NY chicken lover!!!!

[pharmchickrnmom]

Pharm,
What do you do with the acorns? Do the chickens eat them? We have tons in the woods behind our house. Love to know! Thx!

We have white oaks and I gathered a bunch of acorn, crushed them with a heavy hammer and put them in the terrorists run (aka rir). They went crazy and ate them up. I have been gathering up acorns (nice ones, no breaks or knawed ones) and putting them in bags and freezing them. I will use them over the winter as a supplement since they are high in protein. Free food! Good exercise.

My glw hen, Elanor, is coming along nicely with her bumblefoot treatments. Today I will just repack her feet and trim her nails and hopefully be able to put her back with her flock soon. The infection is clearing and I have been giving her antibiotics in her water as well. Now if it would just stop raining and dry out a bit that would be helpful. She seems content in her crate but really needs to get out and stretch her legs.

Seems someone has complained to the town about the peoples coop down the road. Claims it has "ruined the beauty of the road." Really? Its a small amish coop with 6 chickens that the lady bought for her 6 year old son so he could learn where eggs come from and about sustainable farming. Its probably some cityiot who is here weekends. The irony is that we live in a zone where you can have a horse, cow, pig,sheep, alpaca without a permit but you need one for chickens. Really??? So on my one acre of land I can have all those animals but not my chickens if I dont have a permit. Anyways, there is a hearing on Oct 24 and we will be going. Hoping that common sense will prevail. Oh---the coop in question is sitting on about 10 acres of land, is fenced in and has another fence around the property itself. I think it looks nice and was rather envious of all the money they spent not only on the coop but on the very nice, fully enclosed run. I have seen the little boy out there sitting with his chickens as well.

Oh well...enough of my spouting off. Time to clean.

 

[cheeka]

wow... there are so many aspects of Middleburgh that i can't stand... but I love the "Right to Farm" in Schoharie County... I can have any animal I want, as many as I want... as long as I keep them contained to my property and they obviously aren't being maltreated... no one can say "boo" about anything.
I almost took offense when my fiance made a comment about my not needing to do much work to keep my chickens warm over the winter ~ he said "they don't need much... not the way you feed them...they're fat", but thinking about it... it's not a bad thing... to have (fat) fluffy happy chooks... they get plenty of exercise - a couple of hours of supervised range time almost every day... and when they can't get out, their run is quite large and full of leaves to scratch around in and lots of roosting spots... and a very nice big communal dirt bathing corner

 

[Glasshen]

Well, ok, if it ever stops raining I'll section off part of the pen and put down some lime. When we lived in the city my dog had a radius of the house which got over fertilized, especially in the winter when everything sank into the snow. After the major spring clean up lime was a huge help. The pen for the chickens has grass, but I want it to stay that way. And all this wetness, who knows what is growing out there, of the microscopic sort. Thanks for your opinions, vm and Lap!

 

[rancher hicks]

I need some advice. I have a 3 week old chick that went to a new home today. The chick was in a closed box in a car more the majority of the day. The girl got the chick home and the chick is lethargic. Is there anything that she can do to keep from losing the chick? From what she told me, the chick is under a heat lamp, eating and drinking a little, and taking eletrolytes. Is there anything else that she can do?

when moving chicks it's good to put some sugar in the water. I usually give them a drink or two with an eye dropper. The sugar gives them a lift. BTW be careful with those heat lamps. Chicks don't need to much heat The 99. rule is bogus. 80 - 90 should be ok. Watch them and see how they act. Go by their action more than the books. Those 250 watters are to much IMO. Unless they are in a cold room or barn those lights are too hot. They do sell 175 ers.

 

[Adoravachick]

when moving chicks it's good to put some sugar in the water. I usually give them a drink or two with an eye dropper. The sugar gives them a lift. BTW be careful with those heat lamps. Chicks don't need to much heat The 99. rule is bogus. 80 - 90 should be ok. Watch them and see how they act. Go by their action more than the books. Those 250 watters are to much IMO. Unless they are in a cold room or barn those lights are too hot. They do sell 175 ers.

Thank you for the information.

 

[Adoravachick]

We have white oaks and I gathered a bunch of acorn, crushed them with a heavy hammer and put them in the terrorists run (aka rir). They went crazy and ate them up. I have been gathering up acorns (nice ones, no breaks or knawed ones) and putting them in bags and freezing them. I will use them over the winter as a supplement since they are high in protein. Free food! Good exercise.

My glw hen, Elanor, is coming along nicely with her bumblefoot treatments. Today I will just repack her feet and trim her nails and hopefully be able to put her back with her flock soon. The infection is clearing and I have been giving her antibiotics in her water as well. Now if it would just stop raining and dry out a bit that would be helpful. She seems content in her crate but really needs to get out and stretch her legs.

Seems someone has complained to the town about the peoples coop down the road. Claims it has "ruined the beauty of the road." Really? Its a small amish coop with 6 chickens that the lady bought for her 6 year old son so he could learn where eggs come from and about sustainable farming. Its probably some cityiot who is here weekends. The irony is that we live in a zone where you can have a horse, cow, pig,sheep, alpaca without a permit but you need one for chickens. Really??? So on my one acre of land I can have all those animals but not my chickens if I dont have a permit. Anyways, there is a hearing on Oct 24 and we will be going. Hoping that common sense will prevail. Oh---the coop in question is sitting on about 10 acres of land, is fenced in and has another fence around the property itself. I think it looks nice and was rather envious of all the money they spent not only on the coop but on the very nice, fully enclosed run. I have seen the little boy out there sitting with his chickens as well.

