North Carolina

[Banriona]

Well howdy strangers!! I have been so remiss at keeping up with all your goings on! I miss my regular stalking... erm... socializing... on here. Luckily I've had the flu for the last week so I can finally start getting caught up on stuff like this.

welcome to the newbies, hope everyone has had a good month and enjoyed their family and friends. I look forward to reading backwards and catching up on all your goings on.

Been crazy around here this month. My son moved back in with us and brought his new wife and step son with him. Became an in-law and grandma in one fell swoop last October. Got them all settled in and then the whooshed off to celebrate the holidays with her family back in SC.

Bad news: Neighbors dogs killed two more of my chickens - My Polish rooster and one of my easter eggers. I miss that roo. Also, the roofs of both of my coops leak now.

Good news: This has finally spurred the hubs into action and he has promised me a new 5,000sf chicken run and a brand new coop in January with three more coops to follow over the next 3-4 months. They'll be smallish coops 4' x 8' so will only house around 10-12 chickens each. This way I'll be able to separate out into the four separate breeds we plan to stick with. Currently sourcing some quality Blue Wheaten Ameraucana's - or just Blue ones. No more EE's for us, want the real deal. If anyone knows of any of those for sale let me know. Also keeping the Speckled Sussex, Delaware's and RIR's as well as our token Silver Laced Polish. Not planning to do a lot of breeding, but hoping to sell enough eating and hatching eggs to cover feed for my addiction. Not even going to try and sell enough eggs to cover housing costs at this point.

How is everyone's egg production going? Getting between 4-6 eggs a day here. Considering we got 2 a day over the summer I'm pretty happy. Two more girls just reached POL this week but I'm not expecting anything until Spring out of them.

Stay healthy!!

 

[Banriona]

Welcome! I'm not far from you! Looking forward to seeing pics of that coop and run Can't wait to break ground on our new setup.

 

[jtbass2756]

Nash County here! ( but I'm actually a dislocated OKIE)

 

[Banriona]

@ CruchyJeepMama
imho it isn't cost effective to raise your own meat chickens if you are having to pay for them to be butchered. We had ours butchered the first go-round and it cost us $5 per bird for the butchering. Add that to the $2.50 per chick and about $15 (unmedicated non-organic) - $30 (organic) feed figuring 1/4lb per day per bird for 8 weeks. So basically it cost us around $22.50 per bird using the cheaper feed and paying to have them butchered. Not sure how much the actual food consumption was since I wasn't keeping track and we free ranged them at the same time but that's a fair average I think. Varies depending on breed choice and source as well as management styles (free range, pastured, etc.) So far we've processed birds from Murray McMurray hatchery and Ideal Poultry - I prefer McMurray over ideal any day. Ideal isn't bad, but McMurray is better imo.

I've found organic whole chickens for as much or less than what it's cost me to purchase and feed my meaties - and that's with free ranging them too. Mine aren't organic, but at least I know they are healthy and happy. I raise my own more for conscience sake. I know they were raised in wide open spaces and lived healthy happy lives right up until I humanely ended it. Mostly we just do small batches (like however many I need to fill out an order of chicks for shipping layers and/or unexpected males). I'm sure it gets more cost effective the more birds you are doing at once. The most we've done at one time is 8 I think. Someday I'll invest in building or buying a chicken plucker and then I'll be more willing to consider larger batches of meaties. For now we just process extra roos and retired layers.

 

[Banriona]

I have a few questions to ask. My husband and I will be closing on our house in a few weeks and shortly after I plan on getting some chickens. We will be moving to James City/New Bern area and I don't know where the best place would be for me to find some chicks. I know for sure I want some Easter eggers, maybe a few dominiques,barred rocks or cuckoo marans, maybe a couple of frizzle cochins as well as a few duck (probably Peking and maybe khaki Campbell's). Are there any harcheries close by or should I just order some online. When I lived in Texas I got my first set of hens from Atwoods and then ordered more from a local hatchery. I know that the hatchery I bought my other chickens has the breeds I am looking for, but they are located in Texas and I am worried about having them shipped (probably in February) during the cold kweather. Merry Christmas all!

If you're going with a hatchery I'd say McMurray hatchery is my preferred. I've gotten from Ideal and they're good too, but McMurray seems to produce prettier chickens with slightly better structure. They're both good though.

There's this one in Wake Forest but I've never used them: http://littlebirdiehatchery.com/

 

[Banriona]

Hollow and Tammy: Have you used any of the breeders on the ameraucana.org website? Just curious since I figured I'd start there. Curious what, if any, experience anyone has with any of them. Looks like I'm in good company with my breed selection! Great minds think alike I guess.

Either of you have an incubator I could borrow for that if I get hatching eggs? If not, I could talk hubs into one probably - he's already hinted at getting me one but I may have blown that option when I demanded new run/coops. Lucky for me he suffers from can't-say-no-itis so if the funds are there I should be able to persuade him.

 

[threescompany]

I have a few questions to ask. My husband and I will be closing on our house in a few weeks and shortly after I plan on getting some chickens. We will be moving to James City/New Bern area and I don't know where the best place would be for me to find some chicks. I know for sure I want some Easter eggers, maybe a few dominiques,barred rocks or cuckoo marans, maybe a couple of frizzle cochins as well as a few duck (probably Peking and maybe khaki Campbell's). Are there any harcheries close by or should I just order some online. When I lived in Texas I got my first set of hens from Atwoods and then ordered more from a local hatchery. I know that the hatchery I bought my other chickens has the breeds I am looking for, but they are located in Texas and I am worried about having them shipped (probably in February) during the cold kweather. Merry Christmas all!

A good place to get EE's is http://www.citychickshatchery.com/. She is located in Raleigh, NC.

 

[Chicken Hound]

If I had the land and the money...... I have my perfect set-up in my head. But I'll have to win the lottery to build it!

I know what ya mean... I got some room just not the budget.....lol

 

[BHep]

.Welcome to all the new members.

I have been keeping up, just not posting.

So Hello everyone.

All is quiet & muddy. Itching to get hatching again.

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Quiet and muddy. Exactly.

Welcome to the new folks from me, too. I'm enjoying the quiet and not feeling very chatty.