NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lynzi777]

Probably being piped from an "artisian well". Lucky horses. That's good tasting water. LOL

I did not mean to panic you with my post, but I have had friends run their well "dry" and it cost them mega bucks for a new one and 3 weeks of carting in every ounce of water they needed for household use until well guy could get the job done. No animals at the time. My chickens use 5 gallons of water a day. I certainly don't want to be carrying that much water in just for the birds.

Someone who knows you/your area commented that you live in a watery area. That can be a mixed blessing. If your water table is normally high, they may not have drilled the well very deep....well drilling is charged by the foot....the fewer feet they have to drill to get an acceptable water flow, the less the job costs. That means that this drought may hit you before it hits those of us who have 300 foot wells because it is going to dry up closer to the surface long before it is going to dry up at 300 feet down. (Remember a drilled well isn't a huge pocket of water just sitting there waiting to be pumped up for use; it is a small area that has to refill from surrounding underground water. When that underground is lower than the depth of the well it won't fill very well, if at all)

There have been a lot of water conserving measured shared here (A couple I am going to impliment myself. Never thought of washer water for irrigation) Pick the ones that work in your life and minimize the unnecessary water useage. I will admit that I can't bring myself to turn the tap totally off when I brush my teeth; I hate to see the toothpaste spit in the sink while I am brushing. But I don't flush away 3 gallons of water every time I use the toilet and try to go upstairs to the newer, more water effiecent toilet when I know I am going to have to flush when I am done. That's a choice I make. Regardless of your water "source" there is limited fresh water on this planet, so we are all responsible for conserving in ways that work in our lives.


Edited to add: Not to meantion that your maintance of your "water system" cost money. The less water you have to process for use, the less you have to spend on whatever your water system required to process your water. (at my house, it's a carbon filter and bleach. LOTS of bleach)

Don't worry about it. No panicking just more of a wake up call for me LOL And yes we have the same water system - carbon filter and bleach, which we always have in the house anyway because my husband uses it to wash all his whites and I use it for cleaning as well from time to time. At least it's cooling out down there and I'm no longer worrying about my plants dying in the heat.

Back to chickens...I'm reading up some pretty horrible stories on here about roosters and how they are behaving with hens. I'm hoping my roo doesn't cause too much too harm to them. He seems pretty good with the 3 girls. Will there ever be a time that I would have to seperate him from them or can he live happily in the coop with them all year round?

 

[featherz]

Don't worry about it. No panicking just more of a wake up call for me LOL And yes we have the same water system - carbon filter and bleach, which we always have in the house anyway because my husband uses it to wash all his whites and I use it for cleaning as well from time to time. At least it's cooling out down there and I'm no longer worrying about my plants dying in the heat.

Back to chickens...I'm reading up some pretty horrible stories on here about roosters and how they are behaving with hens. I'm hoping my roo doesn't cause too much too harm to them. He seems pretty good with the 3 girls. Will there ever be a time that I would have to seperate him from them or can he live happily in the coop with them all year round?

Not all roosters are like that.. I rehome/sell off large quantities of roos and keep the good ones and so far all my roos have been sweeties. Have a few bare backs lately, but that's probably because my main roo has fewer ladies than he's used to. But he protects his girls, asks permission to do his thing most of the time, and doesn't attack humans. He's actually got four other boys free ranging with him and we've had no dustups yet.

They are more likely to be bratty when young teenager roos - my white am rooster up until recently was a big klutz - kept jumping on the ladies and just standing there.. chasing down the girls, yanking combs till they bled, etc. Just a few weeks later and he's shaping up to be a good guy.

There are SO many roosters that need homes that I would not tolerate a bratty one.

 

[SunnysideupstateNY]

Has anyone ever heard of a chicken with a "toe" growing out of its wing?
No this is sadly not a joke nor a trick question

I saw an extra short sharp pointed digit on wings of my mean roo when we were plucking him this weekend. I'm guessing its for defense.

 

[rancher hicks]

Morning all can't keep up. Places to go and people to annoy you know.

Have a good day,

Rancher

 

[Lynzi777]

Not all roosters are like that.. I rehome/sell off large quantities of roos and keep the good ones and so far all my roos have been sweeties. Have a few bare backs lately, but that's probably because my main roo has fewer ladies than he's used to. But he protects his girls, asks permission to do his thing most of the time, and doesn't attack humans. He's actually got four other boys free ranging with him and we've had no dustups yet.

They are more likely to be bratty when young teenager roos - my white am rooster up until recently was a big klutz - kept jumping on the ladies and just standing there.. chasing down the girls, yanking combs till they bled, etc. Just a few weeks later and he's shaping up to be a good guy.

There are SO many roosters that need homes that I would not tolerate a bratty one.

