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- #21
- Oct 12, 2010
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we are not sure, just under 2 years. I don't think it's too old now. I was just guessing it was like shhep and cows and you show new ones.
3rd grade 4h easter egger
- Thread starter mah46036
- Start date
- Nov 28, 2010
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As far as hatcheries being dishonest about their stock, I've noticed that in addition to describing them as "Easter Eggers", several say they sell "Americauna", which is neither Araucana nor Ameraucana. Misleading perhaps, but not dishonest.
As far as being able to buy "quality" Ameraucana or Araucana chicks from a breeder for less than what you pay at a hatchery for Easter Eggers, that depends. For example, you can buy as few as 15 EE pullets from Cackle for about 4.00 each, and that includes the shipping. Grow them out until the fair, and sell half as "Started, ready to lay pullets" for 10.00 to 15.00 each, depending on the local market. That's not enough to make a profit, but it certainly does cover the initial cost of the chicks. That's the kind of thing that a 4Her is looking at for to put in their record book; that they were able to manage their project economically. As she keeps records on her feed costs, verses how much she sells eggs for, it's a terrific learning experience in budgeting and planning ahead.
OTOH, if you had the space to raise 25 chicks, Tractor Supply Company is offering day old "Americana" pullets for 2.99 each ordered online, (must order 25) and there is no charge for shipping. I don't know if Privett, Mt Healthy, and Town Line hatcheries are paying the shipping themselves, or if TSC is picking it up as a lost leader. maybe they figure you buy cute fluffy chicks inexpensively now, and then you'll buy "Chick gear" and feed for years...
Anyway, for not much more than the cost of ordering 15,(minumim order at Cackle), she could have almost twice as many to sell. Yes, she'll have more expense involved in raising them, but she'll halso have moreto choose from when she selects her keepers.
If yo can't find what she wants locally, speaking as a former 4H Mom (10 years + two as a local club leader), as much as I LOVE Cackle hatchery for their excellent service and healthy, vigorous stock, I would recommend the 25 TSC chicks, especially since you have birds already and know how to raise them. Remember, a 4H poultry project is more than what ribbon you win at the fair, or whether you can show your birds at a regular APA show. You can buy her pretty birds that win, but you can't buy her the education she will get from making her own decisions and raising her own flock, even if they aren't standard breed"show quality".
As far as being able to buy "quality" Ameraucana or Araucana chicks from a breeder for less than what you pay at a hatchery for Easter Eggers, that depends. For example, you can buy as few as 15 EE pullets from Cackle for about 4.00 each, and that includes the shipping. Grow them out until the fair, and sell half as "Started, ready to lay pullets" for 10.00 to 15.00 each, depending on the local market. That's not enough to make a profit, but it certainly does cover the initial cost of the chicks. That's the kind of thing that a 4Her is looking at for to put in their record book; that they were able to manage their project economically. As she keeps records on her feed costs, verses how much she sells eggs for, it's a terrific learning experience in budgeting and planning ahead.
OTOH, if you had the space to raise 25 chicks, Tractor Supply Company is offering day old "Americana" pullets for 2.99 each ordered online, (must order 25) and there is no charge for shipping. I don't know if Privett, Mt Healthy, and Town Line hatcheries are paying the shipping themselves, or if TSC is picking it up as a lost leader. maybe they figure you buy cute fluffy chicks inexpensively now, and then you'll buy "Chick gear" and feed for years...
If yo can't find what she wants locally, speaking as a former 4H Mom (10 years + two as a local club leader), as much as I LOVE Cackle hatchery for their excellent service and healthy, vigorous stock, I would recommend the 25 TSC chicks, especially since you have birds already and know how to raise them. Remember, a 4H poultry project is more than what ribbon you win at the fair, or whether you can show your birds at a regular APA show. You can buy her pretty birds that win, but you can't buy her the education she will get from making her own decisions and raising her own flock, even if they aren't standard breed"show quality".
Last edited:
- Nov 28, 2010
- 757
- 68
- 168
Quote:
Nah, depending on the fair, as a 4H member, she should be able to show in the junior class where they divide the show up by breed, and then each breed has four classes; Cock (adult male), cockerel (male less than one year), Hen (adult female), and pullet(female less than 1 year). Any age of cock or hen can be shown; one of my daughters had a White Wyandotte bantam cock that won at our county fair for three years in a row, and also won at the OK state poultry show two years in a row. I had hoped getting her involved in the "real" poultry shows would keep her busy, but she discovered *boys* and the chickens were no longer nearly as interesting...
