oops. this got posted twice.
This message was edited Dec 18, 2008 8:30 AM
Welcome Newbie's introduce yourselves
Nice to meet you fancy! I cant wait to see pics of all your new chicks when you get them. I am happy you are finally getting what you want! New house, new coop! I hope to see you a lot on Daves. There are many on here who do not have chickens, its not a requirment to have any here. you can enjoy others unitl your arrive! Have a great day!
Welcome to Daves Meg_e and Fancy ^_^ My name is Harmony and i hope to see yall alot here we need new topics and questions as thats the backbone of this forum.
OH! Don't forget about the funny thats what keeps us all sane dealing with all these animals LOL!
Oops, I introduced myself on the wrong thread! ;0) I was just SO excited!!
So here goes again. I live in Tacoma,WA with my great husband, our kids, 8, 6, 4, & 2, our three boxers (I posted a pic of one of our puppies), and hopefully soon 6 - 8 chickens (Partridge Plymouth Rocks, Black Australorps, Blue-Silver Laced-Golden Laced Wyandottes and Ameraucanas)
I enjoy the reading, and helpful info for us beginners!
Have a Merry CHRISTmas,
Becky
Becky, nice to meet you! We look forward to hearing from you!
Jump in and chat away.
This sure is a great group! So many friendly faces and great advice!
I cant wait to see pics of your new chicks!
jeanmarie
Hello Becky and Welcome to Daves!
Indeedy. Looking forward to hearing a lot from both Fancy and Becky!! (As well as all you other lurkers!!)
OH! Yes!! New People + New Storie's = More fun ^_^
New stories...
I love stories. I just got finished reading "Here If You Need Me" about a woman who became a Maine wildlife warden chaplain (!) and during chaplaincy training she learned Greek so she could read the bible in the original language...
In the beginning was the Word... she says what's translated as word actually has several meanings, one of which is story
In the beginning was the Story... I really like that, especially now, when we have a season of stories... from the manger to the yule log to Kris Kringle.
And each one of us is a story becoming...
Harmony... tell us a story!
Jay
Wow, impressive! My husband took a very little Greek while in college, it sounds like a VERY hard language to learn, but what a cool thing to do! It sound like a good read.
Thanks for the friendly welcome!
Becky
I recommend it highly! A remarkable woman and the amazing folks she serves. Very heartwarming and real.
Yes we are going to peek! But mostly because we want to think of names!
But if you don't peek, then you get to think of twice as many names. That's one of my favorite parts, thinking up names. =0)
Lol! It is a bit fun all admit. But I feel alot of pressure to pick a good name. It feels like a big responsibility to bestow a name on someone. At least I can say were not going to go all hollywood and give our poor child a name like Apple or Bud Light...... I mean really now people I know your famous but....
hi all!! i'm a newbie too!! love reading about all your chickies. this time i only have 16 golden comets..i did at one time have about 100 or so..i live in brookville, pa which is about 15 miles from silkiechick..we have a farm, and our own business. we repair lawn and garden equip.the only other pet i have is a greek cheeked conure..and he is a little dickens!!
looking forward to chatting with all...will post some pics when i get them put on my new laptop.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Hey, I'm a newbie, I guess, just joined yesterday. This is a wonderful site, and I know I will enjoy it. Haven't got pics to upload yet, but have a Shitzu, named Comet, who is spoiled rotten ( as he is supposed to be), and am trying to learn about raising some chickens to sell eggs locally. Am look at Rhode Island Reds for the brown eggs. I live in Louisiana, so hopefully they will do well, even though we have already had a really nice snow here. Crazy weather. Thanks for the wonderful welcome. Dona
A big Welcome to Cndydavis and cocodrie11! I look forward to chatting with you both.
This is a fun place andthere is such a wealth of knowledge here for any questions you may have.
Welcome!
jeanmarie
iwantchicks love your boxer,I had a boxer in the past but he got cancer and we had to have him put down,he was a sweetheart.I now have a boxer rottie mix he weighs 110lbs and very sweet,this is him he is 7 years old now his name is Deacon
Good Morning - I just did the one year thing here on Dave's Garden after a 2 month trial subscription. I have been active on some of the other forums and just recently started reading threads on this forum. It looks like a fun place to hang out.
