Cackle hatchery's Hatchery Surprise- Anybody got this before?

[dealfinder500]

This was in my surprise and I have no idea what it is. As a chick it looked like a chicken chick. Mutant? Not a chicken? IDK

It may very well be a peacock! http://www.cacklehatchery.com/page23.htm

Lucky you if it is! They are $50 on their website!

 

[jc12551]

And just in case you haven't been overloaded with pictures....here is the last set lol I am pretty lost with most of these. 26 total here.



Black Australorp or something similar?


One Month: Still not sure. Black, no barring. Still could be an Australorp.


One is barred and the other isn't




Both ended up with barring. One might be a Dominique and the other a Cuckoo Maran or a barred rock?



Terrible picture. Maybe a silver laced something.


One Month: Silver Lace Wyandotte rooster most likely. In the picture it looks more gold than in real life.


Some type of red chick

One Month: NH Red or RI Red?




Very cool chick. I think some kind OEG?


One Month: Still no clue about this one. It is gorgeous!




Easter Eggers


One Month: Active little buggers. Couldn't get a good picture.



Variations on the theme of black and white.


One Month: Three became Lakenvelders. I lost one chick and I can't remember if it was one of these or the tiny white one. So mutant chick could have been one of these.



Comparison of size on three chicks. The one on the left might be some kind of bantam. The middle one is HUGE! When I first saw it I thought turkey, but it isn't. The one on the right is a regular size chick.

One Month: The one in the middle is a white wyandotte

Two regular size white chicks of some kind. One of them is pictured in the above comparison pic on the right.


The itty bitty, possibly bantam chick.

I am thinking mutant chick could be this one. I lost a chick and I am not sure if it was this one or another one.

One Month: Five white chicks. Mutant chick isn't in the picture. On the left is the Wyandotte. Two of the white ones were the pair above. Two are the pair in the final pics of this post.




Three with red masked faces. I am guessing some kind of sex link red.


One Month:



Two with a reddish cast to body feathers. Probably some kind of sex link.


One Month:


Dalmatian chick. Austra White


One Month: Still Austra White




These guys got wet so they look funny. They have a bluish cast to them.


One Month: They still have a dark face (can't tell in the white chicken group pic above). One has dark feathers coming in down the back and the other does not.

 

[snuvy]

I got my surprise in March. I was fascinated by this video.

. So I bought an ancient construction trailer and I am transforming it into the coupe de trailer, lol. There are 2 rooms in it. A feed room and living area. I have put in extra windows and a solar automatic coop door opener. The next projects are installing the rear roll out next boxes through the wall so I can collect eggs from the feed room and gutter system to collect rain water. I move the coop to fresh pasture every 3 weeks or so. I have 2 sections of Premier poultry net with a solar electric fence charger. Might expand that to 3 sections to cut down on moving the trailer.

Oh wow, that looks way too complicated for me. I also don't live on a farm with lots of acres of free land. I think I made a huge mistake ordering the Cackle Surprise. Haha. I think the lot I live on is only about 1/2 an acre total. However, I live in sunny Southern California, so I don't think I need to build my chickens an actual coop. People have been saying that as long as I build them a large run with a section of it closed up on 3 sides and the top (and put the nesting boxes in there) I should be okay. (If this is totally incorrect please tell me). I think people have also mentioned 10 sq ft per chicken, so 40 chicks x 10 feet = 400 square feet, or basically a 20 ft x 20 ft square run. I'm thinking of making it out of chain link fence (with 1/4" hardware cloth around the bottom half and regular chicken wire around the top half. In a nutshell, I was thinking about something like this (but bigger): http://cherthollowfarm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/chicken_chainlink2.jpg We don't have crazy predators here, since I live in the suburbs, but we do have gophers (mostly), bunnies (mostly), opossums (rare), skunks (very rare), and squirrels (rare). *Supposedly there's also coyotes around here, but they usually don't come into the residential areas. Oh, I've heard of raccoons in the neighborhood, but I've actually never seen one. Anyway, I mean if a coyote really wanted to come to my house it would have to walk through a cul de sac of residential housing.

Just an update - I did receive my surprise box yesterday! It had 59 baby chicks in it! All the chicks seem to be standard size and all of them are clean legged variety. I can't speculate on specific breeds for most of them just yet, BUT almost half are crested breeds - a favorite of my wife and myself! (27 crested total).
This is my guess for the crested:
7 - Gold Laced Polish
7 - Buff Laced Polish
7 - White Crested Black Polish
3 - Blue Polish
3 - White Polish

The other 32 chicks make up quite an eclectic mix. Some black with white, some yellow with gray, some solid yellow, and many striped chicks which are very difficult to distinguish one from the other initially. Some have brown on brown striped, some brown with black and white, some red chicks with deep brown stripes, and on and on lol.