Your daughter is what, eight years old? Let her pick whatever she wants and make sure she keeps documents her expenses and encourage her to keep a "chicken diary"about how her birds are doing. She'll probably name them, write about how they behave, what they do, what they eat, all kinds of stuff. That will not only develop her interest in reading and writing and penmanship now, but will come in handy when she wants to summarize her experiences for her record book. And dad, make sure you put that chicken diary in a safe place when she's through with it for the year; it's a little piece of her history you will both treasure.
Nah, depending on the fair, as a 4H member, she should be able to show in the junior class where they divide the show up by breed, and then each breed has four classes; Cock (adult male), cockerel (male less than one year), Hen (adult female), and pullet(female less than 1 year). Any age of cock or hen can be shown; one of my daughters had a White Wyandotte bantam cock that won at our county fair for three years in a row, and also won at the OK state poultry show two years in a row. I had hoped getting her involved in the "real" poultry shows would keep her busy, but she discovered *boys* and the chickens were no longer nearly as interesting...
Your daughter is what, eight years old? Let her pick whatever she wants and make sure she keeps documents her expenses and encourage her to keep a "chicken diary"about how her birds are doing. She'll probably name them, write about how they behave, what they do, what they eat, all kinds of stuff. That will not only develop her interest in reading and writing and penmanship now, but will come in handy when she wants to summarize her experiences for her record book. And dad, make sure you put that chicken diary in a safe place when she's through with it for the year; it's a little piece of her history you will both treasure.
Just my two cents. Dont know what you have for feed stores, but where I am at we are fortunate to have a TSC and 6 feed stores within 30 miles. They all sell Easter Eggers listed as Americanas for about $3.00 ea. If you have a feed store close by they may have some for sale also. Then your child can go and pick out the birds they want for minimal cost. I have true Araucana but my son has a flock of TSC bantam cochins he adores. It was important for me to let him pick his own breed to fall in love with. Now he loves chickens as much as I do even if his are not perfect quality, they are his and he picked them out. He doesn't show but he loves them.
If an EE is what your child wants thats what they should have. I would explain they are not purbred and have them research the history of them, so when they go to the 4-H show they can speak with knowledge about their bird, which will be an important aspect of their showmanship.
Lanae
If an EE is what your child wants thats what they should have. I would explain they are not purbred and have them research the history of them, so when they go to the 4-H show they can speak with knowledge about their bird, which will be an important aspect of their showmanship.
Lanae
The OP said she found a local place and that the poultry clubs president was helping, can't get much better than that.
I hate the record books and have the kids pick something besides the birds. When ours come due it never works out unless they had say meatbirds or sold as chicks. Can't even fill in the state fair info because they're due before. Wish they'd push the due date back. I think the little homemade incubators make great projects and easier to track/complete.
If she wants the real deal next year, there are several breeders in your state. Chicks from top breeders I've seen range from $4-$8 usually. I agree with Lanae, whatever birds she takes, you want her to be able to speak knowledgeably about her birds. Information's easy enough to come by and free to boot. The better prepared she is the more comfortable she'll be and the better time she'll have.
I hate the record books and have the kids pick something besides the birds. When ours come due it never works out unless they had say meatbirds or sold as chicks. Can't even fill in the state fair info because they're due before. Wish they'd push the due date back. I think the little homemade incubators make great projects and easier to track/complete.
If she wants the real deal next year, there are several breeders in your state. Chicks from top breeders I've seen range from $4-$8 usually. I agree with Lanae, whatever birds she takes, you want her to be able to speak knowledgeably about her birds. Information's easy enough to come by and free to boot. The better prepared she is the more comfortable she'll be and the better time she'll have.
Quote:
Not telling you what you should do -- just sharing what we did:
When we decided to get chickens, we decided to let the kids pick out their own breed. We wanted to make this a family activity & by them having their own, they're more "invested" in this with us. We found Henderson's breed chart & showed the kids. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html It has links to feathersite for pictures of each breed. Sammy picked Silkies because they're pretty & she's such a girl! We found a breeder who let us buy a nice little starter flock of BBS for 6 to 10 bucks each. I also hatched white silkie eggs I bought from breeders online. Noah was a different story altogether... he chose Red Dorkings because they're very rare & a friendly, docile breed. When I realized how hard they were to find, I told him to pick another breed. I thought that he wanted a rare chicken because it's "rare" like certain pokemon cards. Boy was I wrong. At 9 years old, he explained to me that they were on the critical breeds list & he didn't want them to become extinct! Well, how exactly do you argue with that?! I certainly couldn't... and if I had, he had thoroughly researched the breed on his own & could've argued his point. I had eggs shipped from Arizona for him. While I was looking for his eggs & waiting for them to hatch, we bought a bunch of different breeds -- including an EE -- from people on craigslist. The EE is the only bird we've kept from the CL purchases & we use her as a layer.
