Hi all, I've been lurking here, unregistered, for about a year, and since I finally (!!!) got my first batch of chickens last week, I figured it was time to show my face.
I have really enjoyed reading this forum and I'd like to thank you all for "teaching" me nearly everything I needed to know to get set up with my baby chikkies....This forum & the book "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" have been great sources of information!
My name's Danielle and I live in southeastern S. Dakota with my husband Fred, 3 dogs (Jibini, Tana and Chloe) and our newest arrivals, 25 as yet un-named baby chickens. 15 of them are various hybrids from the pullet bin at Tractor Supply (Mostly some form of red sex-link, I think, and I may have grabbed 3 white broilers- they're all the same age but the white ones seem to be growing faster?) 10 of them are Easter Eggers from the straight run bin at Bomgaar's, so I am hoping I've got a couple of roosters at least
We live way out in the country....even though we rent, we have the perfect setup for any kind of poultry, really. My landlord owns about 3500 acres; it's a private pheasant hunting preserve. Our house sits on about a square mile of land, give or take. And about 100 yards from my house, is a facility that USED to be a pheasant breeding operation. Apparently my landlord used to raise his own pheasants since the state requires a game preserve to release a certain number of birds every year to maintain its status. He buys his birds elsewhere now since raising them became too much work (he's in his 70's). So the pheasant pen has been sitting empty & un-used for several years, but is still in good shape. It consists of 2 brooding houses with grow out pens, and about 2.5 acres of flight pen (though the overhead netting is missing from half of it).
He is more than happy to let us use the whole thing for whatever we'd like. The past few years, he'd been letting somebody graze sheep in the pen & the pasture beside it, and the sheep have managed to mess up some of the fencing, wire and overhead netting- but it should be easy enough to fix up a place for 25 chickens. I've got some cleaning to do, and I've got to figure out the fuse box in the brooding houses, figure out which heat lamps just need new bulbs, etc....but hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks I'll have it set up to move my chicks into the brooding house. And then I'll get to work building nest boxes, a perch, and getting some bedding on the floor in the grow out pen (what I'll use for a coop). I took pics yesterday & will post them as soon as I get them uploaded to Photobucket.
In the meantime, the babies are about a week old & are in a 50 gallon stock watering tank in the outbuilding next to my house. (Used to be the hatchery, but unfortunately the incubators have been sold!) I get a kick out of letting them eat out of my hand- gradually they've been getting used to me visiting them & holding them. Haven't lost any yet- fingers crossed!
This is my first attempt at raising any kind of animal other than a dog or cat. Husband and I are originally from suburban central Florida (and it's a long story how we ended up here!) This has been an exciting learning adventure for us both. I am also hoping to get some quail in June, once the chickens have feathered out- and yes, I've got a seperate area I'll set up for them away from the chickens
. I am apprenticing with a pro hunting dog trainer who lives down the road from me (we found this house thru him) & this year is the first time I'm taking on a pair of dogs for training purposes. So the quail will help with that- plus, if I can manage to hatch any, I have a good market to sell them! I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket just yet (LOL) since I know quail are tricky to raise, but I still hope I can figure it out!
Anyhow, I'm happy to be here- and since I've also got a question I'll end this here & go find the appropriate section for it! Thanks again everyone for providing such a good place for people to learn!
I have really enjoyed reading this forum and I'd like to thank you all for "teaching" me nearly everything I needed to know to get set up with my baby chikkies....This forum & the book "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" have been great sources of information!
My name's Danielle and I live in southeastern S. Dakota with my husband Fred, 3 dogs (Jibini, Tana and Chloe) and our newest arrivals, 25 as yet un-named baby chickens. 15 of them are various hybrids from the pullet bin at Tractor Supply (Mostly some form of red sex-link, I think, and I may have grabbed 3 white broilers- they're all the same age but the white ones seem to be growing faster?) 10 of them are Easter Eggers from the straight run bin at Bomgaar's, so I am hoping I've got a couple of roosters at least
We live way out in the country....even though we rent, we have the perfect setup for any kind of poultry, really. My landlord owns about 3500 acres; it's a private pheasant hunting preserve. Our house sits on about a square mile of land, give or take. And about 100 yards from my house, is a facility that USED to be a pheasant breeding operation. Apparently my landlord used to raise his own pheasants since the state requires a game preserve to release a certain number of birds every year to maintain its status. He buys his birds elsewhere now since raising them became too much work (he's in his 70's). So the pheasant pen has been sitting empty & un-used for several years, but is still in good shape. It consists of 2 brooding houses with grow out pens, and about 2.5 acres of flight pen (though the overhead netting is missing from half of it).
He is more than happy to let us use the whole thing for whatever we'd like. The past few years, he'd been letting somebody graze sheep in the pen & the pasture beside it, and the sheep have managed to mess up some of the fencing, wire and overhead netting- but it should be easy enough to fix up a place for 25 chickens. I've got some cleaning to do, and I've got to figure out the fuse box in the brooding houses, figure out which heat lamps just need new bulbs, etc....but hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks I'll have it set up to move my chicks into the brooding house. And then I'll get to work building nest boxes, a perch, and getting some bedding on the floor in the grow out pen (what I'll use for a coop). I took pics yesterday & will post them as soon as I get them uploaded to Photobucket.
In the meantime, the babies are about a week old & are in a 50 gallon stock watering tank in the outbuilding next to my house. (Used to be the hatchery, but unfortunately the incubators have been sold!) I get a kick out of letting them eat out of my hand- gradually they've been getting used to me visiting them & holding them. Haven't lost any yet- fingers crossed!
This is my first attempt at raising any kind of animal other than a dog or cat. Husband and I are originally from suburban central Florida (and it's a long story how we ended up here!) This has been an exciting learning adventure for us both. I am also hoping to get some quail in June, once the chickens have feathered out- and yes, I've got a seperate area I'll set up for them away from the chickens
Anyhow, I'm happy to be here- and since I've also got a question I'll end this here & go find the appropriate section for it! Thanks again everyone for providing such a good place for people to learn!
