NY chicken lover!!!!

[itsy]

Hey Itsy, is that a standardbred in your avatar?

WOW - you're good!!!!!!

Yes, that's Jenny. She's our pet/racehorse. My boyfriend is a farrier and he trains her. One day when she's no longer racing, she's going to make the best backyard horse ever! She's not broken for saddle, but he's been on her bareback a few times and she's very calm. She's the sweetest, most people-loving horse we've known.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:

I just came home from our TSC, and also managed to resist the temptation - in fact, I was just logging in here to tell y'all that I stayed strong!

The new enclosed setup is great. The staff at my TSC is really excellent (rural folks who know livestock for the win!), and successfully kept the kiddies out of the babies last year, but they were still too "out in the open." It's good that they've chosen to remove the temptation this year

The woman who checked me out is a fellow chicken enthusiast who keeps a flock of thirty or so birds. She said they're all surprised and a bit dismayed that the chicks are there so early. She told me that they had one shipment come in today with a lot of losses, and they think that they were left someplace cold for too long during shipping. Poor babies.

The Schodack store has "assorted pullets" (all platinum blondes - probably White Leghorns and/or White Rocks), a whole horde of happy, active little red sexlink pullets (tempting!), straight-run Brown Leghorns (why, oh why did they have to be straight-run?), what looked like some Cornish X, and straight-run Pekin ducks. I so want ducks - I'm very close to setting up a brooder and going back to get all nine of those babies. DH has one of my "brooder totes" jammed full of his junk, but the other is available.

Besides there are always more brooder totes at Target!!! Good that you stayed strong......but can you hold out?

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all! Another dreary rainy day here so everything is sloppy and wet and melting snow. The coops are damp with all this rain so a little smelly this am. The hens are very unhappy with all this snow and rain and voiced it to me the whole time I was out there. I think they are tired of all this and just want to come out and play. Silly silkies just stampede out the door as usual. I am hoping to get enough eggs over the next two weeks to fire up the bator and see how fertility is with them.

Hen--glad to see you resisted temptation. I probably would have folded and gotten some if my dh wasnt with me.

Rancher--I would be interested in seeing a pic of your hoop coops and how you built them. Thinking of doing one as a grow out pen for the newbies that are coming april 3. I wonder if they would work for silkies as well?

Love the baby pics! I hope everyones hatches go well. Cant wait to do mine. Aria--hope your silkie hatching is going well! Off to the pharm for more mayhem.. Probably where I picked up my terrible hacking cough and cold. Sharing the wealth with them who gave it to me.

 

[vmdanielsen]

My dh and I built a 5'X10' hoop coop as a grow out house. It worked very well for summer/fall. It had a tendency to get wet in there..condensation. We moved it around about once a week. Put it in the garden for fertilization purposes and then used it to cover the kale, which we ate on Christmas!(the chickens can not be in it with the kale. My chickens LOVE kale!!! Anyway, It worked very well and I think I may build a smaller one, So this hatch and the buckeye hatch can each have their own. I do keep the hoop coop behind the electric netting at all times when chickens are out there, because I am afraid that predators will dig underneath. ...

 

[admhotel]

Preferably Marans, or dual purpose (for meat/eggs) since I eat the roos I end up hatching. I have some Dels from you and I love them but I like diversity in the flock. Or other breeds that would sell good as pullets or chicks. My husband is doubting whether my hobby is cost effective, so in order to hatch I might have to sell some.

We have Maran hatching egg available, Golden Cuckoo and Blue. They are all in together so it is a variety, even some Blue cuckoo.

I am in New Woodstock, near Cazenovia, I have BC Marans and Barnevelder eggs for sale.

Would also be willing to trade for some Ameraucana or EE eggs, as blue as possible, not looking to show or breed the birds, just want to add some color to my egg basket!

I really would like to try to get some Barnevelders. I have Silver Ameraucana, White Leghorn X SA, and some Olive eggers. I see a trade in our future.

 

[sherpagirl]

Sounds good, how is Little Boy Blue?

 

[admhotel]

Sounds good, how is Little Boy Blue?

Boy Blue is in with Orps again and hopefully should get some laced birds with this generation. I will PM you my phone# so we can figure out when to do a swap.

 

[sherpagirl]

I am up in Oriskany the third Monday night of every month for a beekeeping class. I don't think I'll be ready for them 3/19, but maybe 4/16?

Anyone else from the Rome area want Barnie or BCMarans eggs? Let me know, we can meet.

 

[marquisella]

I'm thinking....about trying to sell eggs for eating, so far, I've just sold them for breeding purposes, but with feed double what it was 4 years ago, I wondered if its really worth it?
Around here, $2 is about what anyone will pay.

I bought a couple of leghorn hens last fall just to supplement my own eating eggs, and I'm impressed on the size & quantity of eggs they produce...They are extra large! And the hens are these skinny little things.

So how is everyone else who sells eggs doing?
Sue

 

[stonykill]

I get $3 a dozen for mixed colored chicken eggs. $4 a dozen for pekin eggs. I am told quite often that I don't charge enough. I would say I average selling 9 dozen eggs a week. Most every week, the chickens pay for their feed bill, and 2 households (ours and my parents) get 18 or more free eggs to eat a week. Once in a while we eat 3 dozen eggs a week ourselves.

I'm thinking....about trying to sell eggs for eating, so far, I've just sold them for breeding purposes, but with feed double what it was 4 years ago, I wondered if its really worth it?
Around here, $2 is about what anyone will pay.

I bought a couple of leghorn hens last fall just to supplement my own eating eggs, and I'm impressed on the size & quantity of eggs they produce...They are extra large! And the hens are these skinny little things.

So how is everyone else who sells eggs doing?
Sue