New pullets need quarantine advice please :)

[Duckfarmerpa1]

A contractor husband! My husband thinks duct tape fixes everything. I have the things I need to properly attach the wire racks to the back of the pantry door, but he attacked it first with tape-lots of tape. I left it there. Sometimes I have to let him be the hero, even though I hate looking at it. LOL I'm no carpenter, but I manage to make what I picture in my head, happen. He thinks I am a genius. I'm not, I just don't back down from anything. We did hire a contractor to build our 12'x54' screened porch, that was above my pay grade. We also hired the 36'x36' barn built, but I had all the materials.

Learn how to use the saws, Power tools rock!

Yes, he’s great...I can just give a hint of what I need and he can whip it up like nothing. He has so many tricks it’s crazy. He retired young so now he’s stuck with me running around with projects...lol. I would do the saws...but...I have seizures...not for more than a year... But he won’t let me use a saw...so, he has to do my bidding. That’s very nice of you to leave the tape up in your cabinet...that might drive me crazy..

 

[farmerjan]

I'm going to add in my 2 cents. I have purebred chickens. Have shown off and on for 40 + years. I have raised laying hens, free range on pasture, simple sex-links in different colors/breed combinations. I am lucky to have connections with a couple of commercial "concentration camp" broiler poultry farmers. I get the "left-behinds" when the birds go out every 45 +/- days and bring them home and fatten them up on dirt as opposed to the confined enclosed houses they are raised in.

There are diseases that chickens get. I had a bout with Mareks one time years ago. It sucks. BUT, if you are getting the birds from someone who has decent looking birds, if you take the time to look them over and check for external parasites, and they are reasonably clean, if their eyes look bright and they aren't droopy or raspy, then bringing them home, housing them in whatever you have available, that gives them some room and reasonable accommodations, separate from your existing birds for a few days or a few weeks.... then you should be fairly safe.
Letting them out to get some of the "germs" that already exist in/on your soil/grass etc is a good way to get some exposure to and develop some immunity to what is existing. I find that more than the "horrible disease exposure" is the co-mingling of birds. There are always bullies in chicken flocks. Different breeds have different temperments. Different ages can cause some concern when co-mingling.

Anyone who spends $650 on a chicken is out of their mind. Sorry if that offends anyone. There are more chickens. I would hesitate to spend that on one of our cows/bulls etc. I cannot justify spending more on an animal than it is worth, in MOST cases. There are cows that I have put down, that have been a favored animal, and just "swallowed" the salvage value rather than ship it to market. But, you have to be reasonable and accept the fact that they are animals..... they do not have the same value of a human life.

Do reasonable precautions. Take good care of them. Address their needs and provide as safe and healthy an environment for them that you can.

I also hate to tell you but you do not have any "silver laced orpingtons".... The blueish looking ones are just that , blue orpingtons. They will be that slatey blue color with darker blue/black edging on the feathers. Silver laced is basically a white feather with a black edging. There are silver laced wyandottes, silver laced cochins, silver sebrights and silver polish which are basically the same pattern. Orpingtons only come in white, black, buff and blue. They may be mixed with something but what you have definitely are not silver laced anything. NOT bad looking birds, don't get me wrong. But this is what is the matter with all these "EXPERTS" because they don't really know what the true breeds are, or their characteristics. I am not a fanatical show/purebred person. But I like a breed to be what it is, and things like these "easter eggers" gets on my nerves, because they are also one of those crossbreds that get touted as a "breed" when they are not. Great for a home laying flock, but they are just a crossbred that has the blue/green egg laying gene.

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

Over here it's orange string....the plastic stuff that circles bales of silage, straw etc. It's used to hold fences together, hang gates, make temporary harnesses and even to hold trousers up. Due to environmental concerns with plastic, the orange string will be replaced by hemp/sisal etc. Somehow, it won't look quite the same holding up a pair of pants......

My least favourite tool? Probably sharp knives as I'm a menace with them....or maybe anything that's twee in the kitchen...got it, kitchen blow torches......

Oh my gosh,,, I thought we were the only weird ones saving all those dumb strings off my hay!! I DO use it for everything! It was such a pain the neck at first...now I never want to throw it away!
As for the torch....we have one of those real ones..hooked up to the propa tank and you hold it with a 4’ rod...well i got to use it for the first time this summer when we built our ducks a floating duck house for the middle of the pond. I was heating up the rubber roofing..then decided to go ahead and torch in the wood grain...it was a blast! Seriously..those power tools are fun! Then..when we went to launch the Duck house it was tricky, because it is an S shaped pond for our last name so we had yet, another C&D adventure

 

[Bruce]

My husband thinks duct tape fixes everything.

Used to be duct tape and baling wire. But bales are now done with twine. Really not the best for holding up the muffler!

While visiting with my dad last month we talked about the early farming days when they lived in Lancaster, CA back in the late '30s, early 40's. Seems his job was to follow the horse drawn baler and twist the wires before the bales were released.

I cannot justify spending more on an animal than it is worth, in MOST cases.

Yep, though I guess an animal, like anything, is worth what someone is willing to pay. It would be hard for me to justify taking a chicken that cost $3.25 as a day old chick to a vet at any point in its life. However we've spent a ton of money on house cats that developed curable or treatable diseases.

 

[thistlebloom]

I miss baling wire. It was at least less visible when you fixed fences with it. Although I do appreciate the hay farmer I buy from that uses black twine. It is a little more elegant than bright orange or the ubiquitous tarp blue color, lol. And twine is a lot better at mending the horses hay nets when they bite big holes in them. Wire just wouldn't work the same.

 

[thistlebloom]

Cool floating duck house @Duckfarmerpa1 !

 

[Baymule]

I have cow panel pens put together with hog rings, hay twine, baling wire, and clips. I use hay twine in the garden for trellis for climbing bens. Oh, and zip ties too. Love those things.

 

[thistlebloom]

Zip ties hold my world together. Our CP hay shed is completely zipped.
How do you have baling wire Bay? I didn't think anybody baled with that anymore. I haven't seen it for years.

 

[Baymule]

We bought some square bales at the feed store that had baling wire. I carefully hoarded it...….. LOL

 

[Bruce]

Bay is the master (mistress??) of reuse/repurpose!