OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there!

[SowdersHomestead]

Congrats!!! Where are you getting them from?

Poultry Hollow in Nashville was the only ones that had them available before May. I used to live outside of Chattanooga so I was familiar with them.

 

[cluckitall]

Poultry Hollow in Nashville was the only ones that had them available before May. I used to live outside of Chattanooga so I was familiar with them.

Oh, nice!! I keep wanting to hit up Whitmore Farms on a trip to Virginia sometime, bring back Welsummers and Delawares...

 

[blessedchick]

Nine little Olive Eggers hatched out yesterday and (so far) 3 partridge silkies...

Marans and more silkies due next week...Lovin' that spring is around the corner!

 

[kivi]

Got a nice surprise today. I got a text message from my husband while I was at work today. He sent me a picture of a blue-green egg! At 9 months of age my EE layed her first egg. An here I thought she was laying the pale brown egg. With the girls being nine months old and we are getting 3 to 5 eggs a day I though all 6 were laying. WOOT! Got my blue green egg. lol

 

[cluckitall]

Congrats on the chicks, blessedchick! And congrats on the egg, kivi!

I have the most insane number of birds at the moment. How many are actually laying? Three.

 

[DelcoChix]

Congrats on the chicks, blessedchick! And congrats on the egg, kivi!

I have the most insane number of birds at the moment. How many are actually laying? Three.

I'm with you on that one! I have 15 big girls and I am quite tickled when I see 9 eggs..might happen once or twice a week, maybe Average is 6-7 a day and that's with lights and longer days, and not even throwing the little birds into the figures ( 3 D'Uccle hens and my little Silkie hen), who haven't bothered pushing any out in the last few weeks

Good thing they're cute.

I know my younger girls are three,the older ones closer to five years old and I'm not the type who can just get rid of them or...eat them...but I still keep hoping..."more eggs ladies, more!"

 

[cluckitall]

lol! I hear ya I can't really complain, even though I am

Most of my birds aren't old enough to lay yet. I've got four 2-year-old rocks who were laying when I was giving them extra lighting but have stopped since I turned it off. Ironically, my two five-month-old pullets are laying almost daily, and I get an occasional serama egg, lol!

In about seven weeks I'm going to be swimming in eggs

 

[KirstenJL]

I'm swimming in eggs already! There's only two of us so there's a limit to how many we can eat ourselves. I have nine older brown egg layers that are cranking back up (I don't have additional lighting or heat in my coops), and my 5 Araucana pullets have been giving me 3-5 eggs a day since January. I have had zero luck selling table eggs locally unfortunately and I'm not allowed to even try at work, so once I establish that the Araucanas are indeed fertile, I think I will concentrate on selling hatching eggs.

I just bought a couple of doghouses that I plan to make into coops for breeding pairs and trios. That's the plan for the weekend!

Kirsten

 

[blessedchick]

I'm swimming in eggs already! There's only two of us so there's a limit to how many we can eat ourselves. I have nine older brown egg layers that are cranking back up (I don't have additional lighting or heat in my coops), and my 5 Araucana pullets have been giving me 3-5 eggs a day since January. I have had zero luck selling table eggs locally unfortunately and I'm not allowed to even try at work, so once I establish that the Araucanas are indeed fertile, I think I will concentrate on selling hatching eggs.

I just bought a couple of doghouses that I plan to make into coops for breeding pairs and trios. That's the plan for the weekend!

Kirsten

How fun! My working girls (the large fowl) have just started to earn their keep again by laying 4, out of 7 hens, eggs a day. Fortunately I'm able to sell them at work. I donate a portion of all the proceeds that I get from the sale of birds/eggs to Heifer International Charity so I love it when those ladies start cranking them out!

Have you checked with any restaurants in your area to see if they might be interested in eggs? Or shelters/food pantries are also a great bet - a church in your area my know of one that needs eggs or I believe that there is one in Edison.

I'm doing the same thing with the dog houses! My breeding guineas are in "Fowlcatraz" which is a 10x10x6 kennel covered with wire/shade cloth with perches and a dog house. The 3 of them stay in their during the breeding season so they don't get killed setting on their eggs in the treelines. I also have my black silkies in a kennel with a dog house and I'm hoping to figure out a way to rig up kennel panels in my horse barn for my partridge and black showgirls. If you know of anyone with a kennel for sale...I'm stalking CL...

Post pix when you are done!!! And have FUN!

 

[KirstenJL]

I've been meaning to look into the local food pantries; I'll put it on my list for this week!

In all honesty, I hate the construction part of this! I started with chickens in late fall, 2010 with six hatchery pullets. I had a nice 6 x 8 coop for them with a run and electronetting. And then chicken math set in...... I got a rooster for protection. We built a tractor (which has turned out to be way too heavy and unwieldy).



The pullets started going broody and I couldn't break them. I bought some hatching eggs..... I bought two A-frame coops from a place in Shiloh and a dog kennel (that we found for sale in someone's yard) for what I call my "deluxe broody suite." I have two pairs of hens that tend to go broody together and co-parent well. The suite is perfect for them. The chicks have to be kept in it for a few weeks until they get too big to get tangled up in the electronetting, so the 10 x 10 space is perfect.





I bought some Araucana hatching eggs online last summer. And then I got fired up about breeding Araucanas. We put wheels on one of the A-frames and got more electronetting.






And now I have to separate breeding groups, thus the doghouses (I got one from TSC and one from Champion). I guess there's more electronetting in my future! It's getting a little scary, but really I only have 18 birds total!

I'd love to see pics of your set-up too. I'm kind of new to chickens and it's great to see what others have done.

I have a blog about the whole chicken adventure


http://speedingpullet.blogspot.com/

Kirsten