Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[Kris5902]

Good morning Kris

Such wonderful news...

Belated good morning again Bob!

 

[Kris5902]

I woke up to 2 hatched NN chick's in my incubator this morning. They hatched from the green egg's from my own flock. There's still more egg's in there that should hatch.

My babies are hatching two!!!

View attachment 2036860

So happy for you both! I keep gently suggesting a hatch to the small helper here for the school... solves the power issue! And the mother whining about all the space the incubators take up in the corner of the room she’s in!

I’m planning on candling tonight or tomorrow... I’ve got 4more hatchable eggs to put in if there’s too many duds from the second batch, but three hatches one week apart is probably my limit... then i’ll Just give it a few weeks break if needed. If I don’t hatch out enough chicks, the buyer will either wait an extra month for them or pick up more production reds in town instead... and I will yet again be the victim of self inflicted chicken math and hatching fever!

 

[Kris5902]

In other events, it has rained here... regularly, so we are behind in tarring the foundation, haven’t raided the FIL cabin for our plans yet and will be focusing onthe drainrock for our perimeter drain today. DH has been picking up some extra shifts at the pub, and the Cafe is now buying my eggs at 2 dozen a week.

Last night I nearly had a heart attack when I picked my mom up for dinner, and I did it again. I looked in on the farm chickens (no one had gotten the eggs, but at least there was water... no feed) but the fully lit up coop had the outside door standing wide open inviting any raccoons to come in and play. There’s another inner door with some giant (1’) holes in the chicken wire,bwhich would totally stop a coon, I’m sure. It had been left open by whoever dropped the feed bags in, and no chickens! I heard one coo but couldn’t find anyone. I ran out to get my phone to call the owner and my mother asked what was wrong. I told her the door was open and all the chickens were missing... and she asked “did you look up?”

Turns out they dislike their flimsy roosts with shiny slick bark as much as I do... and roost on this 2x4 support for one of the lights (it was sparky and got removed). It’s a good 10’ straight up and I have no idea how they fly up with such limited space. Happily though, they were all safe and sound and ignoring their artificial lighting for the most part, and ready for nap time...

 

[Ribh]

In other events, it has rained here... regularly, so we are behind in tarring the foundation, haven’t raided the FIL cabin for our plans yet and will be focusing onthe drainrock for our perimeter drain today. DH has been picking up some extra shifts at the pub, and the Cafe is now buying my eggs at 2 dozen a week.

Last night I nearly had a heart attack when I picked my mom up for dinner, and I did it again. I looked in on the farm chickens (no one had gotten the eggs, but at least there was water... no feed) but the fully lit up coop had the outside door standing wide open inviting any raccoons to come in and play. There’s another inner door with some giant (1’) holes in the chicken wire,bwhich would totally stop a coon, I’m sure. It had been left open by whoever dropped the feed bags in, and no chickens! I heard one coo but couldn’t find anyone. I ran out to get my phone to call the owner and my mother asked what was wrong. I told her the door was open and all the chickens were missing... and she asked “did you look up?”
View attachment 2036934
Turns out they dislike their flimsy roosts with shiny slick bark as much as I do... and roost on this 2x4 support for one of the lights (it was sparky and got removed). It’s a good 10’ straight up and I have no idea how they fly up with such limited space. Happily though, they were all safe and sound and ignoring their artificial lighting for the most part, and ready for nap time...
View attachment 2036940

That's some effort. They're not small birds.

 

[BlueBaby]

In other events, it has rained here... regularly, so we are behind in tarring the foundation, haven’t raided the FIL cabin for our plans yet and will be focusing onthe drainrock for our perimeter drain today. DH has been picking up some extra shifts at the pub, and the Cafe is now buying my eggs at 2 dozen a week.

Last night I nearly had a heart attack when I picked my mom up for dinner, and I did it again. I looked in on the farm chickens (no one had gotten the eggs, but at least there was water... no feed) but the fully lit up coop had the outside door standing wide open inviting any raccoons to come in and play. There’s another inner door with some giant (1’) holes in the chicken wire,bwhich would totally stop a coon, I’m sure. It had been left open by whoever dropped the feed bags in, and no chickens! I heard one coo but couldn’t find anyone. I ran out to get my phone to call the owner and my mother asked what was wrong. I told her the door was open and all the chickens were missing... and she asked “did you look up?”
View attachment 2036934
Turns out they dislike their flimsy roosts with shiny slick bark as much as I do... and roost on this 2x4 support for one of the lights (it was sparky and got removed). It’s a good 10’ straight up and I have no idea how they fly up with such limited space. Happily though, they were all safe and sound and ignoring their artificial lighting for the most part, and ready for nap time...
View attachment 2036940

It look's like that will end up being your responsibility too while your FIL is gone, if they are to continue living. Maybe you can give the egg's to that little helper to hatch at school?

 

[Kris5902]

It look's like that will end up being your responsibility too while your FIL is gone, if they are to continue living. Maybe you can give the egg's to that little helper to hatch at school?

