I am going to have to from all the goose eggs I have on the counter.
I got hardware cloth put along the bottom of my other hoop coop today. I have no idea what was chewing the netting but it will stop now....unless they like chewing metal. I had a 100 foot roll of hardware cloth and used the last of it. I still had a good 10 feet to go too. At any rate that problem is fixed now. It might have even been the chickens themselves because It was all on one hlaf of the pen.
I had a person come today so they would know what to order as far as chicks go. Well they ended up buying a chocolate orp pullet and 4 barred rocks. Plus placing a decent order for in about a month. I'm pretty happy. Now as long as the birds cooperate I'll be okay. I tossed several eggs today. You can sure tell when we've had our really cold weather. I'll have 100% fertility in a breed then have a day or two where none of the eggs develop. At least I know what is causing it.
Dh left to go get another dog kennel from a guy from work. He hasn't seen it and doesn't know how much it is going to be. I hope he doesn't offer too much for a rusted piece of junk. I normally just buy the panels when they are on sale and it is usually as cheap as some ones used junk.

 

[naturalgardener]

Thank you! It is tough not having our own land but fortunately we have a wonderful landlord! Thanks again! Hope you get to feeling better!

 

[lizzyGSR]

Has anyone else on here had a problem with a caterpillar that is called "cutworm"? We have had them THICK this year! In the evening, they collect on the tarp that we use to cover our hay bale. I pull them off and put them in a bucket for my birds. I have fed my birds several dozen of these each evening for days on end, and it doesn't look like I've even made a dent. It was nice yesterday, and I walked to the mailbox (about 1/2 mile from the house). There were squished cutworms all over the place on the road. The grass and weeds are just barely starting to turn green this year. I really hope that these worms don't decimate anything that turns green, as we have been struggling with a pretty bad drought the last couple of years and could really use all the greenery we can get about now.

I actually just found out what these "worms" were called... I had never seen them before (or had never seen them in such large numbers and therefore never knew what they were). However, a friend posted a picture of them on FB where there were a whole bunch on her sidewalk. She wanted to know if anyone else was having problems with them... My birds have been free ranging all day, every day and those darn worms are still thick as all get-out. Apparently, I need to let the birds out a little earlier and wait to lock them up a little later in the day because apparently these worms are nocturnal...

There is a good chance of snow tomorrow night, and it is supposed to be cooler this weekend. Hopefully, that will kill off some of these worms!

 

[naturalgardener]

We are planning on Jersey Giants, Dominiques, Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, and possibly buckeyes.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Has anyone else on here had a problem with a caterpillar that is called "cutworm"? We have had them THICK this year! In the evening, they collect on the tarp that we use to cover our hay bale. I pull them off and put them in a bucket for my birds. I have fed my birds several dozen of these each evening for days on end, and it doesn't look like I've even made a dent. It was nice yesterday, and I walked to the mailbox (about 1/2 mile from the house). There were squished cutworms all over the place on the road. The grass and weeds are just barely starting to turn green this year. I really hope that these worms don't decimate anything that turns green, as we have been struggling with a pretty bad drought the last couple of years and could really use all the greenery we can get about now.

I actually just found out what these "worms" were called... I had never seen them before (or had never seen them in such large numbers and therefore never knew what they were). However, a friend posted a picture of them on FB where there were a whole bunch on her sidewalk. She wanted to know if anyone else was having problems with them... My birds have been free ranging all day, every day and those darn worms are still thick as all get-out. Apparently, I need to let the birds out a little earlier and wait to lock them up a little later in the day because apparently these worms are nocturnal...

There is a good chance of snow tomorrow night, and it is supposed to be cooler this weekend. Hopefully, that will kill off some of these worms!

Lizzy
Neem oil is a natural product that will inhibit future breeding(basically steralizing ) of the cutworms, but i would not use it if the chickens are likely to eat the remains

, I believe it would be anywhere from 30+ lifecycle since it is a moth larvae, but i think they can actually overwinter themselves depending on how deep in the soil they get

I have spring fever SOO BAD right now. Have some items started in the greenhouse since farmers markets will be here before we know it, i think i might cry if it snows AGAIN!

 

[naturalgardener]

We are planning on Jersey Giants, Dominiques, Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, and possibly buckeyes

 

[naturalgardener]

Sorry to post the same thing twice. If anybody can tell me how to delete I would appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Trish44]

lizzy I have seen cutworms around, but not in the numbers you're talking about. I hope that's not the latest plague for this year.

We spent the day in Wichita today & had a lot to do. After we got home I had to get right back in the car & go over to pick up my granddaughter's cell phone because she finally found her other one, it's been lost since Thanksgiving & she wanted to go back to using it. I had to bring it home & reactivate it again & have been trying to restore things on it. I'm trying to get the virus program put back on so we can make it scream next time so they can find it easier. If we had gotten it set up the last time it may not have been lost this long. She has been using an old phone my DH had left over, thank goodness we take care of our phones because it seems like someone always needs the old ones at some point. After getting back home from there I had to immediately start on chicken & animal chores & after that I just pooped out totally.

Danz, I hope you feel better soon.