First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[Red Nugget]

He is eating and drinking just fine. I've been trying to keep it clean. Actually happened a few days back.

 

[JessicaThistle]

OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH! I'VE GOT SQUATTERS!!

Some of my batch of 301 - 16 week olds are finally starting to squat! I am so excited! Finally the light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait until I have more eggs to better serve my customers!

Now on a sour note, I have a problem and I am needing some advice. Give it to me straight even if you disagree with me.

So, my neighbor is a horse person. I have no problem with horse people but she is one that feels that she is better than everyone, knows better than everyone and demands they all do things her way. Literally she harasses everyone around her that has livestock as if she is the only one allowed to have livestock and technically, she does not have the acreage to legally have the number of horses she houses. She has caused neighbors to move or cry over her harassment. She was the one that told me flat out that I could not get a pig as the flies would cause her horses to get sick and she would throw a fit if I did.

So up until now, she has loved and enjoyed my chickens even excited about them. The age the girls are right now means that they are molting their baby feathers into their adult feathers. We have quite a few feathers laying around. The wind has blown some into her yard and she is trying to tell me that she has to strain her horse's water and they can't eat their hay because they are completely filled with feathers. Whenever my dh and I look over the feathers are settled along the fence and around the trees and nowhere near the water or hay. She demanded today in a way that really pushed my flipping buttons that I rake those up and get rid of those feathers because she shouldn't have to deal with them, blah, blah.

Basically, I am not adverse to cleaning up the feathers but I am extremely adverse to the way she treated me, which makes me want to say F-off. Feathers are organic and compost and will not hurt her horses unless they are making a meal out of them. Asking nicely would have not been a problem but demanding. Hubby even said he should grab the leaf blower and clean those feathers all straight into her yard for her behavior. What would you do?

 

[LindaB220]

That's what happened to us at TSC. We thought Plymouth White Rocks. Then when we called about them thay said they were Leghorns. But got big way too fast. Holm25 is the one who finally cleared that up for us. Now I know if I go back for egg layers White Rocks are not the right ones. Thanks. We are going to get more meat birds in the fall as well. But We can only have 20 birds at any one time. City ordinance actually Said no poultry. But we turned our coop into a learning center for Down Syndrome, Autism and other special needs children in the area. And they let us keep them. My oldest son has Autism and Wendy's son has Down Syndrome. That's Why we got the chicks in the first place. As therapy. It worked. My son takes great care of them and has bonded with them and Wendy's Son (only 4) can't talk yet but has started to mimic the sounds of the Ducks, chickens and even the dog's and cats. We are hoping this is the first steps to language.

Wonderful opportunity for learning new skills. This may be your perfect way for learning. DD Jenny in Vancouver WA just moved into a home with a large BackYard. I'm going in September to visit for. A month or so and will try to interest.the parents in a few chickens.

 

[LindaB220]

It took me a bit to catch up.  I love the cute ducks!  I want some too but I don't have a good way to make a water source and my neighbors are so close on each side.  If I add ducks right now, I think it would push them over the limit, especially since I have several hundred pullets and hens out back in the pasture already.  

We have finally found a trailer for the next chicken tractor and the parts are actually coming in in a timely manner this time, unlike last time. We found a company that actually seems to ship same day and gives you a tracking number.  This was very much unlike the local company we used last time which took 2 months to get us all of our parts.  So excited!

So my egg business is booming!  I now have local stores calling me wanting to stock my eggs!  I have added two additional stores in the last couple of weeks.  It is very exciting but I don't have high enough production to adequately supply them all.  I plan for weekly delivery and sell out in 3 days.  I'm about ready to start shaking and squeezing my 300 pullets to get some eggs to drop.  Haha!  They are 16 weeks old now, so the countdown is on.  I am doing daily easter egg hunts basically waiting for the first egg.

With the demand, we have now ordered an additional 400 chicks to get started up.  50 will be EEs!  I love EEs!!  Our customers really like the surprise blue green egg that they get sometimes.  All of your adorable chick pics made me unable to resist a chick re-order!  

@Holm- is your CX a year old now?  I think you said her name was Snowflake or Snowball?  Refresh my memory please!

