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

[Janalynyorkies]

Hey CrownJewelDanes, are you going to be at the dog show in Columbus tomorrow?? I live outside of Sunbury. Just getting into chickens. Need advice on coops, etc. Any info from anyone would be very appreciated. Thanks

 

[crazychickenwom]

Hey CrownJewelDanes, are you going to be at the dog show in Columbus tomorrow?? I live outside of Sunbury. Just getting into chickens. Need advice on coops, etc. Any info from anyone would be very appreciated. Thanks

You have certainly come to the right place looking for ideas and any answers to question you may have!! The forums here on BYC are many, and almost any question you have has been answered in the past, but of course you are more than welcome to ask any question. The people here are very nice and will try to help whenever possible. There are brown tabs at the top (home, learning center, forums, etc. feel free to grab a cup of coffee and a comfy chair and read, read, read.. there is a lot to look at and even more than you ever thought about! If you have any specific questions to Ohio just let us know, there are a few of us who are pretty active on here!

 

[CrownJewelDanes]

Quote:
Welcome to the group Rebekah, that is my name too! It is not often that you see it spelled our way!

With all of your experience I am looking forward to any tips and tricks you may have to offer!

P.S. Your dog is beautiful! I have basset hounds myself, just like a Great Dane, only smaller and more compact!

Nice to meet another "kah" lol. But as far as my experience with birds I'm not sure how much help I could be. When I first got into raising chickens/turkeys/ducks/peafowl I knew absolutely nothing. We moved to the country and the house we bought had a chicken coop and they left the chickens. So needless to saying descision to raise chickens was made for me lol. But I figured there wasn't much to it so why not ..yeah right lol. Anyway I read this article and that article. One said feed this and the other said feed that. One said medicate this way the other said something different. All the while the birds weren't doing so hot. Some would be ok and other not and it would go back and forth. So I decided I was going to try free ranging them and see what happened. Well that was the magic and from then on they were 100% free range. Accept for leaving out water and occasionally giving them cracked corn in the winter and oyster shells every so often I did nothing. Every last one was healthy and strong and I never lost a bird after that. ( Well except for the Great Amish Chicken Raid of '05 and the Bloody Chicken Wednesday of '06 and finally the Massive Drowning of '07 or the occasional falcon) but those were not from sickness or disease. I had a few Silkie hens and a necked neck hen that designated themselves as the flock moms and they hatched and raised all the chicks, and egg production was by far better. So basically my experience comes from doing pretty much nothing and every last bird I had thrived wonderfully lol. I moved back in '07 and after a while of no birds I'm jumping back in head first. However I have learned a lot and while I still plan to free range it won't be to the extent that I did before. I also plan to hatch more myself rather than leave it to the hens. I will let them hatch some occasionally I think but I'll have to see how that goes. I have my first set of eggs since '07 in the incubator now so I'm keeping fingers crossed. I'm super excited though and so is are my kids and hubby. We miss having birds. My husband had our hens trained to do tricks for treats and really had a soft spot for a silkie hen we called Mama. He babied her tremendously lol. To the point that he would hardly let a roo near her because he said they were to rough with her lol. But of course if I can help anyone I'll sure try. Now dogs are a different story. I have ALL KINDS of experience with them. I even had a Bassett years ago, and a few other breeds over the years as well including Pomeranians and Chinese Cresteds. I have one of each of them now Rebekah

 

[CrownJewelDanes]

Hey CrownJewelDanes, are you going to be at the dog show in Columbus tomorrow?? I live outside of Sunbury. Just getting into chickens. Need advice on coops, etc. Any info from anyone would be very appreciated. Thanks

Well as you can tell I won't be at the shows in Columbus today. Right now my dogs are either finished champions or to young to show. My newest puppy just turned 4 months so she won't be coming out for another few months. She will most likely make her show debut in June at the Ohio Specialties. However I do have a young male I could be showing but the girls were just recently in heat and he lost a good bit of weight and looks like a skeleton right now, so he has to put on some weight before he can be shon again. Rebekah

 

[Marengoite]

Hey CrownJewelDanes, are you going to be at the dog show in Columbus tomorrow?? I live outside of Sunbury. Just getting into chickens. Need advice on coops, etc. Any info from anyone would be very appreciated. Thanks

Hi, Janalynyorkies.

I live just up the road from you in Marengo. We're new to chickens this year as well, but have raised turkeys for 4-H the last three years. I figure if we can get our poults up & running with no problem, chickens should be a snap. So far they have been.

We started with six Golden Comets (down to 5 due to a predatory cat) that we are going to show in the Morrow Co. fair as our pullets.We picked those up in Centerburg last month.
We also picked up 15 Buckeyes on 4/13 that we are raising for broilers.
Last week we got 12 turkeys (6 Broad breasted whites and 6 Bourbon reds) along with 6 Barred rock pullet chicks. We're brooding the Rocks with the Buckeyes for now since they're only a couple weeks apart.
Next month we'll be heading up to Meyer to pick up some Silver Spangled Hamburgs that we're wanting to raise for Fancy poultry.

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

As for coops, how many chickens do you plan on keeping? You can be as simple as a painted plastic barrel and a hoop house for a small flock:

up to an elaborate chicken coop and pen custom made. Check out the Learning Center tab here on BYC. Personally, I favor the lowest cost possible and recycle as much stuff as I possibly can. I have two outdoor brooders right now that are made entirely from recycled pallets, sheet metal from my brother-in-law's addition to his garage, left over 2 x 4's and some shelves from a bookcase. It isn't the prettiest, but they are both very functional and doing an excellent job at protecting both the turkeys and the chicks, and at the same time unlikely to catch fire from a malfunctioning heat lamp.

 

[smchickfarm]

Hello

from Waynesville Ohio!!!!

 

[Marengoite]

For anyone on Facebook, I've posted an album of two brooders that I made from recycled/reclaimed materials. The descriptions are in the photo albums: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.315142988554906&type=1

 

[mstricer]

I am going to the Mt Hope auction tomorrow, to sell some of my birds. I will be taking a Splash Silkie cockerel from Catdance Silkies, (6 months) Porcelain and Mille Fleur d'Uccle's and Call ducks if anyone is going and is interested.
Michele

 

[chickenpooplady]

from Hillsboro Ohio!!!!

 

[mstricer]

from Hillsboro Ohio!!!!