Nevadans?

[SunnyDawn]

Oh man, you have a hoop house now? Sooo jealous! Can't wait to see the pics.

ETA: Finally getting eMail notifications again! For some reason, GoDaddy decided to start flagging eMail from BYC as SPAM last month.

Haha! I have the start of a hoop house. We got the front and back panels done. Well except for the plastic on the back panel. Missy came up with the idea of adding a window in the back panel so that I can air out the greenhouse by opening both ends when the temps go up a little, avoiding the job of peeling the plastic back until the weather warms up in summer. These panels are built super well (much stronger than the plans we found on-line) and will be attached to 7' T-posts (2 for each panel) to give them extra wind resistance as was suggested by the plan designer. I have been working on trying to get the ground leveled out a bit before we put the beds in. The beds will be raised with 2"x 6" redwood boards. The beds will run the entire length, on both sides, of the hoop house with a four foot wide path in the middle. The house will be 10 x 30' The next step will be putting in the sprinkler pipe since nothing can go in til that happens. We are going to try to rig something up to the scraper box on the tractor that will act like a subsoiler. The subsoiler was not expensive but we couldn't find anyone in town that sold them. I can order it from Northern tool but the shipping fees are well over $50 and we would have quite a wait to get it which means nothing else can happen until then. I am waaaay too excited about this project to sit and wait for 2 weeks to do anything more with it.

Plus I already have too many seedlings waiting for a home. I have almost completely maxed out my 4 shelf planting rack already and have a bunch more stuff I want to plant now!

I got my greenhouse done today! It only took 3 hours... a much smaller scale operation than Sunny's. I added a convection heating section this year.




And my darling bald daughter...

Of course I can't get the pics to load but since I stopped by today I got to see them both anyway. Sahara looks adorable! If everyone could carry off that look that well this charity would really be growing by leaps and bounds! The greenhouse surprised me by how much you will be able to fit into such a small space! Hope you get it filled soon.

Hi, I'm glad to find another chicken lover close to me too I was actually in the Elko Cal Ranch on the 6th this month and couldn't resist picking up a couple new additions....they didn't have a huge selection but I couldn't help myself. If you ever need anything from SLC I'd be happy to help you out I go in about once a month or so. I am thinking I am going to have to buy some fertilized eggs and hatch them out myself....all the hatcheries are either sold out or require 15-25 chicks...don't think I could afford to feed 15-25 JG Although I may end up ordering them and trying to sell my extras on KSL or something..still debating.

Good luck finding your JGs. I agree with Peep_Show. I would check their track record and if they are a new vendor to eBay I would be hesitant to order a lot from them. I have ordered from unknown breeders before but I order a small amount from them to check quality first and keep all new fowl quarantined for a very long time before adding them to my existing flock.

I ordered 25 from Mcmurry and got 27. Between losing the roosters to soup and others around here losing chickens to racoons I have ten young girls left. I'm getting protective now my wife gave away three the other day. The guilt trip was good enough that when I build another coupe I may be able to get some blue and black copper marans.

Too bad we don't live closer. I have Black Copper Marans and Pam will have blue and black copper Marans soon.

 

[ChickenSkin]

They are a cool bird. I'm a little behind with building my first coupe and my chickens need to get evicted from my garage first. The dust is amazing. I'll never get any type of birds before the home is built first.

 

[eggxelent]

Speaking of BCMs...Does anybody know about ideal hatchery for marans? I don't care about looks, just wondering about the color of eggshells. And the chicks (or should I say, CHICKENS?) are going in their run for long periods of time...

 

[SunnyDawn]

Screen froze. I had no idea it was posting anything.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Can't get quotes to work again.

Yes CS, it always floors me how much dust chickens can produce! It's amazing!!!

Eggxelent don't get me started on how much damage hatcheries and many breeders as well have done to the Marans egg color! It has made it very challenging for someone like me whose focus is egg color. I am having a hard time finding good stock anywhere to choose from!
So my answer to that question would be no! It's not impossible to get a hen that lays a half decent colored egg from a hatchery but it is not likely. If it were that easy breeders like me would not be working sooo hard to try and bring back the dark egg color that has been ruined by so many.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Lol. Triple post! I guess I really feel strongly about this topic!

 

[Elko Stacy]

Hello, Lamoille Chicken Skin!

I am Kittridge Canyon Elko Stacy...I don't get on here much in the winter but things are starting to warm up and I need to get some new babies.. You may find that people here don't network much!

Do you have any info on the Modesto Products, any special reason why you would prefer them?

I go to California at least once a year and go right through Modesto to work in Kings Canyon NP..so I have often thought about their products, but for my small flock it really isn't worth it.

I used to work at Cal Ranch here and Brian, the manager may consider bringing some in, if the company would let him...

I will be on here a little more often from now on, so I will check back!

 

[ChickenSkin]

Speaking of BCMs...Does anybody know about ideal hatchery for marans? I don't care about looks, just wondering about the color of eggshells. And the chicks (or should I say, CHICKENS?) are going in their run for long periods of time...

The two things that you care about(Chickens and eggshell color) are related to the looks. Mydarkeggs.com are out of the Wade Jeane line and Bevsmarans.com are both reputable flocks to get marans. Your going to pay for them though.

 

[ChickenSkin]

Hello, Lamoille Chicken Skin!

I am Kittridge Canyon Elko Stacy...I don't get on here much in the winter but things are starting to warm up and I need to get some new babies.. You may find that people here don't network much!

Do you have any info on the Modesto Products, any special reason why you would prefer them?

I go to California at least once a year and go right through Modesto to work in Kings Canyon NP..so I have often thought about their products, but for my small flock it really isn't worth it.

I used to work at Cal Ranch here and Brian, the manager may consider bringing some in, if the company would let him...

I will be on here a little more often from now on, so I will check back!

I have been looking for grain mills that are close to us. These guys are the only one that offers complete foods(pellets) and other products for all the animals I have. I was quoted $125 shipping to Lamoille for 2500lb pallet. So $2.50 a 50lb bag is not to bad. The price of the pellet that I was interested in was 23.50 for 50lbs. No corn or soybeans. Your right on the people in this area not only not wanting to network as well as being frugal. Which isn't a bad thing. There products delivered here monthly would be cheaper and way fresher than any feed store in town. But I think I'm going to have to do it like others on this forum and just start sprouting, fermenting, and growing my own feed but who gots the time.

If Cal Ranch, IFA, or Stockmans got it in I know they would charge five to ten dollars a bag to make a profit. Which, I know everyone needs to make some money. If you know a bunch of people that would be interested get them to look at modestomilling.com and I could email you the price sheet they gave me in October. It is cheaper than any feed store in town for organic feed. They also have oyster shell for $13 for a 50lb bag. If I could figure out a whole grain diet I could order once a year because I would retain the nutrients better. Although that would be a huge bill once a year and some wife negotiations.

I'm the blue guy!

 

[eggxelent]

Can't get quotes to work again.

Yes CS, it always floors me how much dust chickens can produce! It's amazing!!!

Eggxelent don't get me started on how much damage hatcheries and many breeders as well have done to the Marans egg color! It has made it very challenging for someone like me whose focus is egg color. I am having a hard time finding good stock anywhere to choose from!
So my answer to that question would be no! It's not impossible to get a hen that lays a half decent colored egg from a hatchery but it is not likely. If it were that easy breeders like me would not be working sooo hard to try and bring back the dark egg color that has been ruined by so many.

That's what I suspected, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying!