We will be getting our first chickens in the next couple of weeks.

[FedUpWithIt All]

What a journey this past year has been. We found a piece of land, 50 acres, and bought it. We sold off or stored most of our previous life, moved to a new state and found a little apt near the property.

We have occupied ourselves over the winter by joining beekeeping and livestock groups, building bat houses, attending local fairs, collecting used books, hand washing and line drying our clothes and generally planning the future.

We now have permission from the owners of our little apt. to keep a couple of chickens (we didn't want to keep any on the land because it would be too difficult to manage the day to day upkeep). We are mostly interested in Buckeyes. We are trying to select breeds for their overall self sustaining qualities and their winter hardiness. We hear that Buckeyes also have less pecking issues and are pretty smart and friendly birds. We also are fond of the idea of heritage breeds.

Over the next couple of weeks we need to work on the coop with a separate little chicken tractor, a top bar beehive and get a new rotating composter put together. We had one made from a garbage can last year and are trying to improve upon the idea a little this year. We are hoping to get the bat homes put up before the weather gets too warm also.

We are a little late on starting seed but we just don't know what to make of the weather yet.

We'd love to hear everyone's spring activities and any beekeeping or chicken rearing advice anyone would like to share. Happy spring to everyone!


Our garden last summer


A view from the land

[damntexdem]

1. Will they be coming home to roost?

Or will they just chicken out?

;-)

(Just a little fowl humor.)

[FedUpWithIt All]

2. I suspect they will simply cross the road and be done with it.

:hi:

[brooklynite]

4. Be sure not to c ount them before they hatch...

unless you want them to get to the other side.

[rwork]

3. Just planted 7 rows

of potatoes and 4 rows of onions. My 20 yr old Grandson (first year college) Came down and helped me.

He said he really enjoyed it.

We usually get late frost up until April 20th. Last year it bit the potatoes down, but I just clipped the tops off with scissors. They did pretty well.

Good luck on the garden.

[FedUpWithIt All]

5. Thank you and good luck with yours.

:hi:

I think it is wonderful that your grandson helped you. Maybe he will be a gardener himself.

My teens help out a lot in the garden. They say it is among their happiest times.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Good on you for the chickens!

I have had them, found myself just sitting around and looking at them for way too many hours.
Ducks are even more fun.

We are getting chickens here,, about 6 of them, as we live just inside the city line, so no roosters allowed.
Weather has been unseasonably cold this year, still is, our plans a bit delayed.

The most important use for chickens will be their land clearing ability. We have some way overgrown spots, lots of ticks, and I would rather let them scratch it down then get tick infested pulling briars, tripping over all the vines that have grown for too many years here.

Chickens do add a fun element, don't they?

[FedUpWithIt All]

7. Totally agree about the chickens for insect control and clearing.

There is some evidence that the breed we are hoping to get also really like catching mice. Another + in my book.

We are so ridiculously excited to get our little flock. Feel like kids. I have been searching plans all day trying to tie down designs that will work for us. :::happy sigh:::

What type are you planning to get this time?

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Probably Leghorns or Rhode Island Reds.

Because of the prolonged cool weather, the chicken house will not be ready in time to get chicks.
But we can always pick up some grown hens this summer, and those are the breeds common around here.
I have had Aracunas, they are cute, the eggs are cute, but both are too small for what I want now.

[hedgehog]

9. I once watched my flock surround, kill and eat a mouse.

My children referred to them as velociraptors after that.

[FedUpWithIt All]

12. My oldest says chickens freak her out.

She says their movement is too reptilian.

:hi:

[bvar22]

10. Welcome.

My wife & I did that in 2006.
Couldn't be happier.

What part of the country did you move to?

This is our 3rd year with our bees.
Fascinating creatures.
It took us a while to get over the innate fear of opening the hives and being surrounded by 80,000 stinging insects. Now, it is pretty much routine.
You did the right thing joining your local BeeKeepers Association. It may be possible to go with them when they work their hives to pick up some experience.
I believe that the Bees can sense fear or nervousness and react accordingly.
The calmer we stay, the calmer our bees are.

