NY chicken lover!!!!

[Kinmera]

Quote: Melissa,

I'm in Falconer - which is only about 2 hours away from you. Leroy is BEAUTIFUL area. My Daddy was born and raised on the Mullen Road in Stafford (funny thing, his last name was Mullen

). I have fond memories of spending summer vacations in that area visiting family.

I won't be in the Leroy area until October because I'm making plans to go to the Rochester Poultry Show in Mumford. I'll go through Leroy because the Miss Batavia is a mandatory dinner stop on the way home!

Back to the chicks, I'm still waiting to see how my White Rocks grow out to see what I'm keeping and what will be sold off/moved out.

I've got plans to hatch at least 2 and maybe 3 more times this year though. Gotta boost the laying flock some how.

Rebecca

Young burdock is eaten by the Italians in my are quite often --- the older generations are constantly combing the back hills looking for it.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

The girls are out bright and early this morning. We had some rain overnight, so they are happily digging up bugs and peeping away. Lots of crows out this morning too, and I still worry about the lone hawk I've seen out here a few times. You'd think that there would be LESS risk of predation in the suburbs!

Made plans with DH to start working on the coop this weekend! Super excited. These birds need to get OFF of my front porch!

I hope everyone has a fabulous day.
Best,
Melissa

The crows around will help with keeping the hawk away. I live way out in the country and we see the occasional hawk flying around. It seems that as soon as we see the hawk, so does the crows and they dive in to the rescue and chase it off before it gets to close. Good luck with the coop. We did the same thing. I jumped the gun and got my first chicks before we had our coop built. It took us way to long to get it built and the girls stayed in our back room way to long!

Don't forget to post the coop pic when you get it built.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Well I did it...I built myself a small incubator! I'm still trying to get a constant temp. I did when it was down on the table, but I moved up upstairs to the hallway where it will stay and now I'm working on tweaking the vents to get it just right. I'm going to keep it running for a few more days to make sure that I can keep it just right. I'm hoping that by the weekend I can set some silkie eggs. I think that I may throw in a few other ones too and see how it goes. If I get a good result the I may be looking for some eggs!!

The chicks I have now are going great. The first 2 are 2 weeks and they are starting to get more feathers. The little chipmunk is stating to get this pretty pattern. I can't wait to see what it looks like fully feathered. I hope that my other little chipmunk that is 1 week will look similar. The little black one and the little blue one are so cute too! Who doesn't think that chicks are adorable!

My little cochin is getting redder comb and waddles. She is 17 weeks so I expect her to start laying any time. The only problem I have is the 2 cochins think that they are ducks and they like to hang out in the small duck hut. I keep checking it to see if she is thinking about laying in there. They are kinda a pain cause I have to put them in the big coop every night. I wish that I could just keep then locked up in there, but then I would have to lock out all the other girls and I don't want them to have to lay their eggs somewhere else. Guess that I need to get cracking on making that duck hoop coop and get the bantams their own section of the run.

Guess that I need to get pulling weeds in the garden in between the rain showers. At least it makes it easier to pull them out. This is the first year that I haven't put stuff down to help with the weeds and they are taking over the garden. I think that I will be pulling them for a week straight. Time to bust out the cardboard, newspaper, and plastic.

ttfn

 

[andreanar]

Ugh rotten morning here already! The little cockeral we decided to keep just yesterday, started biting me today, guess that answered my question on how hard A chicken can bite! Lol. My car broke down and is in the shop and I cut the back of my leg and the chickies keep trying to peck it! Thinking about going back to bed and starting over!

 

[rancher hicks]

Well I did it...I built myself a small incubator! I'm still trying to get a constant temp. I did when it was down on the table, but I moved up upstairs to the hallway where it will stay and now I'm working on tweaking the vents to get it just right. I'm going to keep it running for a few more days to make sure that I can keep it just right. I'm hoping that by the weekend I can set some silkie eggs. I think that I may throw in a few other ones too and see how it goes. If I get a good result the I may be looking for some eggs!!

The chicks I have now are going great. The first 2 are 2 weeks and they are starting to get more feathers. The little chipmunk is stating to get this pretty pattern. I can't wait to see what it looks like fully feathered. I hope that my other little chipmunk that is 1 week will look similar. The little black one and the little blue one are so cute too! Who doesn't think that chicks are adorable!

