NY chicken lover!!!!

[stonykill]

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.

no need to preach. I know the drill. But they are pretty wild birds. CAN'T catch them to lock them up.

We have predetors, and I set traps every night. Kill a few coons and possums and they don't come around for a while. If what you said was true, my birds would have been gone within 30 days of my getting them. I started out with 30 WILD Sumatra's. I penned them, they flew into a tree. 2 years later there are around 60 Sumatra's.

Wild turkeys roost in tree's.. There are A LOT of them. Just sayin.

 

[happyhensny]

no need to preach. I know the drill. But they are pretty wild birds. CAN'T catch them to lock them up.

We have predetors, and I set traps every night. Kill a few coons and possums and they don't come around for a while. If what you said was true, my birds would have been gone within 30 days of my getting them. I started out with 30 WILD Sumatra's. I penned them, they flew into a tree. 2 years later there are around 60 Sumatra's.

Wild turkeys roost in tree's.. There are A LOT of them. Just sayin.

I am sorry, I didn't mean to preach at all. I was just saying that I live somewhere that seems to get anything that stays out all night. I bought some Peafowl from a gentleman in Windham and he had 2 dozen Peas free ranging his farm. I am just not lucky enough to be able to leave them out at night. Wish I was, I'm sure my birds would rather have the freedom. Sorry again. Edited to add: I just reread my previous post and when my stupid phone typed it didn't get some words! Like "I" must lock my birds in at night. Stupid phone.

 

[vmdanielsen]

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

Travis, at least you have space for a bigger chick area!! I would like a barn about 1/3 the size of yours...plenty of room for chicken projects and horses! What I have left after candling last night( I removed 1 OE and one light blue:

1OE
1BXS(your blue silver)
2 light blue
16 AM/LH

I will keep you posted as to the hatch.
good luck with your next hatch
Ginny

 

[stonykill]

I am sorry, I didn't mean to preach at all. I was just saying that I live somewhere that seems to get anything that stays out all night. I bought some Peafowl from a gentleman in Windham and he had 2 dozen Peas free ranging his farm. I am just not lucky enough to be able to leave them out at night. Wish I was, I'm sure my birds would rather have the freedom. Sorry again.
Edited to add: I just reread my previous post and when my stupid phone typed it didn't get some words! Like "I" must lock my birds in at night. Stupid phone.

Don't worry about it. Beleive me, I lock up the rest of my birds, even some of the Sumatra's, the ones I hatched. My 1st winter I had a lot of loses, until I got things under control. Sumatra's are still very wild, ferrel even. Given the choice, they will tree roost. They fly AMAZINGLY well. 100 yards or more at a time if they feel like it. They can fly 15 feet or more straight up if they need to. They are a little like guinneas in the roosting and alarm respect. They have woken me up more than once in the middle of the night to let me know there was danger in the yard.
I do wish they would stay in a coop at night and free range during the day. But it isn't in there genes.

 

[rancher hicks]

AD - What a nice barn.

Stony - I saw a program once where there were wild chickens living on the compost pile of a town. Don't remember where. I think it's neat that you can leave yours out. How do they do in the winter? Do you lose any? The personality of breeds is why I stay away from certain breeds. I got rid of the bantam Brn leghorns cuz I would have been chasing them to kingdom come. Once they got out that would have been the end of that. I can hear my neighbors now, chickens living in the trees. I hear they complain about my roosters crowing but apparently don't mind the dog barking. Nutters! Truth is my roosters don't crow that much. I'm home most days.

Happy -

I know what you mean bout locking them up. Good garden o' peas, I've read some posts about predators where some have practically served them up on a silver platter. Around here I'd be out of business in one night. I once had a hen get out of the fenced in yard and I was out there in my bathrobe at midnight with a flash light cuz I thought I heard her. It's just who I am. But like I said I don't keep certain breeds cuz they are just to wild and can fly. I don't like unfriendly breeds. I like big and heavy.

 

[admhotel]

Travis, at least you have space for a bigger chick area!! I would like a barn about 1/3 the size of yours...plenty of room for chicken projects and horses! What I have left after candling last night( I removed 1 OE and one light blue:

1OE
1BXS(your blue silver)
2 light blue
16 AM/LH

I will keep you posted as to the hatch.
good luck with your next hatch
Ginny

I know the pics don't show how big the barn really is. We did move all of the LF down into the barn so the coop up top will probley be just banties and chicks.