We are also interested in Top Bar Hives, but our state doesn't like them.
They are more difficult for "the inspectors". We may try one this Summer anyway.
We registered our hives with the State and allow a yearly inspection.
We generally don't "register" anything, but there are some real benefits in registering your location.

We have these suggestions based on our experience for those interested in Keeping HoneyBees:

1) Check in with you County Extension.
They are really helpful. There are some regulations concerning transportation, registration, and inspection, and there may be some local ordinances. They are also a great resource for latest research and new methods, pest & disease control. They can also facilitate state hive inspections.
We generally avoid government agencies where ever possible, and have never voluntarily registered anything, but we make an exception for our bees. The benefits FAR outweigh any downside.

2)Join you local Beekeepers Association.
These are some of the most laid back people you will ever meet. Starkraven and myself are not joiners, but we look forward to our monthly meetings with the "bee people". This is another valuable resource for local information concerning pests, honey flows, equipment and disreputable operators. You can also pick up some hands-on experience working around hives.
Make no mistake...it is scary opening a hive the first time.
You will also be able to pick up some free localized bees from you local bee keepers. (Healthy colonies EXPAND, and many local bee keepers have all they want and are more than happy to give them away).

3)Always use new equipment
There are some very persistent pests and diseases that can be transmitted through the equipment. Used equipment abounds at some very attractive prices.
It is not worth the risk in my opinion. If you join the local association, some will offer you old equipment for FREE, but we always politely turn it down.
New Equipment is very reasonable, and there are many wholesalers and retailers online.
We use Dadant, and have been very happy with them.

4)Don't use "Flower Scented" Deodorants or Fabric Softeners
This should be self explanatory, but it took us a while to figure this one out.

The chickens have been a delight.
They are much more intelligent, much ore social, and have interesting interesting personalities.
Our are spoiled rotten, and would rather beg food at the back door than go out and forage on their own. The eggs are wonderful. We won't be able to go back to those pale yellow, anemic, low flavor supermarket eggs.
The birds are also a source of daily entertainment.

We originally ordered hens only, but a Rooster make his way into flock.
As a chick, he was a lap pet but he turned out to be pugnacious, and very protective of "his" hens. We are careful around him. He will attack. Overall, thats a good thing.
We let our birds Free Range and there are a lot of critters around. Elvis (The Rooster) keeps his hens under a careful and protective watch. We haven't lost a single hen in almost 2 years, and we credit the ever vigilant Elvis for this.

Good Luck on your new adventure.
The photos of the new place look beautiful.
:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

13. We moved to WV.

The area has a similar climate and growing season to the Ohio location we came from.

I have been watching your threads in this and the garden forum for a while. I especially like the garden porn threads. :) You and your wife are both an inspiration to our family. :hi:

Thanks for the info on the bees. We really enjoyed the 6 hour class that went along with the membership. The people tended toward the langstroth hives though so we got little into on the top bar concept. Thank goodness for the internet and the insane wealth of info. We have been setting up a card reference system. Info that seems important goes straight onto a little note card and into a file. It comforts me to know that the info is not lost if we ever have trouble with net access or simply decide to cut the expense.

Things like, "Don't use "Flower Scented" Deodorants or Fabric Softeners." go in the file. ; )

We are hoping to build a sort of hybrid top bar langstroth hive. I want a top bar with an additional box above the brood side for winter stores since the bees seem to prefer going up in winter. We still have to find out what restrictions there may be to this. Bees are a little further off for us.

We are in the process of building our coop right now. We plan to implement deep bedding and supplement the chickens diet with black soldier fly larvae. We currently use a rotation composter we built but would like to invest or build something like a Biopod system. The broader variety of waste that can be composted is a really big sell for us. The additional function as a chicken protein and calcium source is a huge bonus.