Will 8 cats entitle me to membership to this forum? LOL
My parents were both farm kids coming off truck farms and grew up during the depression. As we all know farmers didn't suffer too badly, food wise, during the Great Depression. I can't remember any time that my folks didn't have a beautiful vegetable garden. Of course my Mom always worked her magic on flowers and all sorts of other plants outside the V garden.
Growing up with dirt (and some other stuff) between my toes instilled in me the desire to always want to get back to the natural way of life. At different times over the years my wife and I, along with two boys, have had some great gardens, sheep, goats (the most fun), rabbits (best eating and great fertilizer), chickens, turkeys, guineas, dogs, and cats.
Now, after about 10-12 years of not having a garden and having recently retired (2006), I have decided to get back into it again. I am currently expanding my old garden and enclosing it with a new deer proof fence. The idea is to complete the fencing within the next 12 weeks and get the old part of the garden planted this Spring. The plan is to have the new section ready for Spring planting in 2010.
I look forward to spending time on this forum.
SEYA
Jerry
Welcome fellow newbies!!! Horray, more chicken people!!
green04735, Your dog is SOOOO cute, he looks like friendly & loving, great dog qualities!! Boxers are great dogs, great with kids, just all around good dogs (unless you are extremely opposed to slober/snoring) ; )
Becky
Welcome everyone.
welcome texasrockgarden! I look forward to hearing about your garden.
Too much of anything certainly qualities you, Texas!! Welcome!!!
Hi all,
I don't post here too often but I like to read all the stories and have learned a lot! My husband and I moved to TN a few years ago, live out in the woods, and wanted a few chicken so we could be a little more self-sustaining. DH was at Tractor Supply this spring and brought home 6 baby chicks- they did very well, except they all seemed to be roosters. LOL guess that's why they were selling them... We have 2 bantam roosters, 3 fat roosters with feathers on their feet, and one that we think is a Sultan.
I think I posted about our Sultan, we thought he was mildly retarded or something, seems much "slower" than the other birds. My husband built a coop with three nest boxes and some perches, and we put it inside a 6x12 ft dog pen and covered the top with chicken wire. This summer we would open the door and all but the Sultan would go foraging around the yard and into the woods. The Sultan (Lyle) would just sit on the edge of the coop and watch them. If you put a treat on the ground, he would look down at it and make all sorts of waa-wwaa noises but seemed unable to get down by himself. Occasionally the other birds would pick on him, if he did venture outside the coop they'd jump on him and chase him, he would fly into a tree where he would sit until we went and got him down.
One of the bantams just hates me, he chases me all the time, luckily he makes a loud noise with his feet when he runs and I can quick turn around and look at him, and then he stops and waits for me to move. Even if he sees me or hears me inside the house he'll fly into a tree near the kitchen window and crow and try to get as close as he can. I know you're probably all thinking "chicken stew" but we are too weak-hearted to kill any of them.
Well, one of our dogs got out and chased and hurt one of the chickens, he lived through the night and we thought he was going to be OK, but then he died.
Sometime in November Lyle the Sultan suddenly decided it was ok to leave the pen, and overnight started foraging with the others. It was really strange! He's now a "real chicken" just like the others. When it started getting cold, I put some additional straw into the coop so they would stay warmer. Sometime around Thanksgiving I looked in and found a nest of eggs, I thought my husband put some of our old eggs in the coop as a joke, and meant to yell at time, but forgot about it, a few days later I looked and there was another nest with 2 eggs in it. My husband denied putting any eggs out there, so we have discovered Lyle is indeed a Lyla! So happy to finally get some eggs.
We may have trouble in the future with our rooster herd, right now they all seem to know their place. When the gray bantam Mousey tries to attack me, I yell for the other bantam, Chippy, and he rushes over and chases Mousey off. One of the fatties seems to be Lylas "special" friend, he will mount her but it seems brief and not too traumatic, unlike the attacks earlier this summer.
They all go out in the morning, then often Lyla will go back in to lay her egg (we get 1 almost every day) and the boys will stand outside the coop until she is done. Then back off into the woods. They all stay together, which makes me happy. The two fatties seem unable to fly, and I'm so afraid of predators getting them. We do have several dogs that spend their days barking as much as possible, so I guess that helps keep other animals away. We do have turkey, fox, coyote, and raccoons in the area.
Photo is of (l-r) Chippy, Lyla, and two fatties- Henry and Rosie (Rosie is the one our dog killed).
