Maine

[quailtrail]

Sooo excited! !!! I pick up my EEs tomorrow! !!!

 

[CoopChick719]

Look what my hubby made for me!

 

[MEMama3]

Look what my hubby made for me!

So jealous. I want one like that. I have an elevated coop with a small footprint, so the space saving would be awesome. Right now I have a bucket auto feeder in the covered part of the run and milk cartons cut open in the coop.

 

[buckabucka]

Hi Mainer's! I'm on the border of Maine and was wondering if there were any BYC members that lived close to me! I know you must be saying to yourself, she should be on the NH site. Which I am but I live in the Northern part of NH and there are not that many towns around me. I have had chickens for the pass 2 1/2 yrs. This year is the first year that I have a cockerel so I'm looking forward to next spring. So I will be needing to purchase a bator and any info would be greatly appreciated! Plus it's always great to chick n talk!

Welcome, chickery! I really like my Brinsea incubator, although they can be pricey if you don't get one on sale. My other advice is to make sure you have a bachelor pen to raise your cockerels, and a place to separate them when the fighting gets ugly (which is what I am dealing with right now :/ ).

 

[pellepeterson]

So, the saga continues! First of all, I HATE BEING OUT OF WORK! There, now that I have vented, my girls are driving me crazy! Yesterday, home with two of the kiddos, I heard the rooster crowing like mad, I looked outside and he was nowhere in sight...I walked up the drive to the mailbox..still nowhere and still crowing, I walked up the road a bit, and there he was, with his girls, in the neighbors yard. UGH! I chased them all back through the woods, with a bit of jealousy as they navigated the underbrush and I was less than deft at walking...it was a sight.

I got them all back in the yard, gave them some treats, and hoped they would stay...they did not. So, chase part 2.

This time I hired the kiddos to push them through the woods and hopefully we could get them in the pen...This started at 1:30. At 5:00 we finally had them all. The leghorns are skittish little things to say the least. We clipped their wings weeks ago, to keep them in the run, but they still managed to fly over the top. So, while it seems extreme, I clipped the other side. I know now that I will have to keep a close eye on them where they cannot fly, but the run is plenty safe.

In the effort to catch them all, I had to destroy a wild rasberry bush...I was dying as I clipped and pushed the thorny branches away. They still managed to find holes in the undergrowth and hide. We do love our girls, and I love that they free range and enjoy the yard, but I need them to stay where I can watch them, and Thor can protect them during the day. I was going to start making a wattle fence today, to try and put up some sort of barrier to keep them from taking off into the neighbors yard again, any other ideas?

I hate the thought of keeping them penned up all the time, and they are less than happy.

 

[lazy gardener]

Welcome Chickery-Do. State borders are... lines on a map... geographical distance makes plenty more sense. Enjoy your browsing.

Re: incubator, they're not difficult to make. All you need is some very basic supplies and a little bit of electrical knowledge... or to have a friend who has that knowledge. There are plenty of instructions on BYC and You-tube to talk you through the process. You can make a circulating air incubator that will be very reliable for less than the cost of buying a very basic incubator without a fan. I'm a "newbie" re: chickens... though I raised them as a kid, and also had several flocks during my granola years in the 70's. My current flock consists of 1 BSL, 1 RIR (both hatched in my home made incubator. Set 6 eggs, had one quitter, all others hatched well with dry hatch method) and 3 Araucanas (alias EE). I'm thoroughly loving having the birds to help with my gardening.

 

[lazy gardener]

Pellepeterson: Sorry you've had to do the poultry round up. It's gotta be difficult, especially with back pain. I've let my girls out several times, only when I'm with them, and I get panicked when they start checking out the woods surrounding my property, as I'm also limited by some pesky pain issues that would limit me in the woods... not to mention the poison ivy. I know that there will come a time when I just have to trust them, and let them go... or resolve to no longer allow them to free range. But, aside from that, aren't they fun!!!

 

[Jazor]

Look what my hubby made for me!

(removed images for sake of keeping the thread tidy)

Wow, that's a simple...but awesome idea. I made myself a feeder from 5 gal. and 1 gal. pails...but honestly I'm already considering making a system like this. Looks as though the girls are loving it too!

Cheers to your handyman!

-Jazor

 

[buckabucka]

Pellepeterson, you may want to consider restricted free-ranging (that's what I call it anyway). I bought 100 foot rolls of deer fence, cut it in half (it comes 7 feet tall, folded in half on the roll and we cut the folded edge on the bandsaw), and got some lightweight push-in posts from TSC. The fence is so lightweight that you can put the posts fairly far apart. I pin down the bottom edge with earth staples, rocks, logs, whatever I can find.

Each flock now has a large area to roam: a small area of lawn, and large area at the edge of the woods. Mine like the woods best, digging through the leaves and diving under ferns and bushes. It gives them good protection from hawks (although I worry about other 4-legged predators) and keeps them from wandering off to the neighbor's garden, not to mention my own garden, raspberry patch, etc.

I always lock them in at night, or during the day if I have to leave for a long time. I have a hard enough time rounding them up in a semi-restricted area during the day, never mind driving them home through the woods from the neighbor's! That is impressive. And it is always my leghorns darting around that are the most difficult to get into the run.

 

[ashandvine]

Pellepeterson you also might consider not treating them when they return. If they wander and then get treated at the end.... just saying. Maybe. Keeping chickens from going very far is a task for anyone. My neighbor's red NH keeps coming over to mount my Java and I hate it. She was just getting her feathers back! Its even worse when the geese walk an acre or more to go around the fencing I do have. Letting them out for part of the time really isn't so bad.