Maine

[CoopChick719]

Coopchick, when I am at school, I never touch my face. Before lunch, I wash my hands well, turning off the faucet with a paper towel. My wrist gets the light switch, and a left pinky is good for opening the lever-style teacher's room door. Still, there is always the child who coughs or sneezes directly in your face whe you are working with them.

I hear ya Bucka! I was a school secretary for 11 years for HS & MS. I was constantly telling kids to cover their mouths when they cough and sanitizing the student phone in the office. Now I work with all adults, 3 of the men are germ-o-phobes. One of them opens the refrigerator door with his foot--he's almost OCD about it. One of the others is sure to tell me when we are running low on hand sanitizer & Clorox wipes!

 

[buckabucka]

Coopchick, the story about the guy opening the frig with his foot is hilarious! Maybe he should wear gloves.

Widget, those birds are very cool looking. I would think they are all roosters, probably someone didn't want them. If they looked familiar, I might suspect my escaped roosters from Gardiner had made it down to the Portland area!

I have grown amaranth. Not sure about whether there's a difference between ornamental and other kinds. I ate the leaves when it was young. It got huge, but I didn't use it for anything. I was thinking of maybe getting some Japanese buckwheat. It says it grows fast enough to do more than one planting, and that the seeds are good in chicken scratch.

How do people handle multiple hatches? I see eggs that I want all the time. If I hatch now, and then do another hatch in, say, 6 or 8 weeks, where can I grow out my second hatch? Right now, my system is this: hatch indoors and 4 - 6 weeks in the brooder. Move outside to my carport, which is low security, but has worked well so far. When they are big enough to sex, but before they start mating, I move the girls I'm keeping to a sectioned off area of the coop, where they can get to know the flock through chicken wire until they are big enough to mix. The roosters stay in the carport until harvest.

Maybe I can convince DH to throw together a small pen with stuff we have around here. I can't put the second batch of chicks in the carport if it is full of roosters. Can I throw all the roosters together (from hatch 1 and hatch 2) if there is 8 weeks difference in age, or will they kill the younger ones? Maybe I can divide the carport in half. Anyway, it is all these questions that are preventing me from buying eggs right now. SCG, what are you hatching?

 

[Keric]

http://maine.craigslist.org/pet/3542658827.html

Saw this on Craigslist. Any idea as to the breed?

On 1/12/13, I awoke to the sound of a rooster in my back yard. Later, I discovered 3 Roosters or Hens (I have no idea what exactly we have here) in the trees around my house and eventually they migrated to ground. They've been huddled in some branches beside the house ever since and don't seem to be going anywhere soon. I live in Portland and am not aware of any people in my area that keep hens, so I'm at a complete loss as to where these guys came from. But I would like to see them either get back to where they belong or to someone who wants them. I have no experience with the handling of these birds so if you're interested in taking them, I'd need you to come and collect them. I can tell you that when I went outside to take pictures of them, they seemed completely comfortable (and non-aggressive) with me getting within a couple of feet of them, so they must be very used to being around people. There's not really anything for them to feed on in my snow covered yard, so I imagine they are getting hungry. I don't want to see them die from exposure and hunger so I hope someone might be interested in taking them. Please contact me if you're interested or if you want more info. I've attached some photos. Thanks!

He looks part silkie, with the blue earlobes, almost silkie feathers, and comb color... Funny story though.

 

[Widget]

He looks part silkie, with the blue earlobes, almost silkie feathers, and comb color... Funny story though.

He is cute. Wouldn't mind taking them in if I had the means.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

How do people handle multiple hatches? I see eggs that I want all the time. If I hatch now, and then do another hatch in, say, 6 or 8 weeks, where can I grow out my second hatch? Right now, my system is this: hatch indoors and 4 - 6 weeks in the brooder. Move outside to my carport, which is low security, but has worked well so far. When they are big enough to sex, but before they start mating, I move the girls I'm keeping to a sectioned off area of the coop, where they can get to know the flock through chicken wire until they are big enough to mix. The roosters stay in the carport until harvest.

Maybe I can convince DH to throw together a small pen with stuff we have around here. I can't put the second batch of chicks in the carport if it is full of roosters. Can I throw all the roosters together (from hatch 1 and hatch 2) if there is 8 weeks difference in age, or will they kill the younger ones? Maybe I can divide the carport in half. Anyway, it is all these questions that are preventing me from buying eggs right now. SCG, what are you hatching?

I have 3 brooders: one that's 4x4 and two that are 2x4. So I can have multiple hatches or start segregating the chicks upon hatching and growing. My chicks aren't babied - they get 7 to 10 days of a heat lamp - they are indoors in my basement which is about 55-60 degrees at all times. When they're about 4 weeks old, they go outside. As in, either out to the coop or to the grow out hoop house, depending on their fate. Most of the boys go to the hoop house, most of the girls go to the coop although before I had the hoop house they all went to the coop. I've done this throwing them outside thing in the middle of February many time - I have had no problems with it. We have plenty of room in the run and plenty of places for them to run and hide. Since I usually throw out at least 6 of them at a time, none of them get particularly picked on. In the hoop house (which is 100% roosters, unless I sex someone wrong, which has only happened once) they do fight - but not badly usually - and there's less room so tempers do flare. I've put multiple hatches and age groups together and not had anything that didn't work itself out in 2 days. The hoop coop roos got out a few times last year, and returned to the hoop coop at night. They loved to free range and fought much less (unless a girl got out, too). I'll do that this year, too.

