NY chicken lover!!!!

[Metella]

Cracrzy4chicks - that's what I am saying - one peep makes a brooder break and you have dried poop all over !!!! GROSS ... and the dust and such ....

So I don't do chicks until they can be outside quickly - like in a week ! and I have heard so many like Jlaw - where the cold is killing them after all that hard work and expensive feed - so I do feel a little left out of all the peep fun - but I learned my lesson - early peeps just are not for me ! More power (and earlier eggs) for those that can - but it ain't this girlie.

 

[Purpletie3]

This is a flock builder for me since I have no layers. My timing was wanting them to be laying around the time they can run around and be free...I hope that I am close & haven't done all this work in vain.

 

[Metella]

Purpletie3 - I totally understand ! I did the same when I was starting out - but now you couldn't pay me to keep peeps inside ... ha ha

Just be careful when you do put them out - maybe bring them in at night for a week - as they get used to the new set up .... leaving out a wee bit past dark so they really get used to it all ... Very frustrating and sad when they die and teens after all the planning, care and attachment.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

As I understand it, many of the organic farms have to pay $$$s' to get certified organic. It is a large chunk of change, so to cover production costs they have to raise prices. As Joel Salatin says - 'the Gov't now owns organic'.  There is a movement starting where your land/livestock/produce is checked by non-certified organic farmers and if you pass, you can become a non certified yourself. It's an attempt to cut the Gov't out of the equation and make organic food affordable. It has a name, but CRS strikes again!!    Perhaps we should simply stop paying for people to have kids they can't afford??

I was amazed when I found out how difficult it is to get Medicaid to approve tube tying, even after they've paid for the same 18 yr old to have 3 babies already. Strange system that is.

I like the non certified organic. Just placed orders for non certified pork & lamb. I like knowing the farmers and that they are treating/feeding their animals respectfully. We are lucky in this part of the state that there are people doing it right.

 

[cracrzy4chicks]

This is a flock builder for me since I have no layers. My timing was wanting them to be laying around the time they can run around and be free...I hope that I am close & haven't done all this work in vain.

I did the same thing early in my chicken addiction !!! But now my flock is pretty much set, and I hatch replacements. When my big girls are molting the youngsters are just starting to lay. Works out ok. If I sell chicks later in the spring they can be in a barn brooder for the new owners, making their life easier too.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

I agree with you on the 3' drifts. I have been mulling and mulling this chicken thing. I have a HUGE barn in which I can renovate and use for as many chickens as i need. However, it is a little ways from the house. And oddly not a single outside door opens to it.

Then, i had purchased a garage from the Amish that is 10' x 20' which i thought about turning into a chicken house and run also...maybe having two chick locations.

All I know is Spring can not come soon enough. My house is filling up with chicks & I can not seem to find the perfect sized and shaped grow out area for them. 

Yep. Hauling water thru snow drifts is no fun. But I prefer that to having chickens in the house for more than a couple weeks. They're just so dusty & smelly.

I've got one of those Amish sheds. I built a wall to divide it: half for the lawn mower, etc and half for the chickens. I further divided the chicken half into several pens so that I could separate the groups. There's still room for storage & a dog crate in case a bird needs to be pulled from the mix. Works well. Those hoop coops look like a great option as well. If I didn't have so much wind up on my hill, I definitely would have gone that route.

I'm itching to fill the bator & get hatching, but I know Metella is right that even the teenagers can't go outside before late April or early May. Especially with the spring we had last year. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen this year.

 

[Metella]

The really hard part is we hear about those down south - where it IS appropriate to start to set eggs now ... and I think that gets us restless up here ....

 

[marquisella]

Quote: I use plastic totes. I cut a hole in the lid, just big enough for a light with shade, those silver metal work lamps. Use duct tape to tape some wire onto the lid over the hole, same I use for the pens. Then sit the lamp on top of the wire/cut out. Keep the lid on with just about 1 inch of it off so air can circulate. This keeps the dander down. I start out with the 6" tall totes, and move the chicks up to taller ones as they grow, to then going out with a lamp hanging from whatever you use for heat without the tote. This also keeps the heat inside the tote, and the chicks can't jump up & break the bulb so the bulbs last longer.

 

[wny egger]

Are there recipes for those kind of things...flock blocks etc...I just can't pay 10bucks for a small clog of seed.

yeah the chickenchick is were i got the recipe ..you can use diffrent stuff in it ..its a real life saver when they start getting bored ..also i hang butter nut squash from the top of the coop and let it hang down about head high ..they peck at that stuff instead of each other ..some of the stuff chicken chick has in her recipe can cost ya , so i just used stuff i could find, afford, or had on hand ..dont think you have to go buy all the stuff she has in hers ..you can use diffrent things you have available to you ..

 

[sonew123]

Feeling so accomplished today!!! Seperated out my bresse into their own breeding pen today..now that the new girls and old are hopefully all laying and the roo showed signs of interest...I pulled them from the group barn!!! Ill give them 3 weeks to clear unwated sperm from the CCL roo and then save for a week for myself and pop into bator!!!! FINALLY...I had a gorgeous roo last year of age and out of nowhere just died..he was huge too..then had to spend all Summer hatching to get another roo from buying eggs or swapping for them...my goal is to hatch out 25-30 maybe 40 butcher all but the two best roos in September..keep another 5 of the best girls and either butcher out or sell the rest of the girls...

Next...seperating out the marans