Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[jvls1942]

psypeep, take my word for it,, You do not want to keep chicks in the house for months.. you are pushing it at a week, 2 weeks tops.. build your coop asap

buying straight run is ok if you do not mind butchering the roos..

just remember, some roos are not meant for meat, so they will tend to be small carcasses.. so that kind you should butcher very young,m, like cornish hen size.. 2 to 3 pounds..

I am thinking of trying to get my Jiffy post hole digger running.. It has been many years since it was running .. I must have had the good sense to empty the gas out when I stored it, so hopefully all I will need is a new spark plug.. I pulled the rope yesterday and the motor is not seized.. a step in the right direction..

raining here today.. too cold for tee shirt and shorts..

......jimputtingonhismechanic'scaptoday........

 

[Terri O]

Good afternoon! Kids are coming early today so we are going to hit Petsmart in Madison on the way to pick up DS. I need parrot food AGAIN! (the beagle eats if way faster than the parrot does!) Maybe I will pick up a new storage container too!

I have eaten the quail and they are delicious! What I really would like to do is get connected to a dog training place and provide them with birds. I was supposed to talk to Twain about it but I cant seem to get it together to do that! The other think I would like to do is sell quail eggs. I guess there is a market for them for restaurants....but I am not inspected and that is what they seem to want.

I have to head outside again now...one of my tortoises didnt go to bed last night and I have to make a search for him...I sure hope he didnt get out of the enclosure! I dont know how to make them any safer in there except for covering the whole darn thing! Then I might as well just keep them in the house.

Good day to sleep in today.... I had a fair meeting though and had to get out. Oh gee, the kids are here!
Later! TerriOheadingtoMadison

 

[delisha]

Good afternoon! Kids are coming early today so we are going to hit Petsmart in Madison on the way to pick up DS. I need parrot food AGAIN! (the beagle eats if way faster than the parrot does!) Maybe I will pick up a new storage container too!

I have eaten the quail and they are delicious! What I really would like to do is get connected to a dog training place and provide them with birds. I was supposed to talk to Twain about it but I cant seem to get it together to do that! The other think I would like to do is sell quail eggs. I guess there is a market for them for restaurants....but I am not inspected and that is what they seem to want.

I have to head outside again now...one of my tortoises didnt go to bed last night and I have to make a search for him...I sure hope he didnt get out of the enclosure! I dont know how to make them any safer in there except for covering the whole darn thing! Then I might as well just keep them in the house.

Good day to sleep in today.... I had a fair meeting though and had to get out. Oh gee, the kids are here!
Later! TerriOheadingtoMadison

Sounds like a great day planed! Tons of fun with the kids. I have that 1 quail here. It is pretty mean to new chicks. Spends a great deal of time pecking them all day.

My order of Silver laced Wyandottes arrived this morning. Noisy buggers. They have yet to shut up. I am chick ODed and need these suckers out of the house asap. Dick sent some beautiful fat chicks. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a few show prospects.

I have to post some pictures soon of the GL Wyandottes. They sure are growing. The baby feathers are falling out and beautiful markings and lacing are coming in. That dark red against that slate blue is so striking.

The turtle benefits from the sunshine. I hope you find him.

 

[delisha]

psypeep, take my word for it,, You do not want to keep chicks in the house for months.. you are pushing it at a week, 2 weeks tops.. build your coop asap

buying straight run is ok if you do not mind butchering the roos..

just remember, some roos are not meant for meat, so they will tend to be small carcasses.. so that kind you should butcher very young,m, like cornish hen size.. 2 to 3 pounds..



raining here today.. too cold for tee shirt and shorts..

......jimputtingonhismechanic'scaptoday........

x2..chickens in the house is a disaster! I am still cleaning up chicken dust. Its every where!! It keeps coming and coming. There seems to be no end.

 

[NDchickens]

x2..chickens in the house is a disaster! I am still cleaning up chicken dust. Its every where!! It keeps coming and coming. There seems to be no end.

x3...4...5...6! Just put our last batch out in the pen in the barn and it will take me a week to clean all the dust!

 

[199787]

X3...After short time you can't keep up with the cleaning. The poop every 5 minutes.

 

[GhostRider65]

I definately do NOT want to hurt my little birdie-doo's!  :/  I was just looking to see how obvious it was and I can't see any difference no matter which breed or my largest to my smallest. So I just left them alone.   


