Utah!

[Stands With A Fiddle]

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I think she still is at Foothill Animal Clinic. I do know she is not there every day. Come to think of it, they've been answering the phone "Foothill Animal Clinic and Wasatch Exotics" ever since she's been there (which has been a few years).

She did rather extensive dental surgery on my Himalayan cat (Mr. Catterton) in February of 09. To make a VERY long story short, I had to take Mr. Catterton in on President's Day because I could not make their drop off or pick up hours at any other time (due to my 70+ hour work weeks). Dr. Wilson, who is my regular vet and owns Foothill Animal Clinic, was out of town, but Dr. Harris was available on that day so I booked with her. I was very impressed. She did a great job with Mr. Catterton's horrible dental problems.

 

[paintedsavvy]

Hey everybody. Just wanted to say hi!

Mr. Catterton...

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I recommended Dr. Folland at Parrish Creek in Centerville.

I had rabbits, cats and dogs taken care of by him. He is a certified avian vet.

Simply amazing man. Really impressive and can work on ANYTHING.

 

[PacsMan]

Wow, you don’t sign in for a couple of days, and there are pages and pages of messages. Welcome newbies!

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Choice and I have litter mates. He's a wimp and only started out with 5

I've got 11 from Sunnybrook and haven’t had a lick of problems with them…

Hey Choice, so you still got my sister hens 'eh? I'm still thinking about buying them from you....

– Just need to clean the garage and build the coop out bigger. Then I might actually be interested.

That was until I looked and had almost 4 dozen eggs in the fridge Tuesday. But, I sold my regular dozen at my Tuesday night meeting, and mom came by and relieved me of another dozen today, so I’m good…

Now a question for all of you that have lots of chickens (10+). Ever had this problem?...

I've got 11 hens-a-laying... I've been getting 10 eggs very consistently, and 9 or 11 about 3 times a week. Several weeks ago, they laid 11 eggs one day, the next day they all gave up and I only got 4. Then the next day it was 11 again, and they haven’t stopped since. (oh, and they're getting huge too!)

But today the same thing happened. I got 11 Monday, 11 Tuesday, and only 6 today...

Are chickens like ladies living in the same house, with the same..... cycle....? If one doesn't lay an egg, are they all cranky and the rest won't lay either? What's up with that?

I have confidence they’ll be back to normal tomorrow, but c'mon girls…

Marty

 

[kimbobim]

I just wanted to say I got two birds from Sunnybrook Farm in April - sorry to hear others had a bad experience with them. We got a Barred Rock and a Black Australorp (Carmen and Harriet, respectively). Haven't had a single problem with either of them - neither had lice or respiratory infections. They both started laying in late July and haven't missed a day yet. I'd love to get another Australorp - Harriet's the prettiest bird we've got right now (although the Silver Laced Wyandottes are finally starting to look like Ladies and not awkward teenagers). Does anyone have a source for Buff Orpingtons? I'd like to get a couple next spring.

I have 6 chickens laying right now and usually get 5 or 6 eggs a day - our younger 5 gals should all be laying by the end of September. I can't wait! But then we'll have to figure out what to do with all the eggs - my kids love eggs, but 9-11 a day seems more than even we can use. What do all of you do with them? We've been eating a lot of scrambled eggs, fried eggs, french toast, and I'm freezing quiche fillings for the winter months when I'm assuming the production will drop. But right now I've got 6 dozen eggs in my fridge! I guess I'll be making more quiche fillings in the morning - or start wandering the neighborhood like the Easter Bunny, leaving eggs on people's porches (at least it's not zucchini).

The neighbors on both sides of us keep asking if we have eggs to sell, but I don't know if I want to charge them $$ - they're both great and check on the coop for us when we've been gone this summer. And now they're hooked on the eggs they gathered while we were away! hehehe. Do any of you think it'd be reasonable to have them buy a bag of layer feed and we'll keep them supplied with eggs? It seems like most people on KSL.com are charging between $2 and $3 a dozen - 5-7 dozen eggs would buy a bag of feed. It'd be nice if we could barter/sell enough eggs to offset at least part of the price of their feed. What do you think? Cash would probably be easier to keep track of... Or... I could have the kids be in charge of selling the eggs, buying the food, and then let them keep whatever cash is left (if any).

Did Choice find a new home for his ladies yet?

Is anyone interested in getting together to talk about chickens? I didn't make it to the last Chicken Stock in June.

 

[PacsMan]

I’ve got a foundation to dig out in West Jordan on Saturday. As much as I’d rather be sitting around talking shop… I think I need to be dig’n.

