NY chicken lover!!!!

[AQHAchick22]

Wow, Welcome to ALL the Newbies! Have you guys been hanging out another thread?!? Glad you found us over here on the NY Thread, glad to have you! Well you can tell Spring is around the corner. Little critters are starting to venture out from every direction! Soooo many little tracks in the snow that I've never seen before. And in odd spots too. No direction to them whatsoever. Weird. I'm still waiting for DH to take care of that nasty rat out front and reset the new traps. I want to put two out front in front of the three holes dug out there. There are two sets of tracks, one that comes around the front ad up to the shed in the back yard and the others go from the house to the woods in the front/side of the yard. All the tracks look like this... I'm beginning to think that maybe they aren't rat tracks tho...The spacing is about a foot apart. I don't see rat "leaping" to get to where it has to go. A mouse maybe, but a big fat rat? So I'm thinking either mouse or chipmunk? What do you guys think???

I've been seeing the same exact tracks in the snow and have no idea what they are..my initial thought was mouse or rat as well but the spacing seems to be a little far apart for that...hmmm Jlaw that stove looks so nice and warm I'm sure it's helping a lot with heat. Fans as other people suggested will definitely help move some of that heat around.

 

[Coop de Cuse]

Ok i'l bring my pellet gun and hope for the best. Are these thing on same branch each day? Could get a baseball bat and a roll of tennis balls. Or tennis racket.

Haha the racket and tennis balls would be fun

 

[Cass]

Caution: Rant ahead

~~Really? Last year I gave the 2 elementary school 96 eggs to hatch. For free. Just wanted any chicks they couldn't give away back. From those 96 eggs I got 18 chicks. 2 were given away to students, so they hatched 20.

I set eggs from those same chickens at the same time. 100% of mine developed and only one didn't hatch.

They contact me this year wanting 48 eggs in less than 3 weeks. (do they understand that *I* don't control how many get laid a day, the chickens do and baby, it's coooold outside. I am lucky to get 3 a day. No way I can fill an order for 48 in less than 3 weeks) I expressed how disappointed I was in last year's hatch rates and I would sell them the eggs in APRIL (when the chickens are laying, for heaven's sake and the same timeframe as last year...a time chosen for a reason), for eating egg rates. ($2.50 a dozen) THEY DECLINED. LOL

. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the good guy. AND then person who contacted me CC'd his reply to EVERYONE in the friggin' school district to boot. Not cool, buddy. Even if you did reserve the right to "use my services in the future" in your email it'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL before I will help you out for less than current market rates. (That'll be $10 a dozen plus "shipping". I delivered them last year to the front desk of the school) (Year's ago when I hatched eggs [with 90% hatch rate, btw] the eggs cost me $28 bucks plus shipping for a total of $39 dollars...and I couldn't keep the chicks)

His reply stated that they had AUTO-TURNERS. OMG and I still got only 25% hatch rate? Did they let the kids set these eggs? How the heck do you get such different hatch rates from the exact same chicken's eggs. (collected at the exact same time....the 6 I set were the 6 oldest eggs....so I felt too old for eating, so I gave them to a broody.) I am so upset. It just doesn't pay to be nice anymore. And I won't be.

End of Rant

 

[featherz]

Caution: Rant ahead

~~Really? Last year I gave the 2 elementary school 96 eggs to hatch. For free. Just wanted any chicks they couldn't give away back. From those 96 eggs I got 18 chicks. 2 were given away to students, so they hatched 20.

I set eggs from those same chickens at the same time. 100% of mine developed and only one didn't hatch.

