The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[delisha]

This is why I have chickens..
My husband loved horses and I wanted to fill a house with kids. He bought us a farm. He decided he also wanted to milk goats and show them and bought me some Muscovy Ducks. He said he was buying some chickens too. I said no..I am not cleaning no coop. I was raising and showing American Cocker Spaniels, the last thing I wanted was chickens. My plate was full.

I came home from a show out in Missouri and my yard was dusted with ..you know what..nasty dirty chickens!! I was so mad.

Visions of childhood, my chore/punishment of cleaning out the coop and throwing up, all the bugs, omg i hated bugs! Cleaning out the coop at my grandparents house. The stench of ammonia was horrible. I hated chickens. I hated the smell, and the bugs!

Jessica stood at my side while I cried and cried about the chickens and she looked up at me and said, * don't cry mommy, me help you.* She was 3, she is now 36. I pulled myself together and was a bit embarrassed i was being comforted by my 3 year old. So was the start to my life with chickens.

I never deep litter when I had my chickens, I kept that coop pretty clean back than. I was not a bleach freak, but I was terrified of *that* smell and if I even got a wif of it I was hauling out the hay. My husband was showing goats so naturally I would go look at the chickens and talk to some of the breeders. I made a decision if I was going to have chickens i was going to have a dual purpose. I kept what I had and added Cornish. When I had my first batch of chicks it was all over for me..I was in love. Every time I raised a new generation and seen things i liked and things i did not like and was successful when I bred it out or in, made me love it more, I bred for a purpose, not for a look. I knew what i liked and did not like. I might not know why I did not like something, I just know, for me it did not work.

My foundation was RIR, WR, Cornish, leghorn and Bars. I can see some of my old stock when I look at my birds, in just the way someone will walk, or make noise. I have a young pullet now who chatters. I had a really sweet hen about 10 years ago who sounded identical. I kept this bird just because of that. I probably will not keep her but wow she is one big pullet. I do not like her tail at all. I am praying it will change. She has such good leg width and breast for her age. i m going to keep her till she is 6 months old and look at her again. I already know I am not keeping her sibling. As soon as she gets closer to POL i will sell her. She will be just a production bird and burn out in 2 years, not much for meat. One leg of my birds seem to do much better at reproducing *like*. More of the chicks look identical. This line I am going to breed heritage RIR and see what happens. Only good i am feeling.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

For the next quiz on the OT....take the plunge. Fear is not an option.

Will we be required to dress like that?
I've got boots but no hat so guess I'll be only half-dressed!

 

[Beekissed]

You all had goats but were worried about the stink of chickens?

I think goats stink more than pigs.

Delisha, have you ever posted pics of any of your birds on here? I'd be interested in seeing what you are doing with those breeds~sounds like you put a lot of work into them .

 

[MagicChicken]

For the next quiz on the OT....take the plunge. Fear is not an option.

Is this a picture of Al when he was younger?

 

[delisha]

Probably tons of pictures..
I can repost my one leg of hens
Grandma and daughter
Great grand daughter



This is great grandma she is almost 6 she still lays me 5 eggs a week
This is my RIR/BR/Cornish line..the big boy in the back is from her bred to a pencil rock..He is simply beautiful and huge for a baby


He is about 26 weeks old now and still growing. That is a 5 gallon bucket behind him and a 20 lb Muscovy in front of him.

This is my other leg

12 week pullet..I just wanted to add that I really am attached to this pullet. She is the talker..she is already larger than my other line and out weighs her mom.

greatgrandpa


mom and dad (the neighborhood visitor)

siblings

 

[delisha]

I liked the goats, but I was not required to clean out the barn.I only went in the barn to bottle feed the calf's or kids. Just the males were stinky and they were meat before that happened. My husband took the goats out to be bred. He wanted champion kids and hauled them all over for breeding. He had them for quite a while. I milked for him once in a while, however, it was not my thing and took me forever to milk out 6 goats.. We fed out our pigs, calf's and chickens with the milk. My husband drank the milk but not the rest of us. He raised sheep too. Only thing I did for all of his project animals is castration. For some reason it was easy for me to do and I could castrate a piglet in a few seconds. They called me blue(blue cote stains) and a few neighbors always asked me to castrate for them too.

 

[Mountain Momma]

For the next quiz on the OT....take the plunge. Fear is not an option.

Okay I'm sharing this! Way too funny not to have imortalized on my facebook. Whatever the unhealthy observations are. lol. And by the way, the give more to get more sewing and reeping universe thing really works. There is another little thing that really works too. But I dont want to get all thumper and everything. Bible Bingo. As in, Bingo thats it! Say a short prayer for wisdom and understanding that you cannot miss then open your Bible to a random place and read whatever your eyes land on first. I've only used a Spirit filled Bible to do this but it is so profound and memorable each time I've done it.

I'll give you a sample then I will go to bed and never mention it again.

