NY chicken lover!!!!

[bacn60s]

Wicked cold here in upstate New York. Near the Vermont border. All the snow and now
the blowing winds. Hopefully the weather will get better soon...
All my chickens want to be outside but with the cold temps I have them secured in their coop.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Bill H

 

[bakingintherain]

I thought that I may have to eventually clean off their roof, but not sure where it is going to go. My kids come out to eat and drink..and especially get some corn and any goodies that I bring them! Hope that is everyone is having a good Valentines day. Ours is turning out to not be so great. Hubby decided that we needed to go look at a mini van that he saw on line. So we hurried up and loaded in my car to drive the 90 minutes to look at it...Problem is we didn't make it. We were about 20 minutes from the house and got into an accident. We are all okay. I hit my head on the visor and my shoulder is super sore right now. The kids were shaken up but fine, but my car is in rough shape! Roads were crappy and the brakes locked up and we had no where to go so the passenger side front corner of our car hit the drivers rear corner of the SUV. Not much damage to his vehicle, but my car is dyeing. The radiator decided it needed to pour all the antifreeze on the ground. DH is getting it towed home right now. Happy Valentines day right?!

So sorry about the accident, but I am glad all the humans are ok *hugs

Luv-I'm glad you're OK and sorry about your car and the accident. Gramma- Sorry but I don't have any green egg layers for sale right now. I haven't even started hatching yet. It's too cold right now. We don't want babies in the house this year. For anyone interested I have decided to sell off my buff brahma bantams. 2 roosters, 3 hens, 1 pullet, and 2 brahma mix hens. All for $30.

Oooooohhhhhh me me me! (Actually that really depends on weather you can hold them till chicken stock as I am over 5 hours from you) but I would love love love them!

 

[Rainey]

What breeds did you start with? Does your flock forage for part of their feed? (when the cold and snow are gone) ? And where are you--trying to get a sense of who may be near me--Oswego County, between Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I like, when possible, to learn from someone else's mistakes

.

 

[Metella]

I'm coming to chicken stock in May

Mine are a mix of Black Copper Marans (with feathered legs) Welsummer, Cuckcoo Marans, and what most people call Aracauna - but are really Easter Eggers .... with muffs on their faces

I get eggs ranging from very dark brown (hershy chocolate bar) to very light tan, green and blue. With one leg horn who is holding steady ! But her blood will only be added to the mix if she does well this winter. You may see a barred rock and RIR in the pics - they are not part of what I will breed with fertile eggs - the RIR is mean Jury still out on the Barred rocks as I got them from someone else and need to determine how well they do over a whole winter.

As soon as I can really open the doors - they are out ... they have 5 acres to forage - with lots of berry bushes they head to when a hawk is around ... I didn't lose one to a predator last year - I credit that to a family of ravens that I saw once chase a fox across a whole field ! and I don't let them out if I am not home to rush out when there is an alarm. Once there is a little green - I really hardly feed them at all - a little in the morning and a little at night. Of course now, I am trying to overfed to keep them well energized. Here are some pics .... My roo is welsummer x EE with the best temperment ever.

 

[Metella]

that is the mixed flock above

- then I am trying really hard to get blue eggers that lay a lot ... I have the blue egg roo and 2 possible hens - then I may cross the leghorn into that mix for bigger eggs next year - now they are medium to large sized .... but my of my customers like big eggs for baking.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

I have green/blue/olive/and blue green eggs for sale posted on CL $10 dozen. I have a nice black EE rooster with beard and whiskers. Plus the other roosters of course. I hopefully should know what the produce this week. Today is lockdown. I'll candle one more time.

You've got the huge barn. Travis can surely add a brooding room in there.

After I get my incubator up and going I would love to see about getting a few of your blue eggs Maybe 3 or 4? Won't have to much room in my little incubator.

Hubby trying to get to the barn. Yesterday we still had a path wide enough for a truck. Now it is a chest deep drift.

Sounds and looks like our house. I had nice wide paths, but after the snow and wind from last night the are all filled in high. With my shoulder and arm really bothering me I wasn't able to toss the snow up and over the banks so all paths are just a shovel wide. Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to get out there and widen them up some...Unless you want to come up with that snow blower.

 

[rancher hicks]

-15 here this morn ..the windchill must be way down there ..birds are fed and closed up for the day ..i have some nesting boxes near the door to the run ..not sure i should open it ..afraid it will cause frozen eggs fast in these temps ..i filled a plastic pop bottle with cracked corn and popped a few holes in it and threw it in to the coop ..they kick it around and corn falls out ..i also hung a squash i split in half for them to peck at ..i think if i give them things to do they wont get bored and start pecking at each other ..i read alot of bad habbets can come from being cooped up and being bord..you guys all letting the girls out to day ..my poor roo .i thought i had the venting better fort them this winter but his comb and waddle are showing signs of frost bite ..seem it doesnt matter how much vassilean i put on them it still gets bad ..i think i will start using bagbalm instead and see if it helps ..it looks sore ..hes shaking his head , so i no its bothering him ..not sure what else i can do for him ..another reason i didnt want to let him out to day ..i guess its gunna be this way for a few weeks .they said on the weather that we could be dealing with thesae temps a few weeks ..i better get some more toys built for them ..you guys have a good day and stay warm and safe ..

That reminds me I have two boxes of acorn squashes. I need to bring some in to thaw them out.

I tried the vaseline and bag balm it just doesn't do as nice as I'd like. I've been considering Wyandottes for quite some time. The thing with roosters is they may be okay inside but outside they don't notice the frostbite happening until it's too late.

My fingers got frost bit while delivering mail and now when it's real cold they hurt so bad I just about cry. If I don't have good gloves on that is.

 

[rancher hicks]

Hubby trying to get to the barn. Yesterday we still had a path wide enough for a truck. Now it is a chest deep drift.

Snow blowers are not a luxury they are a necessity. No way could I get to my chickens without one. The key is to keep the ground clear from the beginning that way the ground is frozen good and the machine won't get bogged down. The chickens have gotten used to it.

 

[rancher hicks]

Hi Rainy !

I am working on really winter hardy and decent layers .... dual purpose - so they will have some meat on them - making extra roos worth the time to harvest - but main concentrating on winter hardy hens that lay well.

So I have a mixed flock with mixed egg colors and mixed feathering in mind .... breeding good laying hardy hens with a super hardy rooster .... Oh - and I do not breed any that have an attitude. ha ha They can live here (got one mean hen) but they don't get to pass that on.

My Dels do really good. EE's are good to though not meaty. My C.Rocks are big but not good layers. I can see why they've crossed them with Dels. Dels are laying 4/6 and at least a large though some are Extra large sized.

Now the Marans, 2-3/5 at least a large sized egg. Rooster is good sized too. Hopefully next year I'll have about 24 hens. I've some eggs in the bator now but not hopeful they're fertile. They do go broody pretty good too.

Dels and C. Rocks not at all.

 

[featherz]

We spent about an hour yesterday stapling cardboard to the very large venting areas in our big coop - the coop is made out of an old horse runin and has an open area under the tin roof (covered in hardware cloth). Normally this would not be a problem as it's about 12 feet off the ground - but three or four of my silly leghorns roost up there, right in the path of the wind. So far (knock knock), all the chickens are fine without heat. Hope my luck holds out just a bit longer.