They contact me this year wanting 48 eggs in less than 3 weeks. (do they understand that *I* don't control how many get laid a day, the chickens do and baby, it's coooold outside. I am lucky to get 3 a day. No way I can fill an order for 48 in less than 3 weeks) I expressed how disappointed I was in last year's hatch rates and I would sell them the eggs in APRIL (when the chickens are laying, for heaven's sake and the same timeframe as last year...a time chosen for a reason), for eating egg rates. ($2.50 a dozen) THEY DECLINED. LOL

. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the good guy. AND then person who contacted me CC'd his reply to EVERYONE in the friggin' school district to boot. Not cool, buddy. Even if you did reserve the right to "use my services in the future" in your email it'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL before I will help you out for less than current market rates. (That'll be $10 a dozen plus "shipping". I delivered them last year to the front desk of the school) (Year's ago when I hatched eggs [with 90% hatch rate, btw] the eggs cost me $28 bucks plus shipping for a total of $39 dollars...and I couldn't keep the chicks)

His reply stated that they had AUTO-TURNERS. OMG and I still got only 25% hatch rate? Did they let the kids set these eggs? How the heck do you get such different hatch rates from the exact same chicken's eggs. (collected at the exact same time....the 6 I set were the 6 oldest eggs....so I felt too old for eating, so I gave them to a broody.) I am so upset. It just doesn't pay to be nice anymore. And I won't be.

End of Rant

Good for you Cass! Let's see who they get the 48 eggs from this time. Heck, my chickens are laying well now but it's just too cold to think that any of them would actually hatch.

 

[Pyxis]

Caution:  Rant ahead

~~Really? Last year I gave the 2 elementary school 96 eggs to hatch. For free.  Just wanted any chicks they couldn't give away back. From those 96 eggs I got 18 chicks. 2 were given away to students, so they hatched 20.

I set eggs from those same chickens at the same time. 100% of mine developed and only one didn't hatch. 

They contact me this year wanting 48 eggs in less than 3 weeks. (do they understand that *I* don't control how many get laid a day, the chickens do and baby, it's coooold outside. I am lucky to get 3 a day. No way I can fill an order for 48 in less than 3 weeks) I expressed how disappointed I was in last year's hatch rates and I would sell them the eggs in APRIL (when the chickens are laying, for heaven's sake and the same timeframe as last year...a time chosen for a reason), for eating egg rates. ($2.50 a dozen) THEY DECLINED. LOL

. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the good guy. AND then person who contacted me CC'd his reply to EVERYONE in the friggin' school district to boot. Not cool, buddy. Even if you did reserve the right to "use my services in the future" in your email it'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL before I will help you out for less than current market rates. (That'll be $10 a dozen plus "shipping". I delivered them last year to the front desk of the school) (Year's ago when I hatched eggs [with 90% hatch rate, btw] the eggs cost me $28 bucks plus shipping for a total of $39 dollars...and I couldn't keep the chicks)

His reply stated that they had AUTO-TURNERS.  OMG and I still got only 25% hatch rate?  Did they let the kids set these eggs?  How the heck do you get such different hatch rates from the exact same chicken's eggs.  (collected at the exact same time....the 6  I set were the 6 oldest eggs....so I felt too old for eating, so I gave them to a broody.)  I am so upset.  It just doesn't pay to be nice anymore.  And I won't be.

End of Rant

That's awful. Some people are just jerks, even when you're trying to be nice.

 

[featherz]

Wow, Welcome to ALL the Newbies! Have you guys been hanging out another thread?!?

Glad you found us over here on the NY Thread, glad to have you!

Well you can tell Spring is around the corner. Little critters are starting to venture out from every direction! Soooo many little tracks in the snow that I've never seen before. And in odd spots too. No direction to them whatsoever. Weird. I'm still waiting for DH to take care of that nasty rat out front and reset the new traps. I want to put two out front in front of the three holes dug out there. There are two sets of tracks, one that comes around the front ad up to the shed in the back yard and the others go from the house to the woods in the front/side of the yard. All the tracks look like this...

I'm beginning to think that maybe they aren't rat tracks tho...The spacing is about a foot apart. I don't see rat "leaping" to get to where it has to go. A mouse maybe, but a big fat rat? So I'm thinking either mouse or chipmunk? What do you guys think???

I have these as well, along with obvious bunny tracks. I assumed rat also, but they appear in broad daylight. I can't see my two cats letting rats scamper everywhere but maybe they are.

