North Carolina

[MedSchlFarmers]

I'm in Forsyth County. I would LOVE to add a dark brown egg layer and/or a blue egg layer to my flock. My current girls are 19-21 weeks and just starting to lay. Does anyone have anything available for sale? Would hope for a pullet close to the same age or a little older as my girls. Thank you!

 

[ramirezframing]

@ramirezframing

Hi!
lovely to hear from you!
I'm new to all this. I've got 2 buff orpingtons and 2 cochins. all girls, all 10 weeks old.
I intend free ranging them in my garden. They were moved out to their coop 2 days ago and are staying in there for a while so they know where 'home' is.
I'm a little concerned about the heat as it is 36ºC in the sunshine and 28ºC in the coop. I've put ice in their water.

I'm lucky as we seem to have very few natural predators around here. Only dogs or raptors (hawks I think, but I'm no expert) The local farmers let their chickens and ducks free range in the open fields along our lane, and it's very rare that I hear of any being attacked.

My birds will have apple trees and citrus trees to hide under, and take shelter from the sun. And the run of a 4000 square meter garden. We have a climate here similar to south California - mediterranean climate, what else? I'm not sure how the climate is in Carolina nor if you have to deal with predators.
We also have a dog, and 3 cats.

You say your location is knee deep. Is there really a town called knee deep??? Or is it just you're knee deep in animals???

The weather can have a pretty wide range here. We can get snow, but can also get into triple digits with humidity (air you can wear). As far as predators go, we have basically everything from bears, bobcats, coyotes, to hawks, eagles, coons and snakes. LOL, there is probably a town somewhere in the world called Knee Deep, but not the one I live in. It's just a saying that could go a few ways. Knee deep in animals would work very well.

Would love to see some pictures of Spain. I've seen pictures of some great old buildings and all, but it's mostly only the popular buildings/areas that one can find pictures of on google. What breeds are popular in Spain? Do y'all have lakenvelders or sumatras there?

 

[elaineinspain]

The weather can have a pretty wide range here. We can get snow, but can also get into triple digits with humidity (air you can wear). As far as predators go, we have basically everything from bears, bobcats, coyotes, to hawks, eagles, coons and snakes. LOL, there is probably a town somewhere in the world called Knee Deep, but not the one I live in. It's just a saying that could go a few ways. Knee deep in animals would work very well.

Would love to see some pictures of Spain. I've seen pictures of some great old buildings and all, but it's mostly only the popular buildings/areas that one can find pictures of on google. What breeds are popular in Spain? Do y'all have lakenvelders or sumatras there?

what breeds are popular over here? I can't really say, as I'm new to all this. I've seen lots of Araucanas advertised, and quite a few barred rocks, and there is quite a large movement to preserve the traditional Spanish birds - Andaluz Azul, Catalan del Prat, and Sureñas. and those are just the breeds local to here, as far as I know.

I chose cochins because of their looks - pompoms with a head, is how I've heard them described, and their temperament - docile, gentle giants. And the orpingtons for pretty much the same reasons. You can tell, I'm sure, that I'm thinking of my chickens as pets rather than as utility animals. I'm glad that they can eat the bugs from my garden, and I'll put them to work to till the soil in the veggie patch at the end of the season. My veggie patch is fenced off from the part of garden that they'll be free ranging in. My girls have the area under the apple and citrus trees. There are plenty of bugs for them to find in the mulch and dead leaves there.

Barcelona has some really beautiful old buildings, cathedrals and such. In the village close to where I live, Dolores, there is a traditional old church with a blue domed roof.
And further up the coast there is Altea, with a beautifully preserved old town at the top of the hill, with narrow winding cobbled stone allies. Unfortunately because of it's beauty it has suffered from tourism. Every shop is either an over priced art and craft shop, or beautiful, picturesque restaurants or cafés, but also overpriced. Nice for a day out, but you'd have to be pretty darn rich to holiday there for more than a week!

Where I live we are 15 minutes drive to the nearest sandy beach, and the surroundings are all farm land. This area, Vega Baja, is known as "the vegetable garden of Spain", with good, well established irrigation systems to all the fields. The irrigation systems are some of the oldest in Europe. When the Moors invaded the Iberian peninsular (today's Spain) in 711 AD, they brought with them algebra, irrigation, architecture, and they even translated the bible from Latin into the locally spoken language! In other words they brought civilization from North Africa to the peninsular!
The fantastic Alhambra palace, in Granada is Moorish architecture, and well worth a visit if ever you come over to Europe. It's Awesome, in the truest sense of the word!

