Arkansas folks speak up.........

[Ridgerunner]

Up here, Saturday is forecast a high of 42 with 50% chance of rain. I think that rain is supposed to be more of a drizzle than a soaker, but it's still wet. Even if it doesn't rain, that's too chilly for me to be outside playing in water.

 

[groundpecker]

Backwoods Poultry Show. March 1st, Rison, Arkansas at the Cleveland County fairgrounds. Come show, sell, buy, or just look around. Hope to see you there.

 

[LKHudd]

I'm an Okie from Tulsa but live in Berryville, AR (near Eureka Springs). I enjoy hearing from Okies and Arkies!

We have 15 birds, one is a rooster. He's a Black Copper Maran, or some mutation of that. He has off-white instead of copper feathers. He was supposed to be a hen. When he kept getting bigger and bigger, we named him Sophie (like from Two Broke Girls) and later, we were thinking....ahhhhhhhh Sophie looks like a rooster. Ha! Sure enough, wasn't long before she started crowing. lololol We kept the name, though.

We have a black maran rooster, Shadow. Another supposed to be hen. And, three other marans..only one looks like the copper maran. Two are laying giant chocolate brown eggs. I'm thinking one of the other hens is laying and laying light brown eggs...so not sure what she is.

I'd like to point out at this time - it pays to buy from reputable breeders.

We also have a red cochin hen, Henny Penny. We have two Rhode Island red hens, Lucy and Grace. We have two barred rock hens, Pearl and Jewel. We have one red sex-linked hen, Lacy. We have four young Olive Eggers - un named at this point. They're from babies we just decided to keep so we've not named them.

We have 8 Olive Egger roosters. Free to good homes.

The Olive Eggers were from our daughter's high school science project. She teachs live science at Jenks High School in the Tulsa area. They have a project every year where they hatch eggs and track the babies' growth and changes on a daily basis for a couple of weeks.

I work at home. My husband is disabled. We live on the side of a mountain facing town (what a view!) and keep our chickens in our backyard with our dogs.

I used to raise parrots and still have several pet parrots. Lots of folks know me from PeeWee's Playpen - one of the regions largest parrot toy stores in our day!!!

 

[draye]

I'm an Okie from Tulsa but live in Berryville, AR (near Eureka Springs). I enjoy hearing from Okies and Arkies!

We have 15 birds, one is a rooster. He's a Black Copper Maran, or some mutation of that. He has off-white instead of copper feathers. He was supposed to be a hen. When he kept getting bigger and bigger, we named him Sophie (like from Two Broke Girls) and later, we were thinking....ahhhhhhhh Sophie looks like a rooster. Ha! Sure enough, wasn't long before she started crowing. lololol We kept the name, though.

We have a black maran rooster, Shadow. Another supposed to be hen. And, three other marans..only one looks like the copper maran. Two are laying giant chocolate brown eggs. I'm thinking one of the other hens is laying and laying light brown eggs...so not sure what she is.

I'd like to point out at this time - it pays to buy from reputable breeders.

We also have a red cochin hen, Henny Penny. We have two Rhode Island red hens, Lucy and Grace. We have two barred rock hens, Pearl and Jewel. We have one red sex-linked hen, Lacy. We have four young Olive Eggers - un named at this point. They're from babies we just decided to keep so we've not named them.

We have 8 Olive Egger roosters. Free to good homes.

The Olive Eggers were from our daughter's high school science project. She teachs live science at Jenks High School in the Tulsa area. They have a project every year where they hatch eggs and track the babies' growth and changes on a daily basis for a couple of weeks.

I work at home. My husband is disabled. We live on the side of a mountain facing town (what a view!) and keep our chickens in our backyard with our dogs.

I used to raise parrots and still have several pet parrots. Lots of folks know me from PeeWee's Playpen - one of the regions largest parrot toy stores in our day!!!

Welcome to BYC from Mabelvale.

 

[Ashchrisndrew]

We are a couple of yuppies just building a backyard chicken coop. We just want to get our feet wet by raising two hens at first. We live in south AR, any suggestions on a good place to buy hatched out chicks? I like what I've read about Rhode Island reds, Easter eggers, welsummers, and australorps but don't have a clue where to get them locally.

 

[har]

We are a couple of yuppies just building a backyard chicken coop. We just want to get our feet wet by raising two hens at first. We live in south AR, any suggestions on a good place to buy hatched out chicks? I like what I've read about Rhode Island reds, Easter eggers, welsummers, and australorps but don't have a clue where to get them locally.

What city are you located by? If you give your city someone may come on here and offer some chickens for you. If not there is always Craig's list. Chicks will be at tractor supply and other stores soon.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum and this thread! Glad you found us.

Since you only want two hens, a feed store is not likely to help you much. They normally only sell baby chicks and you’re not always sure of sex. Many of them have minimums of 6 chicks at a time too. That’s to discourage people from buying one or two chicks as a present for someone who doesn’t want it and doesn’t have the location or will to take care of it, especially around Easter.

You can talk to the people at the feed store. They might know someone who has some chicken to sell that can help you out. It never hurts to ask.

Instead of two, I’d suggest you look at a minimum of three. Chickens are social animals. If you get three and something happens to one of them, they still have company.

If you are looking at two or three to get started, you might look at point of lay pullets instead of chicks. You don’t always know the sex of the chicks, which could be a problem.

You also don’t want old spent hens. The older they are the less they lay. Some people will try to pawn off old spent hens on rookies, but what you are looking for is a pullet 4 to 5 months old. By that time you can tell sex and they are just getting ready to start to lay. They might be a bit pricey.

I agree with Har. You’re obviously too far away for me to do you any good, but if you tell us where you are, there is a pretty good chance someone on here will be able to help you out. Many of us are getting ready to put eggs in an incubator.

Good luck and once again,

 

[juliechick]

We are a couple of yuppies just building a backyard chicken coop. We just want to get our feet wet by raising two hens at first. We live in south AR, any suggestions on a good place to buy hatched out chicks? I like what I've read about Rhode Island reds, Easter eggers, welsummers, and australorps but don't have a clue where to get them locally.

Atwoods stores will have chicks pretty soon. There is one in Crossett and one in Monticello. Where are you located?

 

[groundpecker]

We are a couple of yuppies just building a backyard chicken coop. We just want to get our feet wet by raising two hens at first. We live in south AR, any suggestions on a good place to buy hatched out chicks? I like what I've read about Rhode Island reds, Easter eggers, welsummers, and australorps but don't have a clue where to get them locally.

I have a select few birds i have for sale. I live in Rison, that is in cleveland county. Pictures are on my website listed at the bottom.

 

[TripleKFarm]

I'm in the Batesville area. It's 2 hours north of Little Rock, 2 hours west of Joneboro. I have 3 pens set up right now mostly pure eggs. I am not hatching right now but I will be getting started very soon. I do have lots of hatching eggs available. I agree on "feed store" chicks you just never know what you might get. My first birds were bought as chicks from our tractor supply...and they do require 6 chick minimum. I would start out with pullets if you are only getting 2/3 chicks they can be hard to keep warm etc...plus they are a little more work than grown birds.

I would be very careful of whom I get grown birds from...there are a lot of cheaters out there! Do your homework and research-Good Luck!!