Nevadans?

[shanyalv]

Hi again everyone.

I live in the NW part of the Valley and currently have 12 chickens.

I have 6 buff orpingtons and one buff rooster
One Silkie
One Leghorn ?
Plymouth Rock ( black and white )
one that is reddish in color

and a few others that honestly I have NO clue what they are. I guess tomorrow I should post some pics.

I am actually hatching some Trader Joes eggs, 3 are developing nicely and I am actually a little worried because my homemade incubators temps fluctuate alot. I am hoping to get an incubator here from someone in the next few days to switch out my eggs into.

We ended up closing in a rasied garden bed in our backyard and they are loving it.

We also own a pot bellied pig and 2 Bengal Cats, 2 Weimaraners , 2 Dachshunds and 2 two legged Children.


Pleasure to meet you all, it's so nice to see others in the local area too !

 

[NevadaRon]

Whew! I finally got my chickens moved to my new house.

What an ordeal! I had to first build a new run (mostly completed yesterday), then - with the help of a friend's teenage and son and four or five of his friends - we moved the coop today. With the girls in it!

Then the finishing touches were put on the new run to make it coyote/hawk/wild bird proof. Finally I was able to let the girls out again!

They were suprisingly calm after their ordeal - well, most of them anyway. The BSLs still seemed spooky. But the others were busily investigating every square inch of their new home!

They have a great view - I'll try to post pics sometime tomorrow.

 

[Eglyntine]

Congrats on getting the chicken house moved. Sounds like a lot of work you got done there... I know you must've said before but I cannot find it, how big is your coop? We got the floor, ceiling and two of the wall frames built yesterday. We've got two more walls to frame out but DH wanted to get the floor, side walls and ceiling done and put up first before he can really do the back and front walls. We're doing a front to back pitched roof which made things a lot easier to put together. It's gonna be 8X8 with a 7 to 6 ft height pitch to it. Plenty of room for around 30ish birds. We'll have 14 nests altogether when we're done. Hopefully it will be really nice when we're done. I told my DH after we're done with the chickens we should just go ahead and build a regular house for ourselves. *LOL*

I'll put up some pics once we start assembling...

As for the OT discussion, I am really glad to see that everyone else is enjoying getting to know everyone else. We do all live in the samish area so it is nice to know a bit about everyone. I think that's what has made me super excited to join this community, is that everyone is so nice and talkative not just about chickens but about other stuff too. But like I mentioned previously I have been on a lot of forums where they are like "YOU MUST STAY ON TOPIC OR ELSE..." hehe

Speaking of on topic conversations, I finally broke down and went over to North Valley's yesterday to see what their food prices were and I was very pleased. For what I bought two 30 lb bags at Wal-Mart I got 2 50 lbs bags of feed for a lot less and they had pellets instead of that crumble stuff. I like the pellets a lot better. I think they waste and eat less of it than the crumble. They did not have the 40 lb feeders there though or the big waterers either. I am looking for the largest galvanized hanging ones so if anyone knows a place around here that doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them I would appreciate it if you could steer me in that direction. I might just end up making my own if I cannot find them fairly cheap but I thought I would ask first anyway.

Quote:
Yes please post pictures! I am a huge Orp fan so I cannot wait to see your flock...

 

[NevadaRon]

Quote:
My coop is only 4x8, with 4 nests. I built it about 4 months ago which is probably why you couldn't find any info on it. I used a plans from the Purina website, but I doubled the width (theirs was 4x4). I have a front to back pitched roof, too. Mine is 6 to 5 foot, but the coop is also raised - the girls like to hang out underneath it - so the interior isn't that high. I used translucent corrugated plastic on the roof and left a 2x2 opening in the plywood roof sheathing to make a sort of skylight for them. The run is 8x16x6 ft high, fully enclosed to keep out hawks, pigeons, etc. I'm going to expand it now with the material from the run at the old house - more chickens!

Quote:
I have exactly the kind of feeder and waterer you are talking about. I don't remember what I paid for them, though, but I'm sure it was around $20 each. I got them at the Big R store in Fallon. It's a bit of a drive for you but that store is great, every time I go there I'm there for a couple of hours!

It's huge and they have everything you could think of from clothing to hardware to you name it.

