Woohoo! Got a call at quarter to six this morning from the post office. My chickens were in! So, by a few minutes after six, they're in their box in the sunroom wriggling and chirping. All except one (out of the nearly 40 we ordered) are very perky and healthy-acting. One of the little aracauna pullets doesn't look so good and isn't acting OK. She's not pasty or anything, but not active. My uncle's already been here and picked up his dozen. We got two extras... one was an extra light Brahma pullet, and one was an extra Buff Orp. The brahmas were my uncle's, so I sent the extra with him and we kept the extra Buff. I love spring!
pictures please
;D
I love chickies. :)
BBQ?
Not today; several months from now. Like, how many eggs can one eat?
Ours came yesterday. since its out first foray into chicken bits... ummm bitty chicks, we got a batch of mixed freebies from the farm supply to learn on. So far we haven't cooked any and they survived a curious coon hound sticking his head down amongst them to say hey.
(https://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x109/windyhilll/chicks.jpg)
Mine are supposed to hatch today. If any do I will post a pic. I have 23 in a home built incubator. Barred Rocks.
http://news.oldva.org/blogroll/raise-chickensprivate-property-rights/
Raise Chickens..Private Property Rights
Update:
After catching up on the local gossip today, I found that the Harrisonburg City Planning Commission, is considering allowing chickens in residential neighborhoods. While many want this, other residents are far less enthusiastic about the idea.
Urban chicken movement taking roost in KC area
Chickens could be coming to roost in a backyard near you.
Across the country and the metropolitan area, people are joining the national urban chicken movement, sometimes turning outlaw to raise the birds.
The movement started with the rationale that raising chickens fits in with efforts toward local and pure foods, supporters say, and the eggs are fresh and flavorful. The animals also are entertaining pets, many say.
Today, Overland Park homeowner David Crupper will seek a special-use permit to house up to four chickens, even though he already has the birds and a homemade coop in his backyard.
No disrespect for the law was intended, he said, but he had to buy the chicks before a farm supply business stopped selling them for the year. Crupper, 25, a financial adviser, is far from a hippie, he said, but he wants to get great eggs from "the girls."
"It's a nice little hobby people can get behind," he said, and he thinks his neighbors will support him.
Crupper has mailed certified letters to all of the neighbors within 200 feet and has posted a sign in his front yard advising them of the Planning Commission meeting.
But precedent isn't on Crupper's side. Four years ago, another Overland Park family tried to get such a permit. By a vote of 7-5, the City Council wouldn't allow it.
Opponents said then that chickens did not belong in Overland Park. Some said the birds were unsanitary.
Overland Park City Councilman Jim Hix, who voted against the chickens in 2005, said this week that he would probably do so again.
"Wanting eggs is not unique," he said. "It's not a good idea to have chickens in a suburban area under normal circumstances."
In Mission, the City Council recently sent to committee a proposal to change its law to allow urban chickens. Jerritt Dayhoff requested the change because her family would like to raise five or six chickens. She is a former Jackson County public defender who grew up on a farm, she said.
"Chickens are a heck of a lot quieter and cleaner than dogs," said Dayhoff, 33. They make interesting pets, she said, and "It's nice to tell your kids your breakfast came from Myrtle or Madge."
But Councilman John Weber, 77, said he has seen the city grow out of farmland and sees no reason to go back.
"If we're going to be residential, we ought to be residential," he said.
Some cities on board
In 2004, Madison, Wis., was among the first of several cities to change laws to allow limited numbers of chickens, but usually not crowing roosters. New York City has long allowed chickens. The birds live in urban areas in Chicago; Albuquerque, N.M.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and other cities.
Many Web sites and Backyard Poultry magazine support the effort, which they say is still growing in this country, Great Britain and Canada.
BackYardChickens.com has 30,000 members — up from 20,000 last December — and it grows by 100 members a day, said its owner, Rob Ludlow.
KT LaBadie, an Albuquerque graduate student who started urbanchickens.org, said people are tearing out lawns to grow vegetables, and chickens are a natural next step.
Some cities have changed their laws because so many people were keeping chickens illegally, she said.
Afoul of the law
In Kansas City, residents are allowed to have chickens only if they are 100 feet away from the nearest home or business, and the birds are not allowed to roam.
That hasn't stopped two women in different Kansas City neighborhoods from raising chickens illegally, and they say they are doing it for the fresh eggs.
source
They are also good at eating bugs. Ever since we got our girls we have not have the exterminator come out and spray at all. Plus the dig up the garden for me and supply manure. They are quieter then a dog (hens, not roosters). They are entertaining.
I think it is better to have a few hens then have pesticides used to keep the bug population down. I personally would use the argument they are eco friendly for the yard.