Oh well...enough of my spouting off. Time to clean.

That is a real shame about someone complaining to the town about the chickens. Just terrible, it's probably not hurting a thing...just terrible. I just look at my little girl and see how much she's learning, I can't imagine our chickens being taken away from us.

Got some new silkie boys and girls coming on Tuesday, Geri's pick, says they are gorgeous. So, Happy Birthday to me...more chickens! yay!

 

[stonykill]

We have white oaks and I gathered a bunch of acorn, crushed them with a heavy hammer and put them in the terrorists run (aka rir). They went crazy and ate them up. I have been gathering up acorns (nice ones, no breaks or knawed ones) and putting them in bags and freezing them. I will use them over the winter as a supplement since they are high in protein. Free food! Good exercise.

My glw hen, Elanor, is coming along nicely with her bumblefoot treatments. Today I will just repack her feet and trim her nails and hopefully be able to put her back with her flock soon. The infection is clearing and I have been giving her antibiotics in her water as well. Now if it would just stop raining and dry out a bit that would be helpful. She seems content in her crate but really needs to get out and stretch her legs.

Seems someone has complained to the town about the peoples coop down the road. Claims it has "ruined the beauty of the road." Really? Its a small amish coop with 6 chickens that the lady bought for her 6 year old son so he could learn where eggs come from and about sustainable farming. Its probably some cityiot who is here weekends. The irony is that we live in a zone where you can have a horse, cow, pig,sheep, alpaca without a permit but you need one for chickens. Really??? So on my one acre of land I can have all those animals but not my chickens if I dont have a permit. Anyways, there is a hearing on Oct 24 and we will be going. Hoping that common sense will prevail. Oh---the coop in question is sitting on about 10 acres of land, is fenced in and has another fence around the property itself. I think it looks nice and was rather envious of all the money they spent not only on the coop but on the very nice, fully enclosed run. I have seen the little boy out there sitting with his chickens as well.

Oh well...enough of my spouting off. Time to clean.

that complaint has citiot written all over it.

 

[ChickPrincess]

Pharm,
Thanks for the info on the acorns. I know what I'll be doing after school tomorrow. "Oh, kids... !" We're going on an acorn hunt.
I know exactly about those citiots. We had one last year buy a huge amount of land across the street from us. He lives in Rochester. He figured it would be okay to use for a hunting trailer (which would've been okay, except...) he put up a trashy trailer in plain view from the road. Talk about lowering property value! When he went to go run electric he had to go in front of the Town board. Several other neighbors showed up to complain and it was turned down. He now has his property up for sale. Why do these city slickers think it's okay to buy land and think they can do whatever they want?
I'm 95% finished with insulating the coop. What a difference! You walk inside and it just FEELS snug. I'm putting in hardware cloth covered windows and covering them with shutters that open and close. No cost except for the hardware cloth. I have another similar "window" with a small fan in it to suck out stale air.

 

[Sallysec]

I will say that three months ago you would have called me a citiot...and honestly I'm not offended..but I will say its a lack of education on my part. I grew up in the nice suburbs....no one had chickens...we hatched out some in science class in 6th grade...the only chick to hatch got stepped on by a girl who took it home for weekend care....so I had no exposure...no chicken education. Mind you my father grew up with every kind of animal. I visited farms, but that's exactly where I felt they belonged. Now In three short months I have a complete different opinion. I am in love with these babies and doing all kinds of crazy things for them that I never would have imagined. I am now afraid of my neighbors! Even knowing its legal, I'm afraid, but I hope they decide to stop over and get educated ...it's the whole reason I'm doing this, to educate my children. Food can come from your backyard, you can grow it, you can have a healthy relationship with food and you should know where it comes from. So I hope that the person who complained, gets a little education and changes their opinion and spreads the word themselves. If a petition is started for that neighbor....I would gladly sign my name to that

 

[Glasshen]

I've lived in Suburbs, cities, and rural areas. And just ask anyone, I'm an idiot...or just look at my typing...that tells the tale. In my defense even in the cities I always had a compost pile and a garden...but some people are just not into laisse-faire. I think if you look back a generation or two the vision of people keeping chickens was a different sight than it is now. Perhaps someone has their views in a time warp or, sometimes people are just plain miserable, and I surely don't defend someone causing trouble for what sounds like a very nice and responsible chicken owner. Guess what I am a little twitchy about is the label. Labels are a shorthand to describe an entire person, and always upset me. I find it more fair if more difficult to describe the actions. Those are fact, not a glib summary. There is less we and they. My twitchiness may come from a life in education and social work where lots of labels are applied, and always compartmentalize the individual who is a unique being who does not fit comfortably int those labels without loosing some of their uniqueness.

Attacking responsible chicken owners with well thoughtout setups for their birds is just plain wrong!

Rant over. Have a good day.