When I saw the twin towers falling on my TV I was very sad and shocked. My hubby was already on the way to work and had called me to watch and tell him what was happening. After the phone call I prayed and said my wisdom thing. I forget the passage but the words were along the lines of "I know all that is or was or is to be". Well, in my doubting Thomas way I asked again, like a kid and I did the prayer thing again, right then which I think is a sin because it is so doubtful.
The second passage was "The twin brothers by the river shall fall". Now stand back and turn a flip if this wasn't a gentle and kind way to let me know that I could trust Him because he really does know everything before it happens and the proof is that it was written before it happened and then that I would find it at that moment just by asking.

Anyway, there are some others I wont share here, I don't do it unless I'm confused or stressed but those times, some concerning my kids or my marriage, have always left me feeling loved and understood. When you hear an evangilist or someone say this is the living Word of God, well it really is.

Goodnight all you owls out there!
L

 

[Mountain Momma]

I do want to run my hands over them!
They would rather I didn't.
(but sometimes I do, anyway)

LOL. We have yellow and green. Thats it for fall colors out here. Aspens, if you are lucky and the nights arent too cold- will turn yellow and last a few weeks. If you get a cold blast the leaves fall in a day. My chickens look very pretty among those yellows. I havent nailed down my favorite looks yet. I know I like brilliant colors like orange and yellow and bluish grays. I really like the look of a great cornish but the mediocre ones not so much. The lavender and blue birds seem majical and I really like that too. The reds and oranges are so dramatic and the blacks have so much depth and glitter like butterflies. I think I just like a well bred bird a lot, if it pops for whatever reason then I enjoy that glimpse of perfection. The patterns and the contrasts...so neat. I guess I miss the fall colors from Ohio and Kentucky. People out here always want to go drive around and look at the colors. I never do that. AFter a fall in Ohio or Kentucky or Virginia nothing in Colorado will ever be colorful enough. That and the fact there arent any Frisches' Big Boys are the things I miss the most from back East. Of course in Colorado you can have thunder and lightening during a blizzard, sunshine while it is raining and there is never any gray or dirty snow around. Crazy views and crisp clear creeks and people ski in bikinis all the time.
Good night!
L

 

[galefrances]

post deleted

 

[Leahs Mom]

Anyone else want to chime in on why you got your birds and why you chose the breeds you got? I'll try to work on it tomorrow to get some of these answers consolidated and see if I can come up with some advice on what breeds I think will be suitable...though there are many, many suitable breeds for any given purpose but I can give you some info about the breeds I have had and why.

Here it is:

Why did I get my chickens:
Food Issues:
-Want eggs from hens that are raised eating and living as naturally as possible. (What would they eat if they were in their natural state?) Goal is that all purchased feeds be non-GMO, non-soy, (and also raising some worms/bugs for their dining pleasure); and as much foraged, chicken-chosen food as possible.
-Want to take responsibility for producing some of our own food and reduce reliance on “the grocery store”. It seems to me that whoever has control of the food supply has control of the people so I’d like to be a bit more independent of that.
-Regarding becoming a bit more self-sufficient, I felt that I needed to be “faithful with little”. Interpreted: I knew that chickens would be a good place to start in moving toward that goal and hopefully later we’ll add some other animals. We had been searching for some more secluded farm land but in the meantime, while helping my dad out in his old age, wanted to use what I had at my disposal thus being, “faithful with little”. (He has 12 acres here; I’m using about 4 of them currently.)
-Enough eggs to produce for extended family and sell to those around us that are currently begging for our eggs because after they taste them, don’t want to buy any others. These sales will help pay for purchased feeds.

Breeds I chose and why:

Tried to research and find breeds that would be good at the following:
- Foraging
-Dual purpose (we’ll use them for meat after laying - even if it’s just stew meat)
-Breeds that were closer to their original make-up rather than super-duper, pimped up modern genetics
-Breeds that could reproduce well
-Weather hardy both cold and hot

Other:
-Wanted to have a few that would produce “eye candy” eggs (blues, greens, darker browns, etc.) just for variety. Love to see 'em in a carton...I call it a "party in a box".
-Wanted some that would produce “yard candy” (to steal that term)…I like “birds of color” and a variety of colors.

Breeds Originally Chosen:

Common-Sense Breeds:
-Barred Rocks
-RIR

“Eye Candy Egg Producers”
Araucana


More recently
-setting some Black Copper Marans for egg color
-setting some Swedish Flower for more yard candy and also like that it's a breed that doesn't seem to have been "scientifically exploited" yet

Thoughts for the Future..Want to Try:
-Black Australorps
-Welsummer
(Possible a WR or 2 but only at BK's recommendation...I tend to stay away from white but don't mind them so much if they're mixed in with some "birds of color" !


FYI: Got my first birds March 2012 so I'm a COMPLETE NEWBY