So, if you are still reading this, that is our long story!
Next year we may try to get a few more hens, and I would dearly LOVE some peafowl, but we'll see...
Susan
Haha! I enjoyed that story. What fun yall must have with that gang...
Your story is too funny, Susan! Isn't it sweet of Chippy to stand up for you! Chickens have such neat personalities!
I think I've been here since April of '07. Anyways, been busy with the school thing so I haven't been posting much over the last few months. Enjoy the forum!
This message was edited Dec 24, 2008 7:27 PM
Chippy is the littlest rooster but he is the coolest. Evil Mousey irritates all the other boys, he is always trying to get as high as he can get and crow his little head off. Yesterday he was on the phone line going into our house!
If Mousey is on the ground and crows too often, one of the other boys will chase and peck at him, as if to say, shut up! LOL
I never thought chickens would have such personalities.
Here's Mousey walking on my Calla lily pots, trying to knock them over. He really is pretty, completely gray (the light color on his shoulder is from the flash.
Oops, forgot to include the photo with my earlier post:
Photo is of (l-r) Chippy, Lyla, and two fatties- Henry and Rosie (Rosie is the one our dog killed).
Little Chippy is adorable. And so brave to come to your defense.
Handsome! Great story! Thanks for sharing! ♥
bump for newbies...
how do we go about getting a sticky on something like this?
Sticky would be good for this one and the Tour de coop! Great idea!
This is what DH gave me for Christmas. I usually post on the rose forum but have been checking out this forum as I've always wanted chickens. DH promised my chickens as kind of a bonus for moving south so quickly after I finally finished fixing up our old house up north. I did quite a lot of the heavy work myself as DH used to travel alot on business and I was having fun. It nearly killed me but I was proud to finally finish almost everything up with only minimal subcontractors. Then came an opportunity to move and much less travel for DH. We could live out in the country and build a different house. Well, I'm always up for an adventure so here we are!
We're finally ready to start several projects outside and a chicken coop was one of the things I wanted first. I had building plans of exactly what I wanted and discussed building just what I wanted with DH. He was game but very busy with business. I kept at it and started amassing materials. Remember when I said that fixing up the old house almost killed me? Well, it really did so no heavy lifting for me anymore. DH tried to find someone to build a coop for me but anyone who was available wanted too much money so the next thing I knew the chicken coop people were calling to ask where to deliver the coop my husband just bought for me for Christmas. I'm so happy! I'm going to have to build a secure chicken run (myself) as there is a strong coyote presence on the property. Also various hawks, owls, one American Eagle sighting, field rats, bobcats, and (hopefully only) one skunk. Also, an American kestral couple just showed up on the back fence last week. We like them all, but the chickens must be safe. Well, I might be exagerating about liking them all. The skunk can go ;P.
Well, I guess that's enough about me exept that I've enjoyed lurking on this forum. There is a ton a valuable info here!
PS. I want some Welsummers now!
Ohhh, I just love it!!! It is so cute! Like a little house! What are the demensions on the house? I am very happy for you!
You dont need chickens to post here but it can make it fun. I sure cant wait to see your birds!
I have a run made out of 6x10 K9 fence pannels. I made it complete at 10x20. I only have about 12 chickens though. How many do you want? It is a fun group here. I know you will have fun!! WELCOME!!!!
This message was edited Jan 1, 2009 2:45 PM
It is 4 x 6 foot.
I'm considering dog panels with a roof. I've been told that chicken wire is not strong enough to keep out a truly determined coyote . I think someone above in this thread mentioned a bunker. When we are home they can roam, but one the the coyotes was very near the house this morning. I've seen him before. He doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. He watches me in the garden for a while and then trots off. He doen't seem to want to attack the corgi (I have a corgi and two other dogs) but our dogs stay in the fence around the house.
I see. We have coyote but they are afraid to come near. We have the dog fence all around but the top is chicken wire. I cant imagine a coyote crawling up 6 foot fence and getting in through the top. I sure hope they wouldnt at least.
I do love the coop you have!!! Mine is posted above.
Thanks! and welcome again!
I love the coop! It's so adorable!
You're a real trouper to pick up everything and move like that.
Welcome Teri, that is a very nice coop.
Welcome Teri and thats a very nice coop hope you can get some chickens so they can enjoy it and you can enjoy watching them ^_^