For anyone wondering about the ICU hen that I had that couldn't walk, hubby did finally call it and put her down when I wasn't looking.  However, he was right.  After my careful observation and treatment, my findings dictate that she was NOT sick.  She did not suffer from Marek's or any vitamin deficiency.  She had some kind of neurological defect.  She never became lethargic or stopped eating or drinking.  She could move her legs and feet, thus not paralyzed, but could not support her weight on her own.  It was much like working with someone with Multiple Sclerosis or other types of Neurological disorders that causes inability to stand and support weight as well as foot spasm and possible tremors.  I was a Nurse's Assistant working with eldery, disabled, post surgical and mental health for 10 years so have considerable experience in this area.  I think she may have sustained some type of injury that damaged her spinal cord, although I saw no signs of it, or it was genetic.  All the more reason to not use the hatchery that I know she came from.  I think that she may have had intermittent nerve pain from my observations and as I said, hubby knew the answer even though I couldn't make the call.  However, I was using her condition as a learning situation and I believe that I learned some very important things from her.  Keeping her as long as I did was really just part of my growth and helping me reach my goal to become the best chicken farmer that I can be!

Honey, so glad everything is going well. Be careful to keep the newbies from the rest of the pack until you are sure that they are clear from the AI. I think it finally made it to LA. Someone ordered both chicks and eggs that were infected. From Ohio. They are refunding for the eggs but ALL her stock had to be destroyed.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Honey, so glad everything is going well. Be careful to keep the newbies from the rest of the pack until you are sure that they are clear from the AI. I think it finally made it to LA. Someone ordered both chicks and eggs that were infected. From Ohio. They are refunding for the eggs but ALL her stock had to be destroyed.

Hi Linda. I hope you are doing well! Yes, all of the newbies will be kept in the brooder house separate from everyone else for at least 4 weeks. Even then I don't intermix because my big girls will pick on chicks.

 

[Red Nugget]

OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH!  I'VE GOT SQUATTERS!!  e

Some of my batch of 301 - 16 week olds are finally starting to squat!  I am so excited!  Finally the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can't wait until I have more eggs to better serve my customers!

Now on a sour note,  I have a problem and I am needing some advice.  Give it to me straight even if you disagree with me.

So, my neighbor is a horse person.  I have no problem with horse people but she is one that feels that she is better than everyone, knows better than everyone and demands they all do things her way.  Literally she harasses everyone around her that has livestock as if she is the only one allowed to have livestock and technically, she does not have the acreage to legally have the number of horses she houses.  She has caused neighbors to move or cry over her harassment.  She was the one that told me flat out that I could not get a pig as the flies would cause her horses to get sick and she would throw a fit if I did.

So up until now, she has loved and enjoyed my chickens even excited about them.  The age the girls are right now means that they are molting their baby feathers into their adult feathers.  We have quite a few feathers laying around.  The wind has blown some into her yard and she is trying to tell me that she has to strain her horse's water and they can't eat their hay because they are completely filled with feathers.  Whenever my dh and I look over the feathers are settled along the fence and around the trees and nowhere near the water or hay.  She demanded today in a way that really pushed my flipping buttons that I rake those up and get rid of those feathers because she shouldn't have to deal with them, blah, blah.

Basically, I am not adverse to cleaning up the feathers but I am extremely adverse to the way she treated me, which makes me want to say F-off.  Feathers are organic and compost and will not hurt her horses unless they are making a meal out of them.  Asking nicely would have not been a problem but demanding.  Hubby even said he should grab the leaf blower and clean those feathers all straight into her yard for her behavior.  What would you do?

this is just me and I know no one that likes to be pushed around. I would leave the feathers right there and just check every day if they are in the water. Until I saw a potential hazard to the horse's health I'd Just leave the feathers there. And if she continues to nag about it tell her about herself. I found that if you stand up to the bullys in the world they usually have no idea how to respond and then they back down. We teach our kids not to stand for this and there is no reason for us to either.

 

[eviemethugh]

OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH!  I'VE GOT SQUATTERS!!  e

Some of my batch of 301 - 16 week olds are finally starting to squat!  I am so excited!  Finally the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can't wait until I have more eggs to better serve my customers!

