Near or around muskogee Oklahoma

[bakyardoutlawOK]

Just wondering how any active BYC there are around me?

 

[randc2]

Hi I am in Muskogee

 

[NerdyHermit]

Eufaula, here. Just joined.

 

[Remy_Flock]

Just joined.. mom to 2 ducklings Tulsa

 

[GaryDean26]

I am in McAlester.

 

[jackievonn]

Hi, I live in the Ardmore area

 

[NerdyHermit]

Where is the best place to purchase new chickens in the Eufaula area? Either chicks or adult

 

[GaryDean26]

Where is the best place to purchase new chickens in the Eufaula area? Either chicks or adult

What are you looking for? Layers, Meat birds, Pets, Breeding Stock, Show birds, etc.?

When I lived in Marble Falls, Texas I joined the Austin Backyard Poultry Meet-up group. That was the best place for most backard chicken owners to find chickens there. Lots of poultry men with decades of experience were members of the group and you could get locally raised birds that were top quality for very low prices.

There were also a half dozen people in the Austin area that owned poultry businesses that flipped chickens. They would order birds from the hatcheries by the 100's and raise them out until they were 6 weeks old and then start to sell them as juveniles. I was never interested in that option because I am a hobby breeder that is interested in genetics, traditional farming, standard bred chickens and the hatchery birds all had a reputation of being mixed, light weight, commercial birds that laid a lot of eggs for 2 years and then were tapped out. I was looking for sturdier birds that would thrive on a farm (not in a 2x2 cage) and that would lay well for 4-5 years.

Other options were the Craig's list. Lots of backyard enthusiast sell day-old chick from their property. That hit and miss. Sometimes you find breeders with a lot of knowledge and a well run operation. More time than not you would find people that got chickens 6 months earlier and were selling chicks with out developing reliable breeding lines, without knowing if their flock had been exposed to chronic respiratory illnesses or other communicable illnesses they might be carriers for, etc. As a rule of thumb you will get better birds if buy them from someone that has breeding the flock you are getting birds from for a minimum of 3 years. The longer they have been breeding their flock the more sough after their birds tend to be.

TSC & Atwoods is honestly the only place that I know that people in Oklahoma buy chickens from. I do however have a close family friend in Bristow that breeds Orpington. She has about 30 different breeds/varrieties. That might be where I would go to get birds if I were you. I also and friends with a rare chicken breeder in Coweta that I have got birds from in the past that I was very pleased with. They have about 10 breed that they work with. We are 20 minutes south of you near McAlester Lake. We don't run a Poultry buissness so availability is hit and miss with us, and we choose to go to a one breed flock two years ago to follow the management methods that were common 100 years ago. We hatch around 100 chicks for our self every spring. If we hatch more than that we will offer chicks for local pick-up. If not we start sorting birds at about 8-12 weeks old. We keep our favorites for our flock but sell a lot good birds to others for exhibition, breeding, layers, and pets.

So if you want a lot of varritiety and are willing to make a trip to Bristow or Coweta let me know and I will PM you contact information. If you want to make a shorter trip to our place in McAlester we can work that out too. While you are in McAlester you can look at Atwoods, TSC, and stop at the Big-V feed mill to get chicken feed.

 

[NerdyHermit]

I'm looking at laying / meat birds. Breeds that do well in our area/climate. You think the birds from TSC or Atwood's are decent quality?

 

[GaryDean26]

Yes, you can get good layers from Atwood's. I think you would be happy with chick from there. I really don't know how fast or big any of the meat bird options from Atwood grow, but would guess they would be fine.