NY chicken lover!!!!

[happyhensny]

I candled eggs - lots look good!

begin day 7

15 7 Araucana (shipped)
23 20 Chantecler
9 5 Mille Fleur (shipped)
13 11 BA
2 1 Porcelain D'Uccle

62 44

Not bad considering I had some shipped and it's been cold here.

 

[rancher hicks]

I candled eggs - lots look good!

begin day 7

15 7 Araucana (shipped)
23 20 Chantecler
9 5 Mille Fleur (shipped)
13 11 BA
2 1 Porcelain D'Uccle

62 44

Not bad considering I had some shipped and it's been cold here.

Congrats, hope they all finish.

What with the price of shipping and eggs not doing well I can't see buying eggs unless it's somethiing I don't have and really want. Plus I know mine are hardy. Hatching your replacements is the way to go.
Even buying chicks is iffy. Had a friend bought GC's and RIR pullets and I don't know what was going on but he dumped them all saying he was getting one egg a day. From 100 birds? I'll hatch my own thanks.

 

[stonykill]

I'll take a dozen. Seriously. I love your birds. How much you charging per chick, so I can start collecting my pennies. (seriously, I collect pennies for such purchases and take them to the bank for "real" money to make the actual purchase)

Edited to add: Sumantra only...have EE already and Lav Ameruacanas. I'll take some of each color, whatever hatches, I'm not picky, but I really like the black roos, so mostly black would be wonderful. Of course, blue would be nice, I don't have anything blue. Or splash. OK...I go back to "whatever hatches", I'm not picky. LOL

lol, I knew you only meant Sumatra's. If I hatch EE's it will probably be for myself. Not that I wouldn't sell some. Last year I got $4 per chick. I tend to get 70% blacks. Splash, less than 1% until my splash pullet starts laying. Then I can breed her with a blue roo to get blues and splash only from her eggs.
I'll get a brooder set up here soon, then fire up the bator.

BTW partial payment in game bird crumbles or chick starter is always good.

 

[Cass]

You are killing me!

Annie,

I'll pick up some for you when I pick up mine. They are BEAUTIFUL...I have seen them....you will LOVE them....and they don't need a coop, just put out a feeder and waterer near the tree they pick to roost in. I'm planning to put a nest box on the top of an tall stump, hoping they will lay their eggs up there, instead of having an easter egg hunt every darn day.

(And I still want chicks from you too. I figure I need 18 - 20 birds total for me and my neighbor) (Wonder if I should tell my neighbor I am ordering chicks for her. LOL)

 

[Cass]

lol, I knew you only meant Sumatra's. If I hatch EE's it will probably be for myself. Not that I wouldn't sell some. Last year I got $4 per chick. I tend to get 70% blacks. Splash, less than 1% until my splash pullet starts laying. Then I can breed her with a blue roo to get blues and splash only from her eggs.
I'll get a brooder set up here soon, then fire up the bator.

BTW partial payment in game bird crumbles or chick starter is always good.

Cool....I'll have to price up game bird crumble and chick starter and figure out how much cash beyond a bag of each I have to save up.
I'm soooo excited. I still have the small side of the coop open for new chicks (after they feather out, that is). I can keep them in there until the weather warms up enough to go out and pick a tree. Maybe some of them will want to come back in the coop to lay their eggs? (Hey I can dream, can't I?) My brooder is set to go and I can come to get them the very first weekend after they hatch. Time the hatch date right and I can come the day after they hatch so you only have them overnight.

 

[admhotel]

We are on our 3rd hatch of the year, and we haven't fired up the "fridgeabator" yet. That comes later in the spring

We are hatching alittle bit of everything execept the ones from the laying flock. We did musical pens acouple weeks ago to get ready to hatch more later in the spring. Having a huge barn with lots of room is a blessing and a curse.
So far we have hatched:
BLRW
Cuckoo Marans
Blue Marans
Silver Ameraucana (every egg I get I want to hatch)
LH X SA (Ginny, you have to let us know how your hatch goes)
Olive Eggers
Del

Next is:
Tab's BLR Orp project
BLRW
Silver Amer.
Blue Silver Ameraucana Project
Blue Cuckoo OE
and whatever else we decide to hatch.

