Can't Stop Buying Chicks!!!!

[ChickasaurusRex]

Quote:
Oh it brings sooo many people joy!!

Plus about your chickens ...we won't tell if you won't!

 

[CapricornFarm]

OMG ! Wait until you start hatching them!!!! I swear, I am building coops as fast as possible, but it is never enough. Good thing I don't have a regular job!

 

[krissteff]

I ordered four chicks and a week before they arrived, I became impatient and had to drive an hour and a half to a feed store for three "starter" chicks.

Because so many chicks turn out to be roosters, I figured two over the city limit would be okay because at least two of the seven would be roosters. I got lucky. They are all pullets, Thank God. I'm so attached and I'd have a hard time giving one up because of its gender.

Then the neighborhood feed store decided to sell chicks. I REALLY wanted a couple. The buff orps were making eye contact and looking up at me so longingly. The bantams were so itty bitty, I just KNEW I had to take care of them myself. The buff laced polish were positively ADORABLE. I hemmed.... and hawed. My sister told me I was about to become an ANIMAL HOARDER!!! (hubs and I also have two dogs and five cats.)

I went back to the store a second time, and then had a second thought: What if I took a couple home with me and they were roosters? Egads! I know now at this point that I absolutely CAN become attached to chickens.

My third trip to the store was an eye-opener. The chicks were a little older now and the ones that were left were pecking each other silly. Missing feathers, blood-red backs.... I told the guy at the store to change the bulb from white to red to help calm them and mask the blood since chickens are attracted to it (DUH!!!). He never did change it, BTW. those poor little babies.

You see, I got so lucky with my girls. None were sick, none died, no aggressive peckers; although they were a week apart, I managed to integrate them successfully. Aside from a freak waterer malfunction that threatened to drown my chicks on my second day as a chicky-mama, everything went fairly smooth. Bringing in chicks that are already aggressively pecking one another might be a catastrophe.

What if THIS TIME, I am not so lucky? What if I can't take care of them all? What if they get sick? What if one is a rooster? What if the new ones teach the old ones to kill each other? Do I want to change more diapers (brooder chicks) when my girls are already potty-trained (outside-in-the-coop pullets)?

The big fat answer was "NO!" hahahahaha.

This chicky-mama's hands are FULL.

I never imagined the chicken-rearing process would become so addicting. If I weren't in the city, I'd probably be right there with you, filling up my yard with breeds I now find myself desperate for. They are beautiful creatures and I take videos on my cell phone just so I can watch them in bed before I go to sleep. Their little chortling noises make me happy. Two have started to lay, and when I go in the coop to check for eggs, I am always just amazed at how beautiful an egg can be. The next item on my shopping list is a video monitor so I can peek in on them just being chickens without my presence always causing a chicken tizzy.

 

[laadeebug]

Growing up, my Great Grandmother had a HUGE collection of chickens. Dishes, kitchen stuff, glass chickens, miniature chickens, wooden chickens, wall art chickens. Everything, everywhere, CHICKENS, CHICKENS, CHICKENS!!!!!

I must confess that even though I just recently inherited all of this "chicken memorabilia", I never got it. That is until......

I got my first Ameraucanas. Didn't know what kind they were or anything else really. I just knew that my Grandma had a mean old rooster and he just seemed to me he might be happier if he had a girlfriend, or two, or three maybe. Then something got a hold of HIM. This is before I knew that raccoons and possoms not only lived here too but that they actually ATE chickens!!

So naturally, once he was gone, I had to get the girls a guy! Found one for free on Craig's list. A gorgeous, super sweet, red brown with this huge white tale Ameraucana. Well, one thing has led to another and next thing you know, I get the chicken thing! I am even trying my hand at incubating right now!! And am picking out my line of chickens for next spring. lol

I've got all of the breeders and hatcheries bookmarked by breed on my computer so I can make sure I get a good headstart!

Funny you can get chicken fever without even getting close to someone else with it! lol!

 

[DanyyChicken]

Funny you can get chicken fever without even getting close to someone else with it! lol!
That is such a cute saying! Love it!

BTW wish I had room for more chickens to. I had to give away 4 roosters one of whom was my favorite. It's been over a month now and I'm still sad about it

. I had 6 hens and one bantam roo. I wish I could become a crazy chicken lady.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Don't forget the hatcheries and feed stores do not have Ameracuana chickens, they all have Easter Eggers that are mislabeled. EE's are some of my favorite in our flock, but hate to see other disappointed when the chicks they bought don't all lay blue eggs.

 

[chickchicks]

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hi what is AG and what is an easter egger? please

thank you

 

[debid]

Quote:
hi what is AG and what is an easter egger? please

thank you

AG means the land is zoned agricultural.

Easter Eggers are the rainbow chickens -- they come in all sorts of different feather colors and patterns and have a few typical features (pea comb, beard, greenish legs) with one of those likely being an inherited blue egg gene. They might lay green or blue eggs but sometimes they have been crossed improperly and you get a brown egg layer. They are often sold as "Ameraucanas" even though they don't fit breed specifications.

 

[cloudswinger]

I told my daughter we'd buy more chicks to make up for the 4 roosters I had to process. We started out last year buying 2 chicks, both ended up being roosters, so I found a girl that would take them for trade for 2 hens and future chicks. So the 2 hens died for various reasons and we had nothing for a while. Then the future chicks became 9. 3 were eaten by a predator, and 4 out of the remaining 6 were roosters! So now we're back to 2, but at least they're the right gender. Now, I had posted the roosters on craigslist, and a woman is offering me her 2 hens for free with coop. So I'm taking a chance with them and blocking off one side of the yard for quarantine area. Luckily there's one feed store around here that never has chicks, so that's where we went yesterday for feed. I am thinking of incubating some quail eggs again, to replenish our little quail flock. At least that will help with the chick thing for a little while.

 

[chickchicks]

thank you very much for that info im still learning as i go only had my chicks since june his year !

i do liek the sound of easter chicks nowi think they may be on my list for the future