babie chicks in a month or two or mature 1 year old birds now??

[greekbioguy]

was searching the net today and i came acros an exotic animal farm in greece i called them and they say the have 1 year old gold brahmas .the guy said they are imported from holland and they come with all their papers and id. show quality birds . i could send him the money tomorow and have my bird by begining of next week.
or
i could wait for 2 months in order to be able to get babies.
it will be great to raise the small ones and watch them as they grow but old birds are harder and you dont have any losses.
but i dont know how friendly i can get the old birds to become while the small ones are easier to become friendly
the old ones are already a year old and chicken are not long lived animals.
the price is quite much for the old ones (130 euros a pair ) and almost half for the young ones


cant decide . what would you do if you were in my position?chicken coop is more than ready. only things mising are :water in the waterer and food in the feeder and chickens of course

 

[JROOSTER]

chicks they are fun to raise.

 

[Lifesong Farm]

Depends on a couple of factors.
#1 Do you have the money for the adults?
#2 How bad do you HAVE to have chickens? Can you wait or do you need some now.

#3 How many do you want?

If I had the money and no chickens at all I would buy a couple adults then hold out for some chicks. That does two things. First it gets my chickens right away and secondly it staggers the age group of the flock so I don't have to replace everyone at once.

ETA:

 

[gritsar]

IMO, curb your impatience and wait to raise chicks. Depending on your set-up, it's could be hard and frustrating to intergrate the little ones with the adults when the time comes. I have two coops for this reason. Intergration between adult hens set in their ways and little ones is just too much of a pain.

And that's from someone that absolutely adores my brahmas.

 

[greekbioguy]

thanks for your answers
of course i have the money for the adults ,i spended more than double that amound just to fix their pen and make it look nice i am sure the pens inhabitants are worth more than the pen itself, to me at least
as far as how much i need chickens .well i spended so much time fixing their coop and it breaks my heart to look at it empty and lifeless.
i made my setup in order to have 3 hens and a rooster maybe in the future i will decide to keep a 4th hen but i am not sure it will be ok spacewise.

Lifesong Farm. i liked your idea about the age dferenche in the coop but gritsar may have a point . i just dont know how friendly adults are towards chicks judjing by my experience with wild birds i would say it is imposible and you would end up with dead baby ducks or pheasants if mom is not around to attack in full force enybody hurting her babies no mater how much bigger than her the enemy is. will hens and roosters kill baby chicks if they are not their own?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Quite possibly, yes. Some folks make a seperate section in their coops for the little ones, where they can be see and be seen until the big ones are more accepting. For the chicks safety though, they should be about the same size as the adults when you mix them.

 

[jen5680]

I personally would buy the adults, babies will soon follow!

 

[BantamoftheOpera]

Babies in the Spring!!!

 

[greekbioguy]

i think i made up my mind .i will buy a pair of the expensive (that cost the same as an ornamental pheasant for some reason) gold Brahmas and get a white Brahma for free from a breeder that lives nearby (he got a pair of wood ducks for free from my last years clutch so he says he will will bring me one of his best hens the day i ask for one).
he claims all his hens are good mothers and they are all incubated and reared by their mother so they do go broody (am not sure how broody the gold Brahma hen will be because most if not all commercially raised chicks are artificially incubated and they do not become good mothers)
so hopefully the white Brahma will incubate her eggs and the gold Brahmas eggs and i will be able to choose my hens out of the clutch that will be borne in my yard this spring.

i have an area with a coop that i keep as an infirmatory, where i keep ill birds or birds that are new before i introduce them to the aviaries .so i can use this area to keep adolescent chicks before i choose which ones to keep (haven't had any sick birds the last 3 years so the infirmatory is disease free, a wood duck last summer spended her last 3 days there but she died of old age not disease,she was 13 years old and still tried and managed to lay 2 infertile eggs and incubate but incubation was to much for her and she got very thin and just waisted away. i could not stop her from incubating she even continued when i removed the eggs.

 

[gritsar]

You'll love the brahmas. Such sweet and gentle giants.