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Post by brownrexx on Feb 12, 2015 14:35:35 GMT -5
NC, you never could resist "chicken chat" could you? Work day or not!
PS - I am in my home office "working" too.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 12, 2015 14:42:01 GMT -5
Aren't we all?
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Post by gakaren on Feb 12, 2015 17:46:09 GMT -5
Nope! I don't even pretend to work any more! I'm retired! I get done what I get done and the rest will still be there when I get to it!
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Post by Latitude33 on Feb 12, 2015 21:19:35 GMT -5
Thank you all for the information. You have given much to research and heck that's part of the fun.
Lat
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Post by davidjp on Feb 13, 2015 0:12:23 GMT -5
For chicks I'd check out some of the feed stores, many of them will have some chicks, mine about a mile away has this week Delaware, rhode island reds, white rocks and black sex links. A couple of weeks back it was California whites, a couple of varieties of Wyandotte. Before that silkies, cochins and California greys and before that Rhode island reds, white leghorn, Amerucanas. Can you tell I just go in their to have a look. They run about $4 a pop. Its the housing that's the expensive bit. So could head out to the dark side of the inland empire. Theres also chickens galore in Norco that has tons of different breeds. I also heard theres a feed store in Anaheim (Kruse) that apparently has a good selection, never been though. Our local feed store has a couple of runs made by Rugged ranch, which is based in San Diego that make quite good looking pens for about $4-500.
I'm like you in same position, thinking of getting some but still not sure, I have had some before but on a different continent.
I was also talking to a friend who's kept chickens for quite a while and he said last year his hens died in the heat which I was a little surprised at. But we get much hotter than you do, 110 a few days last year and its been to 116 once. But hey its a dry heat as they say.
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Post by binnylou on Feb 13, 2015 0:16:09 GMT -5
Lat, Your cats are gonna "luv" those baby chicks.
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 13, 2015 9:15:37 GMT -5
When it gets really hot here in the summer I add some pre-packaged electrolyte powder to their drinking water and as soon as it gets warm we have all of the windows open in their coop and keep a little 10 inch fan running to circulate the air inside.
We also have a wisteria vine that grows right beside out coop and it shades one side in the summer.
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Post by gardendmpls on Feb 17, 2015 0:46:06 GMT -5
A good getting started book is A Chicken in Every Yard, The Urban Farm Stores Guide to Chicken Keeping by Robert and Hannah Litt. Later, I got Storey's Guide to raising Chickens by Gail Damerow. The backyard site ( www.backyardchickens.com/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email ) is good if you have a question. I used their coop design pages to put together different features for my own coop. One thing to watch out for. Build your own coop or get one from a local carpenter who does quality work. Do not buy those coops made in China. The wood is flimsy, they don't go together well, fall apart quickly, and they are smaller than they appear in the pictures. For the same money I built my own, although if I was living in Amish country, I would be very tempted by their craftsmanship.
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Post by gardendmpls on Feb 17, 2015 0:54:48 GMT -5
You may be able to find a group of chicken keepers in your area. In New York we have Just Food-City Chickens. For supplies, you need to look around. I found a feed store in Long Island. They let me take spilled hay for free. I found out a few months ago that they deliver to my area, so now I get everything dropped off. One of my neighbors is building a coop, and I may do a group order after i find out who the other chicken people in the neighborhood are (I know there are several). My order is usually a sack of pellets, a sack of scratch and hay or pine shavings when I need them. The hay is cheap enough I am using it in the garden also.
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Post by davidjp on Feb 28, 2015 10:30:02 GMT -5
A good getting started book is A Chicken in Every Yard, The Urban Farm Stores Guide to Chicken Keeping by Robert and Hannah Litt. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm just reading it now thru interlibrary loan. Seems very good. The local feed store next week has Australorps, Speckled Sussex, Cuckoo Marans, Welsummers, Jersey giants, Dominique, 3types of Cochins, 3 colours of Silkies, Rhode island reds, Columbian Wyandotte, all $5 each. I guess its there big Spring/Easter chick order. Am tempted but I think I need to be more organised, need to build/buy a coop first. We're zoned for like 50 hens, 10 roosters but I'm think about 6 would be more my level.