I'm hatching a wide variety of things, I started looking and may have gone overboard. I bought some Olandsk Dwarf eggs, 2 white marans, 2 GLW, 2 sussex (not speckled, unfortunately), some assorted large mutts and a 6 pack of unknown pure breeds (lots of possibilities). I was planning on having my broody banty as incubator overflow, but unfortunately she quit sitting yesterday after only 4 weeks on the job (she's usually much more intense than a measly 4 weeks). I'll probably have this and one or two more large hatches this year, and then I'll be done. Still haven't bought any seeds - don't really need anything, but it's not winter unless I'm ogling seed catalogs. Lets hope I keep myself in check better than I did when looking for eggs to hatch.

 

[lazy gardener]

Coopchick, when I am at school, I never touch my face. Before lunch, I wash my hands well, turning off the faucet with a paper towel. My wrist gets the light switch, and a left pinky is good for opening the lever-style teacher's room door. Still, there is always the child who coughs or sneezes directly in your face whe you are working with them.

Egiroux, the Meyer order is very tempting, even though you are a drive from here, but the timing will not work for me. I am trying to coordinate hatching my own eggs with any hatchery, shipped eggs, or breeder chick orders, so that I can raise them all together. My own breeds that I plan to hatch from are not even laying right now, so I'm going to have to wait.

Depending on when we have our gathering, assuming it comes together, I may or may not want to swap hatching eggs. I at least hope to have something to offer. Mostly, I just want to put a face to all these names. I think that I am going to be "the old person"

.

Someday, I hope to make it to the CMBF meeting. DH has now dropped his quest to be a chicken breeder. He figured out it is not a great way to make money, and what he needs is a job, not a hobby. Too bad for me, because he would have built all kinds of chicken pens!

 

[Widget]

1967 here so most of the time I am the old one of the group. Although I bet I have everyone beat with the age difference between my oldest sister and me. She is 25 years older. The closest sibling in age is my brother and he is 10 years older. Nothing like having five out of six of one's siblings be old enough to be one's parents.

I know I will have plenty of left over seeds to swap. There is no way I will plant all of them. My Fedco order should arrive soon so I will know if I got everything I ordered in a week or two. For a guess there will be pickling cukes, sweet corn, pie pumpkin, grey stripe sunflower, serrano hot pepper and a few others. Hardest part for me will be trying to keep the cats out of the seedling trays. The warmest part of the house is also where the cats are and true to the stereotype they are curious creatures.

 

[ashandvine]

Keric,
Amaranth can be eaten by both chickens and people. The seeds aren't much for the birds as they really are rather small but the leaves are fine for them to forage. Millet self seeds readily, sometimes as you would rather it did not, and also has small seeds. If you want to try it go ahead but I found that growing things that benefited me or the soil was better use of money and space/time. Oats, buckwheat, rye, clover, collards, legumes. I know folks down south grow quite a lot more but I don't know the actual list. My birds shocked me by eating my radishes! I am not promoting radishes as a crop, just sharing. I have heard about Comfrey but only ever heard that it was an issue for the livers of cows and goats etc. Chickens won't eat so much to cause an issue. Its great in the garden as a manure tea and if you dry it, esp the root, you can use it in salves or poultices on your wounds and shallow animal wounds to speed healing. Sunflowers, squash, and utility apples make my birds happy, too.

Saw this on Craigslist. Any idea as to the breed?

I am willing to put money on this being a silkie Marans cross. He has the feathered legs and grey shanks, as well as most of the parti coloration of a FCBM, the blue and slight tuft I have seen on other silkie outcrosses and the chest splatter of the Marans Orloff Cross I have here. Totally willing to put money on it. Beautiful bird! If you really like his looks take a look at Brabanters folks.

Oh I forgot to mention- the seed swap idea is really good. I typically have leftovers, especially when I start seedlings. And when things get growing, there is always something that I have waaay too much of, no matter what. I think a swap/trade thread would be awesome.

No fight necessary. I would rather you had it at your house. Totally rather.

 

[buckabucka]

I just figured out those Craigslist birds are gold Brabanters! (At least I think). I would love a flock of Brabanters (I could get pullets from Ideal), but everything I have read indicates you can't keep them in a mixed flock, as the other birds will peck at their crazy head mops. But they are cold hearty and I think they are cool. I would need another pen .

SCG, you might have inspired me (or perhaps you are leading me astray) by your description of brooding and combining chicks. I think I probably make it much more complicated than it needs to be by worrying over everyone. Maybe I'll order those hatching eggs after all... I need to think about this. I only have one brooder, but it is easy to throw together a cardboard one.

Lazy gardener, you are only 5 years my elder, so I don't think you are ancient.

Hmm... I think I may have to browse the hatching egg sales again...

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I just figured out those Craigslist birds are gold Brabanters! (At least I think). I would love a flock of Brabanters (I could get pullets from Ideal), but everything I have read indicates you can't keep them in a mixed flock, as the other birds will peck at their crazy head mops. But they are cold hearty and I think they are cool. I would need another pen

.

SCG, you might have inspired me (or perhaps you are leading me astray) by your description of brooding and combining chicks. I think I probably make it much more complicated than it needs to be by worrying over everyone. Maybe I'll order those hatching eggs after all... I need to think about this. I only have one brooder, but it is easy to throw together a cardboard one.

Lazy gardener, you are only 5 years my elder, so I don't think you are ancient.

Hmm... I think I may have to browse the hatching egg sales again...

Glad you're joining me in the insanity. A cardboard brooder IS super easy, just when they start to fly in 7-10 days make sure you get a cover or a net. I learned that lesson the hard way, there was poop all over my basement.