We are a little nervous about a deep bedding coop...smell, disease... but all of the reading we are doing suggests that it is healthier for all involved. Do you deep bed? We are hoping it will provide sufficient heat in the winter. Our coop plan will have the deep bedding on a lower level and the roost on an upper level with a removable (and lockable)wooden frame in between. When the frame is removed the chickens will have access to the dirt floored lower level for scratching the bedding and finding the grain and larvae added to it. A screened floor should allow waste to fall into the lower level. At night we will replace the linoleum covered wooden frame (which will have drilled holes for ventilation and heat access) as an added protection against digging predators. The lower level will be screened in the spring summer and fall and changed to boards during the winter. We bought a couple of floor heating vents to place in the roof for some vent control. We plan to have an attached run and use small tractors.

We will be keeping the chickens here on our rented property, much easier access and daily care, so we have to "contain" them. When we are finally able to move over to the property we will allow the birds to roam at will. We are hoping to raise buff Orpingtons and Buckeyes.

We are going to try and start a hedge. We are looking into multi purpose shrubs like Siberian peashrub. It seems they help repair soil, provide a very high quality (although not very abundant)feed, have very useful thorns (fencing) and work as a very nice windbreak. This project intimidates me a bit as hedges are quite an involved process. : )

[bvar22]

15. Our birds are a lot of fun & entertainmant.

Our Rooster is pugnacious, and protective of his hens.
He was a lap pet when young, but puberty hit him hard.
We let them free range from 2 PM to sundown, but are always an the alert for the rooster (Elvis) while he is out.

The chickens are easily the most cost effective, year round producers of high quality, organic food that we have experimented with.

Starkraven bid on some fertile Copper Marans eggs on EBay, and won.
So now, we have 11 dark chocolate eggs in the incubator. We'll see what happens in 21 days.
We are excited about the new breed, and hope everything comes out OK.
BTW: The seller of the Copper Marans eggs is in NW Arkansas.

This is one of our favorite bee sites:
Bush Bees
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

:hi:

[timo]

11. love the chooks

we have lots of them, hatching 300 plus strarting today!!!

[FedUpWithIt All]

14. Wow! That is a lot. Bet they are adorable.

:hi:

[timo]

16. the fluffy butts

is what the 3 year old calls them, they are fun, they are going to the sale saturday 2 bucks each straight run!!

[FedUpWithIt All]

17. We now have two hens!

The coop is taking a bit more time than we hoped but it is nearly finished. I am really happy with the way it is turning out. We put together a small tractor the other day and the girls have been spending their days lazing about under it.

Unfortunately, being newbies at this chicken thing we ended up with less than perfect health in our birds. But we are treating and caring for them and they appear to be feeling better.

Here are some pictures of our coop and tractor.













I'll post more pictures once the coop is all finished.

[hippywife]

18. Congrats!

I remember talking to you about this some time ago. I'm so glad you went through with it. Is that first pic at your old place?

Welcome to rural life. You're gonna love it and love having chickens, too.

:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

19. Hi Hippywife!!

:hi:

That first pic is the garden we had at our old place last year. It was a hybrid raised bed/lasagna. We layered all kinds of yard waste, peat, manure and soils and had nice warm started beds in the spring. We're not sure if we will be able to set it all up again this year. Too late to start the layering either way.



The fence is all being stored in Ohio so we may have to make the trip to collect it soon.

Thank you for the welcome. We are pretty happy here. Always busy. : )

The chicken raising is not going so hot. One of our birds has what appears to be Vent Gleet. Quite intimidating and more than a little *icky*. We have been feeding her cider vinegar and garlic in her water and a tablespoon of yogurt every evening. It looked for a second that she might be on the mend but then it kicked up again. x( Talk about crash coursing.

Aside from the above, we are really enjoying the chickens. They are very intriguing to watch. They both have very distinct personalities.