Awe man! I want a chicken too. I don't understand how the city of largo allows chickens but I live in the county and I am not allowed! No fair!

Pet chicken. Love her and feed her and call her george!

~dianne

I can't have chickens in PSL either, but there are some people trying to change that at the council meetings. Some cities allow it, I believe Miami is one.

BTW Lou, I love your chicks. :o) You are amazing in all you do.

Lou, do you sex your chickens? They sure are cute but what baby isn't. Well, maybe a baby mocking bird!

Lou,

They look delicious! When is dinner? :)

Oh your babies are adorable. I have a couple barred rocks, they are great! How many chickens do you have? What do you do with all your manure? I am trying to figure out what I can do with it other than compost. Do you ever make tea or know of any quicker way to get it garden ready?

I just ate the first eggs this morning. Mine hatched in Dec. I have a barred rock, a rhode island red and 2 silkies. I love having them. No trouble and so fun to watch. Babalu you're correct. We're allowed hens here in St. Pete with the permission of your neighbors within a 100'. I ignored that part.

Wanda,
I don't sex them, but I do hatch some sex-linked chicks.

BR,
The last picture with the black chickens will be the ones raised for meat. This time I'm going to try not getting attached to the little buggers. I bred them for the best for meat production. I'm starting with just four to see if I can refrain from making pets out of them.(two in that picture are barred rocks)

Keiki,
The chicken count varies a lot here. I have six I use as my basic breeders. I never have enough chicken manure with ten acres and a sixty fruit tree orchard. With orchard trees I dig a circle trench outside the tree's drip line and drop in 'HOT' chicken manure. It will be benign by the time the roots grow out into it. I do make compost, but I only make tea with the Black Cow manure.

John,
Out here on all the small farms you hear every kind of animal, cows mooing, horses whinnying, roosters crowing, geese honking, ducks quacking, donkeys hee-hawing, goats & sheep bleating, dogs barking, cats meowing, wild & domestic pigs squealing, coyotes howling, squirrels chattering, woodpeckers doing what they do with their pecker, and poachers screaming from the load of rock salt in the shotgun shells.
(I probably should also add lubbers munching in my garden)

Lou

Ahhh your little chicks are so cute.
We processed some roosters this past weekend. They were buff orps and omg they have so many feathers - really poofy feathers lol. We decided to just skin them instead of plucking but they had so thick of feathers it was hard to even see what we were doing. I have mixed feelings over processing two of the roos because I got really attatched to them (sigh).

don't know how i missed this post.......very cool! we have debated chickens here, but i think the city would win.

Lou,
I can understand your concerns about becoming attached to the birds you plan to raise for meat production.Heck,I have a bad enough time just putting one of the catfish from my pond on the table.The Wife won't even think about us keeping chickens on the property,which I'm kinda glad about,as it would just turn into a retirement home for old hens.This is why I keep ducks,they are great for egg production,not to mention almost zero maintenance,but when they get old,then they can just look "cool" swimming on my pond.I am originally from England & because of the hardships My parents(& everyone else in their generation) went through in the World Wars,was taught to never waste anything edible on a animal.I think most of us have been taught to now be detached from what we eat.I don't think any animal gets the respect it deserves,when sold on a stryafoam tray-when compared to those raised for home consumption.It becomes a very personal experience,but my opinion(& it is just that)is that it is better to butcher an animal that you have cared for & raised in the best conditions possible,than to consume one that no one cared about & that was raised in terrible conditions.

"and poachers screaming from the load of rock salt in the shotgun shells."

LOL!!!! Love it!

Lou, your chicks are so cute! I love the fluffball stage. Right now 2 of mine are in the awkward adolescent stage and are just not attractive, but the rest have grown in most of their feathers.

We are raising our first meat animal this year. We have a Duroc pig. I have gotten a little attached, but the bigger she gets the more annoying she is and the more she tears up, so I'm hoping that will help when it is slaughter time. And I'm having some else actually do the deed - I'm going away for the weekend and hubby will be in charge.

What, no RABBITS ???? Nothing cuter, nothing tastier.. and easy to care for....sally

Westhamutd,

I do agree with you and would enjoy having ducks and fish but I do not have a pond here. I live on top of a hill and my land slopes away from the house. My water well is 140 feet deep to reach the water table so digging a pond is out of the question. I have had serious thoughts of building some sort of pond using a liner or fiberglass swimming pool, but it would have to be quite far from the house where the land levels out and controlling the critters that go after the ducks would be difficult. At my age of mid 70's the projects get slower to final completion and just finishing projects I've started takes much of my time.

Lou

Lou, do you grow any greens for your chickens? In the summer mine get a lot of banana leaves but it would be nice to have more "quick growers" since the chickens are "little eating machines". I didn't know that there are blue americanas. I presume that they lay blue eggs. The three americanas that I have look completely different from each other and all lay blue eggs.

Christine

Christine,
I don't grow any specific greens for them, but they eat almost anything I toss in to them. All the table scrap green trimmings go out to them and many of the weeds that grow wild here I also toss into their cage run. I pick a lot of berries and all the bug damaged garden veggies they also get.

I think with all the people raising the mixed breeds in together that many of the chickens now are not true pure bred which would account for all the different colorings. I have one hen you would swear it was a Rhodes Island Red but lays blue/green eggs. I also had a Copper colored Marans complete with feathered feet that was supposed to lay dark brown eggs but had the blue gene in her mix and laid green eggs.... go figure? (She didn't make it through this last very cold winter, she got soaked when a water pipe burst and she froze solid)

Lou

Saldut,

I agree it is surprising with all the things Lou has that he has no rabbits. Yesterday when he was here he was threatening to steal my soil so maybe he will break down and get rabbits eventually. There really is no better way to improve your soil than rabbit manure.

