Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[wingstone]

Ok I am not gone back to quote....

whoever has the problem rooster,,,careful,,,I traumatized my granddaughter by taking one out in front of her,,,,it was more of a reaction than a plan....she walked around for 2 m,onths telling everyone I kill animals...

Sally, Chad,,, all of you up that direction,,,,i will not have alot of time this weekend, but I have to make plans to come see all of you....I know how to get to lebanon, but after that i am lost.......

Rose....

...it will get better....been there with a divorce and sounds like alot of the others on here have been also....

 

[Brittany7]

does anyone have any thoughts on different breeds of chicks? I like the silkie and the polish cause of their crazy hair dosss.. but the more and more i am no here the more and more i dont want to wait another two weeks to geth the silkies and polishes when they come in... and thoughts ?

 

[Brittany7]

does anyone have any thoughts on different breeds of chicks? I like the silkie and the polish cause of their crazy hair dosss.. but the more and more i am no here the more and more i dont want to wait another two weeks to geth the silkies and polishes when they come in... and thoughts ?

 

[mrsmc604]

I have always wanted chickens or ducks. We just bought our first home in october. and if i had it my way we would have bought a farm but just being out of college and not making enough of have that YET! i settled for a little acre lot in the middle of no where. A house 2 down from us has a small farm with some chickens and they are so neat to watch. And I loved having a garden when i was still in high school and living at home. I dont think there is anything cooler than growing your own stuff and eating it. I mainly just want them for eggs and pets. I couldnt raise something and then put it on my dinner plate.

DH and I are in the same boat! We just bought a real fixer upper on 2 acres and am nothing short of thrilled to have our garden and chickens! The damily farm is just down the road so we get fresh organic beef and will have all of the straw, alfalfa, corn and beans we want for the chickens. Good luck you you!!

 

[Brittany7]

DH and I are in the same boat! We just bought a real fixer upper on 2 acres and am nothing short of thrilled to have our garden and chickens! The damily farm is just down the road so we get fresh organic beef and will have all of the straw, alfalfa, corn and beans we want for the chickens. Good luck you you!!

thank you. thats the way ours is. its our first and we bought what we could for now instead of renting...IF THE WEATHER would ever get nice i could get outside to work on our yard which is a mess. i have been dieing to get out and those couple of days where it was 50-60 were such a tease.

 

[mama2my4]

DH and I are in the same boat! We just bought a real fixer upper on 2 acres and am nothing short of thrilled to have our garden and chickens! The damily farm is just down the road so we get fresh organic beef and will have all of the straw, alfalfa, corn and beans we want for the chickens. Good luck you you!!

That sounds just about perfect!

 

[wingstone]

any ex smokers here.......it does get easier .....doesn't it...

 

[fisherlady]

I am so disgusted right now, bear with me while I vent..... It started weekend before last our little geriatric dwarf hamster died, then Monday this week our equally geriatric guinea pig dies, followed by a younger guinea pig the very next day!!! I figure "they come in 3's, right?!?" Good, we're done - 2 weren't a surprise.... So then my one EE has been acting funny, couldn't figure her out. Brought her in yesterday in a cage, suspected vent gleet. Couldn't get her to eat/drink. I tried everything Sally said to do but I was too late!!! She was sleeping this am while the kids were getting ready for school - still breathing. I just went back to check on her again and she's gone!!!! It's times like this that I wish I had NO animals!!! I love them all so much, but to lose 4 in appx 10 days???? I think I need some of Chad's special orange juice.....

Oohhh, so sorry! Wish I was off of work today, I'd have come to help you out, at least I could have given some moral support or taken care of the shovel part for you! Fingers crossed that whatever was wrong doesn't get to the others...

Love this!!!

Well, I didn't think I could ever kill anything, but after this morning..... Took my 3 yr. old DD with me to feed and collect eggs. The pen with my evil roo, I always feed and water in the run BEFORE opening the coop to run door. Went to change water, turn around DD is in the run, and had opened the door, chickens running down the ramp, I'm running for DD screaming "GET OUT!!!" got to her just in time to drag her out by the coat collar, as P.O.S. roo took a flying leap at her. He got me instead. He's going to a new home on Sunday, but let me tell you, I'm ready to kill him with my bare hands and eat him just for spite.