Good luck with the rest of them, hoping for a bunch of pea combs. Cant wait to see what the BS looks like.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all! Got a couple of inches of snow yesterday into last night. Of course once again, my hens blame me for the evil white stuff in their formerly nicely dug up, fresh pine needled run. At least they are laying me eggs now. My silkie hens have been busy checking out the nest box so I am soooo hoping that more eggs will follow the single one I got last week.

My dh has decided he wants to order a mixed bag of straight run chicks this spring. Any recommendations of hatcheries that are reputable for shipping, health of chicks, pricing and replacing any lost in shipping? He has decided he wants variety and we will eat all or almost all the roosters anyways. Input from any of you would be helpful. Looking to order soon for april. On another note, I am looking for bearded blue silkie hatching eggs of show or top quality for my breeding program. I would like to hatch them out myself. Let me know if you have some and what line yours are from. Ideally I would like to hatch them out by april so I would need them in march.

Enjoy your day everyone!

 

[stonykill]

Stony - I saw a program once where there were wild chickens living on the compost pile of a town. Don't remember where. I think it's neat that you can leave yours out. How do they do in the winter? Do you lose any? The personality of breeds is why I stay away from certain breeds. I got rid of the bantam Brn leghorns cuz I would have been chasing them to kingdom come. Once they got out that would have been the end of that. I can hear my neighbors now, chickens living in the trees. I hear they complain about my roosters crowing but apparently don't mind the dog barking. Nutters! Truth is my roosters don't crow that much. I'm home most days.

they winter just fine Rancher. Last winter we had a 26 below zero night. They waited until it warmed up to around zero before coming out of the tree. Then went about their business as usual. I lost quite a few the 1st winter I had them. I was still learnig their personality. A few died for no apperent reason, as chickens sometimes do. Preds, mainly hawks got some. But that is daytime stuff that can happen to any free range bird. Honestly once in a while I lose one to a night time predator. But not often. I simply keep a baited box trap set up, and catch 1/2 dozen each, possum, coons, and skunks a year. Shot one fox stalking mama and babies. Mama let me know there was danger! They are REALLY good about that. Since fall I lost one. Hawk attack while I wasn't home. Killed a possom 2 days ago. 1st one in months.
What I love most aboutthem is they are pretty self suffcient. The person I got them from fed them only cracked corn, once in the am. That is it. but they forage all day long, and were not only healthy, but healthy enough to breed like gangbusters.

 

[rancher hicks]

they winter just fine Rancher. Last winter we had a 26 below zero night. They waited until it warmed up to around zero before coming out of the tree. Then went about their business as usual. I lost quite a few the 1st winter I had them. I was still learnig their personality. A few died for no apperent reason, as chickens sometimes do. Preds, mainly hawks got some. But that is daytime stuff that can happen to any free range bird. Honestly once in a while I lose one to a night time predator. But not often. I simply keep a baited box trap set up, and catch 1/2 dozen each, possum, coons, and skunks a year. Shot one fox stalking mama and babies. Mama let me know there was danger! They are REALLY good about that. Since fall I lost one. Hawk attack while I wasn't home. Killed a possom 2 days ago. 1st one in months.
What I love most aboutthem is they are pretty self suffcient. The person I got them from fed them only cracked corn, once in the am. That is it. but they forage all day long, and were not only healthy, but healthy enough to breed like gangbusters.

They sound like a nice breed to have. More like our ancestors dealt with. Not like the pets we have today. I try not to baby my birds, since hardiness is important to me. Of course this means they won't let me pick them up much. Which is fine.

Of course here we have to many neighbors and the school across the street. Also I don't own a gun so dealing with four legged preds is hard if I have to. Fortunately I haven't had to.

 

[vmdanielsen]

They sound like a nice breed to have. More like our ancestors dealt with. Not like the pets we have today. I try not to baby my birds, since hardiness is important to me. Of course this means they won't let me pick them up much. Which is fine.

Of course here we have to many neighbors and the school across the street. Also I don't own a gun so dealing with four legged preds is hard if I have to. Fortunately I haven't had to.

Hey Ranch....Just read your signature line.....Does that mean i am full of .....poop? Wait , let's change that to well composted manure!

Just got in from doing chores. What a gorgeous day. I have to go to work. everybody enjoy the day~!!!!