Washingtonians

[mikeyb]

Quote: You do amazing work mama...

 

[mikeyb]

Quote: Check out the Civil Air Patrol. Great org. and lessons are either free or really, really cheap.

 

[JennS]

You're not insulting anyone, you are trying to get information to make your decision.

Once again, you have to do what works for you. As others have said, it depends on what you want from your flock.
By the way, I find that reptile and bird husbandry are very similar. I used to have green iguanas, and had friends with snakes, water dragons, chameleons, geckos, uromastyx, etc.

Wonderful, that means I'll hopefully have a head start!

I've been keeping reptiles for... holy cow, for 19 years! Dang it, that makes me feel old. I kept finches and quail briefly, but my husband is allergic to feathers, so no more indoor birds.

I'm waiting for a couple of friends to get back from Burning Man, and then they will be taking some of my turtles. Then I'll have a nice big stock tank to use as a brooder. I've already got dome lamps, spot lights, ceramic heat emitters, radiant heat panels, thermostats, and rheostats all over the place! Plus I buy shavings by the bale (is aspen okay or should I get some kiln dried pine?). There are only a few things that chickens need that aren't used for reptiles, so as far as gear goes I won't have to spend much money. And I'm thinking that I can use some of the chick starter as roach food as well, unless I have to get the medicated stuff.

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

Just another thing to think about. When you are learning about chickens, do you want to learn on expensive birds, or cheap birds. I feel so heartbroken for people who post they have put a lot of money into a flock, and their flock got wiped out. Then they have to figure out what needs to change, so their next flock doesn't get attacked. Owning chickens is a huge learning experience. If you get them through the chick stage, there's other things that can go wrong along the way. My flock has been a huge learning experience. Thankfully, this web site helped me get through it all, but as I was going though each situation, I was very thankful my birds only cost $2.50.

I almost lost Rhodie and Drama to pasty butt when they were really tiny.

Then, Drama hurt her leg and I had to learn how to build a chicken chair, and keep her in it just to get her to walk again.

Then, Drama busted her beak off.

And, now Caunnie has a broken beak... and so it goes - all this in 20 short weeks.

I'm happy to learn all I can on hatchery stock. Some day I may "upgrade" to expensive birds, but, right now, I'm content learning the ropes on hatchery birds. And, I love them dearly - even if they are "just" hatchery birds.

Honestly, the chickens are going to be the cheapest part of the whole set up. (I am hoping to get chicks to save a little money and have the time to bond with them.) Right now we can afford to spend the money to build a solid coop and get some nice birds, and I am expecting to make a trip or two to the vet in the first year for random things going wrong. And anyway, I doubt if any of the chickens I have on my list are going to come close to how much I've paid for some of my reptile pets!

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

The only problem you may find with getting birds from breeders, is that you will most likiely have different age birds to manage and integrate into one flock. That can be tricky, or a piece of cake depending on the birds and the living situation. If you get all your birds from a feed store or one breeder that are the same age then they grow up together and it's easy.
If you have birds of a different age(weeks or months apart) then you have to have a way to seperate them until they are old enough to be put together.
Gets complicated. Not something I would have wanted to do my first go around with chickens.
If you are ok with getting 1 or 2 different breed from one or two breeders that are the same age or very close, you should be fine.
But if you are looking to get 5 different breeds, as I did, I might suggest getting them from the feed store or ordering them through a hatchery.
Personally I love the feed store! I love picking out my own chicks from the brooders!

But that is just me! I do have Favs from Jeanine that are awsome, and also silkies from a breeder, that I just hatched late this spring. But I still intend to add EE's to my flock with day olds from the feed store when I can because I love the roll of the dice with them, feather color and egg color wise.
I still find it hard to resist passing up those cute little fuzzy butts at Monroe. But I have NO more space right now. (at least I keep telling myself that)

Just my thoughts and my experience with feed store birds and integrating different age birds in a limited amount of space.
I have 5 acres, but my DH doesn't want chicken coops all over the place.
I am working on him though. With lots of these..