I love having rabbits. When I planted my garden this year I added rabbit poo to each planting hole and everything is so healthy and green looking this year.

happy fl gardener: True pure bred Ameraucanas come in several colors including blue. A true Ameraucana should only lay blue or blueish green tinted eggs. If they lay any other color they are usually mixed with something. Unfortunately most of the hatcheries that sell ameraucana or auracanas are really mixed and should be referred to as Easter Eggers due to the color range they lay. Some can have enough of the blue gene to lay blue eggs but are still usually a mix. I have included a link for more info.

Here are some eggs from my ameraucanas (the light blue ones) These are from the first generation the second one is laying a little brighter blue.

Lou: Does your Marans mix cross lay an olive egg like this?
I crossed my female ameraucanas with a very dark gened black copper marans male to get a hen that lays these olive green eggs. You wouldn't believe how many people are really into this egg color lol! Marans have a brown pigment that is laid on top of the shell. The olive eggers do the same and then you can end up with olive with brown speckles. Kinda pretty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ameraucana breeders club

SJN,
That olive is a cool colored egg. I don't have the Marans anymore and will be staying primarily with hatching Rhodes Island Reds as that is the most requested chick where I swap my chicks for feed. I also hatch a few sex linked (RIR roo with Barred Rock hen) as that cross makes a quick growing meat heavy bird. Even the young roos are good for meat.

BR,
I just checked with the BOSS and the 'city girl' again said, "NO RABBITS!"

Lou

Christine wrote:
Lou, do you grow any greens for your chickens? In the summer mine get a lot of banana leaves but it would be nice to have more "quick growers" since the chickens are "little eating machines".

Have you thought about Moringa or Chayote? They are both suppose to be quick and abundant growers.

~dianne

dianne,
Yes I have thought of other breeds, but as I've stated before, I have to hatch the chicks that will sell at the place I swap chicks for feed. The most requested chicks for this local farming area have been the Rhodes Island Red.

I occasionally will pick up a different breed to toy with the egg coloring but I have to basically stay with the RIR due to the request. They are not my favorite bird as I find them as scrappy fighters and there's always a commotion in the hen house. I prefer the Plymouth Barred Rock or the Orpington as they are the most docile.

SJN,
Where did you find those two round meters that fit into the egg holders? Those two meters look way cool. I presume one is for temperature and the other for humidity. I have the white rectangular one on the right side of your incubator picture.

Lou

Petsmart has them in a combo pack. They are pretty cheap and fairly reliable. I like them because they stay in the turner and I can see them through the top window.

I also use a digital thermometer that has a probe that I drop down through the top to read at the top of the eggs. It reads out to a digital unit outside the incubator. I found that the humidity inside the incubator messes too much with the digital displays if I leave one inside so I don't use that little white one anymore.
I always recalibrate the hygrometer before I hatch because it is a little off sometimes though.

Here is a link on how to calibrate your hygrometer.
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/herpresources/ss/hygrometer.htm

Here is a link to them @ petsmart down below

Here is a link that might be useful: thermometer hygrometer

SJN,
Thank You Very Much, I appreciate your help. I also noticed the humidity messing with my digital unit so I just now ordered the pair of dial types.
I also have the probe type but when I installed the fan upgrade for the incubator, the probe type now also varies as the egg turner moves back and forth, probably because the egg turner deflects the humid wind.

Thanks Again,
Lou

I haven't noticed the probe temperature varying with the egg turning. Maybe I haven't paid that much attention LOL. I will have to pay attention next time.
My son and I put a computer fan in each of my 2 incubators because I'm cheap and my son always has lots of spare computer parts around the house because he is obsessed with them lol. We used a cordless phone power supply for the plug part as per instructions in this thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: wiring up a computer fan to your incubator

Dianne - Yes, I have had some moringa growing but it froze to the ground. This evening I see that it is finally coming back. A few days ago I planted my last 8 seeds in pots so I can have more. As for chayote, I grew 2 plants for the last 2 years, but some type of blight took them down to the ground in the summers. When I grew them years ago successfully, I grew them up some pine trees that I had at the time. That worked very well except harvesting was difficult. Thanks for the suggestions.

Christine

I just started growing Moringa from seed this year. I planted 3 seeds from Echo and 2 came up they are still small in pots for now. Which parts are you feeding the chickens? The leaves and pods? Or other parts as well since the whole trees are supposed to be edible practically lol?

Will the chayote squash in the supermarkets grow true from seeds? It would be fun to grow some of those at an angle on trellis against the chicken runs like Martha Stewart does for her chickens with gourds.

The chayote squash in the grocer is the seed. And yes, it sprouts easily. Buy one and set it someplace. It will start to sprout out the end with the 'lips'. After a bit, the seed will start getting prickly - those are the roots to be. I think at least. When those pricklies started is when I stuck mine in the ground. Supposedly 2 makes for better fruit set.

This is my first time growing it. I had one plant going gangbusters that got pretty smooshed up when the oak it was growing up had to be removed. But lo and behold it is coming back.

~dianne

sultry jasmine night - When I want to grow chayote, I buy it from the grocery store because they do grow true to seed.

As for using moringa, I use the leaves only. I have to check this out in my Moringa reference book, but I think that the roots are poisonous unless boiled. Mine freeze back each year so pods aren't an option.

Your spotted one does look like a little roo lol. Sometimes they can trick you though. I've had a couple Blue Marans hens that I swore were roos- comb and all but just turned out to be BIG girls. Watch the wattles, if they are big and red its a boy. Often times the feed store will take the roos back. You can check or give him away/sell on craigslist if you aren't zoned for roosters. It will be awhile before he can crow. They sound like gargling sick cows for awile before they can start crowing loud lol.