Maine

[echosrevenge]

Scaley leg mites are very, very small and hard to see with the naked eye. Raised/irritated leg scales are often the only sign.

 

[Mainechick168]

Her legs don't look weird, do they? I've heard of scaley leg mite, but I have no idea what it looks like.

No, her legs didn't look weird. I looked up pictures of scaly leg mite...and ew! That was def. not what it was.

 

[echosrevenge]

My Rocket laid her first egg! She's half Faverolles and half Kinardly ("kinardly tell what he is") and her egg is dark tan with white speckles. She was surprised as hell, and I am delighted! Everyone else is either broody, raising chicks, or molting - this is the first egg I've had in more than a week. She's the pullet who used to fly out of the brooder every night to sit on my husbands lap while she fell asleep, and still likes her evening chin scratches on the roost. She's also one of my best foragers, dont tell the others but she is my favorite. Next up should be my Faverolles/Black Orpington mixes, Frick & Frack, but not until September. At least I'll have some eggs to bake with until the older hens get back on the laying train.

 

[lazy gardener]

Checked out coop last night, went over several of the girls again this morning. No signs of bugs anywhere, so I think all is well. However, I am on heightened alert as I've heard that this is a bad year for infestations. Will pick up some DE this week and use some in the nest boxes as that's the one area where I can be sure the girls all frequent.

The weather has been incredibly nice the last few days. Am absolutely loving it!

 

[quailtrail]

What would you recommend as far as the best chickens for us in Maine? ?? My 10yo saw chicks available and wants so babies since we lost our quail hatchling today. I have to admit I love the baby stage too!!!

 

[dowgirl71]

What would you recommend as far as the best chickens for us in Maine? ?? My 10yo saw chicks available and wants so babies since we lost our quail hatchling today. I have to admit I love the baby stage too!!!

I had Barred Rocks, last year and through the winter. They were my favorites and they laid almost every day, all winter. This spring I got an Easter Egger, an Australorp, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red and 2 Buff Orpingtons. I've read that they are all supposed to be good breeds for our climate. So, we'll see... Good luck! (I love the baby stage, too!)

 

[hoppy]

I would recommend you vist a poultry swap (hey the Augusta one is going on this saturday from 8:30-1 at the tractor supply on 420 Civic Center Dr ) or visit a poultry show- there is one going on on Aug 4th at the farmington fair grounds 9-2 or 3pm. you will meet many people there that love thier birds and many you will find are right here on byc too.

What would you recommend as far as the best chickens for us in Maine? ?? My 10yo saw chicks available and wants so babies since we lost our quail hatchling today. I have to admit I love the baby stage too!!!

 

[quailtrail]

I would recommend you vist a poultry swap (hey the Augusta one is going on this saturday from 8:30-1 at the tractor supply on 420 Civic Center Dr ) or visit a poultry show- there is one going on on Aug 4th at the farmington fair grounds 9-2 or 3pm. you will meet many people there that love thier birds and many you will find are right here on byc too.

Am already planning on attending the Augusta swap I know we will end up getting chicks with our planned pick up of 5 week olds...just don't want overwhelm ourselves. After losing a hatching today she is headset on babies now

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Weighing in on the soap making. I make it with a hand held immersion blender, short bursts, gentle stir in between. It is a fascinating process to take lye and oil and wait for all the molecules to find each other, bond, and make something new.
Find a good book or online site, follow directions to the T. Go for something basic first before you start adding anything else.
Yes it is more gentle than commercial soap as it has it's glycerine still, they strip that out of the commercial soap process to use elsewhere to increase profit. The hard thing to do is wait for the batch to cure, it takes 4-6 weeks, also not peeking when it is curing the first several hours, it gets hot, and you need to keep it insulated so it foes not cool too quickly. Saran wrap and an old towel or two can take care of that. Get a good scale to weigh your ingredients. I have some equipment dedicated to just soap making, immersion blender, bowls, stirring spoons.... You can make a mold out of most anything.
Be careful with your lye, if you purchase it at a hardware store make sure it does not have any added ingredients, you can also buy it online. I have found mine at Lowes. Buy only one container for two reasons, it will make quite a bit of soap, and I guess lye is used in the manufacturing process for a street drug so if you get a few containers you may come under scrutiny.
I would start with a small batch the first few times, that way, if you screw something up you won't have lost a bunch of materials.
Use caution about adding essential oils, make sure they are OK to use on skin.
If you have your own septic, washing the utensils off is hard on the septic system.
Honey and beeswax is heavenly in soap.
Find an online calculator, About.com has some good soap resources.
It is not really difficult, you just have to follow instructions carefully, and ALWAYS wear eye protection and rubber gloves.
I take my lye and oil outside to mix together and stir for a few minutes to let most of the fumes die down.
If you want some links PM me. It is fun!

I did a class on hot process soapmaking while I was on vacation. It was a lot of fun. I just started using the soap (lavender with lemon peel and poppy seeds). Would love to get some links.

Does anyone know when white leghorns start laying? And what size eggs do they lay?

Mine started between 16.5 weeks and 21 weeks. It was a smallish egg at first and became very large, almost like a duck egg size.

sounds like a good idea. I gave them a wonderful dust bath bin this spring with play sand and wood ash. They wouldn't go near it... until it got rained in and turned into a mud pit. Now they occasionally go wading in it. Perhaps I'll try again.

I got a covered turtle sandbox. Put a couple bags of play sand in it, with ash from the wood and pellet stoves, plus DE. I only uncover it a few times a week. They love it. Unfortunately I forgot to recover it one night recently when we had torrential rain. I have to wash it out and set it up again. It's great in the winter, too, when the ground freezes and they can't dustbathe.

 

[longgrove]

Speaking of swaps, there is one tomorrow at the Bangor TSC. See Facebook, "Bangor Chicken Swap", just added the 400th member.

I like a mixed flock; enjoy the different looks, personalities and egg colors. So, it doesn't have to be a choice of one breed. If you want to go into breeding, that is a different matter but a big undertakeng for a beginner. Even many serious breeders seem to have a separate laying flock (their show bird's eggs are too valuable to eat!)

If you want to raise some for meat, the dual purpose breeds will serve two purposes. If you don't want to rise meat, some of the light weight large fowl and even bantams are good layers (and eat less). Of 11 hens, I have 5 who lay small eggs. The bantam eggs are small but large in proportion to the birds size and feed consumption. The yolk tends to be proportionally larger than for LF.

If you like the idea of raising a few chicks from time to time, a couple of broody hens ( mine are a couple of Silkies and a bantam Wyndotte) will set on eggs and raise the chicks. They are great fun to watch, esp for the children.

The breeds with small combs (ie not large straight combs) are less prone to frost bite. I've had great luck with Wyandotte, Easter Egger and Hamberg. The hens have been laying daily since last September. I do not heat the coop, but do use supplemental light and a heated water bowl.