babies not on the morning truck:(

[aran]

cheers AF...i will probably get more from Ideal they were really nice about things and I do belive them that this was just a bad luck situation and not the norm with their shipments. I have 7 left now...if i order 25 more we could potentially end up with 32...i will have to ask the wife

 

[equine chick]

Aran, I love meyer, the chicks are the best i ever have recieved from a hatchery. I have ordered from ideal, welp in the past. The service is amazing. I live in pa and they charged me 12.95 for shipping 25 birds. I would forgo the heating pad and order 25 pullets, pullets are easy to get rid of. My order came with shipping around 75.00, i ordered multiple breeds, some were a lil rare like the marans. Granted the birds were not cheap but very healthy lil peeps and friendly. I got my birds in less than 24 hours. I think my survival rate and the health of the chicks was based on the fast shipping.
I plan on ordering some meat birds next month, a girlfriend who ordered from idea in our area lost 10/25 birds and it took over 3 days to get here last week.

 

[aran]

if they do the 24 hr shipping then you are right that sounds pretty darn good...i dont know why ideal dont offer over night shipping. Are the birds any better quality than ideal or much of a muchness either way?

 

[AccidentalFarm]

24 hrs shipping is great, indeed. Have you asked Ideal if they offer this service?

BTW, my local feed store got another shipment of chicks in from Ideal this morning. Another 2 day trek, and they said all the birds were alive and healthy when picked up from the PO this a.m. I'm almost completely convinced that the warm weather has everything to do with it- those babies just cannot stay cold for that long without it doing them in.

Oh, did the wife okay the larger flock size???

 

[Cheri]

A really nice member that lives about an hour from me offered me some of his pullets. I will take him up on them. The feed barn will order some for me but I will wait on that. I need to buy 4 female ducks.

 

[aran]

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO the missus is ok with more chickens! she said " well its not like we dont have the land or the friends to take the eggs"...so i guess its a done deal...more chickens here we come. All i need to do is figure out how big to make the coop and see how long the chicks will take to get here ( age diff between the two groups etc)

yaaaaaaaaaaaaah
aran

 

[aran]

oh man TOTAL BUM DEAL! I just got on the ideal website and they have no buff orps or gold laced wyandottes pr cuckoo marans

I wanted a flock of cool colours...guess i will have to get em somewhere else or choose some diff ones:
how bout these choices which they do have:
Salmon Faverolle
Ameraucanas
silver laced wyandottes
Silver Spangled Spitzhauben
Ideal 236
buff leghorn

ok so if i order 3 of each of these pullets and 1 male salmon faverolle it will cost me $$55
That would bring my flock up to 7 +19-->26.

Hopefully they would not include too many spare males in the box but i assume they would probably fill it up to the 25 mark. Man that would be so cool i would have black, buff, silver/black,brown/red,white with spots ( ideal 236), the ameraucanas and the salmon faverolle coloured in the flock...that would look totally and utterly righteous. Not to mention all of these birds are egg layers... am i right in thinking you get about 1-2eggs/week per chicken when they are grown up? Holy smoke that would mean about 50 eggs/week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many roosters would i be able to keep with that many chickens and how large a coop do i need to build?

thanks guys...by the way AF i blame you entirely for this new addiction of mine...your sickness is contagious!

 

[aran]

ok ok ok scrap that...im going to get the following i think:

2 of the salmon faverolle males...they are SOO cool looking
5 of the salmon faverolle females
3 ameraucana females
4 ideal 236 females ( white with black spots and too cute!)
4 silver laced wyandotte females

:cd:cd:cd:yiipchicke
I really wanted some buff orps but they are sold out until next year so i guess i will have to wait until then to get some


so this all totally rocks...now to tell the missus about the size of the order

 

[BirdBrain]

Aran,
As you make out your wish list for your new flock have you considered the personalities of the birds you are considering and how they will get along with each other? Leghorns are great egg layers but are not the most social birds and can have a tendency to intimidate more docile birds...just something to consider. By the way, I just checked Ideal's site and they look like they are NOT sold out of Buff Orpingtons. You might have another look.

--Bird

 

[MissPrissy]

Aran check with McMurray. They had marans and some buff orps available for the next few weeks when I talked to them yesterday. Some breeds sell out quickly so things could be different today.