 

[shanyalv]

We picked up a free playhouse that we need to reassemble for the chicks as a coop.

Wilhelmina Ford the pig.

One of my eggs that I am incubating.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Ok, get your Dramamine and sit yourself down. Some video of some chickens!

These are a mixed group: Silver Laced Cochin bantams, APA Ameraucanas, Heritage black Orpingtons (small bit of English orp in them) and two of my homebred cockerels and two pullets (not all maybe seen in the videos)

The quality of the video seems bad, but it did look better before I transferred it to youtube (was HD, maybe that is why?)


I hope this works - my first youtube adventure!

 

[BoulderCityFoul]

These crazy birds never cease to amaze me. Now that they are sounding like real chickens, they show little interest in me. It can be a chase to round them up to trim their wings. However, the other evening I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the sunset. I grabbed Virginia (the ring leader) and set her in my lap. After a few strokes, she settled down and was enjoying it. However, she soon decided she was done and hopped down. I grabbed Henrietta and did the same. Henrietta was really enjoying her time on my lap. I thought she was going to fall asleep as each stroke made her eyelids get heavier and heavier. Seeing the good time Henrietta was having, Virginia hopped up onto my lap for another go.

Too funny!

That same afternoon, I saw Virginia chase down a gecko, catch it, taunt her sister with it, then eat it. I had no idea they'd eat a lizard!

Now, if the eggs would start coming, we'd be in business...

 

[SparksNV]

Welcome to all the new folks - glad you're here!

NevadaRon: glad you got the gals moved - my coop is also 8x4 with a pitched roof about 5' at front and 4' at back. We have about 20" clearance under - I store feed (in large plastic bins) under and plenty of room for the gals to hang out if it is bad weather. I also have lattice that I put out for them.

Here's Sassy - I think she is the closest to laying - She is now 20 weeks old, with red & slightly swollen comb, red wattles and face (she is actually redder than this pic shows) but not doing the "squat" - she still runs from me...

A watched hen never lays.....

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Carol - Sassy look soooo good. I really think she is a beautiful girl. I just added two nestboxes to the shed coop where she lived with the flock on the videos. They (my homegrown girls) are not yet laying either, but I expect to start seeing either some soft eggs or little pullet eggs any day. (the Orp/cochin cross is squatting for the cockerels who are with her)

 

[vegaschick]

Quote:
I think your "Leghorn" is a splash something (not Leghorn)...need to see a face or side shot to be sure, and the one that is reddish looks to be a red sex-link (RSL)to me. I think I see at least one Easter Egger (EE), kinda blue-ish in color. Get some more pics of the ones your not sure of and maybe we can help ID them. Do they lay yet? Egg color can help on IDing them. BTW where did you get your chickens from? I got my current layers on craigslist and have hatched out and purchased as chicks all the the rest.

That's awesome that your Trader Joe eggs are developing! Good luck on that. My homemade bator has issues I'm trying to fix or I'd loan it to you. Are you using a water heater thermostat? I had no luck with keeping those remotely stable. I use a "repti-temp" in mine and have been very pleased with it. Unfortunately I could only find it online. PM me if you want more info on it.

I love the idea of using a raised planter as a space for a run. I think its the curvy lines I like the most. It's probably rebellion against my architectural training rearing it's ugly head. lol!!! There is a saying about there being no straight lines in nature...! BTW, if you don't want those little palms to keep growing you should cut off the top, the whole top, and they will die and dry out. I have an old palm stump in my run and the hens just love it. I sometimes fill it with water, which promptly drains away, to provide a nice cool place to hang out. I've even found a few eggs in there. Just to prove it...

Quote:
Yeah, my girls catch lizards, usually just small stuff, but I did see them catch and eat a mouse once. That was crazy!


NevadaRon - Congrats on the sucessful move of your girls. Whew!!! Bet you're all glad that's over with!

Eglyntine & SparksNV - no such thing as "off topic" on our NV thread...(ahem...more than just Reno-area, right?) I love getting to know you all and it's the OT stuff that makes it all interesting. It does make us a community.

Jeeper1540 - can't remember if I said it already but, WELCOME, and regardless of whether you're North or South NV, I'm sure someone on here can get you some green layers ... or maybe even blue.