That Blozzz

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about going to a chicken swap. Yesterday, I went to the same place because they were having a small animal auction. I had thought of selling some of the chicks but my wife did not want to get up too early to get to the auction early enough to register the chicks before the auction.

That was a huge mistake! People are crazy and was paying big prices for chicks. There were about 40 Rhode Island Reds straight run chicks that went through about the same age as my chicks (7 weeks). They sold for between $11 and $16 each. I about fell on the floor. I could have sold all 36 Plymouth Rock chicks I had and made over $400. There were some day old Rhode Island Red chicks that you had to bid on one and buy all of them. They went for $8.00 each for a dozen of them. It was crazy since they were straight run and you can buy the same thing at the feed store for $2.29 each.

They had bunnies go through that went for $16-20 each. They were cute little black and white bunnies but I did not see nothing special that made them worth that. I think they sold about 25 of them at those prices. Everything else went quite high including ducks, pheasants, and turkeys. They had sheep and goats but they did not bring the big prices.

I ended up buying some nesting boxes, a cage, and some chicken wire. I got pretty good deals on them. I was not looking for any new animals at this time but now have an idea to raise a lot more chicks for next years auction. I am also considering going into raising rabbits because of the prices they got.

All in all we got a good idea what people are willing to pay and we had a great day. It gave us some ideas for future farm ventures.

Has any of my readers been to these types of auctions? What kind of prices did you see?

Wednesday we brought home the last of the chicks for this year. We added 10 to our 27 already at home. These were three weeks behind the last batch so they are a bit smaller. The night before we brought them home, our cousin found one of the chicks out of the pen and it looked like a Raven or other type bird might had picked it up. It has a small cut on top of its head and our cousin Darlene treated it. It was doing OK when I brought it home.

I went out yesterday and one of the first batch of chicks was pecking at its head and had caused a bigger cut. I watched out big rooster be killed but I have never done it. I could not allow the chick to suffer so I took a sharp sickle and did it in. I have thought of trying to heal it but the cut was deep and I was afraid it would never recover or never be accepted by the group.

Even though I did not like killing it, I know now that I can do it if I have to. I may have to cull another one but I am trying to decide if I should or not. I have one that has a crossed beak but it seems to eat and drink fine and has grown the same as the rest. I am not sure if it will get worse as it grows. If anyone has ever had this problem, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Will it get worse as it grows? Should I cull it or let it live?

Our silly cousins did it again. They hatched 10 Bantam eggs that they got from a guy they know. They have no idea what breeds they are and the have no plan to keep the chickens. Guess who is taking some of them? That’s right, it is me. My sill wife, who was a chicken hater when I first started raising them, has decided she wants four of the smallest ones.

She started by only wanting two but her cousin Darlene suckered her in. She gave told Karen that the four smallest ones are friends and does she really want to separate them. It worked so we will be bringing home 4 more chicks. I still have to pick up my other 10 from Darlene next week. That will make a total of 41 chicks this year. Geez, I must be crazy.

I am still trying to sex the first batch and trying to decide what to do with the roosters. I might raise them for meat. Another options is to take them to a small animal auction we are going to on May 18th. The third options is dropping them off at a local farm or just lets them free range. He takes all you have and lets them have free run of the farm. I will let you all know when I decide.

I would love to hear from other people who raise chickens. Drop in and leave a comment and if you have a blog or website, leave that in the spot on the comment box and I will visit your site.

Thanks to all my readers and I see the traffic increasing each day. I am planning a small give away in the coming weeks so please check back for that.

My little chicks are grower fast and they are getting crazier. They are so active it is a chore just to go into their area. They hop and fly all over and they are nuts. I have one who wants to be the teachers pet. She (I hope she) sits on my foot and wants me to pet her or pick her up. The rest of them squawk when I pick them up now but she loves it.

I also wanted to share something funny that happened a couple of nights ago. My mother-in-law stopped by and my two brown Araucana hens were up on their top shelf all ready to sleep. They go to bed earlier than the rest of the flock.

My mother-in-law wanted to see the chicks so she came in the chicken coop. I asked who to put her foot by the chicks door so they did not get out and she did not do it and one got out. I tried to catch it and my mother-in-law got excited as usual and bent over to try to catch it and one of the Araucana hens jumped right on her back. You would have laughed or thought that she was attacked by a fierce lion or bear. It was quite the sight.

I told her that I show the hens pictures of her every night and if she comes around, attack her. It shows you that chickens can be trained. LOL

It looks like the new chicks will be just as crazy except there are a lot more of them.

Well that is my crazy chicken stories for now. If you have stories about your own flock, please share by leaving a comment.

I am pretty excited because we are heading to a chicken swap in Madrid, NY on Sunday. This should be fun to see what other poultry farmers are raising. I was hoping to take a few of my little rooster but I have yet to determine the sex of the chicks. I have read a bunch but I can not determine for sure the cockerels from the pullets.

The swap is put on by the Northern New York Poultry Fanciers and what I hear from our cousins, it is a fun time. There is also an auction on the 18th of May and I am hoping to know the sex of the roosters by then so I can sell some.

Has anyone every been to a chicken swap? Did you buy or swap anything? Share with us by leaving a comment.

The other night I was in the bathroom of the house and I heard what sounded like heavy rain. I said to my wife that it was raining hard. A couple of hours later, I heard it again and I looked outside and no rain. I ventured down into our old basement and found the rain. My water pressure tank had a split in the seam and it was shooting a huge stream of water as the pump was clicking on and off. We ended up without water for about a day.