My little cochin is getting redder comb and waddles. She is 17 weeks so I expect her to start laying any time. The only problem I have is the 2 cochins think that they are ducks and they like to hang out in the small duck hut. I keep checking it to see if she is thinking about laying in there. They are kinda a pain cause I have to put them in the big coop every night. I wish that I could just keep then locked up in there, but then I would have to lock out all the other girls and I don't want them to have to lay their eggs somewhere else. Guess that I need to get cracking on making that duck hoop coop and get the bantams their own section of the run.

Guess that I need to get pulling weeds in the garden in between the rain showers. At least it makes it easier to pull them out. This is the first year that I haven't put stuff down to help with the weeds and they are taking over the garden. I think that I will be pulling them for a week straight. Time to bust out the cardboard, newspaper, and plastic.

ttfn

Just a couple of thoughts. If the hallway is high traffic it's not a good place for an incubator. If you have a room that stays in the 70-80* range and is not used often that would be better.

As for those weeds. I like to toss my scratch into the weeds along my fence and let the chickens do the weeding for me. What they don't get I can deal with, but they do save me time.

 

[Stuffedcritter]

nice lite rain here perfect for watering the garden, so not looking forward to the stickiness that's coming.
Girls are doing good still wont take a dust bath, changed pans added ashes, seedling mix, cleared out spot in garden nothing. Just been dusting them with DE and ash mix by hand. Little extra work but they deal with better then the dog getting his tick spray applied.

 

[Gramma Chick]

My girls (and boys) are 4 weeks old today. Of the 8 seems that 2 are roo's, when what i wanted was 8 hens. Sadly the sweetest of the bunch and the best looking is one i think is a roo. Wifes already started asking me to keep him, which sucks because I work rotating shift work, so if hes making noise all day it might affect my sleep. Might be looking for homes for 2 Silver laced wyandotte roo's.

2 Roos are noisier than 1 Roo ..the competition makes more noise .1 roo might not bother your sleep .
My one Roo doesnt bother mine

 

[Gramma Chick]

Ugh rotten morning here already! The little cockeral we decided to keep just yesterday, started biting me today, guess that answered my question on how hard A chicken can bite! Lol. My car broke down and is in the shop and I cut the back of my leg and the chickies keep trying to peck it! Thinking about going back to bed and starting over!

Lighty smack him back so he knows it is not acceptable or give him a push with your foot
Yes The other thing I forgot to mention is they like to peck Boo Boos .
do this when you get pecked by any of them

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Just a couple of thoughts. If the hallway is high traffic it's not a good place for an incubator. If you have a room that stays in the 70-80* range and is not used often that would be better.

As for those weeds. I like to toss my scratch into the weeds along my fence and let the chickens do the weeding for me. What they don't get I can deal with, but they do save me time.

The upstairs hallway is the only place in the house that isn't a high traffic area. There is a large landing at the right at the top of the stairs. I use it for various things. Most of the time it is my craft area. This year it turned into my green house area. I have it in the far corner where it will be bothered the least amount. (The kids are only upstairs to sleep) It is also the warmest part of the house. DH hates the heat so he usually has the ac on downstairs. The only other place that I could put it is out in the garage and the temp changes so much out there it would drive me crazy trying to keep it stable. The only other place that I thought about putting it was in our bedroom, but the light would tick off DH so it can't go there. I know that no matter where I put it he isn't going to like it.

Weeds are in the garden. I have worked so hard to put the fence up to keep the chickens out I don't think that it would be a good idea to let them in. I would think that they would tear it all up so it is old fashion pulling for this girl. If the kids were older I'd have them help me but DS is only 3 and if DD is helping then DS would want to help to and I have a hard enough time trying to keep him out as it is. To let him in would just drive me nuts trying to make sure that he pulled the right weeds even if he was right next to me.

He would rather just play in his sand box which is next to the garden. I prefer it that way too...Hey does any one want to come to a weed pulling party?

 

[Kinmera]

Several years ago I talked DH into planting the rows in the garden 36" apart. That makes them wide enough for the rototiller to go down through each row helping with weed control. Then I go through with one of those 3 tined hand rake thingies and that covers about 95% of my weeds as long as I keep ahead of it!

I tried getting DH to put black plastic, newspapers, or something down on the rows to help control weeds, but he wouldn't go for it

. I DID get him to continue to get me used tractor tires for raised beds though! I have Asparagus, Horseradish, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and peas in them this year. If I had my way Everything that could go in a tire would --- which is just about everything but CORN. I keep reminding myself baby steps.