Consolidated Kansas

[RooksMom]

Hi, my name is Kasey. I'm new to this site (kind of, I made a profile a while back, but never really had the time to look around) I live in Harvey county and I have been looking for somewhere to be able to talk with like-minded people, ask questions, compair notes, that kind of thing.

I recently (just over a year ago) started my little farm and am working it up one thing at a time, first chickens, then goats, and this coming year my fiance and I are putting in a large vegetable garden. Except for the last couple of years, I have always had a vegetable garden, and I am sooooo excited about putting one in for this spring.

I grew up in Michigan, so if anyone has any tips on gardening in Kansas, I would love them! In Michigan, drop a seed on the dirt, spit on it, and trust me, it WILL grow. The climate is so different here I am very nervous that I won't be able to grow anything. lots of people have gardens around here, but I know the problems I run into in Michigan (mostly, your garden flooding out, moles, and hurrying to get all your produce harvested before frost) Any advice would be more than welcome.

I am also looking to enlarge my flock. Right now I have a dozen hens and one rooster. Now that I have the basics of mixed breed (honestly, I don't think you could actually pin down a breed on my girls) chickens mastered, I am hoping to introduce some desired traits into my flock. That's why I got the rooster I did. Wellsummer is a breed I like. The coloring is nice, But I like the egg production and color. In a year or two, I will get a different rooster. I have a couple of breeds in mind, but have not decided.

Right now I have one hen who decided to brood her nest, so I gave her several more eggs to brood in the hopes that she sees it through. If she does, I'm keeping her until she dies of old age and letting her brood as many nests as she wants. I am hoping to be able to set up a nice rotation. I have been told by several people (including my grandfather, whose family survived the depression with their chicken farm and their apple orchard) than hens will only lay reliably for about two years. If I can get a couple of hens to brood each year, I can hatch out a couple dozen eggs each year and keep a running rotation. Once a hen is two years old and egg production will start going down, into the dinner pot she goes. (Some people would say harsh here, but I am a practical person, once and animal is no longer useful, there is not room for it here, devoted affection counts as useful)

... sorry, I'm rambling.

So... finally, does anyone know where I can get chickens? I have a long list of breeds I would like to own, but at the top of my list are

Australorp, Easter Egger, Favaucana, Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and I would love a Jersey Giant rooster.

Thanks for listening to me ramble, my family alternately wishes me good luck and leaves it at that, or thinks I'm crazy for trying to set up a sustainable farm. I'm "unambitious" and "worth so much more than that." With commercial food being the unknown entity that it is, the biggest reason I want to do this is so I know exactly what my children are eating (I have two boys ^_^). That, and I grew up doing farm-work, and it gave me a good grounding in the real world, and a strong work ethic, and I want that for my boys as well. That, and I love the life. I grew up working with animals and gardens and spending all of october preserving everything in every way, I miss it, lots of fond memories, and the work was fun because we did it together. I want those fod memories for my family.

 

[RooksMom]

Punctuation saves lives!

Example:

"Time to eat kids!" - "Time to eat, kids!"

 

[coleco]

Welcome! I got several of those breeds from heartland hatchery at local chick days. The way i find the chick days has always been by checking craigslist.

For example: next saturday http://kansascity.craigslist.org/grd/5123447619.html

That said it seems that we have a lot of good breeders even here on this forum from our state.

Chicken Danz is in Waverly and has birds to sell. This year has been a nutty one for all of us i think. So much rain slowed down the sale of chickens and the speed of plants growing. You wont have to worry about rushing to beat the frost here.


For the calendar year of 2015 there is a ban on events where one flock can meet another. So no chicken showing or other kinds of events like swaps, from my perspective it has not effected much. I bought two lovely jersey giant roosters in a batch of straight run chicks from heartland hatchery and so far they are very gentle.

 

[coleco]

Some things that grow really well for me are, edamame soybeans, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, carrots, dill, mint (cant get mint to stop)

You will find that you can grow almost anything in Kansas if you can take the heat. Broccoli still eludes me but it's just too hot to fast for it to work for me. It's easy in the spring, hot in july and i personally start giving up in august.

**** it's not august yet!

 

[coleco]

Congratulations TerraBellaBirds on the NPIP!

 

[chicken danz]

Hi, my name is Kasey. I'm new to this site (kind of, I made a profile a while back, but never really had the time to look around) I live in Harvey county and I have been looking for somewhere to be able to talk with like-minded people, ask questions, compair notes, that kind of thing.

I recently (just over a year ago) started my little farm and am working it up one thing at a time, first chickens, then goats, and this coming year my fiance and I are putting in a large vegetable garden. Except for the last couple of years, I have always had a vegetable garden, and I am sooooo excited about putting one in for this spring.

