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

[OHhappychicks]

all I can say for barnevelders is - I cannot successfully raise them. my wife and I have spent a small fortune on stock, most don't make it to adults, the ones that do are short lived. out of about 50 we have gotten all together, I gave away the last 1 that survived. we have bought them as adults and chicks, even as juvenile fowl. problems range from tumors, to no fertility, to unknown - fine at 1 pm and dead at 1:30 the same day.

at first I thought it was just me, I contacted some friends who have also tried. both of them are having the same issues. one of them was looking for barnevelder bantams - im starting to think the breed is going extinct.

look closely at barnevelders that people talk about. you will notice a trend. the ones who have success have single laced or blue laced. both of these are crossed with another breed which gave them some extra genetic diversity. when you find a true double laced barnevelder, the owners will normally talk about problems they have with them.

That is just too bad!

They are so beautiful too.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Hi fellow Buckeyes,

I'm new to this forum, and thought it would be fun to connect with some of you who are in my area. I live outside of Wooster, about 50 miles south of Cleveland. I've had chickens and turkeys for the last year and a half. I've got Welsummers, Americaunas, Buff Sussex, Isbars, Bourbon Red and Midget White turkeys, and a few other odds and ends. I buy organic grain for my animals and they eat a lot of grass and organic greens from my garden. I love to watch them peck around! I'm especially interested to know if anyone out there has or is interested in Buff Sussex and Isbars. Mine are about 3 months old, looking good, but haven't started laying yet. I'm looking forward to having a rainbow coloring of eggs. I already have nice dark brown eggs from my Welsummers and blue from my Americaunas. I don't have that many turkeys but want to keep a trio of each kind and we'll eat the rest. I don't like to think about the butchering process, but one of my goals in raising poultry is to eat meat and eggs from animals who have had a good life, lived like they are meant to live, and are cared for and respected during that whole process. If I went to the grocery and bought chicken because I didn't have the heart to kill mine, that would defeat what I am trying to do and would support the commercial poultry industry.

Wow, I have rambled on much longer than I expected to. I will look forward to hearing from some of you!

You will get to know a lot of good folks here! You're gonna love it! I see you have Welsummers. That is another breed I may have to have. I understand they lay the dark brown eggs. I love that. I have hatchery stock aracaunas, but no Americanas. I just love to have all the different colored eggs! You also get organic grain. Lucky you!! It is hard to get it here. We could get it shipped in, but that is too expensive for us. This is also our first year for meat chickens. Looking forward to eating my own harvest! Although, we don't process them ourselves.

 

[ShayBaby]

My sister sent this to me and I laughed so hard I cried. It originally said horse, but I altered it to cater to our particular addictions.. I thought my lovely fellow Buckeyes might appreciate it like I did.

 

[mstarr]

Organic grain is hard to find. At first, I was getting it shipped in from Wisconsin at an elevator near by. I didn't have many chickens at that time so was able to pay the extra dollars. Then I found a man who raises his own nonGMP grain and mixes it for me. He lives about 40 min drive but it's reasonably priced, and I feel fortunate to have access to that. Hope that you can find it too if that's what you want.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Count me out on the swap.
We have Grandkids birthdays that weekend!!
Also we are grain farmers & don't go away in the fall.
Never know when harvest will come.
Have fun all.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Just reading your list of chickens, OHFarmerswife!

 

[OHhappychicks]

Organic grain is hard to find. At first, I was getting it shipped in from Wisconsin at an elevator near by. I didn't have many chickens at that time so was able to pay the extra dollars. Then I found a man who raises his own nonGMP grain and mixes it for me. He lives about 40 min drive but it's reasonably priced, and I feel fortunate to have access to that. Hope that you can find it too if that's what you want.

I would love to be able to find it here, but we have checked. That's really great for you to have someone so close! It seems that a lot of the organic, nongmo feed is way up north of here. I don't know why it is so difficult to find around here. Maybe there is someone on this thread near me that knows of someplace. That would be awesome!!

 

[loveourbirds]

Quote: have you ever been to Crum's on 41 south of you? its not non GMO (which is different from organic by the way) but they do have the wonderful bowles rangebird pellet. we have our feed mixed there, and the prices aren't bad either. I haven't looked into it but I hear they also offer distiller's grains.

I understand the whole "organic" thing, my wife and I started out on the same path. we have to many birds to be organic now - I don't think you can be truly organic with chickens. I have read up a lot on GMO's, Organics, and just farming in general. ive been reared around it my whole life in one form or another. I am also a "hippie" to an extent, I love herbal and homeopathic remedies, again I have done a lot of reading. as a rule of thumb; if a GMO is geared toward feed production, it contains no more "harmeful ingredients" than regular corn. the main drawback is lower nutrition levels with the same level of the "bad stuff". we have to feed more with GMO's to accomplish the same weight gain, and nutrition.

if you take your time, even using GMO's you can custom mix a pretty good feed. I am pretty happy with my mix that I use now. our chickens, turkeys and quail all eat the same feed, and are doing pretty well on it. at feeding time, there is a selection of whole and split grains, chicken pellets and alfalfa pellets. my wife and I looked and looked for a better feed recipe, before we found the one we use now.

Im probably the farthest thing from a GMO supporter, I do believe it has something to do with the bee population; and I don't think we should try and fool mother nature. - but ive been wrong before. im only saying this because its hard to sort through all the facts and fiction.

another thing everyone does wrong when mixing feeds, is to exactly copy someone else's recipe. most people on this thread probably keep their chickens in coops with grass, and seldomly move them to other coops. when they do; its usually for separation of a breed or illness. my feed mix is specially developed for chickens who don't have a lot of access to grass, they do get rotated to grass, but I keep all breeds individually. - because of this I had to add a second story to my pens.

 

[loveourbirds]

OHhappychicks, I see you have brown leghorns, are they dark brown or light brown?

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Just reading your list of chickens, OHFarmerswife!

I have cream crested legbars in the incy, due on Friday! Have English Orps coming this week, babies babies every where!!!!! Hubby is very good to me. We discuss what I want next, and he rarely says no. Breeding trio of English orps coming this fall.