Bay Area BYCers!

[HHandbasket]

Quote:
Yep

When the time comes, I'll take one of your ugly pullets. I'm not looking for breeding stock. I just want to steal their eggs.

 

[annaraven]

Same here - I'm fine with "substandard pullets". ;-)

 

[Mrsfoote]

Don't worry about the chick guess that's just part of the game I can always hatch some more out later. Might just keep the wheatie roo anyways. We shall see what it turns into lol....

 

[jeremy]

Hey all.

With the 2011 chick season quickly approaching, I know many of us (myself included) are thinking about where we'll be getting our little ones this spring. Well, I have an answer!

For those of you that are interested in Ameraucanas, chickens that lay blue eggs, I've found an outlet for many of us to get birds that we've all been longing for. Chickhatchery.com offers almost every color Ameraucana in large fowl and bantam. Now, don't let the name fool you, this isn't your run of the mill hatchery that markets "Ameraucanas" which are actually just EEs, Chickhatchery.com is owned/operated by John Blehm. For those of you that don't know much about John, he's a seasoned and very reputable breeder of Ameraucana. His birds are some of the best of the best. He's a director of the Ameraucana Breeder's Club and many will vouch for the quality of bird that he produces year after year.

That said, here's the catch. 1. John's chicks sell out quick. If you don't get your orders in early, you'll have to wait until next season to get the colors you want and 2. The minimum order for chicks is 25, straight run. Now, I know I don't have room for 25 more chicks, I'm willing to bet that most others don't as well. So why don't we, a group of us who are interested in Ameraucanas, get together and order the chicks that we want? Then we split the costs and then divide the chicks up when they arrive.

Not only does this eliminate the 25 chick minimum but it also helps with costs. Instead of a single person spending over $200 for all 25 chicks, 3, 4, or maybe even 5 people can go in on the order and spend considerably less and still get the babies they want.

So, whaddya think? Do I have anybody who wants to split an order? I'd be willing to have the chicks mailed home to me, then we could figure out a pick up schedule from there. I live in Oakland, so it would be easy for me to meet people located in the Bay Area.

The chicks John offers are:

In Large Fowl: Black, Buff, Lavender, Silver and Wheaten.
(For those of you who want Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas, you'll still have to order them from me!

)

In Bantams: Buff, Lavender, Silver and Wheaten.

John also offers LF Chanteclers in Buff and Partridge colors, these birds can also be shipped with Ameraucana chicks.

It would be great to get an order processed as soon as possible for spring delivery! When we know how many of us want in on the order and what colors we'll be ordering, then we can talk about splitting costs. If you click the link above to go to John's website you can view the order form and see the prices per chick. Anyways, if anyone has any questions, feel free to send me a PM. Hopefully we can get an order placed soon!

 

[mypicklebird]

I like the idea of splitting shipping costs and chicks orders- but when I did that once before- I found it was AMAZINGLY hard to figure out what was what in the box. I had split an order with 2 other people & when the box arrived of multi colored chicks- the only ones we could really figure out were the white and yellow ones & polish. We had ordered 1 or 2 of 12+ different kinds of chicks. Then there were the mystery chicks to confuse us as well (we ordered from McMurray). I ended up keeping most of them for longer than I wanted to- just so the wing feathers could start coming in. That helped a bit. There were just too many black, black and white, and chipmunk looking chicks running around to tell them apart- even with pictures of chicks from feather site and the hatchery to help out, we just couldn't tell them apart! Just food for thought! If you split an order, consider the 'can I tell them apart' factor.

 

[jeremy]

I had given some thought to this, but with the birds offered, I don't think mixed up babies will be a problem.

LF:

Black- Black chicks with white bellies
Buff- Golden yellow
Lavender- Pale gray
Silver- Silver and black chipmunk
Wheaten- pale yellow/creamy white

Bantams:

Buff, Lavender, Silver and Wheaten- Same as above, just smaller!

The only chicks that might cause some confusion are the Buffs and then Wheatens, though it shouldn't be too hard to tell them apart as the Buff chicks should be a much brighter, gold-yellow.

Is anybody interested?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

jeremy, the chicks I got last year were from John Blehm. They were beautiful birds, but my share of the shipment ended up being all roos. I will stick to working with a few other BYCers to hatch some more pullets from the few pullets we got between us. Good luck, though!

 

[annaraven]

Speaking of roos/pullets: here's the latest pics of Marilyn for your consideration:

 

[jeremy]

Steff, that's unfortunate. *sigh* Hopefully someone will want to order with me...

I'm really interested in Silver and Buff Ameraucana.

Anna, Marilyn is most definitely a cockerel. I'm 101% sure. His feather color, the fact that his comb is so pink and if you look at that last picture you can see tiny little spurs beginning to emerge from his legs. I'd start calling him Merle, or Manny if I were you!

Does he have a beard? I can't really tell from the pictures. If he doesn't and you're looking to rehome him, I may actually be interested. I was thinking about working on an Olive Egger project with birds that don't have beards or feathered legs. It seems like so many of them do, due to their EE/Ameraucana parentage, that it might be cool to have some OE that are a bit different. Let me know if you need a home for the little guy. Okay?

 

[annaraven]

Hi Jeremy:
here's a shot of Marilyn Manson from the front. No beard. I'd love for you to take him and make EE babies. I've PMd you.