Townline Hatchery, Zeeland, Michigan
6/16/2014 : We drove up to Zeeland to pick up our pullets. Once there, I decided I needed a couple of boys too, so got an ISA brown and an EE. One of the things I thought was interesting was that Townline Hatchery breeds for feather sexing. They showed me how on the males there are 2 rows of wing feathers and on the females just 1 row. The colors and patterns of the EE chicks are so different I thought it would be fun to take a picture of each one periodically and also record what color egg I eventually get from each. I don't expect these to lay until March of 2015 so keep checking back for updates! Note to self, buy some leg bands!
6/24/2014 : The chicks are thriving. Today I need to clean out the bedding and put down fresh, it's a little yucky and soggy. As soon as the torrential rains stop I will get out there to take some pictures. Ordered 50 green, numbered, zip ties from Stromberg's today.
7/12/2014 : Well, you think you can commit to a blog like this and then life just doesn't allow any time for it. The chicks are doing well, except that I had one with spraddle leg we put down and another death from not sure what. I have moved them out of the brooder and into a nice, big pen. They are loving being able to run and spread their wings. For the first few nights, I've had to pick them up and put them inside of the coop, but last night we made progress! Most of them went into the coop themselves. I had only about 10 that I had to deliver to their bed. I bet tonight even more will have figured out "Oh, we sleep in there!". This large dog pen is great for chicks that are too big for the brooder. I had just moved some 2 month old ISA browns out of this last week. What's nice too is that while the chicks are in here, they are still "with" the rest of the flock and they all get to know each other. Then when it's time to let them out, I found with the ISA Browns that we had no issues with the bigger girls picking on the 2 month olds. Now those girls are fully integrated with the main flock.