Oh, that is nasty. Glad you got her out without trauma to her, at least, sorry he got you. We processed a few that turned nasty, it is never easy to kill an animal (and it shouldn't be) but there are ways to do it without it being too horribly traumatic. Sometimes it is the best answer.

LOL you sound like Harmony, she only has one frizzle serama roo and he is mean as you know what to the others and she said she is going to ring his neck and feed him to the dogs! she gets really upset and crys because he grabs everyone with his beak and yanks them around! even the larger cochin I have from heather! they are 5x his size!

We have done in 3 roos in the past 6 months for getting too rough with the hens, we have a couple who are great with them, so we don't keep the rough ones

Killing them isn't that bad. Except the plucking bit. Just do it quickly and efficiently. Raise them well and they'll have a great life. I find turkeys hard to do though. Also, don't watch the throes of death or you might make yourself sick. If I watch that, I get lightheaded and won't eat chicken for a few months! All in all, I am going to eat chicken and feed my family chicken, so I'd rather raise them myself and give them a real life before eating them.

Well said! Respect their life and treat them humanely. We use the cone and there is very, very little problem with dramatic actions... so much easier. The meat from 'home raised' birds is excellent, and I do feel much better knowing how well they were treated from hatching to adulthood.

Thanks Chad, I know we will do it, ONE DAY and I am sure I will need you to hold my hand

BTW Crested Cream Legbars is what chicks you were eyein up when u where here, from crazypetlady
all those chicks came from her end lol

Sally, one of these days Radioman and I are going to make a run out your direction... I would love to meet up with you all! If we do the 'get together' somewhere this year I'd be willing to bring our plucker and scalder and a couple of roos along, and anyone else with unwanted roos could do the same. We can process them, and package them and everyone could take home a couple. Since they wouldn't be marked no one would know 'who' they get for the freezer so to speak, so it would remove the guilt factor.

Sally, you have chad meet me there with his special orange juice sometime and we will get them all done,,,of course a dinner will have to be involved.

See above post wing... Radioman and I would be there!

does anyone have any thoughts on different breeds of chicks? I like the silkie and the polish cause of their crazy hair dosss.. but the more and more i am no here the more and more i dont want to wait another two weeks to geth the silkies and polishes when they come in... and thoughts ?

Breeds are totally a personal choice based on what you want from your chickens.... A few eggs and 'yard candy'... lots of eggs... what color eggs/does egg color matter?, meat? a mix of all things already listed??
Do you want hens who will go broody and hatch out their own little ones? or do you want to stick to running your incubator?
A few basics...
Silkies, cochins and Game hens are frequently broody, but Silkies and game hens are small egg producers, and are so/so for quantity of eggs, cochins can be bigger birds if you get the LF (large fowl) variety, but bantams are smaller.
Barred Rocks are larger, and are good 'multi-use' or dual purpose birds because they are good layers of large eggs and are plenty big enough to make good table birds, same with Black Australorps and Rhode Island Reds.
Cornish and Jersey Giants are often meat birds, not sure how they do for eggs.
Orpingtons are large breed, known to be very friendly and good for kids and beginners.
Too many breeds for me to even begin to cover them...
There is a breed selector section here on BYC that can really help narrow it down for you, once you decide what you want from your birds.
Good luck and if you find a few breeds that seem interesting to you then just let us know and any of us who are familiar with them can chime in with details then... or point you in the right direction for more info.

(pay attention to birds 'flightiness' or how they do with confinement vs free ranging, this really can come in to play if you have a restricted area or don't plan to let them out of your coop/run area)

 

[fisherlady]

any ex smokers here.......it does get easier .....doesn't it...

Quit cold turkey 3+ yrs ago.. and yes, it does get easier. I rarely, rarely even think about it anymore. The only time I get the urge now is after being in a large crowded area such as a mall or sporting event, but that's because I never liked those environments to begin with.... and the urge passes very quickly.

 

[heatherscooby77]

Duramaxgirl, and DMRippy!!!