The Middle Tennessee Thread

[wife89]

Hey, all. We are moving this coming weekend to our dream farm! YAY! Anyway, the farm has a house and a few outbuilding. One is a 2 stall horse barn and the other a chicken house..with yard. The problem is that they chicken house and barn and on opposite ends of the property (and it is 18 acres) This is not ideal!LOL So hubby was thinking of taking the nesting boxes and moving them to one of the stalls in the barn. Well, this has moved up our plan on getting chickens. Originally we were going to wait until the spring after he got a new hen house built. But since we are going to go this route, we can get chickens sooner. So here are my 2 questions.


1) Is it too late to get little chickens.. will the be old enough to handle the winter when that times comes

2) The farm is in Williamsport, near Columbia. Is there a hatchery near there that I can get my chicks from? Ideally I would like a few Rocks and maybe an EE or two. But right now I will take anything that lays..LOL

thanks!

 

[suzie_Q]

Quote:
I am Country Punks Mother. He got himself a Silver Lace Wyndotte, His sister got a (Huge) Partridge Cochin and I purchased a Pair of Silkies One was Blue the other a Splash.

So now I have 10 Silkies total the remaining ones are 2 buff, 1 Black ,1 White, and 4 Partridges. I tell him it was all his fault for insisting I saw the neighbors Silkies

 

[suzie_Q]

Quote:
You could always get some that are a couple months old if in doubt. They are still cute and fun to watch when that young.

 

[SimplySplendidSilkies]

Lori I was watching this one like a hawk. First thing that crossed my mind at 4:30 am was "Oh (insert other word for poop) the auction!" I sure hope these do well since I know she picks up from Hattrick. So far these are the only showgirl egg I can afford or would consider putting with the quality I already have. I practically gave silkie chicks away today to make room. You know I seriously favor well breed Showgirls over silkies anyway. If I did not have to have silkies to breed back to for quality I would not keep silkies at all.

I may (and I say MAY) try to sell a few Showgirl eggs in the fall. But I am seriously turning off the batar either way. Hubby coming home in Aug. No way I can have 3 bators going he would kill me.

I hope your second batch of eggs is doing better sweetie.

Well gotta go clean a bator. Oh wait I am in lock down on one and the other 2 have eggs in them. uuggghh see you all have turned me into a monster. NO MORE I SAY NO MORE!

 

[emmalynn]

Well if you run out of space for the Showgirls and need to send more silkies my way....twist my arm...

Cher is an absolutely sweetie. She has gotten a lot of raves from all our visitors. Of course I always tell everyone where I got her.

 

[matlock585]

Well I got my Amish built hen house delivered yesterday. It's nice to have something already built, but I could just kick myself cause I could build 5 of these for what I'll pay for this one. Regardless of that fact, I'm proud of it. I had to tie my nanny goat though, I caught her in it this morning eating the straw. I swore up and down i'd never pay for something I could make, but I'm not finding much free time and I'm sick of the chickens roosting on my front porch, ya'll can imagine what a cleaning job that is everyday!

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

It looks like a couple of somebodies are planning some quality time with the chickens!

Chicken house or not, I think all three of my children would be visiting with the chickens as much as possible until the "new" was worn off, lol!

Very, very nice coop! Congratulations and may your girlie birds thank you with many eggs!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I am making pens 3 ft tall, 3 ft wide and 4.5 ft long for the roos. Later I will add a wooden house with nesting box for breeding. I can let them out some too. We don't live at the farm yet so free ranging will be limited for now.

 

[Rollerman]

Susie_Q sounds like you have a good start of silkmies! I love them for their broodyness! CP is a nice kid,I like hi,hope I can help him learn more about the birds.We need more young people taking up the hobby,its one of the better ones for them and usually last a lifetime. He introduced me to his sister at the sale sat. She is a cutie ,reminds me of my granddaughter. They are close to the same age.
I had another little bantam hen hatching tonight! Can't wait to see what she ends up with in the morning!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Quote:
1) It's never too late to get chickens!

Seriously, you can pretty much get chickens any time you are ready for them. The latest I have hatched was in November. Of course, I had to brood them in the house until January, but that year we had some freaky early cold weather. Once temps got back to the 50s I moved those babies back outside to just the coop with no heat lamp. Then it snowed the next week.

The babies were fine. I was a nervous wreck, but they were fine. Once the babies are feathered out they are generally fine.

2) There is a local hatchery, but comments about it tend to be ho hum. There are a ton of people hatching locally though and you are sure to find some fine birds. Tons of us have EEs and I think someone local has pure barred rocks as well. I have some barred rock mutts, but they aren't pure. If you wanted to get a few this fall, the local co-op has barred rock chicks in the spring. I got mine from there and they have been wonderful birds.

Congrats on the new farm!