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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 6, 2021 15:00:26 GMT -5
Well, the chicken palace is under construction this weekend and the chicks were ordered yesterday. No clue what I'll be getting, I let my boss pick for me, since he has actually had some experience with chickens. One of our neighbors stopped by to see what DH was up to this morning with all the tools in the yard. She was the one neighbor that we were concerned about them not being fans of the chickens in the backyard. Wow, were we thinking completely wrong! AS soon as DH mentioned chickens she whipped out her phone and was showing him all kinds of pictures of a friends chickens and how she loves to just sit and watch them. They had been considering putting their house on the market and downsizing this coming year, but she actually said that if we were getting chickens, that might sway her in the stay camp so she can enjoy them, and of course, she'd be willing to chicken sit anytime. That actually has me wondering now about our four-chicken limit here in the village. If we have four chickens, and the neighbors have four chickens, but we house them all in our coop, would that get us around only being able to have four chickens? Something to think about if we decide we really take to being chicken farmers.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2021 7:01:14 GMT -5
"baby snake eaters," Imp, I have seen a big rooster gulp down a two-foot snake! I could not believe my eyes, but gulp after gulp he finally got it all down!!!
I would like to have chickens again too---But first I have to give up all travel and garden plans, hire a neighbor kid (where will I find one?), buy, train and feed a good stock dog, or leave the wife at home. I can get away for a day now by penning my geese in the evening and releasing them as soon as I return the next day.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 7, 2021 8:24:36 GMT -5
We have a cat sitter who stops in once a day to check on our cats and clean their litter box when we are away. She also likes our chickens and will watch them too. She loves being allowed to gather and keep fresh eggs.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 7, 2021 8:52:31 GMT -5
Aaaaand the neighbor on the other side of us also stopped over yesterday super curious. He was 100% serious when he said that if we decide we want more than four chickens he will totally claim four as his own.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 7, 2021 12:29:15 GMT -5
That is fabulous ladymarmalade, We only have 6 hens right now but have had a few more in the past. I don't know what our township allows. We have never asked and no one has ever come to check on us.
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Post by meandtk on Mar 11, 2021 22:13:34 GMT -5
I bought electric netting, so we can put the chicks out to pasture. I want to build a little nesting house/roost before transferring them. Maybe that would give them a place to hide from the eventual hawk. My son is 14, but he’s more excited to collect eggs now than ever before.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2021 2:05:46 GMT -5
One of my old neighbors used PVC pipe and chicken wire to make a "day" run for the chickens. It was very light, so she could just lift one end a little bit to move it over a bit, keeping them on fresh grass and bugs. She would also place a couple boards with a concrete paver or two for shade and weighting it down if it got windy. No door, just lift up the end and call the birds out to go back to the hen house in the evening.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 12, 2021 8:16:12 GMT -5
Our chickens have 2 outdoor runs which are covered but we also let them free range during the day.
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 17, 2021 9:04:16 GMT -5
Our hens do not lay eggs over the winter. Egg laying is controlled by day length so in the Fall hens quit laying eggs and molt which means to drop all or most of their feathers and grow fresh, new ones. This is stressful on the chicken's body so they quit laying eggs and all of their energy is devoted to growing new feathers.
Some people use supplemental light in the coop to extend the day length but we do not do this. We prefer to let the chickens live naturally and I just buy nice big brown eggs eggs over the winter from a local Amish farm for $2.50/dozen. I just bought some yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the coop and discovered 2 freshly laid eggs! The first of 2021.
Today's breakfast was 2 fried eggs and a slice of whole grain toast and it was so good.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2021 11:08:09 GMT -5
Fresh eggs are so tasty!!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2021 19:06:45 GMT -5
LOL, daughter raised four pullets, her son built her a chicken palace and she is in hog heaven. Posting pictures of her "Easter Eggs".
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 25, 2021 20:32:04 GMT -5
Chickens are arriving any day now and I think I have my brooder ready to go. DH is working on the enclosure around the palace for when they're ready for outside.
I'm getting just four chicks. If anyone has any concerns/critiques about my set-up, I'd love to hear it. I don't want to do this wrong! We'll be keeping the chicks inside in our heated basement. We're generally around 70 degrees inside. Since the floor tends to be a little cooler, I put a double layer of cardboard down as a base under my giant box. In the bottom of the box there is a layer of paper towel, followed by a couple of inches of pine shavings. I'll share a picture in the next post.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 25, 2021 20:33:15 GMT -5
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 26, 2021 7:30:11 GMT -5
It looks perfect ladymarmalade , the only thing I would have done different is use use newspaper under the shavings. They can be quite messy with their water bowl. I see that you used Chick-Fil-A cardboard. It's good that the chicks can't read!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 26, 2021 8:34:21 GMT -5
...I see that you used Chick-Fil-A cardboard. It's good that the chicken can't read!