Quote from: peternap on May 14, 2009, 07:40:13 PM
Today, Overland Park homeowner David Crupper will seek a special-use permit to house up to four chickens, even though he already has the birds and a homemade coop in his backyard.
No disrespect for the law was intended, he said, but he had to buy the chicks before a farm supply business stopped selling them for the year. Crupper, 25, a financial adviser, is far from a hippie, he said, but he wants to get great eggs from "the girls."
"It's a nice little hobby people can get behind," he said, and he thinks his neighbors will support him.
Crupper has mailed certified letters to all of the neighbors within 200 feet and has posted a sign in his front yard advising them of the Planning Commission meeting.
But precedent isn't on Crupper's side. Four years ago, another Overland Park family tried to get such a permit. By a vote of 7-5, the City Council wouldn't allow it.
Opponents said then that chickens did not belong in Overland Park. Some said the birds were unsanitary.
Overland Park City Councilman Jim Hix, who voted against the chickens in 2005, said this week that he would probably do so again.
"Wanting eggs is not unique," he said. "It's not a good idea to have chickens in a suburban area under normal circumstances."
Doesn't surprise me with the Overland Park area. My sister lived there for many years. Pretty yuppish... HOA's and all. Not what I'ld expect from Mousourri at all.
We had a city here in Minnesota, Mankato, broach the subject. They decided they were too urban to allow it. Sad.
If you can find the documentary "Mad City Chickens" it is a humorous documentary about how Madison, WI residents got the laws changed in order to raise chickens... kind of poultry renegades. There's nothing unsanitary about chickens raised properly. Ours are very cute and busy and seem to all be doing great. Will be glad when they are big enough to get out of the sunroom, though! Speaking of which, I need to go put down fresh litter in there and give them some more clean water. Now the guineas... they're quality entertainment, too, plus tick control.
6 barred rocks so far. 3 more in the bator still hatching.(https://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/Squirl1000/chick003-1.jpg)
www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/05/16/wolf.backyard.chickens.cnn?iref=videosearch
'Don't Get Personel With a Chicken' by H. Allen Smith
If you have chickens and children, you need to read this book! ::)
(very funny and short. kids book)
Bruce
I have to get my order in by June 12 at the latest so the'll be ready by July 19. Late in the year but it'll be fine. The last of our chickens kicked off this winter unfoutinitly so we need more.
We're going to order our first chickens (going with a bunch of bantams for varous reasons) this week. YEHAW!
For anyone that ordered from a hatchery that ships, which did you use? We were looking at Sandhill Preservation, I like what they're about, but right now we're thinking we'll do Murray McMurray since we can buy the chicks sexed.
I scavanged the supplies for our coop (we're planing either a 6x8 or 8x8 "triplex high-rise" with a large run http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2127-Bantam_Coop to get the idea), picking up a ton of lumber at a garage sale, some foam board insulation (we'll need it come winter if we still want eggs), and lots of free, used metal roofing. Even matches the house!
Now I need to find a non-local place to buy feed, preferrably a feed store in Washington. I can buy feed here at the two hardware stores or the one pet store, but it is about $25 for a 10lb bag...and it ain't organic either! ;) I'd rather buy a year's supply and barge it up, even if it ends up costing about the same, which it shouldn't. Hmm...may have to make a new thread to ask for suggestions. If you know of any nation-wide feed companies or ones in the Seattle area, please let me know.
We're on to building our coop. So excited!
akemt, I recommend Cackle Hatchery. It is also in Lebanon, MO. They are less expensive than McMurray, and you can order most breeds sexed. Also, all of our chicks arrived very healthy and in great shape on the day they were supposed to arrive. Their website is easily navigable, too, which is a plus. They have a lot of rare/unique breeds. They also had fewer negative reviews online as compared with McMurray.
(https://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/redoverfarm/scenes/country%20plans/Chickens.jpg)
Our last batch of hens are coming online now. We have a total of 30 hens. Current daily egg production is 19 per day. I expect that to be about 24-28 per day shortly.
Red, what a cute picture...
The chicks are growing like crazy. Yesterday DD stuck a big moth in the box with them. One of the Dominiques grabbed it and ran for the east end of the box. Halfway there, a Buff Orp stole it back and headed back west. We watched for fifteen minutes or more. It was like chicken football, and very entertaining. They eventually got it all eaten, tearing bits off between them.
We got 24 banties in 4 different breeds (partridge Rocks, New Hampshires, Ameraucanas, and Partridge Wyandottes). Hopefully we'll get more females than males in each variety. d* They'll be arriving the week of June 8th.
