Virginia

[ki4got]

Hi, I'm in Gloucester Va. Looking for a few chicks. Is it possible to get only 3 or 4? Who knows where a hatchery is or where I may get them in this area. At least by March.

tractor supply starts carrying chicks in March. I have some mixed breed cochins and easter eggers (a few of the cochins are ee mixes I think) that hatched out this week too, but i'm in the Roanoke area...

 

[cubalaya]

We were 4 degrees here at 8am this morning
but as to KI4got's post:
I originally got into chickens two years ago with Dorkings (reds, silver grey and some oddball colors from Craig Russell) & Barnevelders (from Cornerstone farm who got his stock originally from Lowel Barber.)
But at this point I also have a trio of Horstman Silver Penciled Rocks, a trio of Bantam Chocolate Orpingtons, & Pair of Rhodebar.
I also have assorted other eye candy chickens in my laying flock including a couple of Maggiesdad’s basques, that I highly recommend.
I had a respiratory scare last year with a pair of chickens in my quarantine pen (the chickens were promptly dispatched,) but none of my main flock of chickens has come down with any symptoms even in this terrible cold weather so I think I have been very, very lucky on that front and dodged a bullet. But I do know I have Mareks on my land. So I still will not spread it by selling chickens. I am breeding for resistance in my own flock.
With the predator issues we had last year, I am itching to rebuild my flock and I already have some daffy girls going broody on me. (‘sup with that???!!!????) I want to do broody-raised chicks, as they integrate into the flock so seamlessly. But I think I should wait until it is a bit warmer to let them sit on eggs.
I have thought about selling hatching eggs, as Mareks supposedly doesn’t come through the egg, but am kind of not sure how people would react to me obsessive-compulsively warning them that I have Mareks. So maybe I just shouldn’t go there for my own sanity.

maybe you could tell people the percentage of chicks that get mareks in your flock. if you hatch 100 chicks and only 1 or 2 get it, it is not that much of a problem. in my opinion.
i hatch 80 to 100 chicks a year and only lost 2 to mareks and 1 to crd. all 3 were over 6 months but under a year. i actually treated the crd bird because it was the best brown red stag that year. he recovered briefly but i could hear something wrong with his crow and culled him. i culled the other 2 at first sign.
i also have a couple hens trying to get broody and 2 asil hens are laying even with the temps we are having now. allowing our hens to hatch and raise the chicks will make them healthier and is better than incubating. it is a little early for broodies though.

 

[Maggiesdad]

-2° here this morning... I heard a strange tapping at the front door while I was moving around the house this morning. I went to investigate, and found the red stuff from my glass thermometer trying to get in.



Seriously, anybody else in Central Va this low? My mom says she's showing 11°, but I believe her's is sheltered in a nook of the house...

 

[cindynkidsd]

I am near Suffolk. I'm 40 miles from the daggon ocean and its negative 4. I thought my thermometer was broken at 0 but my other one shows -4.

 

[PrayingMantis]

First morning here in the Shenandoah valley that it's not below zero. Its 3 degrees. Fun. Real warm.

 

[Tiller]

-6 here. Called into my work saying I'd be late, both out vehicles won't start, boss said it's -10 there.

 

[cubalaya]

6 degrees this morning, up to 9 degrees now. when it warms up to 15 degrees will go out and feed and water the chickens

 

[pysankigirl]

Seriously, anybody else in Central Va this low? My mom says she's showing 11°, but I believe her's is sheltered in a nook of the house...

we were a 2 degrees. nostril hair freezing is now commonplace and nothing to write home about.

 

[pysankigirl]

Alright...well if Mareks is not that unusual, perhaps selling hatching eggs and /or chicks isn't that big a deal.

I guess I could incubate the chicks elsewhere if I am really that worried about it being airborne.

It really was only the Dorkings that were falling prey to the Mareks. I lost 3. The other breeds were fine. I haven't heard it being a problem with other people who have dorkings, though. So maybe they just haven't ever been exposed to have any resistances. I love the dorkings...they have great personalities. So perhaps I will only breed them for myself this year from the ones that survived and see how they do.

 

[finnfur]

1 degree a 6 AM and by 7AM had tripled to 3 LOL - Heat wave - But we are south central lake country . Its as cold as I can remember since late 70s when the James river froze over at the bridge from Newport News to Isle wight. Brrrrr!