And what about North Carolina? I only have a vague idea of where it is, on the East coast, but I'm afraid that's as far as my knowledge goes....

 

[ramirezframing]

I would love to visit Spain and see it all. As far as North Carolina goes.....It's on the east coast which means we tend to get hurricanes, but most tend not to be that bad, especially the part of NC that I live in. We do get snow, once again not too much snow in my part. Don't tend to have earthquakes, though we have felt some. It gets very humid in the summer and the temperature can get into triple digits. Have had a few tornadoes but nothing like the central USA gets. Being on the east coast means we do have somethings that are older than what the west coast has, but nothing like across the ocean. The beaches are about a 2-3 hour drive from me depending on which you go to. There are also some nice mountains on the western side of the state.

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote: Is backyard chicken keeping a big thing over there?

 

[NatureChica]

Would anyone be interested in my upcoming batch of BBS Ameraucana? 9 possible if none quit...due to hatch June 24th.
I'm also going to hatch FBC Marans next after this batch.

 

[ValerieZ1984]

I'm in Clayton NC... Looking to start my chicken adventure next spring.

 

[crazyhen]

I sure wish you were closer. I am in the mtns of NC and don;t drive much anymore. I have looked all over for some amaucanas or Ee since I got here in May. No luck in Franklin.

 

[NatureChica]

I occasionally make trips up to Greenville, Durham, Pittsboro...depending on how far into the mountains we could meet part way...message me if you want to.

 

[elaineinspain]

Is backyard chicken keeping a big thing over there?

My (Spanish) husband tells me about during the time of the dictatorship (Franco was dictator here from 1939 - 1975) pretty much everyone kept a chicken or two in their back yard - even in the centre of the cities. But since Franco's death and monarchist democracy resumed it seems people have become more and more the slave to the office and live in small apartments and many of the old traditional working folks' houses have been razed to the ground and offices and apartment blocks built in their place.

People have migrated from the land into the cities and have lost touch with their roots, which I find a crying shame. You can drive through the countryside in Spain and find deserted villages. And since the financial crisis of 2009 and the austerity measures imposed on Spain by the European Union Commission in Brussels, Belgium sometimes these whole villages are for sale for a ludicrously low sum!

It was quite funny, I was scoffed at by many when, 2 years ago, I told them that I wanted to buy a house in the country with a little land and grow my own veggies and have chickens. When I look at my life now, guess who's laughing!?

In the area I live in now it is mostly agriculture, I am surrounded by farmland growing artichokes, broccoli, alfalfa, cabbage, runner beans, flat beans, broad beans and cauliflower in winter, and in summer they grow corn,mostly and tomatoes, aubergines, a vegetable that is similar to a cucumber, courgettes and other summer squashes, and the pride of this area in summer is melons, and chickens and ducks play an important part as pest control. My neighbouring farmers are quite perplexed that I bought pure breeds chickens for their looks and temperament. They see all animals as either useful, or culled. Of course not everyone in the countryside is like that - the guy I bought my chickens from breeds cochins, orpingtons, marans, biblues and andaluz azuls. But breeders are few and far between.
We had to drive over 3 hours to get our chickens.

There are people who hatch out baby chicks in their back yard, but often you are not sure of the chickens parents as they all free range together.

So, to answer your question in summary : it was much more popular before, but now, for people living in the countryside and in the suburbs it seems to be getting popular again.

I never knew Carolina had such extremes of weather! Hurricanes, tornadoes, 3 digit summers and snow in winter - wow! Really makes me count my blessings!
I have some friends who live near Portland Oregon, but I believe that's a long long way from Carolina. And I have some friends living in Graceland Tenessee, They lived in Arkansas before but moved. And I have a penfriend who lives near Philadelphia. But I've never been to the states myself. The nearest was a holiday in the Caribbean 17 years ago.

Are you in a town or village? or out in the countryside? Is backyard chicken keeping popular where you live? I've heard some folk have to abide by rules and regulations - no cockrels, chicken coop must be x number of meters from your house, etc etc. Do you have to abide by anything like that in your area?