baby chicks

[chicks rule]

Just trying to figure how old my chickens are getting. So what would you all guess is the average age of the chicks purchased from the feed store. I have the receipts from when each were purchased and figured I would add a week to two weeks, what do you all think???

 

[peepkeeper]

If you can post a pic of the chicks, we might be able to guess how old they are.

 

[ruth]

The first two batches I bought from feed stores already had little wing feathers and tiny little tail feathers - the man said he thought they were about a week old. The third batch I bought, the man had just gotten them in and said they were only a day or two old - they were all fluff, no wing feathers, no tail feathers. They did get their wing feathers and tail feathers started at about a week so I used that as my guide for dating my older chicks which I was never sure of. So, you can get a good guesstimate at how well feathered they are.

 

[chicks rule]

Well they are probably anywhere from 3-4-5 months old now, what I was wondering is when the feed store gets them what their ages might be, then I would add that on to when they were purchased to get a age for them now. Some were purchased in April so they would be about 16 weeks old now, see what I am getting at? If they were two weeks old when I bought them that would made them 18 weeks.

 

[silkiechicken]

If they had only wing feathers think about 1 week old, if wing and tail 2 weeks, if wing, tails and shoulder pad feathers, 3 weeks.

 

[ruth]

Hi Chicks Rule - most feed stores get day old chicks but then there's a day or two for shipping and any number of days that they could have been at store before being sold. Some stores here sell out the day they get them, some stores have the same batch two-three weeks later. That's why I said if you know how feathered out they were when you bought them you kind of know how old they were when you bought them. For example, my batch that I bought on April 22nd already had little wing feathers and tail feathers starting but no body feathers. Man said they were about a week old and based on future batches of chicks I'd say he was right so I'm putting hatch date at mid-April (15th) so now they would be about 18 weeks old and I'm looking for eggs.