I grew up in Michigan, so if anyone has any tips on gardening in Kansas, I would love them! In Michigan, drop a seed on the dirt, spit on it, and trust me, it WILL grow. The climate is so different here I am very nervous that I won't be able to grow anything. lots of people have gardens around here, but I know the problems I run into in Michigan (mostly, your garden flooding out, moles, and hurrying to get all your produce harvested before frost) Any advice would be more than welcome.

I am also looking to enlarge my flock. Right now I have a dozen hens and one rooster. Now that I have the basics of mixed breed (honestly, I don't think you could actually pin down a breed on my girls) chickens mastered, I am hoping to introduce some desired traits into my flock. That's why I got the rooster I did. Wellsummer is a breed I like. The coloring is nice, But I like the egg production and color. In a year or two, I will get a different rooster. I have a couple of breeds in mind, but have not decided.

Right now I have one hen who decided to brood her nest, so I gave her several more eggs to brood in the hopes that she sees it through. If she does, I'm keeping her until she dies of old age and letting her brood as many nests as she wants. I am hoping to be able to set up a nice rotation. I have been told by several people (including my grandfather, whose family survived the depression with their chicken farm and their apple orchard) than hens will only lay reliably for about two years. If I can get a couple of hens to brood each year, I can hatch out a couple dozen eggs each year and keep a running rotation. Once a hen is two years old and egg production will start going down, into the dinner pot she goes. (Some people would say harsh here, but I am a practical person, once and animal is no longer useful, there is not room for it here, devoted affection counts as useful)

... sorry, I'm rambling.

So... finally, does anyone know where I can get chickens? I have a long list of breeds I would like to own, but at the top of my list are

Australorp, Easter Egger, Favaucana, Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and I would love a Jersey Giant rooster.

Thanks for listening to me ramble, my family alternately wishes me good luck and leaves it at that, or thinks I'm crazy for trying to set up a sustainable farm. I'm "unambitious" and "worth so much more than that." With commercial food being the unknown entity that it is, the biggest reason I want to do this is so I know exactly what my children are eating (I have two boys ^_^). That, and I grew up doing farm-work, and it gave me a good grounding in the real world, and a strong work ethic, and I want that for my boys as well. That, and I love the life. I grew up working with animals and gardens and spending all of october preserving everything in every way, I miss it, lots of fond memories, and the work was fun because we did it together. I want those fod memories for my family.

Welcome to the forum. I'm all about an sustainable life myself and was raised that way. However I have learned that with age your ability to handle all the livestock etc decreases. Normally I try to have a garden but this year it was a total flop. What I did plant flooded out. I've really been craving fresh veggies and keep thinking of trying a fall garden this year but I've got some medical issues that are keeping me from getting it done. Now my only producing tomato plant which is only small tomatoes has been discovered by the birds! I thought i had it safely protected but not well enough.
I don't have any of those other breeds but I do have Orpingtons. Mine are all top quality imported lines. Exceptional birds. Depending on where you live in Harvey county I'm probably around an hour and a half away from you. Trish44 may have some of the other breeds you are looking for.
Are you planning to breed quality birds that will be dual purpose or just something to lay eggs? I would avoid hatchery birds if you want dual purpose birds.
Actually the breed the bird is has more to do with how long they lay than anything. A production bird or a sex link will only lay good for 2 years. Many other birds lay almost as faithfully and you can get as long as 5 good years out of them. If eggs is what you want a leghorn or a production bird is good because they have smaller bodies and use less feed. If you want some you can eat then you would want to get a larger breed. Lots of people grow cornish cross for meat but you get a fast growing bird that has lots of health problems and the meat is tougher and less flavorful. Only you can decide what you want.
I have some mixed birds I bred specifically for egg layers which do a great job. And I have fancy birds which I love to admire and watch.
Our growing season is longer than what you are used to but the weather extremes are always a problem. Lots of Kansas has heavy clay soil and it needs to be broken down with compost and sand or something to make a good garden soil. There's such a range in soils in Kansas you just could have any mixed bag from solid rock to nice loam.

 

[RooksMom]

Brocolli is one of the things I grew in a small bed last year, it did wonderfully, I put it under a small tree where it was shaded from about 11 to three-ish. it seems to do well when you can put it somewhere where it avoids the direct sun when it's overhead, but still gets morning and evening light, when I tried to grow some the year before (it's one of the favorite veggies at my house) it was in full sun and grew, but the flowerheads were really stunted, and shriveled quickly.

