The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Wasson6Pack]

So, I will be moving to Lewisburg in a few weeks and I would really like to get some ladies started to we can have eggs. I so far have only raised meat birds and will again in the spring, but since I am moving from Iowa and don't have a proper gauge on the weather yet I would like to know if I should get day-olds now so they will be ready to lay be spring or would it be better to get pullets since you guys are going into winter? Also whichever you guys think is better, do you have some suggestions as to where I should purchase? There is a hatchery close by here and I could get them here and have them shipped (if they will while it is this cold) or I could pick them up and take them with, but again chilly and stressful. I have heard completely mixed reviews about Poultry Hollow Hatchery in TN. Any info would be great, Thanks!

 

[DMRippy]

So, I will be moving to Lewisburg in a few weeks and I would really like to get some ladies started to we can have eggs.  I so far have only raised meat birds and will again in the spring, but since I am moving from Iowa and don't have a proper gauge on the weather yet I would like to know if I should get day-olds now so they will be ready to lay be spring or would it be better to get pullets since you guys are going into winter?  Also whichever you guys think is better, do you have some suggestions as to where I should purchase?  There is a hatchery close by here and I could get them here and have them shipped (if they will while it is this cold) or I could pick them up and take them with, but again chilly and stressful.  I have heard completely mixed reviews about Poultry Hollow Hatchery in TN.  Any info would be great, Thanks!

I hatch year round....it does get harder to grow babies out over the next few months. it is easier with some started pullets even some as young as 2 months would be better than chicks if I could choose, I can't stop hatching so I just grow them out in a 4000 sqf. barn.

you are limited to hatchery birds. there are lots of people here raising birds for sale.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

I have only ever purchase one batch of chickens and it was from a hatchery for meat birds. Is it acceptable (for lack of a better word) to purchase from a person? I mean, how do you know who you can trust with healthy chickens and how do you know the true age of the birds?

Do you have some for sale?

 

[DMRippy]

I always have birds for sale.....well most of the time. I am swimming in pullets right now too.

YOU ASK! there are several people on here you can trust. and a few that are not on here.

what are you looking for we might can direct you to someone with the birds you want.

buying young pullets insures young birds so no worries there. get them about 2-4 month's old and you will know they are young. healthy...just use good judgement look at the grown birds and the ones you are buying....no guarantees but that should help and buy from someone that is recommended to you.

anybody else got some advice????? DONT BUY FROM AN AUCTION HAHA.

 

[Oramman87]

So, I will be moving to Lewisburg in a few weeks and I would really like to get some ladies started to we can have eggs.  I so far have only raised meat birds and will again in the spring, but since I am moving from Iowa and don't have a proper gauge on the weather yet I would like to know if I should get day-olds now so they will be ready to lay be spring or would it be better to get pullets since you guys are going into winter?  Also whichever you guys think is better, do you have some suggestions as to where I should purchase?  There is a hatchery close by here and I could get them here and have them shipped (if they will while it is this cold) or I could pick them up and take them with, but again chilly and stressful.  I have heard completely mixed reviews about Poultry Hollow Hatchery in TN.  Any info would be great, Thanks!

I live in Belfast right outside of lewisburg and I go to a guy that is right near the Columbia state in lewisburg. He has a lot of birds ducks, peacocks and quail. I do keep them separate from my birds for a couple of weeks just incase but it is clean. He has a sign chickens for sale.

 

[DMRippy]

so after months without internet we are getting internet in the morning. Yeah! I can finally update my pages on BYC again.

let the little guinea out today for the first time. funny little guys. they would only come out and eat right at the door and go back in. they did that for hours. we left for lunch and came back and they were GONE. hubby couldn't find them. they had roamed far from home for sure. I don't remember the other going that far for w week or more. the older birds tried to call them back but that didn't work. I had to go get them and herd them home. can't wait to see what colors I hatch next spring. I have buff dundottes coral blue lavender pearl pied royal purples and whites. that should give me some nice colors next year.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

I think there are a lot of people that say that they have pullets for sale and they are really older hens or 10 - 11 month old birds. I will be purchasing some when we get there about the last week of November. I completely understand the no auction thing! Also these will be our first at the new place so there won't be any that they have to stay away from.

Where do you find non-GMO feed?

 

[DMRippy]

10-11 months old is a pullet. a pullet is a female chicken UNDER 1 Year old. get younger ones. they will be easy to tell they are young but make sure they are pullets.

can't help with the feed thing.

 

[Penny Hen]

heard the worst story today. the lady I meet at the exotic auction really had some bad luck.

she bought 80 birds at that auction and they started to get sick.....se sent one off to get tested and it came back with MG she had to cull all the birds from the auction. AND her healthy birds too. she really had a hard time with it. having flash backs of it. what a mess....poor thing she had a going egg business and now she is out of business till some new birds grow up for her.

I will tell you this.....they said they tested the birds at the auction......not one bird was tested at that auction. I watched my birds all the way through and I know they were not tested. never saw anyone open a cage and test any birds.

it may have been just a one time thing that they didn't test but they said they did and people bought birds hoping for healthy birds and didn't get them. I know they prob would not have tested for MG. but it was the principle of the thing.


I will not go back. ......for several reasons.

Which auction was this I want to steer clear?

 

[DMRippy]

the exotic auction in Cookeville