Hi from Southern Ohio

[Psellers53]

I joined back in Sept but this is my first post. I have been reading and learning from others on this site and I really like it. I have never had chickens before but really wanted to give it a try. I got my chicks (pullets) from Ideal: 2 buff orpington, 2 RIR, 2 black australorps, 2 Ameraucana, 4 "assorted" pullets and 10 males (packaging peanuts). One of the buffs arrived very weak and died. I received a refund for the chick. Ideal was very nice to work with. All of the others did well and are11 weeks old today. They are in the coop now but have only been there for a week. I wanted to get them in the coop at 8 weeks but the coop was not ready.

I made my brooder from ideas I got from utube. Built my chicken coop from plans I bought on eBay. The coop was supposed to be 5' by 6' with six nesting boxes but I expanded the length to 10' and have 10 nesting boxes. I will show some pictures in another post.

I fed them chick starter/grower (Dumor from TSC). I also mixed chick grit with their food (10 cups of food, 1 cup of grit). Now I am feeding Poultry grower/finisher with chicken grit. I gave them some lettuce and celery when the were still in the brooder.

Today the temp here is 38 and they are in the run. Is that Ok?

I had some old (not rotten or moldy) dried Lima beans and some dried plums that I ground up and tossed in the run this morning. Was that good or bad?

I have some questions about the breeds (of the assorted) chicks I have and the gender but I will post some pictures later so someone can help me.

Thanks for reading my post.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. If you haven't done so already, definitely check out our Learning Center at https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center. There is lots of useful information there. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Cheers.

 

[NickyKnack]

Hello!

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to join the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - glad that you have made you first post. I hope that you have found this site to be a useful resource for your chicken keeping experience. IMO giving mouldy food to chickens is not a good call and probably best avoided.

All the best
CT

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens. Hope you will visit the Learning Center. It is a great place to start a chicken education. I also recommend "Raising Backyard chickens," forum, above.

 

[N F C]

Here's a link that will give you healthy treats for your birds (note: beans should only be given if cooked):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens

Do you have plans on how to handle all the roosters? Once mature, 1 rooster can easily handle 10 girls, too many roos will fight and over-mate with the hens causing stress and injury.

Good luck!

 

[gregg96]

Hello and welcome to byc. I was amazed by the wealth of information this site has. Im from south central Ohio (Chillicothe). Good to see another Buckeye!

 

[South OH Chicks]

I am located around Chillicothe. I am looking for a couple of RIR cockrels. If anyone has any please let me know.