Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[FrenchToast]

Quote:

Bf4me
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that your hatch goes well AND that you get alot of hens, cause Roosters aren't gonna lay eggs for you !!

That's all you would need to do is hatch out a bunch of roosters. I have a knack for doing that !!

I see you are getting some silkies for your boys. It would be best to keep them in a seperate pen from your large fowl chickens. Especially if they have very full crest (the topknot of feathers on their heads) since that inhibits their ability to see predators and other chickens approaching them (or attacking them)
They are very nice little birds. Very docile and will definately not survive an attack from a Large chicken.

Went to town with OM, got 1000lbs of layer mash, 100 lbs of medicated crumbles, 200 lbs cracked corn and 50 lbs of pot belly pig food. $267 later !!

Then we stopped for Friday Fish Fry (cause Bigz is always talking about it !!

) and had that wonderful wonderful Peanutbutter cheesecake for dessert !!! Still haven't heard from anyone on how they think I can make it !!!!

Come on enable me !!!!

Moved my 4 new chicks that hatched in the last two days in with the 6 one week olds. All is well so far.

I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight

 

[WIChookchick]

Thanks so much CC! I have no idea how to do "the separate but still see them area" inside the coop. I guess I need to think about that one. I am thinking my first year I may end up with twelve chickens. I hope that's not too many! I am getting 5 silkies in june, one for each child, as their own pet chicken. But I do want to get into selling eggs on a small scale and will definetly need more chickies to do that. I will have to work my way up to more chickens to actually have enough eggs to sell. First I have to get some babies hatched out of my incubator. I have no idea how well it's going to work. They are due to hatch on the 28th I really hope I can get a couple chicks!

Im so glad I found this thread! I don't know many people that keep chickens, and people are thinking I'm weird for wanting too! So I'll keep reading up on breeds, and keep reading on here!

BF4-
I hate so to say it, I wouldn't get each child their "own" chicken.. get a group with 6 or so chickens, they can be silkies, but if anything happens to one chicken.. you have a disraught child on your hands.. and have to find a replacement.. trust me.. this has happened to some young birds and chicks I got for my niece.
Its better to have a group for them to share, and if something happens.. well there are others for them to love more..

I found out a hard way to seriously quarantine birds. I bought some ducks and birds at a swap and every bird in the barn got sick over several weeks, needing antibiotics.
Poor TO had to wait nearly 2 months or more for her ducks, because we didn't want to risk her other birds getting it... and she has wayy more than I do.




In other news, I took in an EE hen and an EE/speckled sussex cross hen. The EE has been laying green eggs ( I think, if not its the young EE/Maran cross pullet/POL hen).. but anyway I am getting green eggs!!! WOOOT!!

 

[WIChookchick]

Bf4me
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that your hatch goes well AND that you get alot of hens, cause Roosters aren't gonna lay eggs for you !!

That's all you would need to do is hatch out a bunch of roosters. I have a knack for doing that !!

I see you are getting some silkies for your boys. It would be best to keep them in a seperate pen from your large fowl chickens. Especially if they have very full crest (the topknot of feathers on their heads) since that inhibits their ability to see predators and other chickens approaching them (or attacking them)
They are very nice little birds. Very docile and will definately not survive an attack from a Large chicken.

Went to town with OM, got 1000lbs of layer mash, 100 lbs of medicated crumbles, 200 lbs cracked corn and 50 lbs of pot belly pig food. $267 later !!

Then we stopped for Friday Fish Fry (cause Bigz is always talking about it !!

) and had that wonderful wonderful Peanutbutter cheesecake for dessert !!! Still haven't heard from anyone on how they think I can make it !!!!

Come on enable me !!!!

Moved my 4 new chicks that hatched in the last two days in with the 6 one week olds. All is well so far.

I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight

FT- yer killing me!! only 267 dollars!! WOW I am in love with your prices!! we can get oats for about 8.00 and some ground corn for 7 ish... but chicken crumbles are at least 10.50 to 12.50 on up...

 

[FrenchToast]

Here's the scoop on the feed bill.
The total was $277 but I had two $5.00 coupons for the Nutrena Medicated Starter Crumbles. They charge $13.80 per 50lb bag.
The pig food was $9.30 per 25lbs. Put pot belly in front of Pig and you get half the amount of food for the same price as Hog food. But their price for the Pot Belly food is $6 less per bag and $10 less then other places I've called !!! GEEZ !

