Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[kristip]

Delisha... I think you were asking about Speckled Sussex... I have a trio I acquired in the fall. Fairly nice birds...big bird, about the size or maybe a little smaller than an Orpington. I think the egg color is an ugly tan, but that is me. It is a fresh egg and that is most important. Nice birds. We are hoping to hatch some out this spring.

 

[delisha]

Thanks for the information on the Speckled Susex. I am sorry to hear the eggs are ugly tan. OH well, it sounds like they are a nice bird. I will not be keeping any if they hatch out.

 

[NDchickens]

Good Luck BF4. Sounds like a perfect job situation for you.

Welcome Chad!

Question for any Dominique owners out there: Our girls started laying about 2 months ago and the eggs are still reeeeaaaaly small. Bantam size small. They are very slowly getting bigger. Do they ever get large? And if so, how long do you think that will take? And if not, do you think they will hatch out when they are so small? The hens are nice and big and our rooster is huge. Any thoughts?

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,, go get em BiigFam..
Cind, thanks for the effort.. I hope something comes of it..

enjoy the warm up,, the cold is on the way.. but officially we are half way through winter.. and on Feb 26 the mean temps start to warm up daily... at least this year it doesn't look like we will be getting two weeks of -20 below zero....... a lot of snow could be coming instead.. these are just my gut feelings........

...jimgoingtogofeedandburnoffcaloriesfromrootbeers...........

 

[GhostRider65]

The eggs do get bigger on most large breed chickens a Dom should be about a BR sized egg, mine never layed small eggs 1 or 2 pullet eggs and then it was monster double yolkers, for a week or so then they leveled out to normal....... I have heard after there first molt the eggs get pretty big, and that has been true here for those that layed a smaller size egg to begin with Except my SS, they lay a medium sized egg, and it has stayed that way since they started......... I don't think there eggs are any uglier than any other, color is a no big deal here, as long as they taste good and ain't full of yuck or blood, I'm happy.
I love my SS they are my friendliest birds, very vocal, always telling me hey I need a treat, or scratch me here, Snowflake my lost hen who made it, is the silliest chicken...... I think I trip over her more than any other chicken of my flock she is always under my feet, and the second I open the door she is the first to come running...... they are not huge chickens next to my Dels, or BO, but they ain't bantys either. They lay well and will eat just about anything, so good forager to boot. If I had more room I would hatch more of them, size wise they will be ok for butchering,the roos we did were not bad, but not like my Dels, or BRs..
So anyway Not much new here, my silly horses have cleaned off the ice patch by licking so I still have a skate rink out there, I salted it then threw sand and mixed debri off the barn floor over the top, so it would freeze down and give them some grip, but they are idiots, licking at it half the day, and it sure shouldn't be for extra salt, they have 2 block's out plus they get 2 Tbls, in the supper ration of complete feed, so WTH? is up with them who's knows.
Adam is on his way home from Mi. should be home this afternoon, because he has to get his truck fixed again, apparently the heater thing is from a short, which they didn't find last time and it quit on him again this week in TN, plus his radio keeps going off, so he has no CB to chat on half the time, so he is hauling it in for work....making another short week, but he did add up about 2000 miles so far this week, so maybe we will Actually get a pay check next week..... one I can do something with......... 100 bucks a week just ain't cutting it, he got more from UI......... argggggg just can't seem to win. so anyway that's all the news from here,
Welcome new guy, seen the post but CRS since I was behind.
Prayers and good vibes to BigFam,.........
DrH ain't kittens fun its either this or this hehehe ...... later all ............Kim

 

[Celtic Chick]

That was very nice of you to do Cindy for a crunchy old codger like Jim

You do realize I'm trying hard not to hatch a bunch of chicks this year. I want broody hens to do it for me! No fuss, no muss, and new babies to keep! However, IF I do hatch any (shut up CC I know what you're thinking lol) I want to wait until its warmer and I can set up the brooder in the garage or outside. The mess I left from last years brooding marathon (6-7 months!) was awful. And my good hubby just cleaned the majority up because he moved his office to my chicken room in the basement.

Hey CC... Get separating for pure eggs. Pretty soon Matilda will actually stick with her broodiness and then I'm coming to you for beautiful chick-making-eggs! Some Stella's, some Lavs, and a few Hershey eggs please! What I can't fit under momma I can always incubate, then slip under her with the ones she hatched. But I've seen Terri and Cindy birds do 14 chicks, so may be mine can too!

