NY chicken lover!!!!

[Aymitelli]

Hi all,

I have a garden security question. So, for securing the garden from chickens who may decide to help themselves to a salad bar during their supervised ranging time... do you think 2' chicken wire is high enough? (It's nice for us to step over to get to the garden, but I'm thinking now that it may be a good height for them to easily hop over?

Do you think they'll pretty much make a bee-line for the garden and pop over the fence without even thinking twice? They will be supervised though, and the garden is quite a way away from thier coop (maybe 150'+). I'm thinking I'll have time to re-direct thier thoughts before they get any ideas? (Of course, I'm also a newbie.)

Oh, another question: I have a smaller garden with root veggies (Garlic, shallots, onions) - good and stinky stuff. Will they get into that? Should I fence that off too? (The Garlic will be out by the time the chicks are ready to go outside, but the onions and shallots will still be there for the summer.

Thoughts?

~Amy

 

[rancher hicks]

The term "happy as a pig in mud" does not only apply to pigs.

Two feet is not enough, they will hop over, go under, or find someway in. The only thing is they cant' find their way out! The picture is what I did and even then I had to modify it as each new access point was discovered. If there was a way in one of them would find it. One of the girls nearly impaled herself getting in.

Perhaps you can't see it but behind the rustic fencing is two feet of chicken wire. If there was a space wide enough to get in they would find it. After they ate what they wanted, they would then roll in the dirt, kicking it out of my raised beds. Scratching and kicking up a storm. I thought I had finally found every hole and then the little bantam would go right through the gate holes til I block them.

So what to do? Keep working at keeping them out until you have suceeded. It took me all summer and cost me a years worth of vegetables.

All the best

Rancher

 

[AmyJ]

Hi everyone! Looks like all who went to the chickenstock had a great time. Maybe I will get to go next year! Well we are done with all our hatching here. My broodies did a great job with all the eggs

It looks like we may have quite a few roos too.

I was out taking some pictures today, so I will have to get some up on here soon

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather!

~Amy~

 

[Aymitelli]

UH-OH! Thanks Rancher Hicks for the advice.

So, you say they'll crawl under fending too? Hmmm, I was only worried about them hopping over things. How about chainlink fencing? We have 6' wooden stockade on one side of the yard, and chainlink on the other. This may be an interesting summer! At least I can learn what they'll be up to this summer, then as fall approaches (and some of the prickery shrubbery in the yard along the chainlink fencing dies back a bit for winter, I can get in there to make modifications. Looks like I'll be learning as I go with the garden this year!

Thanks again!!

~Amy

 

[chicken stalker]

Is anyone interested in purebred black ameraucana's directly from John Blehm? I have 6 extras that are 3 weeks old. I also have two split lavender chicks that are less than a week old and one lavender chick that has a crooked neck...free with the purchase of any of the before mentioned babies. Pick up only.

John Blehm's $8 ea. or $45 for all
Split Lavender's $5 ea and a free lavender chick
All of the above $50

And no I don't know their gender...they are too little.

PM me if interested.

 

[admhotel]

Wow didn't know that there are so many people from NY that have chickens

I found BYC after my wife decided that our farm needed some chickens to make it complete, we just went to TSC and got some chicks. Finally got the coop done and now we are talking about getting a few more. I don't really want to order any on-line as I only want a couple. Was wondering if anybody in the Utica/Rome area have some for sale. The ones we got from TSC were in the mixed red bin, I think that they are red sex link and Buff Orpington, don't know for sure, but we are looking for some variety. Thanks alot

 

[Sachasmom]

How far are you from Bloomfield NY? I hatched out some stuff last week, I have BR, Australorps, Dark Brown Leghorns (Bantam) and some Reds. Also some "mystery" chicks, LOL I have two older EE/cross chicks too.

Naturally, I managed to kill all the Ameraucanas and Cochins. Does it count as killing them if you cook them in the eggs???

I did have two Silkies make it out though! My broodys did just as bad as I did, none of their eggs hatched. One of them gave up, one the eggs were like never under her butt, and the other I think ate hers. Or she decided to try to brood old eggs. When I checked there were lots of broken ick in the nest, but no chicks. Couple eggs still. She is still sitting on it, but IDK if anything will hatch.

And I have ducks... Lots of them. My husband was happy they went outside yesterday!

I'm going to be going to Fulton on Sat if anyone needs anything, I have to help a rabbit friend move to her new house.

Does anyone know if I should move the eggs under the ducks to the incubator? One of the 4H leaders who raises poultry said she thought the weight of the ducks would crush the eggs/chicks? Or they would lead them to water and drown them? I don't have a drake, so it wasn't like their eggs were going to hatch, so I swapped them for chicken eggs. I figured they couldn't do a worse job of it than I do! They built just an awesome nest too, none of their eggs are rolling away out from under them!

 

[ancona91]

Quote:
Good Morning, Sachasmom!!!!
I assume you're fairly new at incubating eggs?? Don't give up!!!! My first attemts years ago were fairly dismal, to say the least(smile). Once you get the temp/humidity thing down pat, you'll do just fine!!! The kind of incubator you use is a HUGE factor in hatching success(in my opinion). An incubator that automatically keeps the correct temp saves a lot of work and worrying.......and saves a lot of chicks. Also, be sure to get a decent hygrometer(and calibrate it) to be sure you have the correct humidity level.
The ducks should be able to incubate the chicken eggs for you successfully....as long as they don't decide to give up. If they DO hatch chicks for you, it's adviseable to either keep the mama duck and the chicks securely and safely penned......or she definitely will bring them to the water, possibly drowning the chicks. On the "reverse" side of this, I've heard of people who used hens(both turkey and chicken) to sit on and eventually hatch duck eggs........once the ducklings were old enough to find the nearest body of water, the poor mother hen would panic and try to "save" her babies.........several of these surrogate moms drowned in doing so.
Kathy

 

[Sachasmom]

Well, I've been successfully killing eggs for almost a year now...

I have three of the styrobators. They stink. The forced air one works the best out of the three, but the temps still take off it that one too. Pretty sure the duck eggs in the one now are dead.

I did have the temp gauge/hygrometer from Walmart. I had three actually. None of them work anymore! I need to go buy another one, and a better incubator... Hard to do when the critters have to pay for it. Its very depressing to not be able to spend $20 bucks on something... I hate being on a budget. I have a new found respect for farmers... I can now see how having a crop fail can have disastrous results in their life, since having a failed hatch is a lot like having a failed crop... That means no money for equipment upgrades, etc.

Thank goodness I also do rabbits, so one usually will cover the others shortcomings. Its depressing though when non livestock people say why don't you just go get a real job and stop working so hard for nothing... Turns out being self employed is a bad thing, I'm now unemployable, who knew?

 

[MissCluck]

I have a Hovabater 1588 and I didn't do well with a Cayuga hatch that I was looking forward to. Not a single egg hatched. Probably my fault with wonky humidity levels.

It's been great with chicken eggs and button quail eggs.