IA here

[Newtoniamommy]

Actually, my mother works at US Cellular in management and just putting her on the application she thinks will pretty much guarantee my hiring. My DH is going back to school instead of working. He is in the military (out in july after 9 years) and his job expires at that point. He will then go do air guard for the school money, the unit in fort dodge pretty much only deploys to fort dodge so figured it was cool. We are going to rent our ranch out and buy another house before his job is up so that we can get a loan, we have no debt so we really have very little expenses and with the refinance of this house will pay off the car and drop 15k or so in savings for months that money is tight or we dont have a renter. I am hoping to find an acreage in the area I agree on the outlying towns being the best bet. I am so excited to get my new babies though! I really love chickens, I lived in a foster home for awhile with free range chickens and it was wonderful. The bantam rooster met a fox or racoon though so I want full size chickens to lessen the chances of that lol. I just mostly wanted to look at all the animals with my kids at waverly, will most likely hitch on up to mcmurrays I guess, I just have heard not too nice things and wanted to check them out some more first. Have a great cold day 16 days till spring I think(my son is 2 months and does not really like sleeping, nursing, pooing and puking are just too much fun I guess)

 

[momof3]

Hi everyone. Hey has anyone been to the Tubaughs Bird/Animal Swap and acution in Kalona Iowa? I found reference to it on qcautionsonline. It is this saturday morning starting at 8:00 at the sale barn in Kalona. I posted it in swaps with the website. They list some of the things they will have.

Chanin

 

[jkcove08]

If it is the one I am thinking of it definately has a lot of interesting animals. I think I was told it costs like $10. a person to get in though. They are suppose to have all kinds of things there, many exotics like bears, zebras, things of that sort. I think I will stick to the smaller ones and slightly closer. If you go you will have to let us all know how it was. Jenn

 

[chickenplucker]

Hi!

I'm new here but wanted to introduce myself. I'm Paula from the Amana Colonies and this is my first year with chickens. We just bought our first dozen last week Saturday from the Iowa City Orscheln's...4 RIR, 4 barred rock, 4 buff orps.

I also have a dh, 2 boys, 4 dogs, 9 cats, and an umbrella cockatoo that I share my world with. Oh yeah...and the 6 alpacas, with a cria due in May...how could I forget them?! Looking forward to getting to know everyone here!

 

[jkcove08]

WELCOME!!!!! We love to see more fellow Iowans!! I am going to Webster City on the 22nd to pick up my new batch of chicks, like I really need them since I have 4 bators running right now too..lol I will have to get with you through email, my sister and I are going to get into alpacas this spring!!! We have a friend right on the other side of town that has 17. I am suprised you have it set to drop in May. Most of them I see are due in august or september. I would love to talk alpacas..lol I have just about everything but peacocks.. Did Iowa City have duck and geese or just chicks? Welcome again, you need to come to Waverly for the swap. It is about an hour and half from you from what I figure. It is a blast!!! Jenn

 

[chickenplucker]

Thanks Jenn! Sure...shoot me an email or PM and we can talk alpacas all ya want!

Orscheln's in Iowa City only had chicks when I was there. They had barred rocks, RIR, buff orps and cornish cross, I believe...whatever the last birds were, they were $.99 and were broilers.

Not sure we'll make it to the swap in Waverly...we'll be getting ready for an alpaca show that we're doing in April, but we'll try!

Thanks again for the warm welcome!

 

[momof3]

Welcome Paula. I really like how more Iowans are showing up. You know I started out with about a dozen chickens. Now we have 175(100 are laying hens, 75 chicks). That was only three years ago we added them. We now have peafowl(five, I found the guy who I bought my first pair, it was such a good deal dh let me buy four), variety of ducks(calls being my favorite right now), pony, one guinea(our jack russell kills them),pgymy goats,cats,dogs, guinea pigs, chinchilla,parakeets and hamsters. We are a family of five and the kids have a lot of the pets.

Jenn I want so much to go to the Waverly Swap. I'm hoping my inlaws decide not to come. You said calls usually hatch on day 26th? So I should stop turning them on day 23. I can't wait for them to hatch.

I didn't go to Iowa City. Nothing really grab my interest from what they had listed. I'm anxiously counting the days to a swap I can go to.
Chanin

 

[jkcove08]

Yes, call eggs only take 26 days. Stop on day 23 and bump the humidity. I have 3 in the bator now with a TON of other eggs..lol I currently have buttons hatching and only have 10 more to hatch out of 36, boy are those little boys busy. I know at least half have pips and I am not usre with the rest. Some of them are getting a little rolled around. For those of you that make it to the Waverly swap we are going to put a red hankerchief on the antena of our older blue van. I will be there most of the time. Jenn

 

[chickenplucker]

Thanks Chanin! Wow....I can't imagine having 175 chickens! That must be a lot of eggs. Do you sell them? There is a family about 4 miles or so from us that has chickens and we've been buying our eggs from them, but I can't wait until ours start laying! The guy at Orscheln's said they should start laying at the end of July or in August. It seems so far away!

Thanks again for the welcome!

 

[bossynbella]

Glad to have more people form Iowa chickenplucker.

I can see how easy it would be to end up with 100+ hens we started out with 5 and are at 30 now with 32 chicks to arrive in June as well as eggs under a broody hen. They are very addicting!

Can someone explain how the waverly swap works?? Do you just set up by your vehicle or what. I have never been to a swap, and am nervous about what to do.

I will be bringing my SSH rooster and a Silken (my name for Silky mixes) Rooster and a couple bantam roosters and hens.

How much do chickens usually sell for there??
OH I'm so excited and I hope to find some Duckies there!!!!