The Middle Tennessee Thread

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Folks, I am new to raising chickens along with my wife, we're out in the Cannon County area, and I was searching around on the net and stumbled across BYC. I went ahead and joined up and started posting just to jump right in to say hi to folks. I don't know much about fowl, and neither does my wife, but we are making a go at it, I'm an old cattle rancher and horse wrangler so this is something new to me, She grew up with a few peepers here and there but we decided to dive right in with a heavy load. I will probably start asking a lot of questions on and off, been doing this since early June and already made some mistakes but made a lot of headway as well, getting some good eggs, some of which we have hatched. So we are off to a start, don't know whether it is good or bad at the moment but it is a start.
 
pattersonml said:
Folks, I am new to raising chickens along with my wife, we're out in the Cannon County area, and I was searching around on the net and stumbled across BYC. I went ahead and joined up and started posting just to jump right in to say hi to folks. I don't know much about fowl, and neither does my wife, but we are making a go at it, I'm an old cattle rancher and horse wrangler so this is something new to me, She grew up with a few peepers here and there but we decided to dive right in with a heavy load. I will probably start asking a lot of questions on and off, been doing this since early June and already made some mistakes but made a lot of headway as well, getting some good eggs, some of which we have hatched. So we are off to a start, don't know whether it is good or bad at the moment but it is a start.
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Welcome aboard! Ask all the questions you want! We don't bite!

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Well folks, like I said, I am new to chicken farming and I have made some mistakes through the two seasons in which I have begun If you have read my new to the forums post, well I wanted to share another with everyone here as well. I got a call from one of my friends about an individual with some Lakenvelders for sell over in Tullahoma, he had some roos which would go well with my Laken hens. I contacted the gentleman and we made arrangements for me to meet him at his house. I get in my truck and head out on the scheduled day to run some errands before heading over to his place.
I get my errands taken care of and arrive at his location at the appointed hour. He is out and working in the pens and I arrive and we exchange pleasantries, talking about the weather, our past work lives and what led us to become featherbrains. Well it comes time to round up the roos and I go to my truck and realize my chicken cage is not in the truck. I had my son remove it the day before to clean it out in anticipation of the new additions to my fowl family. He failed to realize that if I wanted it cleaned I might want it back in.
He looked at me and I looked at him and we both exchanged looks of consternation. Flustered at this but not wanting to show it to my fellow birdman, I state I will just toss them on the backseat of my truck since it is an extended cab. It goes well to begin with, I am able to wrangle the two roos into the back of my truck and pay him for his generosity. We talk a little more about plans on the future of our birds and I head back to my truck to head out. Now mind you this is a mild day and I enjoy driving with my window down, but out of fear for passengers I leave the windows up with my truck running and the AC on during our discussion. I climb into the cab of my truck and am assaulted with the smell of fresh deposits these two birds have made to the fertilizer industry. I do not know what he fed them but it smelled worse than when I was crawling through a home to re-install cable television at a house that had a flooded septic tank. I cracked my window a little and resigned myself to fowl odor the whole way back to my farm. The birds also decided that they had a need for full cleansing of their colons and continued to deposit into the fertilizer bank on my back seat.
I am driving down the road and am nearly at I-24 when I see blue lights in my rear-view mirror. I did not realize it but I had crossed the line separating a 55 mile hour zone to a 45 mile hour zone. I like to think I am a safe driver and like setting my cruise at the recommended speed limit (my wife considers this foolish especially on the main highways and thinks one day I will be run over.) I diligently pull over at which point the two roos decide to start making a fuss in the back and start attacking the back windows. The officer strolls up to my truck and asks me to roll down my window further than the crack as I am trying to squeeze my license, registration and cellphone through the window (my cellphone contains my insurance card information on it.) I politely refuse, at which point he demands in a stern voice to please roll down my window. The birds at this time decide to make their own demands and make a few more deposits, and the odors finally reach the officer's nostrils. I explain to him that I am transporting a pair of ornery birds in the back seat and if the window goes down any further he may get a face full of fowl. He then peaks in through the window and sees the fuss going in the backseat and the piles of black gold littering the back seat. He looks back at me, looks back at them, looks back at me and tells me that they need to be in a cage in the back. I explain to him the circumstances behind my acquiring these birds and he looks back at me again, hands my cards and phone back to me and tells me to get home.

I have since cleaned out the back of my truck cab and ensure I leave the house with my cage anytime I go to get a new bird or a few. Needless to say, my wife got a good giggle at my predicament.
 
glad you made it home ok. in a pinch..I have never done this but you could tie their legs together and put them in the bed of the truck. I know old timers do that.
 











My and I ordered from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries and received a new lil flock of BO's and RIR's the other day, we picked them up yesterday from the post office and were surprised. I had heard horror stories of people opening up their crates and having 25 to 75 percent of their ordered flocks dead on delivery. We did not have a single casualty of the USPS and actually received a few extras from the hatchery in order to supplement in case of loss. My wife cannot not help herself, laying on the floor calling them her "lil Beebies"
 

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