Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[lelisabeth]

Hi all. I am an excited soon-to-be chicken owner located in Conshohocken (Montgomery County), PA. I just found this thread a few minutes ago, but can already tell it's going to be very helpful (though work might disagree regarding the "helpful" part if I spend any more time reading about chickens during the day).

We are going to start with three chicks, and that is all we can comfortably fit in our coop (for now...). Breeds are still to be determined. My wife and I have a two year old, and we're excited to share the experience of raising chicks with her. We'd like to get a decent amount of eggs to eat and share, but equally important is giving our daughter a fun, safe and educational experience. Any advice as to breeds would be very welcome!

DHeltzel - I responded to your ad on Craigslist and we emailed a little while back. I appreciate all of the advice and plan to touch base when we finalize our selection, timing, etc.

Thanks!

Hi, ewe105! I'm over here in northwest Chester County, but I lived near you a long time ago. We are also soon-to-be chicken owners (again) with a 3-year-old who will be ridiculously excited to have chickens!! We owned 4 hens when we lived in Massachusetts (5 years ago), and I am itching to have some more! Welcome!

 

[dheltzel]

Hi all. I am an excited soon-to-be chicken owner located in Conshohocken (Montgomery County), PA. I just found this thread a few minutes ago, but can already tell it's going to be very helpful (though work might disagree regarding the "helpful" part if I spend any more time reading about chickens during the day).

We are going to start with three chicks, and that is all we can comfortably fit in our coop (for now...). Breeds are still to be determined. My wife and I have a two year old, and we're excited to share the experience of raising chicks with her. We'd like to get a decent amount of eggs to eat and share, but equally important is giving our daughter a fun, safe and educational experience. Any advice as to breeds would be very welcome!

DHeltzel - I responded to your ad on Craigslist and we emailed a little while back. I appreciate all of the advice and plan to touch base when we finalize our selection, timing, etc.

Thanks!

Hey, welcome to BYC. Your daughter will love having chicks and unlike some pets, they are very handlable and get more so (less delicate) as they grow larger. I had a family last year that raised 6 chicks for a few weeks and had them so tame they sat on the kid's shoulders like little parrots.

 

[dheltzel]

well. meat birds are processed may thru nov. Rabbits anytime I have the proper age
sorry to tell you this but store but rabbit will cost that due to all the restrictions and inspections....look for someone selling meat to people for dog food,(many of us advertise as human grade animal feed to avoid the license)..I always ask if they want help to process it.

Like people selling goat milk to "make soap", since goat milk is completely illegal in PA to sell for human consumption (wonder what influential group of competitors helped write that legislation?).

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hi all.  I am an excited soon-to-be chicken owner located in Conshohocken (Montgomery County), PA.  I just found this thread a few minutes ago, but can already tell it's going to be very helpful (though work might disagree regarding the "helpful" part if I spend any more time reading about chickens during the day).

We are going to start with three chicks, and that is all we can comfortably fit in our coop (for now...).  Breeds  are still to be determined.  My wife and I have a two year old, and we're excited to share the experience of raising chicks with her.  We'd like to get a decent amount of eggs to eat and share, but equally important is giving our daughter a fun, safe and educational experience.  Any advice as to breeds would be very welcome!

DHeltzel - I responded to your ad on Craigslist and we emailed a little while back.  I appreciate all of the advice and plan to touch base when we finalize our selection, timing, etc.

Thanks!

Hi and welcome! If you can only have 3 for now but want lots of eggs, I'd suggest starting with a couple production red girls. They're usually at tractor supply once they start chick days and lay huge brown eggs almost daily. I personally think they have great personalities too

these are our two production reds, Ariel and Daffodil, trying to "share" my daughter's crackers lol

 

[stake]

Hi all. I am an excited soon-to-be chicken owner located in Conshohocken (Montgomery County), PA. I just found this thread a few minutes ago, but can already tell it's going to be very helpful (though work might disagree regarding the "helpful" part if I spend any more time reading about chickens during the day).

