Anyone impatiently waiting for your baby chicks to arrive?!?!

[nappybutbald]

lizzychick your pictures are beautiful..

 

[lizzychick]

lizzychick your pictures are beautiful.. :yiipchick

Thanks, but the chicks are the beauties, I just kneel down and push a button. I am ridiculously in love with these bitties!!

 

[mermaids]

Looks like you have a really pretty garden too!

 

[Jackschicks]

Speaking of that awkward teenage stage - I am at week 7 with my chicks from McMurray. This is what I ordered:

4 Buff Orpington pullets
4 Dominique pullets
8 Welsummer straight run (looks like I have 3 cockerels, 5 pullets)
10 Black Langshans straight run - actually received 12 (looks like I have 7 cockerels, 5 pullets)
10 Black Jersey Giants straight run - actually received 11 (looks like I have 6 cockerels, 5 pullets)
10 Silver Gray Dorkings straight run (looks like I have 4 cockerels, 6 pullets)
plus my 1 free exotic which is a white polish sex undetermined

I ordered 46 and actually received 50. I lost 3 at the end of week 1 but everyone has been healthy since then. My goal is to replace my current laying flock and my current rooster (who is not people friendly) and the rest will be for meat. I got a variety of breeds for a colorful egg basket and to see which breeds I like best. I spend a lot of time watching chicken TV and here are my thoughts so far on the different breeds:

Buff Orpingtons - calm & easygoing, very regal and stately, seems beneath their dignity to have an altercation with another chicken

Dominiques - feisty little busybodies, don't like to be held, first ones to check out something new

Welsummer - cheerful & easygoing but active, don't mind being held. Lots of personality

Black Langshans - kinda disappointed with the stock I got from McMurray on these guys. With the exception of a couple of them, these guys are the size that everyone else was 4 weeks ago and they don't seem to be growing. They are very flighty and scream like the devil when you pick them up. Don't seem to be very bright (even in chicken terms) and will not go in the coop at night. Every night I have to go out with the flashlight and physically put them in the coop. I don't know if it is because of their smaller size or their attitude but they are picked on by all the other chickens. I am constantly putting 'peck no more' on them so you would think they would get used to being handled.

Black Jersey Giants - once again kinda disappointed with the stock from McMurray. Size on these guys is all over the place - a couple of them are as small as the Buff Orpington chicks (which is still pretty big as chicks go) and a couple of them are almost as large as my small but full grown Araucana pullet, the rest are somewhere in between. These guys are curious and friendly, will come to me when I put my hands down, don't mind being held and petted. One of them actually flies up and sits on my shoulder. However, they are the barnyard bullies and are the most aggressive toward the other chickens. Amazingly, it is not the giant ones but 3 or 4 of the mid-size ones that are the worst bullies.

Silver Gray Dorkings - very calm and gentle birds, actually seem to enjoy being held and petted and will sit in your lap for an hour. They hold their own with the other chickens but are active and social.

my free exotic was a White Polish - all Polish seem ditzy to me.

All of these guys forage well. photos attached

 

[circlecsranch]

I want another Welsummer roo. I miss mine, he was so sweet

 

[geojerry]

Getting our 2 Rhode island reds and 2 silver-laced wyndottes chicks in 2 weeks. Hope I'm ready for our new adventure.
questions: what is the best bedding to use and how often do I change it?
What is best heat source for chicks?

 

[mermaids]

The bedding I liked best is layers of newspaper with the larger dust-free pine chips, then sprinkle a very light amount of DE. I tried the smaller pine shavings for horses, since I had it anyway... awfully dusty! I thought it would be easy to sift poop out of--nope. Their poop was so tiny at first it didn't work, both shavings and poop fell through the litter scooper I got. The newspaper is nice because when the bedding is just too gross, I just pick everything up and toss into compost bin. The bedding in the brooder will definitely stink after awhile and you'll be happy if you can get rid of it easily! I change it when I notice the nasty smell. For awhile it became everyday because it kept stinking and poop stuck to their feet sometimes. That seemed clear to me they needed more brooder space, so I expanded it, made layers of bedding and newspaper, so now I just remove the sections that look dirtiest as needed and add a layer of newspaper and bedding, which turns out to be a partial clean up every other day at most.

Heat source.... I have a red heat bulb. It's probably far from the best, but you definitely don't want white light on them all night. If I had seen the ceramic not-bulb heaters, I would have gotten that. The lamp has a ceramic backing, not plastic. Also I clamped mine to a metal lawn chair, which is easy to scoot closer or farther as needed. It's best not to attach it to the box because you could create a fire hazard, especially if it's a plastic box, which will melt over time, then if the lamp falls into the shavings you have a fire! Honestly the bulb I have is overkill fr 6 chicks indoors with the weather we have! I turn it off for a few hours at a time now that the chicks are half-feathered. We would have been just fine with a lower wattage red bulb.

 

[circlecsranch]

We use regular red heat lamp bulbs we get at TSC. We using large shavings for now, but I plan on getting some stall pellets to try. Heard they work so much better, kinda like clumping cat litter only made from pine. Since I put some ACV into the waterers Pasty Butt has gotten way way better. We are taking the fuzzies outside today, 1 bin at a time for some grass time with a dust bath pan. Since it's going to be 85 today, why not. I'll be standing guard the whole time LOL

 

[geojerry]

What is ACV? (Hope that is not a dumb question). Thanks for the useful info.

 

[SimplyLogan]

What is ACV?  (Hope that is not a dumb question).  Thanks for the useful info.

Nothing is ever a dumb question when you don't know. it's Apple cider vinegar .