Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[wingstone]

Daily pics.

Wish that glare was not on the window, this is the Hubby's favorite sleeping spot.

My lowest ranking hedemora rooster gets a little beat up on occasion

The feathers are finally catching up to the body growth

TSC Asian

Also TSC Asian, not sure what to expect

Muscovy ducklings from a march 4th hatch are growing nicely

Just because it is cute

 

[SilkieSensation]

If anyone is interested, my slate blue turkeys have kicked into overdrive and are laying like crazy. I've already hatched several and have a second batch in my incubator.  $4.00 an egg, shipping will be USPS priority.  Eggs will be double wrapped. Shipping cost would depend on how many eggs are shipped/box size. Most likely medium or large flat rate boxes. Send me a message if you are interested.

I have blue slates & mixes in the bator right now. Over 2 dozen in 3 batches & another batch waiting to go in. I got 5 eggs from 6 hens today, so looks like almost everyone is in gear. Pretty sure I know which little hen isn't laying yet. Fertility is pretty high as well. Only 2 clears from what I've set & 2 from the ones I've sent to others.

Just stopping in to say " hello "
Time is something that I do not have much of lately, I keep up with reading the post, but usually to tired at night to even think about commenting....I get cranky when tired..
The yard is full of dandelions, give me some day idea's besides just feeding to the bunnies... nothing to involved.

Dandelion wine...

Well, I guess I'm putting the chicken tractor in the wrong place! I will get right on it, cause it's covering a hill.

I said it may be Henbit, but I am not sure, I will have to check my reference book and make sure.

Just a word of warning. I wanted 8.
Now have 35ish. Plus 16 8 week old. Plus four in brooder. Plus eggs in hatcher. And incubator. And quail. And rabbits.

Bought most of that doesn't count in chicken math.

So I have 8.

Gold star for chicken math!

Hahah chicken math catches up with you. I just wanted 6 hens. Now I have 15 chickens, 14 hens and 1 rooster, in one pen.  2 silkies in another pen, and the silkie hen is sitting on 6 eggs. I have 2 free ranging roosters, and 2 free ranging guineas. In my duck run I have 7 ducks with a duck sitting on over 20 eggs. Inside I have 6 silkie chicks, 25 meatie chickens, and 6 turkeys. In the incubator I have 48 eggs (24 chickens and 24 ducks)

My advice would be to build a bigger coop than you think you need. You will find out that you will want different breeds of chickens. I love having different colors in the fridge. So many colors to choose from, white, brown, green, blue, olive green, pink. Good luck on your chicken adventure. :cd

You get a gold star for your chicken math too!

You can't have one, because it will get lonely. You can't have two because one might die. You can't have three because it's an odd number.
You can't have four because chicks are prone to birth defects, so you need to get extras to take their place.
You can't have ...

Best evidence I have heard yet!

And this is precisely how I ended up with 30 chickens, 8 turkeys, 4 geese, 2 peafowl, 11 quail, 11 mear roos, 14 bbw turkeys, 20+ chicks in the brooder, an incubator that holds about 400 eggs, another cabinet bator coming from my aunt that holds around 300 eggs, 3 styro bators, and most of that first bator either full or getting there. It all started with 4 chicks & 2 ducklings that my then 4 yr old talked me into buying when we went into TSC for kitty litter during Chick Days 4 years ago.

You have all this knowledge after only 4 years!?

And you get a gold star for chicken math too. Haha!

(I'm still earning mine...)

I've been around farms & animals my entire life & wanted to be a vet when I was a kid. It's accumulated knowledge & a lot of it applies to poultry as well as other animals. So I guess you could say, I have 40 years experience with animals & 4+ specific to poultry. (Plus I do a lot of research.)

To clarify my earlier questions on building some type of chicken tractor:  I thought that I wouldn't need to include a feeder on the tractor because I would be feeding inside the coop.  Is this wrong?  (I thought that some of you may have thought that I didn't intend to give feed at all.)

That's what I thought...


I don't keep my feeders in the coop, only because I find they don't eat enough when I have, but, to each, his own.


Best view in the world:

I try to avoid food & water in the coop whenever possible. It's just not worth the mess. I don't have time or money for the wasted feed, wet bedding, & having to constantly clean it all up to avoid feed & bedding getting moldy & birds getting sick or dying.

 

[barbiegirl]

Hello babriergirl how are you today ?

Tired. Cleaned out all the inside brooders tonight. Stinky little birds

How are you?

 

[chippysmom327]

You got it!

(I think)

IDK if it interests you, but I see a lot of tractors built with EMT (electric metallic tubing). My son loves the stuff (in an electrical program). It's lightweight and cheap. I just bought 10 ft lengths and they were only a couple dollars each. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

 

[LadyBehir]

I really want to participate in chicken math but only have a small lot. Darn it.

 

[chickbrad24]

Howdy from Chester Co....gotta tell us what you have and what you are looking for...

Hello stake nice to meet you. I am a Wyandotte guy. I have SLW, RLW, BLRW and Bantam BLRW, I also have Silkies black and porcelain ,BO's, Jersey Giants, EE's. I also have Khaki Campbell's, a Cayuga duck, Buff Duck there 2 daughters I am calling them Blue Buffs, 4 fawn runners and an unknown white and black duck . I am looking for Dun laced wyandottes.

 

[chickbrad24]

Tired. Cleaned out all the inside brooders tonight. Stinky little birds

How are you?

I'm good got home from work and checked on my 2 broody mama's and their chicks. When i left the one baby chick must have followed me back to the house opened the door and the little bugger ran right inside. it's never a dull day when your raising chickens.

 

[emorems0]

How do you all clean up your runs? We had been tossing bedding and grass clippings and straw in to give the chickens stuff to do and help keep it dry when it gets wet and mucky. So my plan was to shovel out the mostly composted stuff and mix it into some soil for the new raised beds. Problem... It's so compacted that I can't really scoop it (even with my new pitch fork). So what's the trick? I feel like I need some kind of heavy duty tiller to break it up, but we don't have that kind of equipment. Maybe I should have been raking and turning it all along, but it just didn't seem that deep and now it's been sitting and compacting all winter.

 

[emorems0]

Does anybody in the Western half of the state have a brooder setup I could borrow? Mostly looking to borrow feeder, waterer, heat lamp and box. I'll buy food, grit and bedding. If you're able to help thanks.

I'm in Beaver County... We just used a baby pool for a brooder, had to put a fence around it after the first week or two. We aren't using it though if you want to borrow it. Have a light too but can't help with the feeder and waterer... We just used a bowl for water until we introduced the poultry nipples and our feeder is still being used by the turkeys.

 

[eeverett]

Hello I am stopping by to say hello. I am from North East PA by Hazleton.

Hello from Montour county!