New Hampshire!!

[chicken pickin]

There is also this thread if you decide to pluck and clean out the inside. I used this step by step blog while I was processing and it really helped. Graphic to those with weak stomaches
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html

Good luck with your first time

 

[DraigAthar]

There is also this thread if you decide to pluck and clean out the inside. I used this step by step blog while I was processing and it really helped. Graphic to those with weak stomaches
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html

Good luck with your first time

That is an EXCELLENT link, I will be bookmarking that one, too! I want to try raising our Thanksgiving turkey next year, so I'd want to process it the proper way, for roasting whole.

 

[Smithyard Farm]

Thank you both!! What a great link!!! I watched a few youtube videos... not sure if its because its still pictures, or if it is that the blog is so clear and concise, it doesn't seem that bad. On an aside note, my future daughter-in-law is a nurse, and she said she would gut the insides for me... yea!! I guess she is used to that messy stuff! My hubby and I both agree we can slaughter, pluck and get the head/feet off... but that end part is a bit much.... And DraigAthar, any words of wisdom, not mentioned in the blog will help as well. Feel free to PM me anytime!

 

[chicken pickin]

Does anyone in SNH have fertile hatching eggs? If so what kind and how much? I would go into the buy sell trade forum but Im tryin to avoid shipping cost. This will be my first attempt at incubating.

 

[aceschix]

Does anyone in SNH have fertile hatching eggs? If so what kind and how much? I would go into the buy sell trade forum but Im tryin to avoid shipping cost. This will be my first attempt at incubating.

I may. What breeds are you looking for or would you want to start with barnyard mixes to "test" your hatching skills?

 

[chicken pickin]

I may. What breeds are you looking for or would you want to start with barnyard mixes to "test" your hatching skills?

Could you PM me with your location what breeds of hatching eggs you have available and price? I may be interested. I might go with EE eggs off of craigslist but im nervous to go with a flock that is not NPIPcertified.

 

[bruceha2000]

That is an EXCELLENT link

Boy is THAT true! I've watched a few YouTube videos but as unlikely as it seemed at first, those well chosen stills are probably easier to follow. Get to a point and leave the picture up while you look over your personal "specimen".

Bruce

 

[AVintageLife]

I've been on this website since we first got our chicks last spring and can't believe it took me this long to find the NH thread! I live in New Boston and when my DH finally agreed to let my daughter and I convert his shed into a coop, we had ten chicks two weeks later (and then spent the summer working as fast as we could on the coop project). Of the ten, five were pullets and five were cockerels. Three cockerels went to freezer camp (the mean ones). The flock is 26 weeks old now and we just got our first egg yesterday. I want to get two started pullets in the spring to round out the girls and my daughter wants three silkies, which I think we'll set up in a separate, smaller coop for her, unless you think it's OK to blend the whole flock together? Silkies just seem like they would be more delicate than my BR and EE girls - I'm such a beginner. Also hoping someone goes broody in the spring and we can experience some chicks of our own (and then re-home them to all our friends who want to build a coop).

 

[Smithyard Farm]

We had 11 full sized hens and added a silkie, a silkie mix and a bantam. They are all in the same coop now. The smaller breeds were a lot younger than than the origianl hens when we got them. We had them separate for awhile, but they all free ranged together. It took a week or so after putting them all in the same coop, for them to finally settled down and all get along. The young bantam now roosts up on top with the bigger ones... If you get the three silkies together.. they will hang with each other. I put a box in my coop with a small square hole in it that only the smaller ones could fit into. gave them a place to hide if they needed it.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

I've been on this website since we first got our chicks last spring and can't believe it took me this long to find the NH thread! I live in New Boston and when my DH finally agreed to let my daughter and I convert his shed into a coop, we had ten chicks two weeks later (and then spent the summer working as fast as we could on the coop project). Of the ten, five were pullets and five were cockerels. Three cockerels went to freezer camp (the mean ones). The flock is 26 weeks old now and we just got our first egg yesterday. I want to get two started pullets in the spring to round out the girls and my daughter wants three silkies, which I think we'll set up in a separate, smaller coop for her, unless you think it's OK to blend the whole flock together? Silkies just seem like they would be more delicate than my BR and EE girls - I'm such a beginner. Also hoping someone goes broody in the spring and we can experience some chicks of our own (and then re-home them to all our friends who want to build a coop).

I am a silkie breeder, silkies are extremely docile and often do not fight with other breeds so end up on the bottom of the pecking order. it is difficult to mix pullet silkies with adult large fowl hens. I vote for the seperate coop. your 2 full size roosters would breed the silkies. if the little girls try to get away and the boys have a firm hold a neck could get snapped,
lots of people have silkies live in with large fowl, it is easier if they all grow up together or if the banties are hatched under a large fowl hen so mom will protect the kids, if you have a hen go broody you could always buy silkie hatching eggs.