Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Sally Sunshine]

Woot woot! Look out Green Dragon, it was just confirmed that Blarneyeggs and MLH are headed your way!!!
Anyone else going tonight?

WAIT whats at the dragon?

 

[stake]

My niece emailed me to tell me that she got an egg today from the Heritage (German) New Hampshires. She was real excited (I am too). It's probably too cold to hatch, and being the first, may not even be fertile, but I was expecting them to wait until it warmed up more. I guess being developed in New Hampshire, they are nonplussed by the cold.

Go figure, my BOs and Marans are laying(and freezing) and the GLWs have gone off the radar...its a new level of chicken math....I dunno.....those German NHs are and interesting breed.....post how you like them....

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: We doubled the heat lamps after our last encounter, lesson learned! You know its cold when even the brahma roos get frostbite!

 

[chippysmom327]

You guys are all just so hilarious!!!


I'm getting rid of my non-cold tolerant sebright tomorrow! Can't wait. He'll be in isolation for 2 weeks at his new house, hopefully they keep him inside. He's gonna have 4 RIR hens all to himself. He'll be in heaven. He's only met/owned two hens in his life. When he sees his new girls he'll be like

*lovey dovey music starts playing*.

Never owning another cold intolerant breed again. Such a pain.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

You guys are all just so hilarious!!!

I'm getting rid of my non-cold tolerant sebright tomorrow! Can't wait. He'll be in isolation for 2 weeks at his new house, hopefully they keep him inside. He's gonna have 4 RIR hens all to himself. He'll be in heaven. He's only met/owned two hens in his life. When he sees his new girls he'll be like

*lovey dovey music starts playing*.

Never owning another cold intolerant breed again. Such a pain.

I hear that Chippysmom!

 

[LisaYolkUm]

Lisa.... While I totally understand your wanting to never have to think about, the reality is that we all have to at some point. It is the unfortunate dark side of any pet ownership. If you can't do the deed yourself (which is totally OK, no law says you have to) you at least should do some serious considerations into 'what if I had to deal with that' scenarios.... do you have someone you could call to do it for you? A vet nearby who could help? Research methods of how to do it yourself in case the 'worst case scenario' does happen. The time to get that question answered is not when you have an animal that needs humanely dispatched because it is suffering.
Sorry, I don't want to seem pessimistic, it's probably just because I have spent 27yrs in EMS seeing people facing things they never thought they would have to... You have always seemed very practical and caring and you obviously dearly love your birds, I truly hope the only problems you ever have to face is the natural aging process for your pets...

You do make some good points................

Perhaps someone might PM me some ideas or post a link to how one "does that" if needed.

I really would not want to put a gal down...........but if she was suffering or there was a risk of everyone getting something............this might be needed.
The most humane way possible would be my choice.

I do agree with having these preparations at a less stress time...................this is why people have living wills or do not resuscitate orders etc.............

so if this information can be relayed sensitively to us newer folks...........that would be great.

I do have some Chicken raising books and may look up this info as well.

 

[dheltzel]

.....those German NHs are and interesting breed.....post how you like them....

So far, I like them a lot. They are "picture" pretty -- by that I mean they look like pictures you see in the books, not what you usually see running around the farm. Nothing against the free-range mixes, some are quite interesting looking. In fact, we have 2 free range roos that are colored a lot like the NH roo, with the pumpkin colored hackles, but they are skinny and aloof by comparison.

Of course, it helped to buy them from a girl who likes to pamper and tame her birds. We got out black marbled turkeys from her too, and they are so tame they fly up and land on your arm if you turn your back to them. That's really a bit unnerving because they look like black turkey vultures peering down at you!

Anyway, we are very happy with them, one of those great CL deals. I hope we get a lot of eggs from the hens and they have good fertility, I think having a dozen or so NH hens would be a good thing.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

All the chicken coops in the planning stages, and I know most are aware of the Pallet coops idea (if not its in my siggy) but out of all the coops I have so far, including the pallets, dog house conversions etc. I love the shed conversion the best. and YES we did use pallets again! For those of u who may not be aware, the more coop space the better and most shed sales places have USED CHEAP sheds and you can make a deal and have it delivered to you and a simple conversion makes that floor space readily available. I like having everyone in one spot, I can have my feed cans and my bales of shavings and stuff all in the shed. AND I CAN DO SO WITHOUT STEPPING A FOOT IN ANY CHICKEN poop/areas! I can reach eggs easily, feed and water and open the run doors with the slide strings.

I did take a crappy video of our old shed conversion, I dont think it was finished in this video and I dont know how to take videos obviously but you get the idea.

If you need pics at some point I can get some, but its pretty basic and we used cheap wire and cheap 2x3s. Shed = FREE! it was here lol We did get a USED newer shed from Myerstown sheds with deliver for the 14x12 shed total was 400. bucks! you cant build a little coop with that sorta cash! Its worth some thought. If I had room on the other side of the shed I would have put smaller upper lower coops just for tiny birds and runs out the other side. But I dont think the neighbor in the log cabin would like me too much if they were facing that way!

 

[fisherlady]

You do make some good points................

Perhaps someone might PM me some ideas or post a link to how one "does that" if needed.

I really would not want to put a gal down...........but if she was suffering or there was a risk of everyone getting something............this might be needed.
The most humane way possible would be my choice.

I do agree with having these preparations at a less stress time...................this is why people have living wills or do not resuscitate orders etc.............

so if this information can be relayed sensitively to us newer folks...........that would be great.

I do have some Chicken raising books and may look up this info as well.

My first suggestion would be to check out some of the options given in the 'processing day support group, help us through the emotions' ... although it's intent was directed to folks who are having to process birds for meat the side effect was a lot of discussion on the most humane methods to dispatch an animal for really any reason. I'll edit this post with a link to the thread as soon as I find it....

OK... here is the processing day support thread.... it is worth a read, even if you aren't doing meat birds because it does have a lot of practical advice on dispatching chickens humanely....https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ort-group-help-us-through-the-emotions-please

 

[msladyhawke]

WAIT whats at the dragon?

Small animal auction in Ephrata. Friday nights.