1st Timers- Recent Chicks? Breeds? Come share pictures!

[green_thumb]

I've spent most of my time so far in the coop/run forums and I am so excited to make the jump over to here.

I'm a first-time chicken wrangler and am set to pick my chicks up at Meyer Hatchery on May 28th (I'm lucky I live only 45 minutes away!!)

Here is what I have ordered:
4 buckeye females, 2 buckeye males
4 golden comet females
4 easteregger females
4 "bargain bin" assorted
1 barnvelder
1 free meal-maker chick

The barnvelder was an impulse addition Husband wanted a roo as he grew up with them, so I ordered the buckeyes based on their reputation of making nice roos- two in case one is a meanie (I've read lots of threads on "raising a good roo" so hopefully those theories work!). The final plan is to end up with around 15 total...the extras are padding to account for any unfortunate chick deaths and if all of my "bargain bin" chicks end up being males. I know chicken math says to start with less then you want to end up with but...clearly it's already at work!

I chose my breeds based on several criteria, with trade-offs with each breed and accounting for individual differences of course: decent with people, cold-hardy, dual-purpose, pretty eggs, and good foragers.

Are you getting chicks soon too? What breeds and why did you choose them? I'd love pictures if they are already here!

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

I've spent most of my time so far in the coop/run forums and I am so excited to make the jump over to here.

I'm a first-time chicken wrangler and am set to pick my chicks up at Meyer Hatchery on May 28th (I'm lucky I live only 45 minutes away!!)

Here is what I have ordered:
4 buckeye females, 2 buckeye males
4 golden comet females
4 easteregger females
4 "bargain bin" assorted
1 barnvelder
1 free meal-maker chick

The barnvelder was an impulse addition Husband wanted a roo as he grew up with them, so I ordered the buckeyes based on their reputation of making nice roos- two in case one is a meanie (I've read lots of threads on "raising a good roo" so hopefully those theories work!). The final plan is to end up with around 15 total...the extras are padding to account for any unfortunate chick deaths and if all of my "bargain bin" chicks end up being males. I know chicken math says to start with less then you want to end up with but...clearly it's already at work!

I chose my breeds based on several criteria, with trade-offs with each breed and accounting for individual differences of course: decent with people, cold-hardy, dual-purpose, pretty eggs, and good foragers.

Are you getting chicks soon too? What breeds and why did you choose them? I'd love pictures if they are already here!

My Meyer Hatchery chicks are hatching the 28th too!!! I have ordered 3 and get the free surprise chick too.

 

[danceswithronin]

My chicks are hatching May 28th as well - I am getting a buff Orpington, a blue Orpington, a lavender Orpington (are we sensing a theme?), and a mystery chick (Meyer Meal Maker - fingers crossed for a Barred Rock or White Leghorn!)

I chose Orpingtons because my silver lace English Orp Guin is my favorite chicken hands-down, so sweet and cuddly and fluffy. Also because I think they will easily get along with my current flock, which is comprised of my English Orp, a lavender Orp/Black Australorp mix, a Speckled Sussex, a gold laced Wyandotte, and a gold laced Polish.

I also have a clutch of bielefelder eggs cooking in the incubator, and plan to reserve back one of the female chicks for myself. And I picked bieles as my first hatch-out because they look awesome!

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Ours are coming next week from Murray.
First time with chicks.

Ordered an assortment. Three each:
Buff Orpington
Delaware
Jersey Giant
Speckled Sussex
Golden Wyandotte

Also all supposed to be New England hardy, foragers, decent weight +, dual purpose.
I'm really wanting some others now that I'm on here more. Saw my first Sebright in person. Oh damn. We likely all have chicken wish lists.

 

[itgirl]

Technically I'm a 2nd timer. My first time around, I did a "chicken share" with 2 neighbors, which was a mostly frustrating experience, and I had to give them up when I moved. I didn't get to pick any of the breeds last time, but now I've fulfilled the breed wish list I wrote down 3 years ago:

Blue Copper Marans
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Speckled Sussex
Ameraucana
Rhode Island Red
Welsummer

And I ended up adding 2 more, mostly for the variety in egg color:
Olive Egger
Silver Leghorn

By the time the girls are ready to live outside, we'll be living on our new 5-acre paradise in the country. Soon after they'll get goat siblings.

 

[danceswithronin]

Ours are coming next week from Murray.
First time with chicks.

Ordered an assortment. Three each:
Buff Orpington
Delaware
Jersey Giant
Speckled Sussex
Golden Wyandotte

Also all supposed to be New England hardy, foragers, decent weight +, dual purpose.
I'm really wanting some others now that I'm on here more. Saw my first Sebright in person. Oh damn. We likely all have chicken wish lists.

Man you chose four out of five of the breeds I have. I think you'll love the Speckled Sussex especially, I adore mine. And she is weirdly supernaturally soft, I don't know how else to explain it, but her feathers are so silky and smooth compared to the other chickens I have, she feels like a silk doll or something.

 

[green_thumb]

Man...everyone talking about all these different breeds has me second guessing myself...I had Meyer change my order to replace one buckeye and one golden comet with two Dominiques. I’m looking forward to having a mixed flock! I’ve stayed away from any of the breeds with sizeable combs since frostbite scares me though.

@danceswithronin when are your eggs due to hatch? The adults bielefelders look like stately matron ladies promenading around the courtyard IMO

 

[ultimatejimmy]

We got two small batches of chicks...we had four in the first batch but one died, so my wife ordered more...so now we have 7.

2 Barred Rocks (3 weeks old)
1 Brown Leghorn (3 weeks old)
4 Cinnamon Queen (RIRxRIW) (1 week old)

All from Cackle Hatchery.

This was from a week ago (when we got the second batch)

Here's a video:

 

[danceswithronin]

Man...everyone talking about all these different breeds has me second guessing myself...I had Meyer change my order to replace one buckeye and one golden comet with two Dominiques. I’m looking forward to having a mixed flock! I’ve stayed away from any of the breeds with sizeable combs since frostbite scares me though.

@danceswithronin when are your eggs due to hatch? The adults bielefelders look like stately matron ladies promenading around the courtyard IMO

Hatch date should be May 28-29th for the first clutch of seven, and I just set the remaining five this morning.

I candled the seven eggs last night and so far it looks like 4 viable and 3 questionable which is about as good as I would expect from shipped eggs.