Our county doesn't have a 4H poultry group, so the kids showed in open class at the state fair. They both did very well, even though Noah had a bird DQed for color. We spent a lot of time in the poultry building & because of their research & friendliness, I got to listen to them telling people about all of our birds. It really made me proud. They were also able to identify faults & DQs in other birds. We saw many that were either mixed breeds or hatchery birds DQed. It happens every year.
Noah really wants to do 4H poultry, so I'll be driving him to the next county for meetings -- about 45 minutes each way. His commitment to his Dorkings is awsome! All the chickens love him. His favorite girl follows him like she's a pup -- sometimes right into the kitchen! He's interested in genetics so I'm going to do a breeding project with him. He's a real science kind of a kid... he plays with the chicken genetics calculator like it's a videogame!
I guess my point is that if they're given access to information about different breeds, kids may surprise you!
A lot of breeders would gladly help out a kid in 4-H by giving a nice discount. My silkie breeder friend gave a 4-H kid at the fair a winning trio of Bantam Cochins because her "mutt" chicken was DQed. I don't understand why some people are against breeders.... we're not all bad! Some breeders are 11 year old kids!
Not telling you what you should do -- just sharing what we did:
When we decided to get chickens, we decided to let the kids pick out their own breed. We wanted to make this a family activity & by them having their own, they're more "invested" in this with us. We found Henderson's breed chart & showed the kids. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html It has links to feathersite for pictures of each breed. Sammy picked Silkies because they're pretty & she's such a girl! We found a breeder who let us buy a nice little starter flock of BBS for 6 to 10 bucks each. I also hatched white silkie eggs I bought from breeders online. Noah was a different story altogether... he chose Red Dorkings because they're very rare & a friendly, docile breed. When I realized how hard they were to find, I told him to pick another breed. I thought that he wanted a rare chicken because it's "rare" like certain pokemon cards. Boy was I wrong. At 9 years old, he explained to me that they were on the critical breeds list & he didn't want them to become extinct! Well, how exactly do you argue with that?! I certainly couldn't... and if I had, he had thoroughly researched the breed on his own & could've argued his point. I had eggs shipped from Arizona for him. While I was looking for his eggs & waiting for them to hatch, we bought a bunch of different breeds -- including an EE -- from people on craigslist. The EE is the only bird we've kept from the CL purchases & we use her as a layer.
Our county doesn't have a 4H poultry group, so the kids showed in open class at the state fair. They both did very well, even though Noah had a bird DQed for color. We spent a lot of time in the poultry building & because of their research & friendliness, I got to listen to them telling people about all of our birds. It really made me proud. They were also able to identify faults & DQs in other birds. We saw many that were either mixed breeds or hatchery birds DQed. It happens every year.
Noah really wants to do 4H poultry, so I'll be driving him to the next county for meetings -- about 45 minutes each way. His commitment to his Dorkings is awsome! All the chickens love him. His favorite girl follows him like she's a pup -- sometimes right into the kitchen! He's interested in genetics so I'm going to do a breeding project with him. He's a real science kind of a kid... he plays with the chicken genetics calculator like it's a videogame!
I guess my point is that if they're given access to information about different breeds, kids may surprise you!
A lot of breeders would gladly help out a kid in 4-H by giving a nice discount. My silkie breeder friend gave a 4-H kid at the fair a winning trio of Bantam Cochins because her "mutt" chicken was DQed. I don't understand why some people are against breeders.... we're not all bad! Some breeders are 11 year old kids!
I saw some at my local Orshelins... (spelling)... anyways they usually have a card under the chick bends that tells you what egg color they will lay...