Sadly, that’s a no and a no... FIL has even less input/effect on those chickens than I do... Yes, I was mentioning last spring/summer to the “farm manager” aunt about getting barred hens to pair with my BCM rooster for sex linked chicks... then in June there was the Family Drama explosion, that has left me completely on the outs with them all. And sadly the “barred rocks” part got lost in the discussion and these olive eggers arrived, after I just finished rescuing the girls that were in that little patch of hell on earth.

I am done with removing Sick, injured, dying, and parasite infested birds from their care. If I do happen to see something very wrong (like no water for days, wide open door and no chickens in sight) I will investigate or tell them about it, but I’m not going to actively manage them. They are taken care of by my little helpers mother, and not my responsibility. The Family has no interest in what I have to say about proper husbandry and care, and just view them as disposable egg machines. Unless it’s for a Facebook post. (There’s been some attempted community face saving ones lately highlighting the pastoral farm life we have here).

As for school project hatching eggs... well for the eggs to hatch, you need one of those boy chickens first... and boy chickens are evil horrible things. They won’t have any Roosters near the house. They are all too loud and agressive and just awful things. Nor would I have any of my lovely boys stuffed in a 6x8 box with no outside access and 6 other birds (remember, they had over 20 in there when I first got here! 2.4 square feet per bird is tons of coop space for full time confinement!) To say nothing about the mites and lice and the I’m sure “exceptional” cleaning job they did on it.

On to happier thoughts... there’s another buyer interested in chicks... I’m going to speak with them tomorrow. If only I had those barred girls for sex links... hatching for others would be so much easier!

 

[BlueBaby]

Sadly, that’s a no and a no... FIL has even less input/effect on those chickens than I do... Yes, I was mentioning last spring/summer to the “farm manager” aunt about getting barred hens to pair with my BCM rooster for sex linked chicks... then in June there was the Family Drama explosion, that has left me completely on the outs with them all. And sadly the “barred rocks” part got lost in the discussion and these olive eggers arrived, after I just finished rescuing the girls that were in that little patch of hell on earth.

I am done with removing Sick, injured, dying, and parasite infested birds from their care. If I do happen to see something very wrong (like no water for days, wide open door and no chickens in sight) I will investigate or tell them about it, but I’m not going to actively manage them. They are taken care of by my little helpers mother, and not my responsibility. The Family has no interest in what I have to say about proper husbandry and care, and just view them as disposable egg machines. Unless it’s for a Facebook post. (There’s been some attempted community face saving ones lately highlighting the pastoral farm life we have here).

As for school project hatching eggs... well for the eggs to hatch, you need one of those boy chickens first... and boy chickens are evil horrible things. They won’t have any Roosters near the house. They are all too loud and agressive and just awful things. Nor would I have any of my lovely boys stuffed in a 6x8 box with no outside access and 6 other birds (remember, they had over 20 in there when I first got here! 2.4 square feet per bird is tons of coop space for full time confinement!) To say nothing about the mites and lice and the I’m sure “exceptional” cleaning job they did on it.

On to happier thoughts... there’s another buyer interested in chicks... I’m going to speak with them tomorrow. If only I had those barred girls for sex links... hatching for others would be so much easier!

Maybe you should get some barred girl's of your own to work with then?

 

[Kris5902]

Maybe you should get some barred girl's of your own to work with then?

That was my plan, late last summer/early fall, with another batch of Red Rangers and some Ameraucanas to fill out my blue layers some; but I missed the last order date of the year and don’t have a lot of financial wiggle room anymore, so maybe next year? I’m going to concentrate on saving for the meat birds and feed, because I know I can market those at the summer markets for a premium, and the local pub will take 20 per month guaranteed, at basically the same price I sell them at retail for.

 

[rjohns39]

Kris, you give me hope... I ran out of money before getting the farm setup and started. there's light at the end of the tunnel. If I can get the pastures setup that I need, this farm might get moving forward. all I can do is hope.

 

[Kris5902]

Kris, you give me hope... I ran out of money before getting the farm setup and started. there's light at the end of the tunnel. If I can get the pastures setup that I need, this farm might get moving forward. all I can do is hope.

I know that feeling... I’m budgeting, measuring feed, estimating what I’m going to need for each run of meat birds. Based on last year’s consumption and where I’m at for numbers, it’s going to be very, very tight... at least until May when the money starts coming in again. At least I bought most of my hardware cloth, fasteners, latches and such while we were still doing well. I think the start up is the hardest part, because there’s so much initial outlay for things like housing, initial breeding stock, and equipment... and extra equipment, because you don’t want to not have any backups if something fails, and nothing really coming in from it.

Hope, perseverance, and working with what you have is what I think makes the difference. Focus on what you can do with what you have. There’s always hope and the potential for success when you’re willing to put in the work and you don’t give up! Yes, I want some Bresse to work with and yes, I want more blue layers, and some barred rocks for sex link chick breeding. But what I’ve got are a bunch of great olive eggers, some good genetics, and some ok ones, and a whole ton of stubbornness!