Tea Time.... Relax with us and have a cup of hot tea!

I like your new avi! =)
Barred Rock?
Yes, she's one of three I bought in 2012. She jumped on my shoulder so I made hubby take a quick photo. I've used it as my avatar since then.

I've only got one left now and she's raising a brood of 7 easter egger mix chicks right now and it's her second time being a mama. I like her so much I bought two more this spring (one died in a mix-up with son moving chicks that he wasn't supposed to). If I had nothing in my flock but Barred Rocks and Easter Eggers I'd be quite happy.
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CG
 
Yes, she's one of three I bought in 2012. She jumped on my shoulder so I made hubby take a quick photo. I've used it as my avatar since then.

I've only got one left now and she's raising a brood of 7 easter egger mix chicks right now and it's her second time being a mama. I like her so much I bought two more this spring (one died in a mix-up with son moving chicks that he wasn't supposed to). If I had nothing in my flock but Barred Rocks and Easter Eggers I'd be quite happy.
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CG

I got my original flock in 2013 and only have three left (one of them isn't laying and another isn't laying well).

I may or may not get more RSL (mine were golden comets), but I would definitely jump on more white Leghorns. And if I ever get a chance to have another Bantam Cochin Frizzle (Snoodle, in my avi) or several of them, then I couldn't possibly pass up that opportunity! =)
 
I made suntea this morning. It'll be chilled by this afternoon when I'm ready to start drinking it (well, it is after noon, but I'm still working on coffee). Anyway, I might stick some mint in there and see how that goes. I'll let you all know. =)
 
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I have 4 from my original 2012 flock: 2 of the 6 RSL, 1 of 3 BR, and the first Easter Egger. I kept one EE rooster (had 2 EEs, 1 BR, and one Mixed cockerels). My second year I let the BR that went broody hatch and raise 9 chicks and only three were pullets. I also bought three more EE pullets, 2 Austawhites, and a Austrlorp. Last year I bought nothing and hatched only my own. This year I bought 2 BR, 2 Brown Leghorns, and a Buff Orp. I like diversity in my flock and in my eggs. I get blue, green, kakhi, cream, tan, and brown eggs (I will now have white eggs in my egg basket this fall).

CG
 
I have 4 from my original 2012 flock: 2 of the 6 RSL, 1 of 3 BR, and the first Easter Egger. I kept one EE rooster (had 2 EEs, 1 BR, and one Mixed cockerels). My second year I let the BR that went broody hatch and raise 9 chicks and only three were pullets. I also bought three more EE pullets, 2 Austawhites, and a Austrlorp. Last year I bought nothing and hatched only my own. This year I bought 2 BR, 2 Brown Leghorns, and a Buff Orp. I like diversity in my flock and in my eggs. I get blue, green, kakhi, cream, tan, and brown eggs (I will now have white eggs in my egg basket this fall).

CG

I like diversity too. We bought the last eleven chicks that TSC had in Spring of 2013; 5 were RSL, 5 were WL, and one was a "specialty breed". In the fall, we met a neighbor who had chickens and got a rooster, a cockerel, and two hens from her, but only the rooster made it. Then she hatched 13 of my WL eggs; eventually I had 3 pullets left from that hatch (2 were OEs and one laid small tinted eggs), but I've lost all of those to predation now. We got some more chickens from her, but none of them made it. Then last Summer, we started buying NHs from a hatchery but we've lost about 2/3 of them. This winter, DH ordered me a rare breeds assortment (I like diversity in my flock as well), and we've got almost all of them still.
When I put it all that way, it sounds like I'm a terrible chicken keeper!!!
Truth be told, the neighbor we met gave me quite a lot of bad advice, which I followed, much to the demise of pretty much all the chicks I got last summer, and it seems that the line of NHs that I got from the hatchery didn't get along well with my property. Aside from that neighbor's chickens, advice, and those NHs, everything else I've done has been quite successful and the other breeds I've gotten have done quite well here.
The greatest number of colors I've gotten were pink, yellow brown, dark brown, and speckled from my RSLs, two shades of green from the OEs, pink from Snoodle and the WL mix pullet, and white from the WLs. Now I get pinkish brown from the NHs (well, not right now, but when they were laying, and I did get one egg yesterday and an egg song this morning, so we'll see).
Now, all I'm getting are the NHs, the pink one, an occasional speckled one, and I should start getting white eggs from most of my rares.
For now, I'm only keeping NH roos, but I've had an EE, a Brahama mix, a GLW mix, a NHxBO, and a bunch of WL mix roos, and a few other assorted cockerels.
 