Quote:
Not telling you what you should do -- just sharing what we did:
When we decided to get chickens, we decided to let the kids pick out their own breed. We wanted to make this a family activity & by them having their own, they're more "invested" in this with us. We found Henderson's breed chart & showed the kids. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html It has links to feathersite for pictures of each breed. Sammy picked Silkies because they're pretty & she's such a girl! We found a breeder who let us buy a nice little starter flock of BBS for 6 to 10 bucks each. I also hatched white silkie eggs I bought from breeders online. Noah was a different story altogether... he chose Red Dorkings because they're very rare & a friendly, docile breed. When I realized how hard they were to find, I told him to pick another breed. I thought that he wanted a rare chicken because it's "rare" like certain pokemon cards. Boy was I wrong. At 9 years old, he explained to me that they were on the critical breeds list & he didn't want them to become extinct! Well, how exactly do you argue with that?! I certainly couldn't... and if I had, he had thoroughly researched the breed on his own & could've argued his point. I had eggs shipped from Arizona for him. While I was looking for his eggs & waiting for them to hatch, we bought a bunch of different breeds -- including an EE -- from people on craigslist. The EE is the only bird we've kept from the CL purchases & we use her as a layer.
Our county doesn't have a 4H poultry group, so the kids showed in open class at the state fair. They both did very well, even though Noah had a bird DQed for color. We spent a lot of time in the poultry building & because of their research & friendliness, I got to listen to them telling people about all of our birds. It really made me proud. They were also able to identify faults & DQs in other birds. We saw many that were either mixed breeds or hatchery birds DQed. It happens every year.
Noah really wants to do 4H poultry, so I'll be driving him to the next county for meetings -- about 45 minutes each way. His commitment to his Dorkings is awsome! All the chickens love him. His favorite girl follows him like she's a pup -- sometimes right into the kitchen! He's interested in genetics so I'm going to do a breeding project with him. He's a real science kind of a kid... he plays with the chicken genetics calculator like it's a videogame!
I guess my point is that if they're given access to information about different breeds, kids may surprise you!
A lot of breeders would gladly help out a kid in 4-H by giving a nice discount. My silkie breeder friend gave a 4-H kid at the fair a winning trio of Bantam Cochins because her "mutt" chicken was DQed. I don't understand why some people are against breeders.... we're not all bad! Some breeders are 11 year old kids!
I am a 4-H poultry leader, and I love this story!! It made my chin quiver!!
Please tell your son that his dedication to his breed is an inspiration, and I wish that some adults were as dedicated as he is!
Not telling you what you should do -- just sharing what we did:
When we decided to get chickens, we decided to let the kids pick out their own breed. We wanted to make this a family activity & by them having their own, they're more "invested" in this with us. We found Henderson's breed chart & showed the kids. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html It has links to feathersite for pictures of each breed. Sammy picked Silkies because they're pretty & she's such a girl! We found a breeder who let us buy a nice little starter flock of BBS for 6 to 10 bucks each. I also hatched white silkie eggs I bought from breeders online. Noah was a different story altogether... he chose Red Dorkings because they're very rare & a friendly, docile breed. When I realized how hard they were to find, I told him to pick another breed. I thought that he wanted a rare chicken because it's "rare" like certain pokemon cards. Boy was I wrong. At 9 years old, he explained to me that they were on the critical breeds list & he didn't want them to become extinct! Well, how exactly do you argue with that?! I certainly couldn't... and if I had, he had thoroughly researched the breed on his own & could've argued his point. I had eggs shipped from Arizona for him. While I was looking for his eggs & waiting for them to hatch, we bought a bunch of different breeds -- including an EE -- from people on craigslist. The EE is the only bird we've kept from the CL purchases & we use her as a layer.
Our county doesn't have a 4H poultry group, so the kids showed in open class at the state fair. They both did very well, even though Noah had a bird DQed for color. We spent a lot of time in the poultry building & because of their research & friendliness, I got to listen to them telling people about all of our birds. It really made me proud. They were also able to identify faults & DQs in other birds. We saw many that were either mixed breeds or hatchery birds DQed. It happens every year.
Noah really wants to do 4H poultry, so I'll be driving him to the next county for meetings -- about 45 minutes each way. His commitment to his Dorkings is awsome! All the chickens love him. His favorite girl follows him like she's a pup -- sometimes right into the kitchen! He's interested in genetics so I'm going to do a breeding project with him. He's a real science kind of a kid... he plays with the chicken genetics calculator like it's a videogame!
I guess my point is that if they're given access to information about different breeds, kids may surprise you!
A lot of breeders would gladly help out a kid in 4-H by giving a nice discount. My silkie breeder friend gave a 4-H kid at the fair a winning trio of Bantam Cochins because her "mutt" chicken was DQed. I don't understand why some people are against breeders.... we're not all bad! Some breeders are 11 year old kids!
I am a 4-H poultry leader, and I love this story!! It made my chin quiver!!
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