I'm thinking about spending some of our homeschooling money (we can get a partial reimbursement of our school tax dollars through state programs) on getting an incubator. Then we could order some eggs (or hatch our own) and do some embryology for science with our girls. Of course, I'd like to be able to hatch 10-20 bantie eggs or roughtly 6 duck and 4 turkey eggs...and the incubator would have to be under or very close to $200 for reimbursement purposes. Anyone have a suggested brand that would fit the bill and experience to say it is a decent contraption? I'm totally new to this chicken business and don't want to spend that much on junk, even if it isn't really my money. ;)
Our science this year will consist entirely of raising chickens, gardening, and if we move to our own piece of land before next summer, possibly goats or rabbits. Dang, it sure is great to homeschool in this state! We've debated going completely off-radar (totally legal here) but for now the hassle of a quarterly progress report I fill out myself is worth the money we get for lessons and materials. Any suggestions on favorite how-to or kids learning books about raising chickens and/or embryology? Sorry, I'm the queen of long-winded tangents!
I'm hoping the banties go well. Should we get our own place and like them, we might get a "rare assortment" along with those hatching eggs...
Akemt, Barnyard in Your Backyard by Gail Damerow is a good overview of pretty much any kind of critter you'd want to keep, and it is a pretty kid-friendly book. Backwoods Home magazine online has an article about how to butcher a chicken in five minutes, a good read if you plan on eating any of your chickens. I don't have any experience with incubators... as far as I know, a good mama hen makes the best one. I like Oklahoma's homeschooling laws for some of the same reasons. We never have to report to anyone. I still keep records, but they're really for my own information than for the state's. If you decide to keep turkeys, you'll need to build them separate housing for disease control.
Sounds like a good science program to me. :) How old are your kids again?
Emma is 6 and Lara will be 5 this Summer...Ian will be two this Summer and Hyrum is 8 months, of course they aren't "in school" but they'll enjoy the goings-on with the chickens about.
What to do with all the eggs you don't sell-
http://www.helpwithcooking.com/egg-guide/make-pickled-eggs.html
I have on of the square foam box incubators appx 6 inches high x 18"x18". It has an egg turner attachment available and works fine. I'm sure it was under $200
Looks like it was the Little Giant - I found good info on it.
http://reviews.ebay.com/THE-LOW-DOWN-ON-LITTLE-GIANT-9200-INCUBATOR_W0QQugidZ10000000001818156
About the "what to do with eggs" post...I've read info somewhere about rubbing mineral oil on the egg shells and that they can then be stored unrefrigerated for up to ?3? months. I'd definately research THAT more before trying it out, but it was just a random tidbit from my memory. I do know that my fishing grandparents would go out on the boat for a week at a time or more and didn't have refrigeration and they survived eating eggs.
Also, I read a post somewhere about a woman mixing up her eggs well and then freezing them into icecubes and bagging them up for use when baking in the winter months. I don't know how well it'd do, but better than wasting.
Thanks for the link, Glenn.
No problem, Catherine.
I successfully hatched chicks in the one I have.
Eggs freeze just fine, but if you thaw them, you need to eat them right away. When DH was in grad school and we were living off of what we could raise ourselves, we found that eggs are incredibly edible and learned to make all sorts of interesting things just to use them up. I even made souffles. Egg custard and flan are some of the best desserts to be had, cheap to make if you have your own eggs, and actually at least have some protein where most desserts fall short. One of our favorites was a really simple supper casserole (or could be any meal, I guess, but we usually had it for supper0 that just included eggs, a little cheese, tiny bit of milk, and mustard. We added bell peppers or various greens if we had them, or mushrooms. I didn't get tired of them. DH took boiled eggs with his lunch a lot, because a sandwich isn't always enough to keep him full until supper.
We moved our chicks to the new chicken house yesterday. They seem to like having more room. We still need to finish cutting windows and so forth, but it is nearly done. I'm really proud of it. The majority of it we built in three days with just the two of us. The finishing flourishes are taking time because we've not been concentrating only on it. After all, we're still not really unpacked completely from the move, and there are so many things that need to be done to home and garden.
That is great. Our chickens cannot leave the house or they become some animals dinner - maybe some day I'll have time to bury wire and cover the top well.
I'm looking forward to pictures! :)
Did I mention that the chicken house is not "just" a chicken house? It is a 10' by 12' colossus with cathedral ceilings? It started out in the design phase considerably smaller, but it is built well enough that if the chickens all get eaten by varmits, we could move one of the kids out there when they reach the teen years. It is actually a 2-room chicken house, even. ::) It's a long story, but suffice it to say that my husband is an engineer.
I understand, I am married to one of those engineers too.
Pictures please ;D
Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on May 29, 2009, 12:13:56 PM
Did I mention that the chicken house is not "just" a chicken house? It is a 10' by 12' colossus with cathedral ceilings? It started out in the design phase considerably smaller, but it is built well enough that if the chickens all get eaten by varmits, we could move one of the kids out there when they reach the teen years. It is actually a 2-room chicken house, even. ::) It's a long story, but suffice it to say that my husband is an engineer.