I'm hoping this one doesn't give me any problems. He is a sweetie. Him and my lav orp hen are always together. They never leave each other's side. It's so cute. They're like an old married couple. I'm hoping to get some chicks from them. I have noticed lately that the other two have been seperating themselves from the "group". I'll find my two lavenders in the front yard and look around wondering where the other two went, and they're way up on the top of the hill in the back yard near the woods. I wonder what's going on there.

 

[featherz]

I'm hoping this one doesn't give me any problems. He is a sweetie. Him and my lav orp hen are always together. They never leave each other's side. It's so cute. They're like an old married couple. I'm hoping to get some chicks from them. I have noticed lately that the other two have been seperating themselves from the "group". I'll find my two lavenders in the front yard and look around wondering where the other two went, and they're way up on the top of the hill in the back yard near the woods. I wonder what's going on there.

I have a NN couple like that. I hope the roo stays nice - I call them gomez and morticia (black NN). Gomez really only seems interested in morticia, so I guess I'd have to rehome them as a pair if he has to go.

We have a neighbor that had two SLW roosters and no hens and if you walked by his house the roosters would go into challenge mode, running along next to you, wing dropped, etc. Right on the street in a neighborhood full of kids..

One roo got eaten by something and the other one got meaner and finally flogged me when I walked by, poked a little hole in my leg, even (it was fine) - told the neighbor (nicely.. "hey, that rooster of yours spurred me the other day, might wanna watch out if any kids walk by") and he immediately got rid of the rooster, saying it had started to attack him as well. Probably got mean cause he had no ladies! Any of my roos attacks a stranger for no good reason (ie, if someone or something goes into the fenced area and starts attacking/chasing the hens the roo is excused) and that roo is out of there the minute I can catch him.

Right now I have too many good roosters, anyone want one?

 

[ChickPrincess]

Just had to share what happened last week. I was mortified and couldn't sleep all night after this. Speaking of roosters and getting rid of them...
I had 4 roosters that I originally thought were buff orpingtons... they ended up being production reds. So, not having a need for them, I listed them for free on CL. What a mistake that was! We had 3 guys from Rochester come and get them. Let's just say they were obviously from a part of the city that I would not visit without my Smith & Wesson. We were afraid to tell them they couldn't have them for fear of retaliation, but it was obvious that they were going to be using them for cock fighting. We were mortified and didn't know what to do. Can't really call the police on what these people looked like, but it was obvious. I actually stayed in the chicken coop/run most of the rest of the day for fear they might come back for my Henry.
I couldn't sleep that night. I feel horrible. I will NEVER, EVER list a free rooster on CL again.

We are so sad.

 

[featherz]

Just had to share what happened last week. I was mortified and couldn't sleep all night after this. Speaking of roosters and getting rid of them...
I had 4 roosters that I originally thought were buff orpingtons... they ended up being production reds. So, not having a need for them, I listed them for free on CL. What a mistake that was! We had 3 guys from Rochester come and get them. Let's just say they were obviously from a part of the city that I would not visit without my Smith & Wesson. We were afraid to tell them they couldn't have them for fear of retaliation, but it was obvious that they were going to be using them for cock fighting. We were mortified and didn't know what to do. Can't really call the police on what these people looked like, but it was obvious. I actually stayed in the chicken coop/run most of the rest of the day for fear they might come back for my Henry.
I couldn't sleep that night. I feel horrible. I will NEVER, EVER list a free rooster on CL again.

We are so sad.

Yikes!! I don't wanna get banned but I was wondering about this and whether there was a lot of it in upstate NY. I have people who take my roos email me so I can chat with them first and so far I've been lucky, but the ones I had to bring to auction you never know about.

In future, anyone you don't know - meet them at a local establishment - I meet most people at a very busy truck stop unless I know you or unless it's just ridiculous (like when I sold 17 guineas - I can just see that handover in a truck stop parking lot LOL). Another option is offer to deliver - then you can see the layout and turn around if you don't like where they are going.

 

[ChickPrincess]

Yikes!! I don't wanna get banned but I was wondering about this and whether there was a lot of it in upstate NY. I have people who take my roos email me so I can chat with them first and so far I've been lucky, but the ones I had to bring to auction you never know about.

In future, anyone you don't know - meet them at a local establishment - I meet most people at a very busy truck stop unless I know you or unless it's just ridiculous (like when I sold 17 guineas - I can just see that handover in a truck stop parking lot LOL). Another option is offer to deliver - then you can see the layout and turn around if you don't like where they are going.

Good suggestions. But in the future, I'll just keep it word of mouth and be patient.
I did text quite a bit back and forth with directions and he had told me 2 would be butchered and 2 would go to his elderly uncle for pets. It sounded like he was honest.
I'm sure it happens in upstate NY the same as anywhere else. I've never seen or heard about it, but I'm kind of in the boondocks.
Why would you get banned? From what?

 

[Framac]

Do any of the county fairs have a decent poultry show?

Framac