Maine

[escianci]

Hello

to everyone from Maine! I am very new to the site and the world of chickens! I was very happy to have stumbled upon this forum of people in Maine.

I live near Bangor in a very rural town (okay you can call it the sticks) called Atkinson. My closest neighbors (beside the in-laws) are about a mile away! It is nice to not have to worry about disturbing others with my chickens.

We got 6 barred rock chicks in March and have been working on building a permanent coop, the beginner coop is an old truck bed and cap (did I mention that we are a bit of rednecks

). One day last week the chickens were out free-ranging and I spotted one of our dogs carrying something in its mouth. It was a chicken. It turned out that he had killed all the chickens but one

We now have the one chicken in the "coop" full time. We visit it often so that it doesn't get too lonely.

I am looking into getting a couple more pullets about the same size but I am not sure where to look. There is someone nearby that sells chickens of all ages, but does not seem to have barred rocks. I would like to get the same breed and in the spring I want to get a few eggs and try incubating and raising those with the ones I already have.

I am very thankful for the information that I have gained from reading all the posts. I was unsure about insulating the new coop and the use of a heater. Needless to say, my power goes out often in the winter and spring, so the tip to not heat because the chickens will die from the shock when the power goes out is much appreciated!!

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

hello your not that far away from me in only about 20 mins closer to bangor than you are as far as getting some more barred rocks id say check out the local craigs list but if you do find some barred rock hatching eggs ive got a incubator and would be happy to hatch some out for you if you would like and as far as heatting your coop id say i wouldnt do it cause if you get a bunch of power outages and your chickens arent used to the cold that might do them in but i would insulate your coop i did mine
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[VioletBlueIvy]

Welcome to the maine thread. I am in a rural area outside Bangor too, Lagrange. I am sorry to hear about the dog. My mom has had trouble with her neigbors dogs, it's very sad. I had some barred rock/australorp cross chicks a few weeks ago, but I have sold all of them but one that was almost carried off by a fox, otherwise I would offer you some. I do have two barred rock EE roo's that need homes.

I havent been on this thread in a while and I guess I need to go back, but I want to say I have TOO MANY ROO"S! some of them have reached maturity, some are almost there and some have a ways to go, but they are all chasing each other, any hens that arent looking, the ducks, and the kids. It is a bit crazy. My daughter is adamant that they NOT be eaten and can ONLY go to nice homes where people will hold them and cuddle them, like they are used to. Anyway, there are 4 EE's, 1 OEGB/ FWM, 1 RIR/FWM and my FWM Roo too. FREE FREE FREE!

The EE's

I will have to get more recent pic of him, he is georgeous now...

This guy has some Loooong legs, but check out that comb!

FWM/OEGB

FWM/RIR

And My FWM Roo, last fall first and this spring after a hard winter

He is perfectly healthy though, and the ladies love him!

You can email me [email protected] if you want one or two or three

 

[escianci]

Thank you guys very much!!

I am going to go tomorrow to someone in Milo who has chickens of all ages and see what I can get.

Hudson and Lagrange are both about 10 minutes away from me! I am very glad to see that there are people from my area here

 

[dlynne1123]

I would also keep your eye out for chicken swaps or farm days near bangor. Even ask around at a farmers market. We ended up getting just the right age to mingle with our girls by going ot a chicken swap at TSC so we wouldn't have to re raise a bunch of day olders. We lost half our chick family to a raccoon within the first several weeks. We've now revamped the coop and the run and they are very happy. When they are similar age/sizes they seem to blend right in together as chicks, rather than rough intros of adults.

Good luck! If you want ot drive i beleive scarborough is having a swap saturday!

 

[Widget]

Sanford is this coming Saturday and Scarborough is the following Saturday.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

it would be nice if they would set up a swap in the bangor area id love to beable to get some other stuff for my chickens or even a few older chicks just dont like to travel much with the price of gas and my suv id be spending all my extra money on gas to go to the swap and not have anything left over to spend at the swap
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[bwockbwock]

Ugh, I lost the two big beautiful barred rock hens I bought last week, both of them in the broad daylight on different days, out in back of my barn. I have all the little feathered critters shut in the barn now til I can figure out what is getting them. Everything gets shut in at night, but the ducks and the rest of the chickens stay mostly out front and have not been bothered during the day. Somehow my little banty is keeping her three 5 day old chicks safe hiding with them outside.
I am going to replace the barred rocks if I can find a couple more, but will keep them penned in the barn until my critter problem is resolved.
I may just take a couple of afternoons off, put a chicken in a cage, set it out back of the barn, and go upstairs in the hay mow with the 22 and a good book.
Women with power tools are scary, but those of us with powertools and guns are just down right frightening, LOL

 

[joanie_maine]

Quote:
Hope you don't mind this comment....

Free range might be great for feeding and scenic, but once predators find you (like your fox that is probably taking your birds home to feed her young, I bet), you might as well kiss your birds goodbye.

Unless your barn is without any holes bigger than an inch, the weasels and the minks will find you.

A secure chicken house and totally enclosed run will save you alot of money (buying new birds) in the long run.

I learned all this the hard way....

 

[Speed]

I let my chickens all free range, have been doing this since the end of March. I'm surprised I haven't seen any critters around at all. Last year we didn't have chickens and i saw 4 or 5 almost every evening. We have deer in the field all the time. I guess I've been lucky but I think the outside dog we have plays a huge role in this.