NY chicken lover!!!!

[Devona]

Sorry Pyxis, if I sounded too horror stricken. I'm only accustomed to the garden variety chickens at the garden variety price. I've never seen black combs and wattles before! Are their legs black too? Oh, yes they are. That's so cool. Yes they're pretty. Very shiny and alert looking. I'd be afraid to keep such expensive animals outside. I would be tempted to stash them in the house for safekeeping!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

@Pyxis I plan on doing the same concept for my flock. Keep money made off eggs, chicks and birds will go back into the "egg jar" (a mason jar that says "mom's egg money"). The money in the jar will eventually be turned into an incubator, more coops, more fencing and lastly more birds. I have full intentions of making my chickens self sufficient, if that's possible.

 

[rancher hicks]

I'm sure I'll be able to meet them. But I have to find them first! The amount of time it would take to get to these places I'm seeing, it would be awful if I had to leave without, though! You would think someone in queens would post chickens for sale on Craigslist, but such luck is not mine!

It might be helpful to have a incubator and hatch your own. The percentage you'd get with shipped eggs would be lower but might be worth the trouble.

 

[rancher hicks]

Thanks for the input on the price, rancher. I'll they'll than I changed my mind. I will wait until I can get young Ameracaunas instead. Sorry to hear about you frozen fingers. When I have to be outside for any length of time in the winter, I usually double up on mine. I don't know if that would help you for the length of time you're outside, or in your really cold temps, but it's usually better for me. I wear the stretchy knit ones, then pull on the thick bulky ones. Regarding the vining plants, have you ever tried nasturtiums? There's a trailing type, a bushy type and a vining type I think. They flowers are supposed to be edible. I usually grow hyacinth bean, which, like scarlet runner bean, has lovely flowers (purple pink) and pretty bean pods you can eat. I think the scientific name is dolichos lablab. You can cook the pods when they are still young. Some types have a string on the side. I like morning glories myself, but that reseeding! Oh my goodness, if you decide you don't want them the following year, you're sol. I tried moon flowers once. They open at night and smell great. But I don't know if it's harmful to chickens.

I do like Nasturtiums but I don't think they'd grow high enough for my purpose. I've never eaten the flowers though. I did grow the Scarlet runners just for looks and I saved some seed.

It's gotten warmer out so this evening closing up was not so bad.

 

[rancher hicks]

@rancher hicks I order from a few different catalogs, depending on price and variety, not one has everything I want. Gurney's has spend 25 get 25 free and $50 same. I'll probably order most from Henry Fields. Totally Tomatoes for maters, bloody butcher and Alaskan fancy, both open pollenated and early. I'm going to try giant mangels from RH Shumway for chicken feed next winter. Onions you can't beat Dixondale Farms. Best onions ever. We go in on them with a few people. Bunch of five dozen+ for $11.45, then only $4 bunch untill 8 bunches, then $2 bunch till 30. Mix and match variety for same price. Split the cost, and it's free shipping.
Potatoes if I don't have enough from last yr I just buy a big bag of the cheap dirty ones, white paper bag, don't like buying them for eating but they sprout good eventually. I experimented with cutting them up small last yr, wherever there was a eye, down to one inch chunks. Read they grow faster that way when they have less to feed off. Didn't seem to harm them.
Going to try sweet potatoes this yr. There is vids on starting your own slips on youtube. Didn't know it was so easy, no sense in buying them.

I'd completely forgotten about Mangels. I do hope to grow some pumpkins for winter use. They can freeze but the chickens will still eat them. Last year I got two boxes of acorn squash I gave them during the winter. I'd just bring them i in a bucket to thaw and then dump them in the run later on. I'd love to have a big pile of them right now.

 

[Pyxis]

Sorry Pyxis, if I sounded too horror stricken. I'm only accustomed to the garden variety chickens at the garden variety price. I've never seen black combs and wattles before! Are their legs black too? Oh, yes they are. That's so cool. Yes they're pretty. Very shiny and alert looking. I'd be afraid to keep such expensive animals outside. I would be tempted to stash them in the house for safekeeping!

Oh no worries! Spending that much on chickens is definitely not for everybody, and anyone who's used to seeing chicks at $2 each would be startled by the $200 a chick price I just knew I had to have them as soon as I saw them and I don't have any kids or anything that I would spend the money on otherwise so I indulge myself with my birds

And yes, they are completely black, feathers, legs, combs, wattles, toenails, meat, organs, and bones.

 

[rancher hicks]

Hi everyone!
My partner and I are planning to move in with our best friends (another couple) this fall and homestead. Currently we are in Seattle and the Bay Area but are eager to get out off the West Coast and the finger lakes area is at the top of our list.
We'd like to start off with ducks and chickens, primarily for eggs, secondarily for meat. Also looking forward to taking advantage of their foraging/pest control/scratching skills. I have been doing a lot of research into aquaponics and the related "quackaponics"/"duckponics" and I have dreams of a biofiltered duck pond that can be used to grow greens for the poultry. Bees are also on the top of our list as well, but I'm going to be in charge of the livestock.
There is so much amazing knowledge in this thread and I am really grateful for this community!
Thanks,
Teukie

 

[Devona]

Hmmmm.... An incubator. Hatch my own..... Don't put such ideas into my head! My husband would have a fit! There are already too many critters here. All I want is two hens. Just to keep chick company and give us some eggs until the babies are old enough to lay in the summer. Did I mention my backyard is tiny? With concrete on the bottom? Nowhere for the poor creatures to forage. I do have a raised garden bed and that's where I put chick to scratch around. My mom is around the corner and has a bigger yard with real dirt and weeds and bushes in the garden. I would like to take my chickens over there in the spring, but she's somewhat resistant to the idea. She is envisioning smelly chicken poop all over her yard. Plus it would be a lot of work to fetch them back and forth each day. She's afraid if I leave them there at night, people will steal them.

 

[rancher hicks]

@Devona did you say you used unfiltered tap water for ff? That could be the problem if it's chlorinated. Three days is all I go with mash. Whole grains ferment the same. I don't use acv in it. A little acv can help lower the ph so bad things don't grow but you want lactic acid ferment like in sourkraut or kimchi, not acedic acid ferment.
Three days and mines bubbly.

If it's chlorinated fill a jug and let it sit for a few days open. The chlorination will evaporate out of the water. I keep a pitcher of water near my house plants for that very reason. Only problem I've had is the cat gets up there and drinks it.

She gets her head right down in there. ( I don't put plant food in it for that reason)

 

[rancher hicks]

the legbars are pretty with a great egg color.

At one time I'd hope to get a pullet to add to my EE's. They do lay nice colored eggs.