There are also 6 Americauna chicks which was a wonderful surprise as well! 4 are gray with splotches of brown and yellow, and 2 of them are striped - but they all have fat faces with full beards!

Whaa! That's pretty radical! Did you make any special requests in your comments or over the phone? I would love to get such a variety! I wrote in the comments, "looking for assorted chickens for pets, no meat birds/broilers," and someone typed that onto the invoice. I'm really hoping I get a good assortment. I really want Silkies, Easter Eggers, Turkens, a few Top Hats and Cochins. (I also wouldn't mind some good layers like the RIR/NHR or Buff Orpington). Anyway, congrats on your awesome surprise. I think half the reason I ordered this assortment is from the excitement of getting a surprise. Haha. Oh geeze, you got 59 baby chicks?! Did they all arrive healthy and alert? (I'm one of those people that feel bad if something dies under my care, I don't process chickens and they're all going to be raised as pets).

 

[thePluckyChick]

What kind of rooster is this?

His name is Ben and he arrived in my 3/31/14 Surprise package (picture taken today making him one day shy of 3 months old). The picture is a pretty good capture of his coloring. Curiously his ear (appears white) is the color of a lima bean. He is on the small side relative to the rest of the chickens that arrived on the same date. He a little on the skittish side.

Thanks!

 

[CGinJCMO]

The quote button didn't quote so here goes:

Snuvy, if you invite chickens to your land, you WILL see coons someday. Do what you can to protect your pet chickens from coon, possum, dog, hawk, etc. Must be nice to not have to worry about extreme cold (says the girl that aches in winter)

JC##### The one you thought might be OEG (posted above the EEs), might be a brown leghorn.

CG

 

[dallasathome]

Whaa! That's pretty radical! Did you make any special requests in your comments or over the phone? I would love to get such a variety! I wrote in the comments, "looking for assorted chickens for pets, no meat birds/broilers," and someone typed that onto the invoice. I'm really hoping I get a good assortment. I really want Silkies, Easter Eggers, Turkens, a few Top Hats and Cochins. (I also wouldn't mind some good layers like the RIR/NHR or Buff Orpington). Anyway, congrats on your awesome surprise. I think half the reason I ordered this assortment is from the excitement of getting a surprise. Haha. Oh geeze, you got 59 baby chicks?! Did they all arrive healthy and alert? (I'm one of those people that feel bad if something dies under my care, I don't process chickens and they're all going to be raised as pets).

Yes, they all arrived healthy and vigorous! One chick actually passed away the first night - but I'm not sure why. The remaining 58 are energetic and seem to be fine! (In spite of the 2-day trip from Missouri to Texas)! I didn't make any special request - just ordered the special. I was also surprised at 59 chicks! The site says 40-50, but I am more than happy with my surprise!

What kind of rooster is this?

His name is Ben and he arrived in my 3/31/14 Surprise package (picture taken today making him one day shy of 3 months old). The picture is a pretty good capture of his coloring. Curiously his ear (appears white) is the color of a lima bean. He is on the small side relative to the rest of the chickens that arrived on the same date. He a little on the skittish side.

Thanks!


That looks to me like a beautiful Brown Leghorn Rooster in the making! He will get longer, more vibrant plumage each year as he molts and grows! He looks like a very good specimen already! Congrats!

 

[kbarnes]

Hello, I got my surprise about 5 weeks ago and made no special requests and I received 49 chicks and 2 ducks. The ducks are Pekin and I am hoping for a pair, the chicks are a good mix between polish, Cochin, Brahma, wyandotte, chanchlers (?), barred rocks, E E's orpingtons, and I believed brown leghorns.

 

[kbarnes]

Oh yeah I also got some 4 that were yellow and black chicks that started to get little mohawks at about a week lost 2 and found out that they are spitzhaubens.

 

[thePluckyChick]

thanks for the insight. He really is a pretty boy.

 

[jc12551]

The quote button didn't quote so here goes:

Snuvy, if you invite chickens to your land, you WILL see coons someday. Do what you can to protect your pet chickens from coon, possum, dog, hawk, etc. Must be nice to not have to worry about extreme cold (says the girl that aches in winter)

JC##### The one you thought might be OEG (posted above the EEs), might be a brown leghorn.

CG

Thanks! I was totally lost about that one. I will check that out. I love guessing, but it is driving me crazy not knowing.