North Dakota

[marvun22]

Levi, how many Pekin ducks do you have? I took in a couple ducks that someone dumped outside a school a couple years ago. One was a Pekin. My kids convinced me to get a couple more the other day from runnings. These two really look like runners to me, but I am not a duck expert at all.

Believe it or not, my name is Levi too. And I also own Pekins. If the store said they are Pekins, they are most likely Pekins. They're both yellow and their isn't much of a size difference at hatch week.

 

[Tuhmu]

Levi, how many Pekin ducks do you have? I took in a couple ducks that someone dumped outside a school a couple years ago. One was a Pekin. My kids convinced me to get a couple more the other day from runnings. These two really look like runners to me, but I am not a duck expert at all.

I actually don't have Pekins just little Calls right now.

 

[maverick7wi]

Over the weekend, I had the experience of butchering a few meat chickens (Cornish X). For my first time, it went pretty well if I may say so myself. I left 2 whole and put them in a shrink wrap bag. The third one, cut the breasts/legs off the carcass. Next month, I have 15 Delaware roos arriving that I'll raise for meat. After that, I'll wait until it warms up before I start on meat chickens again (probably June). Has anyone raised Freedom Rangers? I don't know if I will get Cornish again as they are lazy and I want something that will free range and lower the feed bill.

I am also looking forward to getting eggs in October/November!

 

[Tuhmu]

Over the weekend, I had the experience of butchering a few meat chickens (Cornish X). For my first time, it went pretty well if I may say so myself. I left 2 whole and put them in a shrink wrap bag. The third one, cut the breasts/legs off the carcass. Next month, I have 15 Delaware roos arriving that I'll raise for meat. After that, I'll wait until it warms up before I start on meat chickens again (probably June). Has anyone raised Freedom Rangers? I don't know if I will get Cornish again as they are lazy and I want something that will free range and lower the feed bill.

I am also looking forward to getting eggs in October/November!

I've been thinking about getting them, I wasn't fond of the Cornish x myself either. Smelly things..... Was going to try the freedom rangers but I think I will have enough cockerals from all my hatches to keep my busy.

 

[marvun22]

Okay, this question is for people living in west-central or southwestern ND.

I've heard we could be getting a Tractor Supply Co. in Dickinson. Has anybody else heard this? We already have a Runnings, but I wouldn't mind having another place to buy food.

 

[Tuhmu]

I believe its that building that is being put up across from Menards. I agree, it would be nice to have other options than Runnings, maybe they might actually reduce their prices and pretend they care about customers now.

 

[Tuhmu]

Does anybody also raise dairy goats? I've been considering adding one or two to the farm, but I've never actually had goat milk. I keep a herd of Boer/Spanish and would like to have a supply of goat milk for any triplets/quads I get and for myself. Just seems like there's a great benefit in keeping one, if you can commit to the twice a day every day milking.

 

[The Howards]

Hi folks, I currently live outside Fayetteville, North Carolina and have a flock of chickens (30) and ducks (15). We are looking at possibly moving up that way in the next year somewhere between the Bismark and Fort Yates area. We have a friend there in ND (Bismark) that grew up here in NC and has told us about the winters.( He is not a flock owner so I can't ask him about keeping a flock there.) Obviously we don't get anything close to what happens up there. My flock saw their first snow accumulation this last winter 4", not a lot by your standards I know but a lot for us. It completely blew their minds.
Now that I have meandered in my post on to my question. How is maintaining my flock different there? Specifically in the winter. I imagine that I need to have a large barn so they can stay in there during the winter and snow. Any suggestions and recommendations will be lovely.

 

[Tuhmu]

There will be a lot of being indoors, for weeks sometimes. Having things to keep them entertained is a big one, I used a slice of alfalfa but others use squash/apples/lettuce that they saved from their gardens. Also investing in some type of heated waterer/heated base will be a lifesaver. I myself use the metal fount and the heated base that you can find at runnings.

Having ventilation that goes over there heads but wont chill them will help to prevent frostbite, though you may have to just expect that you will get some anyway. I'm not sure what others do, for the most part I only have brahmas and other short comb varieties, but last year a light Sussex rooster and a few red star hens I had, all got frostbite. It was just a really miserable winter last year though too.

 

[The Howards]

There will be a lot of being indoors, for weeks sometimes. Having things to keep them entertained is a big one, I used a slice of alfalfa but others use squash/apples/lettuce that they saved from their gardens. Also investing in some type of heated waterer/heated base will be a lifesaver. I myself use the metal fount and the heated base that you can find at runnings.

Having ventilation that goes over there heads but wont chill them will help to prevent frostbite, though you may have to just expect that you will get some anyway. I'm not sure what others do, for the most part I only have brahmas and other short comb varieties, but last year a light Sussex rooster and a few red star hens I had, all got frostbite. It was just a really miserable winter last year though too.

Thanks for the info. We have talked about putting some kind of wood burning stove in the coop/barn to provide a bit of heat, an idea we got from one of the BYC members in Russia. We have a mix of comb styles but are familiar with trying to prevent frost bite although I am sure it will be much worse there.