Maine

[hoppy]

washing birds today, doing a talk on paint silkies tomorrow at the poultry meeting, need them all fresh and fluffed.

 

[MustardTiger]

Hey Lazy Gardener, your green house sounds great. We will probably consider one for next year. Do you have pics of it up here? Can you relink to them? I think I saw some back a few pages, if I am remembering correctly.


Welcome Geoaware!

My brooder is getting painted and will be done by the end of next week I am pretty happy with it. I used some plans I found on here, altered them a bit to make it studier for us. I cannot wait to get these chicks!

I was loving that warm weather. I refuse to believe it won't be back soon. I am packing away the flannel sheets!

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

 

[winkle1234]

What part of the state are you in and who carries it??

I buy all my feed (Poulin Grain) from Perkco Supply in Exeter. They told me they get two deliveries a week from the mill in Vermont. The feed has always been available and smells fresh when I open the bags. I also buy my rabbit feed there and have found almost no dust in the bags.

 

[kristen2678]

I have had the best luck with Blue Seal brand food. Starter, grower, egg maker/layer. Dumor I like the least. They poop twice as much on Dumor as they do on Blue Seal. Not that any of it smells good, but there is a much stronger odor from the Dumor "out put". I've had limited experience with Purina feed. I only buy it when I can't get the Blue Seal. The poop amount on Purina is still higher than Blue Seal, but it hasn't been as offensive as Dumor. I have not kept our birds on Dumor or Purina long enough to say there was a difference in health or performance over a long period.

Currently I am feeding Ducks, Geese, and Chickens.

 

[echosrevenge]

So the chicks pecked a hole right through the side of their big brooder yesterday, and are now all packed into the smaller one.

Anyone want some Salmon Faverolle/NH Red mix chicks? They're sex linked, the girls are incomplete red columbian and the boys are a really pretty porcelain color with black lacing. Hatched 2/20, raised in the living room so pretty personable (I have a tendency to pull a couple out for lap time while I watch movies, and my husband is constantly handling them, bird geek that he is.

Here's a question, too - there are 2 salmon faverolle cockerels still in the brooder, they were my first incubator-test hatch, almost 6 weeks old now. Please tell me I can put them in a dog crate in the coop with the big chickens? Having to move everyone into the older, smaller brooder while we make repairs to the big one (plywood sheathing, needs to be done) has crowded them more than I like, and taking out the two HUGE boys would make a big difference in the room available for everyone else.

Also, I've got a WHACK of fertile Salmon Faverolle eggs (the NH Red rooster lived up to his name and became soup more than a month ago, these are all purebred) if anyone wants some. Even hatching and eating we can't keep up with the girls now that the light is back and they're in full production mode, so I figured I'd offer them here first. Five dozen sitting on the counter now, and more every day. I'm storing them at cool room temperature, rocking the cartons 5-7 times a day.

 

[Dita Von Cluck]

I currently have one Golden Comet here. She was a Longhorn bird. She is a nice golden color and a great layer up until the middle of December. Not at all flighty. I'm sure she and her friends on now laying again but I don't know where since they are currently free ranging until the snow melts.

Thanks for the feedback! So I take it that your birds don't mind the snow? I'm glad to hear your comet isn't flighty. I want a non-flighty breed. Is she friendly as well?

 

[ashandvine]

I don't know if understanding is the word. Extremely annoyed would be a better term. What type of chicken do you wanna get?

ha ha ha.... okay, that's more like here then. I was looking at some RO eggs and Mottled Cochins. I like mottled anything but have managed to talk myself out of these. I figured they were cute enough to sell what I didn't want, keep a few for incubating and they are small so they don't take up a lot of room or food. The RO on the other hand are for a project white RO here. I aim to have three color in two years. I should have two by the end of this year. The next is work and IDK what I am doing so it may take longer but we'll see.

 

[Widget]

Thanks for the feedback! So I take it that your birds don't mind the snow? I'm glad to hear your comet isn't flighty. I want a non-flighty breed. Is she friendly as well?

Friendly in that she doesn't run away. I never handled her when she was young so she isn't a lap chicken by any means. But if others of her breed are anything like her I'm sure with more people interaction they could be lap chickens.

While I have more than enough snow still in the yard there are spots that are bare. And I am sure that the chickens and the ducks prefer being out of the pen since that is still buried with a partial roof collapse. Biggest issue is they love to hang out on the front porch at night. Makes for a nice mess in the morning. But they are a bit safer there.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I have had the best luck with Blue Seal brand food. Starter, grower, egg maker/layer. Dumor I like the least. They poop twice as much on Dumor as they do on Blue Seal. Not that any of it smells good, but there is a much stronger odor from the Dumor "out put". I've had limited experience with Purina feed. I only buy it when I can't get the Blue Seal. The poop amount on Purina is still higher than Blue Seal, but it hasn't been as offensive as Dumor. I have not kept our birds on Dumor or Purina long enough to say there was a difference in health or performance over a long period.

Currently I am feeding Ducks, Geese, and Chickens.

I second this. I love Blue Seal. They just changed the names (so I'll use the old names, but your dealer can determine which it's equivalent to now) but I use the Chick N Game Bird Starter which has 22% protein for newly hatched birds. They do great on it. I also use Turkey Grower (18%) for my adult birds and I mix in some layer pellets (with 16%, lower protein) in the summer to give them some more calcium. I think my birds look good on this regimen, and I'm overall happy with it.

Just got back from Virginia (dad was sick in hospital). Flew an 8 passenger Cessna into and out of Augusta. I'm not sure there's enough alcohol in the world to have me do that again. While it was convenient to my house and decently priced and very quick (and a good view), I really didn't enjoy back-spooning the copilot and thinking that we were all going to die the last half of the trip.

 

[Widget]

I second this. I love Blue Seal. They just changed the names (so I'll use the old names, but your dealer can determine which it's equivalent to now) but I use the Chick N Game Bird Starter which has 22% protein for newly hatched birds. They do great on it. I also use Turkey Grower (18%) for my adult birds and I mix in some layer pellets (with 16%, lower protein) in the summer to give them some more calcium. I think my birds look good on this regimen, and I'm overall happy with it.

Just got back from Virginia (dad was sick in hospital). Flew an 8 passenger Cessna into and out of Augusta. I'm not sure there's enough alcohol in the world to have me do that again. While it was convenient to my house and decently priced and very quick (and a good view), I really didn't enjoy back-spooning the copilot and thinking that we were all going to die the last half of the trip.

Try de-icing that type of plane. The props are very intimidating since you really can't see them that well when they are spinning. Certainly don't want to hit it. And getting the fluid on the wings can be a challenge since it tends to blow everywhere but on the plane.