Now on a sour note,  I have a problem and I am needing some advice.  Give it to me straight even if you disagree with me.

So, my neighbor is a horse person.  I have no problem with horse people but she is one that feels that she is better than everyone, knows better than everyone and demands they all do things her way.  Literally she harasses everyone around her that has livestock as if she is the only one allowed to have livestock and technically, she does not have the acreage to legally have the number of horses she houses.  She has caused neighbors to move or cry over her harassment.  She was the one that told me flat out that I could not get a pig as the flies would cause her horses to get sick and she would throw a fit if I did.

So up until now, she has loved and enjoyed my chickens even excited about them.  The age the girls are right now means that they are molting their baby feathers into their adult feathers.  We have quite a few feathers laying around.  The wind has blown some into her yard and she is trying to tell me that she has to strain her horse's water and they can't eat their hay because they are completely filled with feathers.  Whenever my dh and I look over the feathers are settled along the fence and around the trees and nowhere near the water or hay.  She demanded today in a way that really pushed my flipping buttons that I rake those up and get rid of those feathers because she shouldn't have to deal with them, blah, blah.

Basically, I am not adverse to cleaning up the feathers but I am extremely adverse to the way she treated me, which makes me want to say F-off.  Feathers are organic and compost and will not hurt her horses unless they are making a meal out of them.  Asking nicely would have not been a problem but demanding.  Hubby even said he should grab the leaf blower and clean those feathers all straight into her yard for her behavior.  What would you do?

Yeah but then there are the super crazy B's who go and pick up allllll of your feathers, FILL the horse through with them for a photo shoot...force feed them to the horses and pay for the vet to come out and tell her that your chickens are posing a health problem and once all of her ducks are quietly in a row....take legal action. I've worked for such crazies and watched such plans slowly hatch and it is quite impressive. Cleaning feathers out of grass is no easy task though

Heck, the one I worked for, even if you cleaned up she might take a down pillow to and extra horse just to stir things up. Crazy B's are no fun.

 

[Austinspoultry]

Saving check

 

[Red Nugget]

Yeah but then there are the super crazy B's who go and pick up allllll of your feathers, FILL the horse through with them for a photo shoot...force feed them to the horses and pay for the vet to come out and tell her that your chickens are posing a health problem and once all of her ducks are quietly in a row....take legal action. I've worked for such crazies and watched such plans slowly hatch and it is quite impressive. Cleaning feathers out of grass is no easy task though

Heck, the one I worked for, even if you cleaned up she might take a down pillow to and extra horse just to stir things up. Crazy B's are no fun.

you could always put up a small hole fence to cut down on what feathers go into her yard. If you are within the law and she is obviously not with the amount of animals she has on the property she's not likely to call the authorities. I think I would still tell her about herself the next time she bullied you. But I'm a very stubborn old nurse who didn't even let the docs push me around if I was doing what was best or right for my patient. I guess that just stuck with me from being bullied as a kid. I feel if you don't stand up for yourself or people who can't then who will. Maybe all the people in the neighborhood should film her meanness and show it to her if she continues. Maybe discuss it with the others she bullies first to come up with a United front. The only way to counter her bullyness is not let her to continue it with you. I do like your husband's idea. But it might be taking it a little to far. LOL. I hope you can come up with something though. Sounds like she deserves it.

 

[Morrigan]

That's a tough one, Jessica. I had a neighbor just like that. She complained about everything. First, it was that my jasmine vine was climbing over my fence and into her yard and I needed to remove it. Then my dogs barked too much. Then my plum tree was throwing too much shade on her roses. Then my acacia tree was triggering her allergies. She was a real pill. I did a few minor things to placate her, and then just tried to avoid her.

It's not going to be feasible for you to rake up all the feathers. If there is some reasonably priced netting or something that you can string up to catch most of the feathers? If there is something easy and reasonable that could somewhat address the problem, I might consider that. If not, I would just tell her politely but firmly that there is no reasonable way to collect the feathers, that's part of life in a rural place, and you are sorry for the inconvenience. I would try to avoid yelling, calling her out etc., but just be polite and no-nonsense about it. It takes two to fight, and sometimes taking the high road is ultimately more satisfying.

I don't envy your position and wish you luck with her.