Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[JerseyHen]

Wishing that this

looked like this

 

[lalany]

Like!

 

[Cheeky Chick]

Happy V-day everyone....
Hello Heather, glad you're settling in. Im so happy you have girls again.

Cheeky, glad to hear your babies arrived alive. Both Christina and I had such terrible luck last year with ours from Ideal. You should either post on here or their website about your experience with them. my birds were shipped under similar conditions and had to travel through the same postal distribution center.i ended up with 2 boxes of dead birds.it was just heart breaking.

Lalany, the yolk color is probably because they aren't grazing on grass now. Mine just started laying again and their yolk is lighter. This is my unprofessional opinion .

Well now for my SHIrTY mess. Discovered that a sewer pipe is broke in my driveway. My crawl space had 3 inches of toilet and shower in it. They can't even begin to fix it til they get permits of course Monday is a holiday . I'm showering at the gym, shirTing at my neighbors What a mess. Because the pipe is 3 feet outside my house, it's not covered by my insurance. Did I mention my crawl space is only 4feet deep and hell to crawl around in. I think the rotor- router guys only went down in there cause I started crying like a baby. When it rains, it snows.....
Be safe in the snow everyone... Thanks for letting me vent. Love you all.

Oh my goodness! That is terrible! I hope you get those permits and have that fixed stat! I'm so sorry that happened to you!!!

I joined the Cackle Hatchery facebook page, but I will post here on hatchery reviews too. The little girls are so small and cute, and the kids can't get enough of carrying them around.

 

[JerseyHen]

I am going to give this a try. 100 lbs of potatoes in 4 square feet? It is too intriguing not to, even if you have the space to do it the conventional way.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-grow-100-pounds-of-potatoes-in-4-square-feet-81760

http://seattletimes.com/html/homegarden/2002347126_potatoes25.html

 

[Mahlzeit]

That's an awesome idea for the potaoes. I'm gonna have to give it a try.

 

[queenchick16]

Good morning all,

Still deep woods camping it here. Had a professional team come yesterday to clean out the crawl space. The best $1600. I have ever spent. I just couldn't do it myself. I should have called them the minute it happened, but who new. Hopefully today they can get the permit to start digging up my drive way.

Christina thanks for the offer. If I didn't have the girls I'd be there in a heartbeat. You might never get rid of me. We would have just too much fun.

My 2 New England girls are getting along great. My russian Orloff finally gave me an egg. She's from the Ideal group from last spring. Can't believe that from all those chicks from last spring I only have 2. That was a lot of work and money for just 2.

I can't pull up the potatoe site for some reason. Last year I grew potatoes and got a huge crop. I planted "masquerade" from Burpee. medium size , but the skin is purple and white mottled with a pale yellow flesh.some of the best tasting I've had. I gave some to Loretta and her customers went crazy for them. They sold out way before her red and Yukon gold. I have more ordered for this year. Two years ago I tried the potatoe bag and that didn't work that great. Don't know if it was the bag or the potatoes.

I'm going to try sweet potatoes this year. I always plant a few new things .
Does anyone know if I should remove the foot of snow from my garlic? Can't believe I should be putting peas in the ground in 3weeks.

Stay safe today everyone.

 

[JerseyHen]

I sooo need to clean the coop. I am doing the deep litter thing, but it is high enough that I needed to excavate an area so I could get the door open AND the stinkers have been refusing to come out in the evil white stuff so the poop is concentrating in the coop. The bedding is so frozen I can't turn it or move it, so I kind of dug it out in chunks and can open the door at least. The girls have been tracking in snow and so it is now damp and it is going to be so nasty when it gets warm. The problem I am facing is how to clean the coop out. Even if it gets warm enough to thaw the bedding, I cannot operate a wheel barrow in 30 inches of snow and would have no where to dump it anyway. My compost heap is on the other side of the acre and I am not about to shovel a path so that I can clean the coop. Maybe I will just try to turn it all when it warms up and then toss some fresh bedding on top. I suppose everyone will be ok until March, which is when I usually do the big clean out anyway. I really don't mind the snow, but this year has been a little extreme.

Carol, I cannot believe that you are still dealing with that... uuuuugggghhhh. I hope they fix it up soon. I hear you on the chicks from last year, it was a bad year here too.

 

[queenchick16]

Good morning all,
Well as of this morning I don't have a plumber coming to fix the pipe.i canceled the contract after I called to see how the permit was going and was told he hadn't submitted it 'cause his mom was ill. I feel terrible for him and understand his situation but there has to be more than one person at Rotor- rooter that can do this.
At least the crawl space is clean. If there wasn't 2 foot of snow over the pipe and the ground wasn't frozen I'd dig it up myself. Dig it up, replace the broken pipe, how hard can that be.....

My coops are pretty bad also. I have shiRt every where I turn at this point in my life. With the warm weather these next few days I'm going to tackle it.

Enjoy the warm weather everyone.

Hey Pip are you back?

 

[Glasshen]

I sooo need to clean the coop. I am doing the deep litter thing, but it is high enough that I needed to excavate an area so I could get the door open AND the stinkers have been refusing to come out in the evil white stuff so the poop is concentrating in the coop. The bedding is so frozen I can't turn it or move it, so I kind of dug it out in chunks and can open the door at least. The girls have been tracking in snow and so it is now damp and it is going to be so nasty when it gets warm. The problem I am facing is how to clean the coop out. Even if it gets warm enough to thaw the bedding, I cannot operate a wheel barrow in 30 inches of snow and would have no where to dump it anyway. My compost heap is on the other side of the acre and I am not about to shovel a path so that I can clean the coop. Maybe I will just try to turn it all when it warms up and then toss some fresh bedding on top. I suppose everyone will be ok until March, which is when I usually do the big clean out anyway. I really don't mind the snow, but this year has been a little extreme. 

Carol, I cannot believe that you are still dealing with that... uuuuugggghhhh. I hope they fix it up soon. I hear you on the chicks from last year, it was a bad year here too. 

I hope to do some coop cleaning today, and I was thinking about my wheel barrow and there really is no way. We don't have as much as you do, but there is a drift up to the top of mt leg...so my plan is to use the handy cheap plastic sled! Might take a few trips, but I could at least take some out and dilute the rest with new shavings. Such a luxury.

 

[JerseyHen]

Ice storm up here, no coop cleaning today. I guess I will just sit inside, drink tea, start a fire, and get some work done... but using a sled is a brilliant idea. I am not sure how my DD would feel about me filling her sled with chicken manure though.

I went to 3 feed stores the other day (2 mom and pop and TSC) and nobody has any shavings. I wonder if people stocked up before the last storm, they all sold out, and have not gotten a delivery yet, or if the problem is with the suppliers. The girls are going to have to rough it a while longer...