NY chicken lover!!!!

[rancher hicks]

pharmchickrnmom - Not squeamish. I actually hunt. I just admittedly get too attached to my birds.... Maybe if I could keep them in a different pen and interact with them less...

I've seen, in person this fall, the difference between my hatchery birds and someone's well-bred birds. The vigor, size, and overall constitution of her birds really impressed me. The cochin rooster I got from her is a very fine animal and I am convinced that I don't think I will get hatchery birds again unless someone needs to rehome them.
I have room for 8 birds, realistically, and don't want to overcrowd them. I've got 8 right now so all this is hypothetical in case I lose any.
I am nervous about auctions as disease vectors. What do you think? There are none nearby but if I had to drive a few hours I could.

Well this is the way I see the auctions and I know I may step on a few toes. When I go an auction and "some" people are sitting in there who look like they haven't bathed in a month, I have to wonder just how clean their animals are kept. There for I don't buy at auctions. No if's and's or but's.

The one and only time I bought a dozen eggs to hatch? Two were all covered in poop and had to be tossed. I don't wash eggs for hatching. Some do but I don't.

Yes we all run into a problem now and then, but if you are losing bird after bird after bird then it's time to see what's what. This is where BYC comes in handy.

IMO simple is best. If you can I'd try to find someone going to the auction and give them your extras. I'd venture to say the price you'll get won't be enough to cover your gas. I personally am not set up to process my birds at this time. YET. Not to mention having space to grow them out.

 

[Glasshen]

TOB, I bet you would have a hard time catching them to grease them. Give them extra money for hot cocoa. If he's going to Toggenburg, the patrollers will be looking at faces for "frost nip", and if it's a school group, they will have addressed the whole bus to mention checking their buddies "for whitish or grayish patches of skin particularly on the nose, ears, and cheeks." tell them that if they are cold to go in and have a cup of cocoa, then they can go out again.

I go tomorrow night, and it may be a one run and in, one run and in kind of night. But I will track down that lift and see if he wants Reveille. Kinda makes it all worthwhile.

Tabitha, I would be wearing lots of stuff under my uniform. Polypropylene is wonderful stuff. Silk, too, and neither is too bulky. Steer clear of cotton. And, you didn't sound ornery, just amazed at how crazy teens can be. And Im with you. But I survived them, they are now 26 and 32, quite fun to be with.

 

[rancher hicks]

It is testing week for the highschool kids here. I got stuck behind the bus picking kids up this afternoon. One girl got on the bus wearing just a long sleeve tee and one boy only a hoodie. The wind chill is negative digits outside. Kids are crazy!

I know when I went to school you did what ever you thought was cool. Appearance is everything at that age. Of course if we're lucky we grow up and realize being cold and red isn't cool.

I like to tell the story of my "Tom Jones" shirt and pink pants. My Tom Jones shirt had big puffy sleeves and was school bus yellow with red polka dots. The pants were a pair I tried to dye red but came out pink. I wore them anyways.

Of course now days, the holes in the head and tats that won't wash off are more worrisome. Sooner or later those nipple rings will get caught in the navel ring and the paramedics will need to be called.

I have to say I wouldn't mind seeing what it looks like when one of those "pin" heads gets tazed.

ZZZiiit!!

 

[vmdanielsen]

I honestly don't know, but may find out in the future if I get some Buckeye. I noticed my BM roo has some frost bite, but he does go out in this weather. I hate to lock them up if they want to go out and breath the cold air. The only roo without fb is the BR. All the other have been bitten and I'm sorry for that. I've tried the Vaseline but it didn't help on the tips.

This is my interest in Buckeyes. I'm not sure there is a peacomb maran out there for the dark eggs. Amers and EE's of course have the rosecomb but they can still get frost bit.

Dels of course don't have a rosecomb but they are still on the critical list and not all that popular. I'd hate to see them die out. They are a nice friendly breed. Easy to handle , easy to keep with other breeds and in confinement. Not prone to picking either. At least for me.

I think any breed will pick if crowded and bored.

I put my chicken coop on my front lawn as I have a south facing porch for the winter. I fence in the area with electric poultry fencing. I do shovel a path to the underside of my porch, because as we know, most chickens don't like to walk in the snow. My neighbors may not love it but tough! All my chickens choose to go outside everyday(though they will run to go under the porch.)I have never had frostbite on my buckeyes in my years of keeping them(that is for 3 winters, including this one).

