Anyone impatiently waiting for your baby chicks to arrive?!?!

[geojerry]

May 15 due date for 2 RIR hens and 2 Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. Now I have to make sure I have my coop and run done.
Looking forward to the adventure of raising my first backyard chickens.

 

[TnMama]

haha! I've been going to the farmer's co-op and TSC to buy chicks and ducks. Like I don't have any! 27 from the first order are 3 weeks old, got 6 more ducks, 3 bantams and 3 australorps yesterday. TODAY, I got 2 silver laced wyandottes and a barred rock. -.- Seriously. I have not added them up yet. I don't want to. LOL thankfully I have the space for them. My DH said he'll build me a new brooder! Isn't he the best? lol

chicken math

I resisted the urge to buy any at TSC, but now my Little One wants ducks! Can ducks live with chickens? I was gonna boycott tsc birds this year b/c I had issues with mine from last year. You gotta get 6, I don't need 6 ducks, maybe 2. So I'm gonna try to get my cousin to tack on a couple with her McMurray order for April. My flock has shipped! I got 9 last week from a home hatch a lady posted on a swap site she had for sale. They're mixed breeds, but I don't care. Theres an EE in there already getting her beard. I named her Posey. I did cancel my Fayoumi pullet. The more I read on them, the more I knew it wouldn't fit us. I'm using the dog kennel and also borrowing said cousins brooder, b/c she won't need it till April and mine will be outside by then. My Mom is getting 3. I'm giving her a grown bird and 2 babies and then my big brother is going to get 3 or 4 layers. He lives in town, so I gotta give him quite birds that can handle confinement. It's funny b/c 2 days ago he didn't know I was even getting birds and now he's all excited and gonna drive up from Ms when we butcher the meat birds. My niece has been begging him for years for a few chickens and this Aunt is going to hook her up! I just hope the post office calls me at day light instead of 8 a/.m.

When I told my hubs I added 4 Polish to the order, he said Ok, when I told him they were shipping on Friday and I added a dozen more, he just shook his head! lol. I warned him that every time he said No to another critter, like another dog, a pig, or some goats, the chicken order would be going up, since he likes them. I was true to my word. 10 more girls turned into 50. We gotta add 2 nesting boxes, and expand the chicken yard, they free range a lot, and I already have a good size coop, but in the end there will hopefully be about 33 birds in there, and we gotta modify some things for the expansion.He's willing to do it, so long as I don' show up w a goat.
lol

 

[TnMama]

May 15 due date for 2 RIR hens and 2 Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. Now I have to make sure I have my coop and run done.
Looking forward to the adventure of raising my first backyard chickens.

RIR's are one of my favorite breeds. I grew up with them. They brood for a while,. so you have time to get your coop done. 4 birds don't need all that much space and I'd only put in 2 boxes. BUT, if you decide you like chicken farming, you will decide to expand later. My advice is build your coop as big as your space and budget allows now, or at least put it in a location you can add to, like if you need to expand fencing. We use 5 gallon buckets, turned on their sides for boxes. Hubs built a platform with 2x4's and we set the buckets on it. I've had them that way for 3 years and they know to lay in there. Plus, the buckets were free at the grocery store. We had a tight budget. So you don't have to spend a fortune on these fancy kits or whatever. We used a lot of found wood. Be it in our shed, friends sheds or yards.
Have a ball with your new flock!

 

[21hens-incharge]

I resisted the urge to buy any at TSC, but now my Little One wants ducks! Can ducks live with chickens?

I do believe it is discouraged. The drakes can kill chickens trying to mate with them. The ducks will also foul the water very quickly as well. I have read several posts/ threads where someone had ducks in with the chickens and had to separate them.
Sorry.

Babs

 

[srfe44girl]

I've got some of my chickens. I was wondering if any one has a picture of their amercauna rooster

 

[ceancharles]

Well my chicks didn't get shipped. Someone dropped the ball and they are re-shipping the 25th. How miserable. Brooder and basement are warm and spotless clean, kiddo and I got up extra early to make sure everything was gtg. UUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH

 

[LeanneP]

I'm sitting here with the 5 survivors of a very unfortunate order receipt last week awaiting the replacement order Monday morning. As the last chick of the previous bunch died yesterday, it's been a very emotional week and I'm so ready for the upswing I'm on now!

I already have 8 month old Black and Blue Cochin roo's; a Pheonix roo; 6 Pearl White Leghorn, 4 Barred Rock, 2 Brown Leghorn (These were all part of the Rainbow Layer Collection and we didn't plan to keep them), 2 Black Australorp, an EE, a RIR and a Blue Andalusian pullets. The survivors seem to be EE's, Welsummers and a Cuckoo Maran. We are all awaiting:

Egyptian Fayoumis
EE's
Red Cap
Buttercup
White Faced Black Spanish
Mottled Houdan
Blue Cochin
Black Cochin
Sumatra
Columbian Wyandotte
Delaware
Speckled Sussex
and whatever will be included in the Ornamental Layer Collection

All should be females, but we don't really care. They'll all be spoiled regardless.

