Virginia

[Cknldy]

Psankigirl-I would have found some children to do the job and watched all the fun they had A nickel or dime per mouse and there may have been more than 14 in that bucket! Mice are such tricky geniuses. I thought about building sturdy frame only type shelves for the amount of hay I use in one winter to keep it off of the ground and maybe keep mice out. I have yet to see a mouse in the shed but I KNOW they are there- last year it seemed like every time I reached for hay there was a **** snake in it!! I'd rather have non poisonous snakes than mice in the shed but gosh, do they have to be at my finger tips??? I only kill a snake if it gets too close to a coop, the chickens attack baby snakes.

 

[pysankigirl]

yeah, we lost a couple of younger chicks to snakes in the last few years. And maybe if I hadn't relocated the snakes, they would have kept the mouse population down. We are thinking about getting a cat. but worried if we have broodies hatch out babies...would a cat hunt and eat the baby chicks? what a quandary.

 

[Elisha81]

ooh yeah i was told i need to look for heritage ones for the pretty eggs OOPS lol well price wise im not sure what is a good price. i was paying $2 for a 4 week old chick from a lady in washington but i know that is on the low side, i had bought a dozen chicks. I am looking for getting around a dozen again now. I just want to try to keep my costs down and give the kids something fun to enjoy (egg colors). i am fine with mutts as well hehe some of the birds i had before were mutts and they laid some pretty brown eggs with various speckles If you sell birds please feel free to PM me if you want.

 

[Maggiesdad]

Hello everyone!
My husband and I are about to embark on a chicken keeping journey of our own. I'm really interested in starting from hatching eggs, but I can't seem to find any locally in the Hampton Roads area on craigslist. I'd prefer not to buy shipped eggs, since the price/success rate ratio seems pretty poor from what I've read in my research. I was wondering if you have any ideas on resources for where I may be able to find eggs for sale. I honestly am not terribly concerned with breed at this point, considering this is my first go round and I'll be happy with just getting them to hatch!

Try putting an ad on craigslist that you are looking for barnyard mix fertile eggs - I'm sure somebody will help you out!

Or If you are up Richmond way I'll give you a mix of barnyard craziness... 2 doz for $10 -Australorps, Basques, Black Coppers, barred mixes, EEs, duccles, and sebrights. Who knows who the daddy is, lol. Can't beat that deal with a hammer... if you do it will be a big mess!

 

[manaze88]

Was there a thread for the various swaps and meets in the area? Maybe my search skills need honing, but I couldn't find it (thought I remembered seeing one a while back).

I need some new girls, and I'm getting antsy.

 

[ki4got]

Okay, so I have to tell you guys about my day yesterday. It was gorgeous out for the first time in a while. It amazes me that we can go from 5 degrees to 60 in less than a week. So we took the opportunity to clean out the goat shed. We have a mouse problem but as we store hay in there, we couldn’t do much about it (beyond putting out traps and beginning to store all our feed in galv metal buckets) until we whittled down the hay supply enough to be able to move it around. When we did, the tunnel complex behind the hay amazed me…it was like an ant farm.

As I disassembled it (wearing gloves!!!) the first thing I found was a nest of 7 babies. I put them on a lid and set them on the ground to deal with later. But turns out the Chickens did that for me. They ran around playing “keep away” and in no time the pinkies were no more.

But as I excavated further, it became apparent how much I had underestimated the seriousness of our infestation. Mice were running everywhere, over me and out. I managed to grab some of them and shove them into a 5 gal bucket (with DH’s help) but how many got away I will never know. just to give an idea of the magnitude, I got 14 into the bucket!!!

Their city is now leveled and we will be storing the hay somewhere else for a while, nowhere near any source of food. I am sure that the ones that got away will be telling their great-grandchildren about the Shangri-La that they once had.

Shudder. I took a long hot soapy shower.

you should have had your whole flock in there to catch the tasty morsels that were running around. LOL

 

[Maggiesdad]

Was there a thread for the various swaps and meets in the area? Maybe my search skills need honing, but I couldn't find it (thought I remembered seeing one a while back).

I need some new girls, and I'm getting antsy.

It's a little early yet, I see there was a swap down in Windsor Jan 3rd... You just have to keep your eyes peeled.

I threw a tray of 30 some mystery mixes in just for fun last night. They ought to be out around Groundhog Day. Then I'll start my serious hatching and run on through late May. My early birds are for flock improvement, and my late ones are for winter eggs.

 

[ki4got]

Was there a thread for the various swaps and meets in the area? Maybe my search skills need honing, but I couldn't find it (thought I remembered seeing one a while back).

I need some new girls, and I'm getting antsy.

MOST swaps don't start till march or april... there might be a few here and there over the winter but not normally I don't think.

 

[Maggiesdad]

you should have had your whole flock in there to catch the tasty morsels that were running around. LOL

That would have been so funny! Like the Keystone Kops running willy nilly.

Hope your feed bill drops, P-girl!

 

[Cknldy]

Yes, if a cat goes for wild birds they'll eat your chicks. We got two cats to control mice a few months ago. They steal the dog's food and all we really get out of them is a male spraying our porch (they were supposed to be females) and fleas in the firewood! I swear one cat sat there grinning at me when a mouse ran right out from beside where the cat was sitting. The cats are now free for someone that wants lap cats and I guess I'll keep a rake handy again for the snakes