good afternoon,
Yes, I would keep the hay moist..make a mounded pile of it rather than spreading it out flat,, just as you would do a compost pile,, I would add the neighbor's horse manure to the pile.. all you can get..
Rhode Island Reds are the perfect chicken to start out with,,
unless you have a way to isolate the breeds from each other,, If you are planning on hatching chicks.. I would stick to one breed to begin with,,
It is much easier to sell pure breeds than it is to sell cross breeds..
You can hardly give cross breeds away,, except to people who are going to just butcher them anyway,,
and people who are going to butcher the chickens, do NOT want small chickens..
do not expect people who take your excess chickens to not butcher them,, once out of your possession they are out of your control..
I don't know if I told about a Maremma LGD that I looked at a few weeks ago.. one whose owner had her all screwed up ? she jumped on people, got up on the furniture and he had her trained to go to bed, which meant run into his bedroom and jump up on his bed.. he was giving her away,,
I flatly turned down the offer.. Oh yes, did I mention that whenever he tried to put a collar on her, he got bitten ??
I just got a call from a guy from Merrill who wants to buy my girl puppy,,
as it turns out, this guy did take that blemished dog from the idiot who owned and "trained" her..
so far he has been bitten 3 times and said that she had him pinned to a dresser once..
he thinks he can turn her around,,
maybe he can.. I hope he can,, but he is not going to have my shadow there in the mean time.
if that dog bites her owners, she will certainly attack another dog,,
and my shadow is not going to be that other dog..
............jiminwisc........
