Minnesota!

[lightchick]

Hi everyone! I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful! I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!

Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick

 

[Chickenchick11]

Hi everyone!  I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!  
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful!  I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!
Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick 

Hi lightchick!
I know L&M Fleet Supply starts selling in about April-May. That's where I got my chickens.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Hi everyone! I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful! I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!

Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick

Welcome Lightchick. The Minnesota! Thread is my favorite thread on BYC. Gotta say. I love that we're level-headed for the most part. Haha...But then I'm partial to all of our Minnesota! folks here too, probably.

I would say that not getting chicks until April or May is a good thing. But I know that if you're showing birds for fairs and such you'll want to have them early and get them from a breeder.

 

[duluthralphie]

Duluth Ralphie - your posts crack me up.

I always love seeing other people's setup - but now I think I will have to make trip down to Minnechickmama's place for sure this spring. I'm sold on the Buckeye, too.

Maybe we should make it a field trip. LOL

if you are close we could plan that. I have nothing, but free time....

You bring the beer and drive!

 

[duluthralphie]

Hi everyone! I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful! I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!

Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick

Welcome to the thread, it is one of my favorite also,

TSC had chicks really early in the year last year, way earlier than I wanted them. What type of chicks are you looking for? If you only want 2-3 put a couple eggs in an incubator and get them when you want them.

 

[lightchick]

Quote: Well. I couldn't hatch eggs because I live in town and can't have any roosters. I'm looking for a Easter Egger and maybe Barnevelder, another EE or maybe even a duckling (Khaki Campbell). I haven't really decided yet.....I just know I'm getting at least one EE.

 

[duluthralphie]

Well. I couldn't hatch eggs because I live in town and can't have any roosters. I'm looking for a Easter Egger and maybe Barnevelder, another EE or maybe even a duckling (Khaki Campbell). I haven't really decided yet.....I just know I'm getting at least one EE.

Where do you live I sold a bunch of eggs to a guy in St Paul that had them hatch out last week.

Here is couple of pictures of them (again). I am so proud of my roosters babies!






He wants more eggs as soon as I can get them, but he wants all blue eggs. The problem is everyone I sell to wants blue eggs..lol.

 

[Dandelioness]

Lalaland and AmericanKraut - I've posted my recipe and mixing instructions on the thread below, in order to avoid cluttering this thread.

But any other Minnesotans trying to find a source for no-soy or non-GMO feed without the extensive travel or the price tag may benefit from this information, too, hence the public link to the other thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/947979/conventional-non-gmo-whole-grain-seed-recipe-for-layers

Welcome, LightChick! This thread is a lot of fun, and the people are very Minnesota Nice!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Hi everyone! I can't believe I didn't find this thread earlier!
This is my first winter with chickens so any advice would be helpful! I have six chickens so far and I'm hoping to get 2 more asap!

Does anyone know when feed stores usually start selling chicks????
Thanks,
Lightchick

Welcome, lightchick. What part of the state are you in? You won't find Barnevelders at a feed store, but they should EEs. I had Barnies, but I sold them off this last year because I just needed to cut back. They are a really lovely breed though and VERY sweet birds. I really had a hard time separating myself from them. I do have Welsummers still and I really enjoy them too, they are quite similar in personality.

Ralphie, just give me a heads up when you are heading down. I am not too far from Dodge Center. We actually looked at a couple of farms over that way when we were moving last time. It's just a skip over to 52 to head back north, so not very far off your regular route, I am sure.
I won't have any adults, but I have started hatching. Provided I have extras after filling orders, I would be happy to send some home with you.
When I was young, I was stupid and didn't know how good dark meat really was. Now that I have a "mature" palette, I prefer dark meat. I find a pressure cooker can soften up that pasture raised meat pretty well.
I butcher our CRX at 8-weeks normally, but this last year, my daughter wanted to take the same birds to State Fair that she won with at our fair, so they went to 11-weeks. One died the night we came home from State and it was 93-degrees, and it was a pullet. The other one dressed over 8 pounds. I had a cockerel who weighed that at 8-weeks this year though. I keep them penned because that gives us what they are looking for at the shows. I use those for roasting and other chicken dishes I use the culls from the freezer. But everything gets used somehow. Very rarely do I toss a carcass that hasn't been rendered for stock, the same for turkey. You can always split those big buggers too before freezing. That is what I had them do with the biggest ones this year, it is too much even for my family of 4. Although, the last one I cooked up, my kids and husband must have been starving when it came out, there wasn't much left to put away. You'd have thought a pack of starving wolves were in the house that night!

 

[lalaland]

wow, hatching already! whats your latest time frame to hatch in the spring? Or is winter hatching something that works for you because spring is so darned crazy? If it works, ....it would be wonderful. maybe I should pm you.

I've only heard good things about buckeyes and their history kinda tickles me.