We are going to start with three chicks, and that is all we can comfortably fit in our coop (for now...). Breeds are still to be determined. My wife and I have a two year old, and we're excited to share the experience of raising chicks with her. We'd like to get a decent amount of eggs to eat and share, but equally important is giving our daughter a fun, safe and educational experience. Any advice as to breeds would be very welcome!

DHeltzel - I responded to your ad on Craigslist and we emailed a little while back. I appreciate all of the advice and plan to touch base when we finalize our selection, timing, etc.

Thanks!

Howdy from Malvern...same as Anne, you a welcome to stop by and check my setup....

 

[ewe105]

Thanks all. It's amazing how many chicken owners there are around here, and I had no idea for all this time!

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend - keeping in mind that I have zero experience with anything chicken related - trying to incubate some eggs instead of buying chicks? If so, is an incubator something you can rent? I haven't looked into this, just thinking on the fly after reading about all of the people who do their own hatching.

 

[stake]

Thanks all. It's amazing how many chicken owners there are around here, and I had no idea for all this time!

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend - keeping in mind that I have zero experience with anything chicken related - trying to incubate some eggs instead of buying chicks? If so, is an incubator something you can rent? I haven't looked into this, just thinking on the fly after reading about all of the people who do their own hatching.

ewe:

I just posted this so it was easy to paste it in....some things to consider....

I got my original chicks from Pickering Valley Feed in the last week of Feb a couple of years ago....(about 20 miles from you). There is also a Tractor Supply Company located just at the end of where Rt30 bypass ends....they have mostly production type birds....Pickering has a good selection...mostly from Ideal Hatchery http://www.pickeringvalleyfeed.com/poultry/poultry-arrival-schedule/

First is whether you want production birds or heritage/exotics...production birds will lay 6/week for two years....heritage birds will lay 1/2 that amount for four years....(there are some variations in there, but thats the basics here's a list http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf Mypetchickens also has pretty good descriptions...if I may opine, you will get better quality birds from the folks on here....

Other considerations:

1 free range of penned
2 cold hardy
3 bears confinment
4 broodiness
5 egg color
6 LargeFoul or Bantam
also
consider:
1 when you purchase, you will have some loses or may get an unwanted roo or two...get extas
2 build a coop twice the size of the number you think you want
3 whatever you think you want now...as you learn more you will want different breeds (hint extra coop space)....

my two cents...

 

[chiques chicks]

Thanks all.  It's amazing how many chicken owners there are around here, and I had no idea for all this time!

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend - keeping in mind that I have zero experience with anything chicken related - trying to incubate some eggs instead of buying chicks?  If so, is an incubator something you can rent?  I haven't looked into this, just thinking on the fly after reading about all of the people who do their own hatching.

Several of us have built incubator and have more than one. The coolerbators are great for hands on hatching, turning by hand and watching.

I now I would be neighbourly and let someone borrow it, not that I'm an enabler.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Thanks all.  It's amazing how many chicken owners there are around here, and I had no idea for all this time!

Out of curiosity, would anyone recommend - keeping in mind that I have zero experience with anything chicken related - trying to incubate some eggs instead of buying chicks?  If so, is an incubator something you can rent?  I haven't looked into this, just thinking on the fly after reading about all of the people who do their own hatching.

Just my opinion, but I would start out with chicks. Once you get your bearings and are itching for more chickens, you can try using an incubator. Or a broody hen, which I just used on December! (Broody is when an adult hen wants to sit on eggs to hatch them.)

 

[emorems0]

Like people selling goat milk to "make soap", since goat milk is completely illegal in PA to sell for human consumption (wonder what influential group of competitors helped write that legislation?).

Huh, goat milk is illegal to sell for consumption in PA? Makes me wonder how it's labeled at the little stores where my family buys it! I've never been fond of the flavor, but my sister, cousin and aunt buy goat milk pretty regularly.