I can just barely stand the wait! Good thing I have these little ones to fuss over while I do!

 

[Kadu]

I resisted the urge to buy any at TSC, but now my Little One wants ducks! Can ducks live with chickens? I was gonna boycott tsc birds this year b/c I had issues with mine from last year. You gotta get 6, I don't need 6 ducks, maybe 2. So I'm gonna try to get my cousin to tack on a couple with her McMurray order for April. My flock has shipped! I got 9 last week from a home hatch a lady posted on a swap site she had for sale. They're mixed breeds, but I don't care. Theres an EE in there already getting her beard. I named her Posey. I did cancel my Fayoumi pullet. The more I read on them, the more I knew it wouldn't fit us. I'm using the dog kennel and also borrowing said cousins brooder, b/c she won't need it till April and mine will be outside by then. My Mom is getting 3. I'm giving her a grown bird and 2 babies and then my big brother is going to get 3 or 4 layers. He lives in town, so I gotta give him quite birds that can handle confinement. It's funny b/c 2 days ago he didn't know I was even getting birds and now he's all excited and gonna drive up from Ms when we butcher the meat birds. My niece has been begging him for years for a few chickens and this Aunt is going to hook her up! I just hope the post office calls me at day light instead of 8 a/.m.

When I told my hubs I added 4 Polish to the order, he said Ok, when I told him they were shipping on Friday and I added a dozen more, he just shook his head! lol. I warned him that every time he said No to another critter, like another dog, a pig, or some goats, the chicken order would be going up, since he likes them. I was true to my word. 10 more girls turned into 50. We gotta add 2 nesting boxes, and expand the chicken yard, they free range a lot, and I already have a good size coop, but in the end there will hopefully be about 33 birds in there, and we gotta modify some things for the expansion.He's willing to do it, so long as I don' show up w a goat.
lol

I had to separate my ducks from the chicks for now. Their first two days are on newspaper, and the ducks just make a mess of it and I don't like seeing the poor chicks sleeping on wet newspaper. Also, ducks just stomp on the bantams LOL I separated the bantams as soon as I saw that. They all (Except bantams) still jump over the screen I put in, but at least some stay in. My DH is gonna build that second brooder today! =D
Ducks at TSC are straight run. I don't know if I'm gonna end up with all pullets or not. We are planning on letting the ducks live with chickens, but they are gonna have a pool and gonna be free range.
Oh the beards are so darn cute on EEs! I have one that makes a cuuute squaaaaauuk when I hold her. She acts like she totally understands if I make the same sound. lol She doesn't lay, but I keep her around cz she's my entertainment if I can catch her lol
Now careful when you're putting in older birds with the new ones. I didn't dare put in the new little babies with the older ones. They're mean!

Its so cool that you have family that you can share chickens with! My family wants nothing to do with chickens, don't even want to talk about them. Well, except my father-in-law and his wife. They are the ones who got me in to chickens. =D

If the post office doesn't call early, you call them at around 4-5 am. =)

Your DH sounds funny! lol my one does not want to start anything until I push it and then he starts to like it. So maybe your DH will like goats if he gets a baby goat for Christmas? hahaha no, I wouldn't do that. lol

Good Luck with your little ones! =)

 

[Kadu]

omg I had 3 broilers in coop 2, when I checked just now one had its whole wing eaten out and other one had part of it eaten out and they are bleeding but still alive and walking around. The other one had blood in the wings with bite marks. Just before I saw that, DH had killed a possum. We had to cull the chickens cz they all were suffering so much. We're assuming the possum attacked them... DH was starting to feel sad that he killed a possum for no reason until we saw the poor chickens. We hate to kill animals if we don't use the meat and this is just really making me feel sad. Beer. I need beer.

 

[shrparatch]

haha! I've been going to the farmer's co-op and TSC to buy chicks and ducks. Like I don't have any! 27 from the first order are 3 weeks old, got 6 more ducks, 3 bantams and 3 australorps yesterday. TODAY, I got 2 silver laced wyandottes and a barred rock. -.- Seriously. I have not added them up yet. I don't want to. LOL thankfully I have the space for them. My DH said he'll build me a new brooder! Isn't he the best? lol

chicken math!

So are they all chicks, and if so do you keep them all in the same brooder? I'm new to this and have 5 NH pullets and am considering getting about 7 more when they arrive at my local TSC. I am just not sure if I need a separate brooder for them.