I think I might need to build a bigger chick area

 

[Cass]

We are on our 3rd hatch of the year, and we haven't fired up the "fridgeabator" yet. That comes later in the spring

We are hatching alittle bit of everything execept the ones from the laying flock. We did musical pens acouple weeks ago to get ready to hatch more later in the spring. Having a huge barn with lots of room is a blessing and a curse.
So far we have hatched:
BLRW
Cuckoo Marans
Blue Marans
Silver Ameraucana (every egg I get I want to hatch)
LH X SA (Ginny, you have to let us know how your hatch goes)
Olive Eggers
Del

Next is:
Tab's BLR Orp project
BLRW
Silver Amer.
Blue Silver Ameraucana Project
Blue Cuckoo OE
and whatever else we decide to hatch.

I think I might need to build a bigger chick area

Nawh, Just give me any you don't have room for.

 

[stonykill]

Cool....I'll have to price up game bird crumble and chick starter and figure out how much cash beyond a bag of each I have to save up.
I'm soooo excited. I still have the small side of the coop open for new chicks (after they feather out, that is). I can keep them in there until the weather warms up enough to go out and pick a tree. Maybe some of them will want to come back in the coop to lay their eggs? (Hey I can dream, can't I?) My brooder is set to go and I can come to get them the very first weekend after they hatch. Time the hatch date right and I can come the day after they hatch so you only have them overnight.

I had 11 Sumatra chicks born in my tin shed. Well actually many more, but this particular 11 were hatched by my best broody one of my Blue Sumatra's , simply named "mama". She teaches her little ones to roost in the shed, then leaves them and goes to the Sumatra spruce. They hatched last summer. JUST this past week, the girls all moved out, as they have chosen a Roo. 4 live in a Hemlock in the backyard with 2 roo's, and 3 live in a pine in the front yard with a roo. Once in a while they decide to sleep in the shed now, but mainly inn a tree at this point. They were the only ones who did this. All of the others born in there were taught by their mother to go to the Sumatra spruce to roost.
The interesting thing is, most of the girls who lived in the shed for 8 months or so, go back there to lay. And "mama" is in there sitting on eggs. Getting ready to do it all over again. So you may get lucky with the eggs. I have one black Sumatra hen who goes in the RIR coop to lay daily.

 

[admhotel]

Here are some pics of what I built down in the barn. I wish I had gotten some pics of the before, it has changed alot.



The nice thing is, most of the wood is "repurposed". Some of it is from an old lean-to that had falling down, some of it is construction 2x4 that were being thrown out. Used wood is alot harder to work with but we never could of afforded to buy all the wood that we needed to build what I was able to. Even alot of the wire for the lights I have been installing I pulled down from the barn and reused. I have a pretty large pile of metal that I need to scrap to help pay for the new breaker boxes we put in. I have watched alot of football games down in the barn while building this on Sundays, Tab says that I am making my own "Man Cave". I had to tell her that I plan on having that in my wood shop I am going to build in the old milk house

 

[happyhensny]

Here are some pics of what I built down in the barn. I wish I had gotten some pics of the before, it has changed alot.



The nice thing is, most of the wood is "repurposed". Some of it is from an old lean-to that had falling down, some of it is construction 2x4 that were being thrown out. Used wood is alot harder to work with but we never could of afforded to buy all the wood that we needed to build what I was able to. Even alot of the wire for the lights I have been installing I pulled down from the barn and reused. I have a pretty large pile of metal that I need to scrap to help pay for the new breaker boxes we put in. I have watched alot of football games down in the barn while building this on Sundays, Tab says that I am making my own "Man Cave". I had to tell her that I plan on having that in my wood shop I am going to build in the old milk house

That barn is awesome! I showed DH the pics and told him I wished we had a big barn like that. "You would be a full-time farmer if you had that" Well, yeah.

Cass- they'll be ready 3/1 yeah!!!!!

Stonykill - your Sumatras roost in trees? Every bird MUST, MUST, MUST be locked in at night. We have a severe predator problem here. If one bird gets shut out of the coop at night it is very likely it won't be around in the morning. My runs are chain-link dog kennel panels with welded wire on top. Rocks are piled around the perimeter to deter diggers. Crazy thing is we live in a residential area but we also have the only patch of woods around so the predators all hide in my backyard.