P.S- I was and still am happy with my hatchery birds, except I decided to narrow down my LF breeds to just two. Favs and EE's, so I wanted to get good quality Favs. Oh and I have Silkies, but they are just for eye candy and natural incubators.

Hmm, that is a very good point. I will have to do some reading on mixing ages. I would like to avoid it if possible.

Has anyone ordered from MyPetChicken.com? How do their chicks look when they have grown up?

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

For Silkies I can recommend Karen, of Catdance Silkies, in Yacolt (http://www.catdancesilkies.com/). Even her "pets" are amazing. She is also a BYC member.

She will be going through her pens, when it gets cool enough to ship birds, to pick out what she is keeping and what she is letting go.

She posts her 'pet quality' birds (that are still beautiful!) on Craig's List but you can contact her directly, before then.

Lot's of people, on BYC, have gotten birds from her, or eggs to hatch. You can do a search to pull up all the photo's that people have posted who have gotten her birds.

Sheila

Thank you!

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

So I got back on here to post pics of my three hatchery stock.... (but, man, this thread is movin' today!)

Here's my girls - the same three in my avatar. Sorry the pictures aren't very good. I took them this morning. They are 20 weeks old (I think, I lost count). They're not in the mood to pose for me. It seems whenever I come out with a camera, they dive into the bushes.

They are Reber Ranch babies...

Caunnie - my EE. Not laying yet...

Ignore the lousy corn. We were gone to Idaho & Yellowstone for 12 days during the hottest days - I'm about ready to pull it all out. It looks bad. But, I haven't pulled it out yet because the chickens love to play in it.



Drama - my Light Brahma. She probably won't lay for quite a few more months. She's still a young-un in the Brahma world. She might not lay until next Spring. She's not showing much in the way of turning red yet. And, her feathers are still coming in. She looks a ruffled mess quite often (but an adorable ruffled mess!

). She's so funny looking when she runs. You can't help but laugh! And, she's FINALLY learning to fly. She gets a little bit of air now!



Rhodie, my Rhode Island Red - who didn't want her picture taken to save her life! She is my only layer. She has laid 1 each day for the past 5 days. She's laid 8 total.




This is what you can expect from $2.50 birds from Reber Ranch. I'm happy with them. I'm sure they probably have quite a few flaws if compared to the SOP.

They are beautiful!

Jennifer

 

[justbugged]

Quote: Your wood chips will work fine for your chickens. The only type of wood chips that have any kind of warning on then, are cedar. As far as I know the problem with cedar is that they are to aromatic. Do do know that there are members that have used cedar with success. At this point, I wouldn't use them. The cedar is more expensive, and it's not worth the risk.

I would recommend that you use medicated feed for at least the first 2 weeks of your chicks lives. The chicks immune system doesn't kick in until after they are 2 weeks old. Chicks are prone to pasty butt at this point. I have lost too many chicks over the years to risk not using the medicated feed.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Check out the Civil Air Patrol. Great org. and lessons are either free or really, really cheap.
My Oldest DS did that for almost 2 years. Great program. He got more into music and put together a band so we had to let something go.

 

[Imp]

All the talk lately about rats, spiders etc came home today. I was working on the deck and one of the outside cats came by crying oddly. I realized he had something in it's mouth, then I saw the tail hanging down. Took a bit to talk Zulukhan into dropping it. I picked it up and realized it was either a baby rat or mouse, freshly killed, still warm and soft. I set it aside and went back to finish the deck. The next door neighbor came by and I wanted to warn him about the critter. I showed it to him and he said it looked like a rat to him. As I was holding it it started moving. I told the neighbor "It's either still alive or full of worms" and "Why am I holding this thing?" As I watched I realized it was 2 bot fly larvae, partway out of the dead body. I quickly sealed it up in a plastic bag and tossed it.

Russ- Ugh!

A couple weeks ago Zulu brought me a mole.