 

[Lynzi777]

I've been seeing the same exact tracks in the snow and have no idea what they are..my initial thought was mouse or rat as well but the spacing seems to be a little far apart for that...hmmm

Jlaw that stove looks so nice and warm I'm sure it's helping a lot with heat. Fans as other people suggested will definitely help move some of that heat around.

When I found the rat tracks from the holes dug along the back of my house they were much closer together and you could also see the actual footprint, like he was just crawling along in the snow. This seems to be more of a jumper. Could be a mouse still....I've been trying to keep my eye out for it since the tracks do appear during the day.

 

[Lynzi777]

Caution: Rant ahead

~~Really? Last year I gave the 2 elementary school 96 eggs to hatch. For free. Just wanted any chicks they couldn't give away back. From those 96 eggs I got 18 chicks. 2 were given away to students, so they hatched 20.

I set eggs from those same chickens at the same time. 100% of mine developed and only one didn't hatch.

They contact me this year wanting 48 eggs in less than 3 weeks. (do they understand that *I* don't control how many get laid a day, the chickens do and baby, it's coooold outside. I am lucky to get 3 a day. No way I can fill an order for 48 in less than 3 weeks) I expressed how disappointed I was in last year's hatch rates and I would sell them the eggs in APRIL (when the chickens are laying, for heaven's sake and the same timeframe as last year...a time chosen for a reason), for eating egg rates. ($2.50 a dozen) THEY DECLINED. LOL

. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the good guy. AND then person who contacted me CC'd his reply to EVERYONE in the friggin' school district to boot. Not cool, buddy. Even if you did reserve the right to "use my services in the future" in your email it'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL before I will help you out for less than current market rates. (That'll be $10 a dozen plus "shipping". I delivered them last year to the front desk of the school) (Year's ago when I hatched eggs [with 90% hatch rate, btw] the eggs cost me $28 bucks plus shipping for a total of $39 dollars...and I couldn't keep the chicks)

His reply stated that they had AUTO-TURNERS. OMG and I still got only 25% hatch rate? Did they let the kids set these eggs? How the heck do you get such different hatch rates from the exact same chicken's eggs. (collected at the exact same time....the 6 I set were the 6 oldest eggs....so I felt too old for eating, so I gave them to a broody.) I am so upset. It just doesn't pay to be nice anymore. And I won't be.

End of Rant

Wow Cass, Yea like Featherz said...I'd like to know who they get their 48 eggs from! And that IS a terrible hatch rate! When we lived in Albany my son hatched eggs in both his preschool and Kindergarten class and they had a ton of chicks in those classes because they invited us all in to see them! LOL I'm really sorry you have to deal with that. You would think they would have some common sense that this is just a tough winter and they should wait till it's warmer out to hatch. I remember my son's classes always hatching in April or May anyway. Wonder why they want them early this year?!?

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Yeah i'm from cincinnati ohio meet wife while we was in marines and then ended back here in her home town area. I dont know if you have desided what breeds you want but you may look into other places besides TSC for chicks. They generally dont carry too much from what i've seen. I started with TSC chicks last year and have since desided on a differnt breeds. Nothing wrong with the tsc chicks but there is alot more out there. i'm going for colored eggs / sexlinks. Dont know if your in it for eggs or pets or looks or showing. natureberry farm aint too far from you and they get differnt breeds all year long it seems. here is a link to them and you can google the breeds to find out how well laying or what they look like. At least you know it will be what they say it is. At tsc in hamburg they had leghorns marked as silkies wasnt too happy because i didnt know much when i got them and had wrong breed for my daughter. Also alot of us on here breed different stuff so if you are looking for anyone one breed just ask and someone may have it.

http://www.natureberryfarm.com/schedule4Chicks.html

Holly Chicks spider man..They offer a ton of different breeds! I looked through and thought about all the different kinds that I would like some day!

 

[Lynzi777]

I have these as well, along with obvious bunny tracks. I assumed rat also, but they appear in broad daylight. I can't see my two cats letting rats scamper everywhere but maybe they are.

Mine too! That's why I'm doubting the rat...I came home today from running errands and there was another set of tracks leading to the shed than there was this morning when I went out there. I'm thinking the chipmunks are starting to venture out.