Have a great day all!

Well, how do you like them apples?????? In one breath she's telling me to shut it, and in the next one she's hitting me up for a schmidt load of hatching eggs?!?!?!?!?!?

And just exactly how does she get away with calling you a crunchy old codger, JIM? Hmmmmm?????????????????

I mean really!

 

[Chad the Chicken Man]

Hey guys I just wanted to say thanks for all the welcoming messages. I look forward to talking with everyone and hopefully getting to know some of the local ones with trading and talking chickens. Has any of the local people around me checked out the local chicken store in Paoli? Heres their website http://cluckthechickenstore.com I stopped in there the other week just to see what it was all about and they had alot of neat stuff. All sorts of pictures and books for sale and custom built coops by a local builder. They even held a raising chickens seminare the other weekend. I wish i could have went, Im pretty up to date about raising chickens from all the reading on this website, buts its still nice to get other peoples opinions and learn what other people are doing. I know when i get back into chickens im going to be buying my feed there, they had all sorts of differnt kinds of feed. I like to keep things local as much as possible. Its so tough for these small companys to stay alive now a days with all the big box stores.

 

[delisha]

Good luck on the job interview BF4!! Prayers on the way!

Love to have the laughs on this site!!

My Silkies eggs from catdance finally arrived and are safe in the bator. She sure packs them nice. And I have so many extra that the few cracks will not matter. I and hoping for some really nice show quality. She has some really pretty show birds.

 

[vickiw]

Hi everyone!

good crispy morning to all! I was surprised that it was actually just around zero when I woke up (warmer than I thought). Waited til it got to around 10, broomed the snow off the greenhouse and let the girls go play in the toasty 40o temp in there. Checked in on them and they were all happily dusting away throwing dirt everywhere. Boy, am I going to have fun cleaning that thing up when it's time to put my plants in. Going to have to build a screen door tho to keep the girls out. They probably are NOT going to like that

Guess I will have to hurry up and get their's built.

BTW~ DrH~I do NOT wipe my chookies little chookie toes when they go into the coop, I just carpeted their ramp which I just vacuum

I was so tired last night didn't finish why my day was so great. Not that just discovering TSC wasn't enough, we stopped at North Star on the way home for lunch and a little "entertainment". I'm really not much of a gambler but I am a incurable geek so I love playing all the new graphics based games. If I walk out with the money I walked in with I figure I just won a couple hours of free entertainment

Had a very good $2 lunch and actually walked out with a bit more than I walked in with. Poor hubby, not so much. Then, heading home we missed our turn so we had to drive all the way to Wittenberg to pick up 45 which took us right past Nueske's. I love stopping in there if just for the ice cold buttermilk

we had to try all the samples of course and get a pound (or two) of Honey Sticks for roadtrip snacks.

Thanks everyone for your feedback on the TSC chickie sales. I'm finally warmed up from doing chores so it's time to get back to making up my seed order from Jung's and working on my plans for redesigning the coop and run (and their "greenhouse"). I need to add a brooder house for my new chickies and Momma (aka broody butt) so I have a place to park her butt when she decides to park her butt again

. Poor hubby. Like he doesn't have enough to do. He's outside right now scraping up snow from the edge of the woods to pile on our drainfield to keep it from freezing solid next week. Just not enough snow this year to keep the frost from going down to bedrock!

..........................letsseenowcoffee,catalogs,comfyrecliner,yepgoodfortheafternoon..............................................

 

[NDchickens]

Hey guys I just wanted to say thanks for all the welcoming messages. I look forward to talking with everyone and hopefully getting to know some of the local ones with trading and talking chickens. Has any of the local people around me checked out the local chicken store in Paoli? Heres their website http://cluckthechickenstore.com I stopped in there the other week just to see what it was all about and they had alot of neat stuff. All sorts of pictures and books for sale and custom built coops by a local builder. They even held a raising chickens seminare the other weekend. I wish i could have went, Im pretty up to date about raising chickens from all the reading on this website, buts its still nice to get other peoples opinions and learn what other people are doing. I know when i get back into chickens im going to be buying my feed there, they had all sorts of differnt kinds of feed. I like to keep things local as much as possible. Its so tough for these small companys to stay alive now a days with all the big box stores.

I checked out their website. Darn it, I wish we had one like that up here. Looks cool. We do have friends down in Mt. Horeb and visit them from time to time. It's not thaaaat far from there