It has been a crazy year all around for everone I think. Kansas city is about a three and a half hour drive for me, and Waverly is almost a two hour drive from here.

With the bird flu problem right now, I can understand why people want to keep flocks isolated, it actually makes it a little scary to buy new chickens.

 

[RooksMom]

Welcome to the forum. I'm all about an sustainable life myself and was raised that way. However I have learned that with age your ability to handle all the livestock etc decreases. Normally I try to have a garden but this year it was a total flop. What I did plant flooded out. I've really been craving fresh veggies and keep thinking of trying a fall garden this year but I've got some medical issues that are keeping me from getting it done. Now my only producing tomato plant which is only small tomatoes has been discovered by the birds! I thought i had it safely protected but not well enough.
I don't have any of those other breeds but I do have Orpingtons. Mine are all top quality imported lines. Exceptional birds. Depending on where you live in Harvey county I'm probably around an hour and a half away from you. Trish44 may have some of the other breeds you are looking for.
Are you planning to breed quality birds that will be dual purpose or just something to lay eggs? I would avoid hatchery birds if you want dual purpose birds.
Actually the breed the bird is has more to do with how long they lay than anything. A production bird or a sex link will only lay good for 2 years. Many other birds lay almost as faithfully and you can get as long as 5 good years out of them. If eggs is what you want a leghorn or a production bird is good because they have smaller bodies and use less feed. If you want some you can eat then you would want to get a larger breed. Lots of people grow cornish cross for meat but you get a fast growing bird that has lots of health problems and the meat is tougher and less flavorful. Only you can decide what you want.
I have some mixed birds I bred specifically for egg layers which do a great job. And I have fancy birds which I love to admire and watch.
Our growing season is longer than what you are used to but the weather extremes are always a problem. Lots of Kansas has heavy clay soil and it needs to be broken down with compost and sand or something to make a good garden soil. There's such a range in soils in Kansas you just could have any mixed bag from solid rock to nice loam.

Orpingtons are actually on my list. I went through all the breeds of chickens that I could find, writing down qualities (good and bad) and made a list of birds I would like to see in my flock. I am actually rather young, only 26 (yesterday as a matter of fact ^_^) I hope to breed in egg laying and size qualities over the years by having a broad range of hens, and selecting a new rooster each spring based on desired qualities of good build and size one year, and egg quality the next year. In several years I'll probably only be able to say "I have chickens" since there will be so many different breeds mixed in to my chickens that I won't be able to pin one down.

On of the qualifications on most of the breeds I looked at is do they have a chance of going broody. I know just because the bred might brood, doesn't mean they will, out of a dozen reds and two barred rocks, I have had exactly one hen go broody, and I've got my fingers crossed on the hope that she sees it through instead of abandoning the nest.

My grandfather told me that most chickens will only lay well for about two years, so I am hoping I can get two or three hens that will brood successfully (they will get a white band on their leg so I can tell them apart from the rest) and they will be allowed to keep living the good life until they die of old age as long as they keep hatching nests for me. My hopeful plan is to hatch two-three dozen eggs a year, and every two years butcher the oldest (all roosters will be butchered as they get older, I only need one or two for a flock of twenty girls and I want specific roosters for breeding purposes)

I know that is probably awfully ambitious of me, but it is what I hope to eventually achieve. The soil we turned where I want my garden looks like good soil. There is some clay in it, but not a lot, the rest of it is black dirt, but for the last two years manure and compost has been turned into it every autumn. I knew I was going to be taking over this place when my parents left, so I wanted to get some of the prep-work done before I moved in, and they didn't mind.

What do you think? is my plan workable, or am I doing it wrong?

 

[chicken danz]

Your plan is very workable. But I'll be the first to warn you your preferences will change as you raise chickens. Like I said, the length of time chickens lay depends on the breed. Each hen has just so many eggs available to lay in a lifetime. If she lays them all the first two years of life she will wear out then, If she lays 3-5 days a week she will be a good layer for 4-5 years and so on. One good way to tell if a chicken has about used up her supply of eggs is to watch her legs. If she has yellow legs naturally when she starts laying, the color will get very light in her legs. As she gets older and has fewer eggs left in her system her legs will again take on the dark yellow color. When she gets really yellow legs again she is pretty much done.
This only works in yellow legged breeds.
I just got done restringing one of my nets. They are both in sad shape. This doesn't look good but the holes were getting so big the chickens could walk right through them. I'm selling a ton of cockerels tomorrow so I wanted decent net. I'd rather not use a net at all but at some point I get tired of catching by hand.

 

[RooksMom]

Fishing net? *chuckles* I've done it before.