I don't have a lot of my hatched chicks left. I ended up selling all of the first hatch last year so I had to incubate again. I had lots of cockerels end up in the freezer but I still have too many hanging around. Of the pullets, for some reason they would die (not all at once to make me think I had an epidemic). I guess they didn't their immunizations like they get at the hatcheries so they eventually fell to some disease. Besides the unexplained deaths, I had a few that were gotten by various critters...they weren't as watchful as the older hens so they almost always seem to be captured.

I do an incubation "unit" at the school I work at so those chicks become my new flock. This year I didn't offer any up for sale but a co-worker that bought some from me last year wants two more to replace what died.

Some times I think I'd like to buy one of those Cackle Hatchery Surprises but what would I do with 40 - 50 chicks? I'd get a lot of variety however. LOL

CG
 
I don't have a lot of my hatched chicks left. I ended up selling all of the first hatch last year so I had to incubate again. I had lots of cockerels end up in the freezer but I still have too many hanging around. Of the pullets, for some reason they would die (not all at once to make me think I had an epidemic). I guess they didn't their immunizations like they get at the hatcheries so they eventually fell to some disease. Besides the unexplained deaths, I had a few that were gotten by various critters...they weren't as watchful as the older hens so they almost always seem to be captured.

I do an incubation "unit" at the school I work at so those chicks become my new flock. This year I didn't offer any up for sale but a co-worker that bought some from me last year wants two more to replace what died.

Some times I think I'd like to buy one of those Cackle Hatchery Surprises but what would I do with 40 - 50 chicks? I'd get a lot of variety however. LOL

CG

I order from Meyer. I would order from McMurray before I ordered from Cackle, but that's just my personal preferences. We've ordered about two dozen chicks at a time, it's the largest number of chicks you can order in the second shipping price bracket.

I've just gotten my laying flock up to a number that will support my family's egg use, so I haven't had the opportunity to sell chicks yet.
The only thing that I know has killed chicks here is coccidiosis and fowl pox. There's a fowl pox vaccination, but my chicks were dying from it at way too early an age to receive it. We feed medicated feed for the first several months and we medicate water about two to three weeks after they arrive (b/c we've lost a lot of chicks in that two to four week age range).
We have always ordered Marek's (sp) vaccinated chicks. The symptoms for that are pretty easy to look up, so you could find out whether that's what's been killing your home-hatched chicks; also, you can buy the vaccine yourself from a pet or farm supply company.

My broody broke her last egg the other day. No more chicks for me right now. =( Oh, well, it's too hot for chicks right now anyway, I guess. I can wait until the weather cools off a bit. =)
 
I've missed summer too! =)

Same here about the iced tea. DD adds mint leaves to my black tea. Lemon almost always tastes good to me in tea (not in my chocolate mint tea, but in the regular ones, especially Earl Grey and English B-fast).

I won't tell if you don't. lol

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Boil a cup of water, add dried mint leaves, chill the water, make lemonade out of it. (make lemonade: add about 1/8 cup or 2 T each of lemon juice and sugar)
Or, make lemonade, add fresh mint leaves, run it in a blender for a bit, strain it if you want, enjoy over ice. =)
I promise these methods will work!!!

I'll try that! All I do is add some drops of lemon or lime to my teas. So good!
 

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