What would you suggest from that list above, I was thinking a couple of each of Australorps, Marans, welsummers. There's also another place locally where I can get cream legbars which should lay blue eggs so might get a couple of them as well. I quite like the idea of buff Orpington but I've read that australorps, derived from them are better layers and perhaps more heat tolerant. Just would like a range of colours, like Maran eggs, not sure if Amerucanas would be better than cream legbars, although I understand legbars are blue eggs whereas Amerucanas are usually green but can be blue. All in the future though.
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 28, 2015 11:32:21 GMT -5
A good getting started book is A Chicken in Every Yard, The Urban Farm Stores Guide to Chicken Keeping by Robert and Hannah Litt.
Just would like a range of colours, like Maran eggs, not sure if Amerucanas would be better than cream legbars, although I understand legbars are blue eggs whereas Amerucanas are usually green but can be blue. All in the future though.
Keep in mind that Americaunas can also lay eggs in shades of plain brown as well. There's no egg-color guarantee. And whatever color a hen lays is what she's going to lay for the rest of her life. Individual hens can't lay multi-colors.
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 28, 2015 11:52:55 GMT -5
How exciting David. I am especially interested in "pretty" chickens and colorful eggs but many people choose them for the number of eggs that they will lay or how tolerant they are to cold or things like that. It really is a personal preference. I also do not choose the really large breeds because of limited pen size.
I Googled "chicken breeds for eggs " and came up with a pretty good chicken choosing tool with pretty pictures:
www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx
If you do not want your hens to sit on eggs to hatch them, choose a breed that is NOT considered "broody".
If you don't already know this, a hen will decide that it's time to hatch eggs and she will sit on eggs trying to hatch them even if they are not fertile. Some hens will "go broody" and just sit all day even if you keep taking away their eggs. They can do this for several weeks at a time and it is not really that good for them because they quit eating, are grumpy, won't go outside etc. It's a hormonal thing.
We have one hen who goes broody each year and we usually let her hatch our new chicks. Thankfully the others just go about their business and never go broody.
Get a pen knocked together real quick and get started. it does not have to be perfect. The chickens won't care. The main thing is to make it predator proof. Our first coop was a large doghouse and we kept adding on to make it what we wanted with outdoor runs, perches, etc. Eventually we knew what worked for us and we bought a custom Amish made, coop. I can almost guarantee that your first coop will not suit you after you have it for a season and you will make improvements.
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Post by davidjp on Feb 28, 2015 15:41:35 GMT -5
Thanks I didn't know that, I'd assumed it was either blue or more likely some green olive shade in between. Makes me think I'd be better with the Legbars. I got used to the nice color as you can buy their eggs in most Uk supermarkets for a premium of course, they call them Cotswold legbars but I think they are basically Cream legbars www.legbarsofbroadway.co.uk/index.php/our-hens/the-cotswold-legbar/
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 28, 2015 15:47:24 GMT -5
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Post by davidjp on Feb 28, 2015 15:59:27 GMT -5
Get a pen knocked together real quick and get started. it does not have to be perfect. The chickens won't care. The main thing is to make it predator proof. Our first coop was a large doghouse and we kept adding on to make it what we wanted with outdoor runs, perches, etc. Eventually we knew what worked for us and we bought a custom Amish made, coop. I can almost guarantee that your first coop will not suit you after you have it for a season and you will make improvements. Thanks very much for the encouragement. You're probably right I should just go ahead. I think we would have some predator problems around here, theres loads of hawks and we have a family of gray foxes that actually bred in our yard a few years back although I think our dogs have managed to scare them away. The only experience I have before is having some equivalent of black sex links and some rescued battery hens that as you can imagine were both egg laying machines that pumped out basically an egg a day. We did also have a few very attractive french wheatan and copper black marans that whilst looked great very rarely gave us an egg. But boy did they look good. So I'd sort of like to get a happy medium in between that gave me some eggs but also looked good to boot. Locally I see this type of pen sold which seems a little too minamalist to me but its made by a company in San Diego and it might be OK for this climate, basically it never gets cold here and heat is probably more of an issue. I also quite like the idea od being able to move it around my yard. What do you think of this type of thing, they have some other models as well. I was thinking maybe insert a roosting pole and a trap covering at one end for shade and that might be one way to go. www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/rugged-ranch-products-spring-fling-mobile-coop-9-chicken-capacity
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