The rolled corn is $15.50 per 100 lbs.

Then they give me a 3.75% cash price discount.

I'll have to find the receipt and figure out what I'm paying for the actual layer mash. It is not a crumble. It is corn, grains, soybean meal. Alfalfa Meal pellets and vitamins, grit and calcium. Rolled coarsely. Oh and they add showmaster sheen (a vitamin pellet similar to Mana pro) The protein is 18.34 %. I was having them make it 21% but I needed to cut my costs down. And still do !!! Their normal mash is only 16% protein, but I can have them increase my protein and get a better food by ordering it and ground seperately. I order 1000lbs at a time and when they bag it each bag may not be exactly 50lbs but my total is 1000lbs and they don't have to put a tag on each bag thus saving me $$$. Does that make sense? So a better quality food costs me less. I only need to order 200 lbs at a time.

Good advice about the silkies btw. Bf4me how old are your boys ?

 

[Celtic Chick]

Quote:
Quote:
Your plan sounds good for your coop. As far as making a "separate" area for newcomers, you really won't need to worry about that until/unless you decide to add more birds. But a great idea is to build up. Tiki, I believe it was, has a double decker section in her coop, and Cind too, maybe? Cind, I'm thinking about that pic you posted of that area you first had your broody & her eggs in. Or maybe I'm nuts.

Anyway, you could build a cage up on legs in which to house your new birds. That way, you won't be sacrificing any floor space for your current flock. You can also always use the cage in the case of housing an injured bird, or separating a pair you wish to breed or any other number of events that may present themselves when owning chickens. I'm sure we could all give Bf4 a few examples from our experiences.

OR, as FT pointed out, keeping large birds and banties together isn't always a great idea. I have my "carport" (indoor run) divided into 2 sections using dog kennel panels. The carport is 20x20. One half is 15x20 for my large birds. The other half is 5x20 (yes, Jim, I know they are not equal halves) for my banties & rabbits. I'd tell you to look at the pics on my home page, but I see it suffered damage in the BYC upgrade. Yeah, I'll get around to that one of these days......................... Anyway, that may or may not be an option for you. As Bigz said, when planning a coop, build big! You will find you can never have too much room for your chickens.

If anyone has any pics they could post, if you have any clue as to what I'm yammering on about, that would be great.
WCc, excellent post about the importance of quarantining birds.

 

[Celtic Chick]

FT, I'm almost suprised you're not looking for a recipe for deep fried peanut butter cheesecake!

They prolly have it at the State Fair down here.

ETA: On a stick, no less.

 

[Angiebubs]

I found what I think is a mite on my injured hen. So tonight I went out to the coop to treat everyone with Eprinex. I filled the syringe with 6cc's and went to do the first hen. Not sure if I had air in there or what, but it all came bursting out of there and got all over the hen and all over my face! It even went in my eyes. So my hen is overdosed and I'm going to get cancer.

BBP: Oh no!!! Did that stuff sting?? Does it seem like its affecting your hen at all? How is her injuries??? Did you ever see any other signs of mites?
My one home for one of my roos backed out today-the drive/weather etc. However, as of right now, I have someone picking one up on Monday. I took Hansel out of the cage and put him on the roost tonight-hope everyone is getting along when I go out in the morning.

 

[raimnel]

WOWzers! that's alot of feed. I don't think my car could handle that!

but that price! $267? I paid $50ish for 4 bags of feed (2 layer, 1 corn 1 goat chow) I too like those prices, except for the bill all at once THAT would suck!

DrH I'm confused on something, did you get scolded for something? a chickies name? by a mod? HUH?

Good Night all! still like the list of whos all in the thread thats cool!

 

[Celtic Chick]

Oops!

sheboyganjohn! Happy to have you join us here.

 

[Celtic Chick]

BBP: Oh no!!! Did that stuff sting?? Does it seem like its affecting your hen at all? How is her injuries??? Did you ever see any other signs of mites?
My one home for one of my roos backed out today-the drive/weather etc. However, as of right now, I have someone picking one up on Monday. I took Hansel out of the cage and put him on the roost tonight-hope everyone is getting along when I go out in the morning.

Are you ok, BBP? And your hen? Maybe take a slightly dampish rag & wipe the excess off her? I sure hope you are both ok. Please keep us posted.