We're almost done with it, so I'll snap a few more pics and download them and try to remember my photobucket password again.
(https://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/homegrowntomatoes/DCAM0071.jpg)
This is working on the base of the chicken house.... I may have stretched it a bit... looking at it I think maybe it is only 8' by 10', but it is a 2 room chicken house.
(https://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/homegrowntomatoes/DCAM0095.jpg)
This is after we sort of threw sheets on the wall and a roof on (kinda) because we had to go out of town for a couple of days and had to have some place secure to leave the guinea keets... we didn't have the door framed in at that point, so we just screwed a panel in over the wall so that nothing could get in and eat them... it looked really terrible at this point, but the walls are done right now, and there is a storm door on the end for people access... one room is a feed room and for storing garden tools, and from that room, you can access the chickens' room and get the eggs without actually having to go in, if you want. I took interior pics the other day, and we're getting close to finishing up the exterior, too. Anyway, DH is talking solar panels and all sorts of crazy stuff now, so we'll see... I think it is a lot of work for a darn chicken house.
Danger, Will Robinson....
(https://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k244/uncleshakie/RobotB9.jpg)
an engineer with a drill.... rofl
That's the truth, Glenn! I have some more pics but haven't downloaded them yet. It is funny because the woods are so thick and green now it looks like a different place. I'll take some more today as we continue working on it, too, and if I have time will download them tonight. The work goes a bit slower because we have to work around the baby chickens... I'm wondering if we got all little roosters. They're so funny sparring with each other. We might be eating a lot of chicken instead of a lot of eggs. :)
I plan to take some more pics around the place today. I'm so glad that we bought it in the winter because now I am continually surprised by how pretty it is. It was pretty ugly during the winter, but is so pleasant and peaceful now.
I think ya done real good, Homey. :)
I thought we had roosters too but - nope - just hens with big combs.
Barred Rock
I thought I was the only one with what looks to be half roosters ??? We learned a new one yesterday, one got pasty butt, he went off feed, is the runt and looked like he was going to go down. Got him cleaned up and unplugged and he seems to be doing better this morning. Our big dog seems to be guarding them, but its kinda the same way he guards his food bowl from the other dogs. I think we might be having a tete a tete soon ;D
I don't even want to think about pasty butt or the remedy.... [waiting]
We got the windows installed in the chicken house yesterday, and the rest of the roof on. The roof is literally just tacked on, as it has been for more than a month now, but it is good and dry, anyway. DH is hoping to get it finished up this afternoon and the girls want to start painting it. It could look pretty interesting, as they painted the picnic table last weekend, ha ha. The chicks seem like every morning when I go out to check on them they are visibly bigger. When I opened the door to feed them this morning, I knocked a moth down and one of the Buff Orps grabbed it and took off running with all the others chasing. A Dominique stole it from the other one and gulped it down before anyone else had a chance at it. They're so comical to watch. I didn't get to download pics last night because DDs talked me into setting up the tent and sleeping under the stars with them, and the baby was so excited about sleeping in the tent, she was making laps inside it.... down to one end, stand up and gawk out the window, crawl back to the other end, running over her sisters and stand up to look out that end, all the while saying, "Look! Cat!" and "Look! Dog!" and "Look, that!" She was hilarious, and I thought we'd never get her settled down to sleep. She did settle eventually, but woke me up at 5 o'clock this morning throwing up. So, I am home from church with her. I think it is probably teething combined with a lousy night's sleep, but just to be on the safe side, we stayed home.
Quote from: glenn kangiser on May 31, 2009, 09:13:20 AM
I don't even want to think about pasty butt or the remedy.... [waiting]
The prophet say: This too shall pass :D
One of my favorite egg recipes -- everyone seems to love this
Oeufs Ramone
form a single layer of peeled uncooked medium sized shrimp on the bottom of a 9 X 9 (MOL) 2" deep casserole dish
pour in enough whipping cream to just cover the shrimp
crack enough eggs (about 10 to 12 depending on size) to cover the shrimp and cream (leave the yolks unbroken)
salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle enough shredded cheese to form a 1/4" (MOL) layer floating on the eggs (I like cheddar and a bit of parmesan)
no mixing, just slide it into a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes or until the cheese just starts to brown
let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes on the top of the stove (at least that is what the recipe says -- I usually just dig in )
makes a wonderful special breakfast or dinner main course and the leftovers (if there are any) are great too
enjoy
All of mine got pasty in the first week. Cleaned them up and they are fine now. Another week or two and I can put them outside.