So would y'all say that buying straight runs is just a waste of money? Should I only order sexed pullets from the feedmill or from someone who knows how to do it? Or would you just say to buy straight runs cuz it's cheaper adn then grow them up and eat the roosters?
I mean, what do you guys do if you get a bunch of roosters that you have no use for? Or should I just look around for older chicks/young adults that way I know what I'm getting?

As for cooping, my husband & I both get paid tomorrow and we've already been talking almost daily about building coops and tossing around different ideas and showing each other pics and such. He works days and I work 2nd shift, so Saturday morning we're going to go to a surplus store and there's also a habitat for humanity re-store, as well as 5 thrift stores between our town and the one we're going to. So we're going to scrounge and forage and see what all we can find. Plus we have some stuff laying around here that we can use to go along with it, too. We might not find "everything" we need in one outing, but we can at least get a good start at it. And we figure we'll be building 3, maybe 4 different coops seeing as how I have multiple breeds I wanna raise. And certain ones I won't care if they're mixed or not and can just put them in whichever random coop I want. Like my easter eggers I don't really care about breeding them, for example, as I'm mainly looking for just the eggs. But 1 of the coops I want for my silkies, showgirls, and sizzles. I figure they can be grouped together. Another coop we're going to put a divider in and have my cochins on one side and polish on the other. Or may just have 2 seperations for the polish and put 1 roo on each side with pullets that are compatable. Then the 3rd coop I think I'll split and put my marans, cochins, and easter eggers in. Oh yeah! And another coop for my naked necks! See??? All thought out! LMAO! But seriously folks, having a plan and knowing what you're working towards is a good start. Then we'll see what kind of materials we can pick up this weekend. There's also a farm auction on Tuesday that I want to check out, too. So I'm figuring we'll be building and getting started right away and hopefully be done by next weekend. Probably not with all 4 coops, but seeing as how we don't even HAVE the chickens yet, we're not in a hurry. I figure the chicks will be living in the house for the first couple of months, so we've got time. I might possibly be pickign up some adults this Sunday afternoon. If that works out then I'm sure we can do what it takes to get that first coop whipped up in no time and then just work on the other 3 as time and money permits.
This is going to be fun!! 

Vent sexing is an inside job, Physco, as too what to look for??? it is not even obvious to me and I have had chicks/chickens for 3 years now....and one had to have a daily enemas for 5 days because he was backed up big time ate sand and wood chips instead of the feed, from the edge of the toweling covered brooder.... so anyway I am pretty good at telling what they are at 4 weeks or so, can ya send close pictures of them thru, or if you are going to Seymour i could meet you there I live 15 minutes from Seymour......... anyway straight run, is ok but you will get more roosters than hens......My first year I figured no bid deal I want meat for the freezer anyway. well after they fixed my order, 2 months in doing so, I ended up with 43 chickens.....only ordered 20 and ....34 of them were roosters............ so it does pay to order the pullets in my opinion......

 

[dynodan22]

Hi all
I been off the board a while , raising 3 chickens still . They seem to be going pretty good , though I never seen a creature poop so much when they're suppose to be sleeping. I ran in to an issue. I have 2 barred rocks and an austrolorp. The austrolorp seem to be the leader up until 2 weeks ago. The 2 barred rocks have taken to pecking the head of the austrolorp. I seperated the 2 from the austrolorp for the night, but soon as I re-introduced them , right to picking on her head, She has lost quite a few feathers. I know their re-establishing a pecking order. I thought of spliting the 2 barred rocks and introducing them to the austrolorp one at a time. Not sure, I may just eat the Austrolorp

if this doesn't straighten out.

Thanks
Danny

Dynodan22

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Psycho... I have a chicken coops for dummies book you could use. I'm just in Sauk City. The book was a really good book to look at for ideas. Stuff I wouldn't have thought of! Anyway the offers out there if you want to take a look at it.

I guess if I'm gonna be sweet and kind, I could invite you over to take a look at my set up. I've only had the chickies a year, so it's fresh in my mind what I'd do differently or really like. But I'm kinda shy in person, so keep that in mind...

(I guess that's why I like Jim so much. He's a regular jabber jaws on here. Get him in person, he's quiet as a church mouse. How much booze does it take to get you gabby in person Jimbo??? )

 

[judge]

Got an electric fence hooked up for the boys today. It will be nice to have them be able to eat some green stuff, and maybe some of the grass/weeds will grow back for the chickens.