how many chicks make it to adulthood?

[ange]

I WANT TO RAISE BABY CHICKS. what are the suggestions for getting them? I think the feed stores, will not know the sex, I DARE not get a rooster, my neighbors, we will in rurral, on l acre but our neighbors might not like cock a doodling all day and night. I have hens and that is fine, we have great neighbors, but ... so, i would like all hens. WHAT About local farmers, and craigs list, would that be good? Or what catalogs

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:
Most of the feed stores and hardware stores will sell them already sexed. You can choose pullets (hens), cockerel (roosters) or straight run (mixed about 50/50). I believe they order them and so they will have about 90-95% accuracy.

 

[silkydragon]

i got some from feed store on easter and all but 1 died(stray cat) then i got some silkies from a hatchery and only 1died so far (unexplained death think either froze or got trampled as we have a big coop but was just using 1 heating lamp so all my silkies and 2 of my 12 hens all gathered under it)

 

[felidaet]

Regarding the original post - Last year was my first year with chicks. I got them all at local feed stores. We have many feed stores in the area and have a great selection of breeds. I bought 18 chicks in early April. One turned out to be a rooster. All of the others were pullets. All are still doing fine except I sold two recently (getting rid of a couple that our family did not care for to make more room for this years additions). Keep in mind that in getting 15 chicks the odds are that you may end up with one or two roosters.

Ange - There is no guarantee that you won't end up with a rooster unless you only get sex links. Even if you get just a couple of chicks there could be a rooster. Check with local feed stores to see if they are selling pullets or if they are straight run. Most of these come from major hatcheries and they usually good a pretty good job sexing the chicks. I would be cautious getting them from local "farmers" or Craigs list. Many of these people may not be very good at sexing them. If it is a local "breeder", they might be good at sexing them. I am going to get 11 from a local breeder this year. He has a money back guarantee and is happy to take back any roosters. If you do end up with a rooster or two, it is usually pretty easy to get rid of them on craigs list.

 

[Whisper]

My first chicks were from Tractor Supply-- 3 Australorps and 3 Easter Eggers. Supposed to all be pullets but we ended up with one rooster out of the bunch. All of them survived to laying age, until my Great Dane developed a taste for fresh chicken (he eventually killed 4 of the 6.)

My second bunch of chicks was mail ordered from Ideal. Out of 17 chicks, we had no losses. All of them made it to (so far) 17 weeks. They're mostly grown, and since the dog has passed on, I don't forsee any losses anytime soon. Our straight run chicks ended up being about 70% roosters. We rehomed a few of them on Craigslist.

No fancy tactics here, for what it's worth. The chicks only got starter crumbles feed and plain water. The first batch didn't get any medicated feed at all, the second got medicated feed at about 4 weeks, when Tractor Supply stopped carrying the unmedicated stuff at our local store.

I think chickens are pretty adaptable animals, really. When you think what kind of minimal care they got, just a generation ago, in backyard flocks . . . well. They don't call em yard birds for nothin.

 

[Uzuri]

If you order too many, they'll all live; if you order just enough, they'll all die.

Murphy's law of chick raising.

 

[my3jsons]

thanks all! secure pen...got it! now will someone tell me about the red light in the coop?