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 26, 2021 15:41:42 GMT -5
It looks perfect ladymarmalade , the only thing I would have done different is use use newspaper under the shavings. They can be quite messy with their water bowl. I see that you used Chick-Fil-A cardboard. It's good that the chicks can't read! I will keep that in mind about newspaper. I was actually eyeing up a package of our oil filters at work today. They are in 10 x 12 sheets, and I wondered if they would do any good at soaking up water drips. Right now I have a huge stockpile of paper towels so going through a case or two of them wouldn't be a terrible thing.
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tallpines
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Post by tallpines on Mar 26, 2021 17:37:55 GMT -5
Not my photo (or idea) but ..... Will do this with the next baby chicks we raise! . ibb.co/kmhcGWc
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 27, 2021 13:31:17 GMT -5
I wonder if they will imprint on the feather dusters instead of a person?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2021 14:12:59 GMT -5
Tallpines, that picture made me grin, and it is a good idea, too.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 10, 2021 20:21:09 GMT -5
Well, after one delay after another and mix-ups by the original hatchery, my chickens have been picked up and are safely in my boss's brooder. I was out of town the last two days, so he took them home for the weekend and I'll get them on Monday. I have 2 Sapphire Eggers, 1 Midnight Majesty Maran and 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte. I love the looks of the breeds that he picked! They're really real!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 11, 2021 7:17:07 GMT -5
Babies!!! Can't wait to see photos. I never heard of a Sapphire egger so I Googled and see that they are a new hybrid with olive colored eggs. Those are pretty.
Your hens will be pretty too. Congratulations!
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Post by september on Apr 11, 2021 9:57:39 GMT -5
Oh, I wish it were practical for me to have some chickens! I started looking up ladymarmalade , your breeds, and ended up finding this fascinating site on egg color!
(wish there were fewer ads in between the text)
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 11, 2021 11:06:15 GMT -5
Neat article, september! I have so much to learn about chickens. I feel like it was super helpful to me to have someone else pick my chickens for me. Since I can only have four, I think the options would be overwhelming.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Apr 11, 2021 15:02:37 GMT -5
In east Texas, I had up to 80 chickens at times, both for laying and eggs and because chickens are not only good bugger and baby snake eaters, but they are funny to watch and get to know the personalities. Nver stopped me from eating them later, but I was a farm kid when young. All animals earned their feed, one way or another. Extra roosters I just turned into capons and we enjoyed those a lot when cooked. Only chicken that got to live after whipping on many of us, LOL, was a little fighting bloodline hen. She wasn't much bigger than a bantam, but she would go broody and hatch out as many as 15 live chicks; she sure would try to flog you if you got too close to her fave nesting spot under an old stock trailer! @imp Back around the early 2000’s, before the bird flu made raising chickens a taboo, we went to animal auctions in the Tyler area every Friday/Saturday night. I bought the oldest, biggest, blue rabbit you ever saw! Tame as could be. No one wanted him, I bid 2 dollars and he came home with me. He had to be someone’s pet. He would follow me everywhere. One day we were walking around in the tomato patch and he just fell over dead. I assume he had a heart attack. He looked to be pretty old when I got him and I kept him over a year. I sure miss going to those auctions. I haven’t raised chickens since around 2004. It got to be such a hassle. I bought two dozen from tractor supply and had one bloody of a time getting paperwork to make the county inspector happy. I told him I had never heard of having to have chickens inspected or having so much trouble over a few birds. I finally put them in the freezer and said goodbye chickens. I loved having them though. I don’t know if you still have to go through all the trouble these days or not.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 12, 2021 14:53:49 GMT -5
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Post by september on Apr 12, 2021 16:25:23 GMT -5
Home at last! ladymarmalade , if those were mine they would end up being lap chickens!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2021 16:48:17 GMT -5
How exciting and they are super cute. Don't forget to give them some chick Grit. It is very small particles of grit and they need this for proper digestion.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 12, 2021 18:50:23 GMT -5
How exciting and they are super cute. Don't forget to give them some chick Grit. It is very small particles of grit and they need this for proper digestion. Is this something I mix with the food?
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 12, 2021 18:51:14 GMT -5
Home at last! ladymarmalade , if those were mine they would end up being lap chickens! This might happen yet! They’re so cute!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2021 18:55:14 GMT -5
Grit is like a very fine gravel or sand and they sell it at Tractor Supply for baby chicks. Adult chickens scratch in the dirt and pick up grit naturally. This grit works in their gizzard to help them grind up their food. You can just sprinkle it on the floor and they will peck at it and eat it.
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