We are lucky to have an uncle who is a retired plumber so at least the labor was free. However, it still ended up costing around two hundred dollars in parts. My back has not healed yet so the other cost was massive pain.

Well it is fixed now and it could have been worse. Some days it sucks being a home owner, it always seems like something is going wrong. I feel like Tom Hanks in the movie “Money Pit.”

Just wanted to vent a little. Feel free to share your home owners blues by leaving a comment or two.

I wanted to share some pictures of my chicken coop and the new rooms I added for the new chicks.

This first picture is the inside of the coop. This was just an old shed attached to my big barn. I used it for a couple of years as a goat barn and now it is my coop. Notice the old wood stove, that is where the hens like to sleep. I built a nice new set of perches and they have never used them. You may notice one of my girls heading for the exit after laying an egg.

This is a pictures of perches I built, as I said, they do not use them. You may notice the babies sunbathing in the back ground.

This is a picture of the two doors to the outside one for the older hens and one for the chicks.

This the inside room we built to house the chicks. This was taken before the chicks arrived.

This is the outside room fully fenced to keep the little ones in and any hawks out. This was built inside of the regular chicken pen which is 58 ft x120 ft. It gives plenty of pasture area for the older hens and will be great for the little ones when they grow up. This use to be the goat pen.

Here is the picture of the double nesting box that we had for our seven hens. I have put together a new one to hold all the new hens when they start laying. I came out to check eggs when I found the hens all cozy in the box. They stayed long enough for me to go get the camera and take these pictures. One of the brown ones is tucked in the back on the right side.

That gives you an idea of what my chicken coop looks like. It also shows you that chickens adapt well to any housing as long as it is safe and secure. This one works well to protect them from both predators and the elements. It is not fancy but there is plenty of of room for the chickens to have a good time.

If you have a picture of your coop, please share them by leaving a link to the picture in a comment.

A couple of days ago I brought the baby chicks home. They are four weeks old today and growing like crazy. They are active little creatures who try to climb my legs every time I visit their pen.

Our cousin Kenny decided I could have his first batch of chicks so I now have 27 chicks and 10 more at his house which are just a week old. I am trying to figure out how to sex them. They are mostly Barred Plymouth Rocks. I have read as much as I could find on how to sex them but I am still not sure which is which when it comes to pullets or cockerels. If anyone knows for sure how to determine the sex at four weeks, please leave a comment and let me know.

I have been quite busy getting ready for Spring. My brother in law and I built a new addition to the chicken coop. We built chicken wire covered rooms both inside and out to accommodate the chicks till they are old enough to mix with my older hens. I am busy planning the garden and waiting for my neighbor to get the garden tilled. It has been unusually hot for this time of the year. We have been in the 80s most of the last few days. That is June weather normally here in the North Country of New York.

What do you have planned for the Spring? Leave a comment and let me know what is happening with you.

We have had a few problems with our rooster getting mean and attacking. I learned to deal with him but when I was down with my back, Karen had to take care of the chickens and the rooster attacked her and did a number on her leg.

We already had all the eggs that we needed for the season fertilized so there was no real need to have a rooster anymore. We did our first cull. I took him to our cousin Kenny’s house and he showed me how to do a clean kill and pluck the feathers. I though it would be much worse but it did not bother me. I made Karen stand there with us so we can start doing our own when needed.

I thought the rooster would be hard to catch but I did it pretty quickly. The problem was, he stirred up the hens and one of the hens fell between an opening in the walls and got stuck. I thought she was dead or broke her neck and I tried to get her out but she fell too far. I ended up going to the outside of the barn and breaking through the wall. By time I did this, she flew up half way and I went back in and rescued her. I still thought she might be hurt but as soon as I lifted her out she flew off with the rest of her flock. Silly hen!

All the baby chicks but one is doing good. That poor little thing was attacked by the rest and pecked hard. I am not sure if she is going to make it but we are all crossing our fingers. They are growing fast and since I do not have electrical power in the barn, Kenny is still keeping them until they can come home without need for additional heat.

This week we are building a room inside the coop to keep the new chicks when they come home away from the older hens. This will be just fenced in so they can get use to each other before mixing them.

We have another batch of eggs scheduled to hatch next week so I will have more pictures to share. I will also be putting up some updated chick pictures as soon as I get time.

That is the update from the old homestead right now. Stay tuned for some cool pictures and video links of the chickens.

Our cousin Kenny has been hatching eggs for us and yesterday was hatch day. I gave him 11 of our eggs to hatch and out of that we had 9 chicks. They are so cute! Eight of them are black and one is yellow with brown strips. I am pleased that I had such a high rate of hatching.Kenny hatched 21 of his own eggs and he got as of last night 11 hatched and four that had peck holes in them. Below is some pictures of the new babies.

This is what is left of the babies former home. Mine were the blue shells.

This is all the little babies but one. We had one still in the incubator waiting to dry off.

This is the chicks sitting on their food.

Nine of the eggs I gave Kenny were a cross between a Plymouth Rock Rooster and Arcauna hens. Two of the eggs were from my neighbors flock and they were a cross between and Aracuna Hen and who knows what rooster since they have several breeds. I believe the yellow may have come from one of those two eggs.

I just took 14 more eggs to be hatched so we will see how many more we get.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the baby chicks. Also wish me luck that they are a majority of hens.