On my 2nd (or was it 3rd) time this spring, I bought a buff Orpington from Sunnybrook farms. Nice bird. She’s a little larger than the others, but I don’t think her eggs are much larger (yet…)

I can’t tell for sure, but one of my red sex-links or barred Plymouth rocks lays the darkest biggest eggs of them all! I even cracked one open the other day that I thought would be a double yolker… nope, it was just huge.

Christie’s Buff Orpintons were 50¢ more than the others. Not sure if they’re worth it yet, but I like the way they look and may replenish next year with a dozen of those. They are sweet docile birds… (But Blondie always lays late in the afternoon!).

My wife likes the black osterlorp we have. She says it pretty. It’s ok, but it lays lighter colored shells, and smaller eggs (still) than the other 10 gals. I won’t be getting one of those next year.

Our 4 EE are supposed to start laying in October. Didn’t keep real close watch of the calendar so it could be a few weeks, or a lot of weeks before we see those.

As far as selling eggs, I’ve got a guy that I have meetings with every week, who insists on paying me $4 a dozen. (he says it’s cheaper than paying $5 at the organic store, plug gas). He’s my only regular customer, and $12/month ~almost~ pays for 50 lbs of feed.

Kimbob, you’ve got way too many eggs. But, don’t sell them for $2 dozen! You have wonderful, home grown, high omega 3, farm fresh eggs. Sell them for $3 or even $4, and don’t blink an eye. They are well worth it!

And, give a few more dozen away. I have so many neighbors asking… I don’t think I’ve ever had a 5-day-old egg in my house since production started!

Enough rambling. Time for bed.

Marty
(Why did the chicken cross the road? Because she wanted to lay it on the line!)

 

[yfchoice]

Yes I did get rid of my girls. Put 'em on KSL and a very nice couple came over and stayed about an hour. They were really nice....I wasn't going to let them go to just anyone.....and they bought all the other stuff that I had too....so I knew they were (the girls) were going to be ok. The new owners even asked what their fav treats were and what they didn't like.

It was the hardest thing I've had to do in a long time. It's been almost a week and I still haven't gone to the coop.

It is what it is.

 

[Stands With A Fiddle]

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I'm trying to get together some people to talk chickens at Emigration Market Patio in SLC this Saturday (the 5th) at 1:15PM.

RSVP via this board.

 

[hen-thusiast]

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I know what you're saying. We have a SLW and a GLW we never thought they were going to outgrow their awkward stage, but they turned out so beautiful.

BTW - haven't seen you on here in a while, welcome back.

 

[kimbobim]

Quote:
I know what you're saying. We have a SLW and a GLW we never thought they were going to outgrow their awkward stage, but they turned out so beautiful.

BTW - haven't seen you on here in a while, welcome back.

Yep, been too busy with all four kids home for the summer! They're back in school now, except the youngest. The house is so quiet and she's booooorrred now that older kids are gone, so I've been busy keeping her busy and entertained. But she starts pre-school next week (happy dance for both of us), and there's story time at the library.

The weather has finally cooled to the point that we're finally going to finish the outside of our coop - we got most of it done in June before things heated up - the shingles are on, windows in, the inside is done, but now we have to finish the outside with siding or stucco. Stucco a chicken coop? Seems ridiculous to me, but our neighborhood covenants say stone/brick or stucco. We're going to add a cupola to the top for more ventilation, and I think I'm going to re-do the nesting boxes, make them a little sturdier. And put framing and chicken wire over the floor under the roosts - sort of like a droppings pit, but only about 6 inches deep. Our head hen Lola got in a huff when the two younger gals started laying in the nesting boxes in July and has decided to lay her eggs down there in the shavings and poo - and now a few of the RIRs are laying in there too. If I put chicken wire over that area, the poo can still drop down, but she can't get in that corner to lay.

Marty, I did get rid of some eggs - I froze 3 Aztec Quiches (so good and ridiculously easy), I'm making and freezing a ton of buttermilk pancakes tomorrow (the kids can thaw them out and throw them in the toaster oven to heat 'em up = easy breakfast), and I gave 18 to our daughter's piano teacher. She has six kids, four of whom are teen-age boys - they go through food like a plague of locusts. We may end up trading eggs for part of the cost of the piano lessons, which would be great.

Choice - I'm so sorry you had to find new homes for your girls. I would have offered to home them here for you if you hadn't found someone you trusted.

I've actually considered offering to 'board' a couple of chickens here with ours for a friend - where the chickens would live here, they provide the feed, and then get their eggs (a percentage of all the eggs gathered, since it'd be impossible to know who laid exactly what). Taking care of 12 chickens doesn't really take much more time than 6 (if any). Hmmm. I may have to think about that some more.