 

[vmdanielsen]

pharmchickrnmom - Not squeamish. I actually hunt. I just admittedly get too attached to my birds.... Maybe if I could keep them in a different pen and interact with them less...

I've seen, in person this fall, the difference between my hatchery birds and someone's well-bred birds. The vigor, size, and overall constitution of her birds really impressed me. The cochin rooster I got from her is a very fine animal and I am convinced that I don't think I will get hatchery birds again unless someone needs to rehome them.
I have room for 8 birds, realistically, and don't want to overcrowd them. I've got 8 right now so all this is hypothetical in case I lose any.
I am nervous about auctions as disease vectors. What do you think? There are none nearby but if I had to drive a few hours I could.

The trick for me is to hatch so many that
1), I do not know who I am eating
2) get so many cockerels, that I am happy to get rid of the fighting, complaining, rambunctious boys
3) pay someone to process for me


I have heard horror stories of people buying from an auction or even a show.....I prefer to buy from reputable people.

 

[Cass]

High School lockers ARE too small for winter coats. Some schools, in their infinate wisdom, decided to but 1/2 length lockers (over and under) leaving no space for a winter coat....barely enough space for their books, really. HOWEVER a warm hoodie should fit...a couple layers under the hoodie would provide the warmth needed. (I carried my coat around with me all winter when I was in High school. I don't like cold now and I didn't like it then, fashion or no fashion)

Auctions are how you get rid of birds, not how you aquire them, in my mind. And I wouldn't buy from a fair or other gathering either. Too much of a chance of bringing home something icky or fatal to the whole flock. Of course any time you add an adult bird to the flock there is a risk to your exsisting flock. Just because the new birds look and act healthy doesn't mean they aren't carriers of something your existing flock isn't immune to. (All you old hands at chicken raising already know this, but some of the newbies don't and won't if we don't tell them)

Spring is almost here. My birds are starting to lay again and I got a NEW EGG today. (When you only get 5 - 8 eggs a day you know when there is a new one in the basket) It is a blue egg. I am happy that one of the birds I hatched and raised is finally laying, however I was planning to process the 4 of them and eat them with Bar-B-Q sauce this summer. They are over 9 months old...Pure bred Ameruacana....lousy layers, pretty birds. (But you can't eat pretty, hense the plan to process them in the spring) I process my own (with Ray's help) so I wanted to wait until I wouldn't freeze to death doing it.

Hey Stony, how do you process this time of year and not freeze to death?

 

[stonykill]

.

Hey Stony, how do you process this time of year and not freeze to death?

I kill them and hang them outside and then pluck and process in my heated workshop

If I didn't have band practice tonight I would have done one in tonight. Jerk rooster.........

 

[rancher hicks]

Now mind you birds can get a dirty butt now and then, but to be shown at the fair? I have been to a show in Alabama and these birds would be laughed off the floor.









Now

 

[featherz]

Auctions are how you get rid of birds, not how you aquire them, in my mind. And I wouldn't buy from a fair or other gathering either. Too much of a chance of bringing home something icky or fatal to the whole flock. Of course any time you add an adult bird to the flock there is a risk to your exsisting flock. Just because the new birds look and act healthy doesn't mean they aren't carriers of something your existing flock isn't immune to. (All you old hands at chicken raising already know this, but some of the newbies don't and won't if we don't tell them)

X2. I drop off birds at the auction all the time, then go home and wash my shoes. I see some nice birds now and then but I also see a whole lot of iffy ones. I don't buy or bring home birds from auctions or shows, but I love to 'window shop' for what I will hatch.

My little california whites just started laying and boy are they laying! I went from about two eggs in my largest coop to about 15 today. I'm gonna be drowning until I downsize in a month or so.

 

[cracrzy4chicks]

X2. I drop off birds at the auction all the time, then go home and wash my shoes. I see some nice birds now and then but I also see a whole lot of iffy ones. I don't buy or bring home birds from auctions or shows, but I love to 'window shop' for what I will hatch.

My little california whites just started laying and boy are they laying! I went from about two eggs in my largest coop to about 15 today. I'm gonna be drowning until I downsize in a month or so.

What is a california white ?