Chicks Arrived & Advice Re: Buying MORE!

[ozark hen]

the last week of March I got four grown hens and one grown rooster...first timer here....by the following week I was at the hatchery purchasing twenty more chicks...I was like a kid in a candy shop...now with hatchlings and buying ducks/guineas I am up to 44 !!

I said the same thing, "I only want some for eggs."

 

[Chelly]

Ozark, you will certainly have EGGS!

You're CRAZY..... I could never keep up with that many!

 

[2mnypets]

Get the rooster already.....I have 4 roo's in my bunch. I love to listen to them crow and attempt to crow. They are separated so no fighting entails. Just good ol fashion crowing music. BTW....get a zillion more. Don't want ya to feel left out.

 

[User48]

Ozark,

It's funny you mentioned ducks, as I had never really considered them as a possibility until recently, and now I've got a long list of reasons why they'd be nice to have. Just have to convince DH. The one thing I have on my side where DH is concerned is that he is fixated on his beekeeping hobby - is constantly ordering new supplies & has taken over our front porch with a bunch of boxes that he is now painting. He can never seem to have enough bees so one would think that that should translate over into an understanding of my growing chicken/duck/backyard flock fixation. My longterm goal is to hatch some peacocks, but that is truly a long-term goal because it will require building some sort of suitable pen first - and it'll have to be a large one. We have coyotes here, so the pen will be a requirement, at least at the outset.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! I think we truly are all enablers, but there are certainly worse things to be enabling.

Laura

 

[User48]

Quote:
2mnypets,

I'm really looking forward to hearing the crowing. Love the "ol fashion crowing music" comment. My only fear is that I work from home, and it's hard enough ensuring that no one overhears little kid voices in the background - now I have to worry about roosters too. Then again, is that the worst thing?

Laura

 

[User48]

Chelly,

Our shed had piles of garbage in it too. DH took a couple days off and made a dump run at the end of it. It's so satisfying to have the thing cleared out and functional for a change. I look forward to hearing how things go with your fine tuning of the windows. I am planning to copy those who've posted about using a picture frame from Walmart as a window...

Laura

 

[ozark hen]

Laura, I wanted ducks so my DH bought me four mallard ducklings a couple days old at a swap meet. Then after them being in a brooder for one week I told my DH I had made a mistake...they were the smelliest, dirtiest things I had raised so far. But after getting them outside...they are now 12 weeks old and are by far my favorites! They keep me laughing all the time. They are so sweet.

 

[User48]

Carrie,

I noticed that the "smelly, dirty" theme runs constant on posts about ducks, but the advice contained also always ends with a big BUT - just like yours, and the but almost always mentions how funny & sweet those critters are. Once I learned that we could do right by them with a kiddy pool & without having to build a real pond, the possibility really started to take hold. Anyway, glad to hear that your experience turned out so well!

Laura

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

I didn't read all the posts, so someone may already have said this...sorry!

If I were you, I'd wait until you can start to tell about the Dominique before ordering a rooster. Unless, of course, you're willing to find a home for him/her or cull it if you have to. That's just my thought.

Looks like some great breeds you've picked out! 9's really not to many. We had 5 gold sex links one year, and 27 Ameracaunas the next. (They're just starting to lay, and we've gotten quite a few green eggs and one pink one.

They're great. )

Whatever you decide to do, have fun and good luck!

Welcome to the addiction.

 

[feldon]

I say go for it, order more

Tomorrow I'm getting 11 more chicks from Ideal to add to my flock of 14. I have a mix of breeds, ranging in age from 1 1/2yr down to 2 weeks & then tomorrow day olds

I have arucanas & cuckoo marans so I have a range of different colored eggs. My new babies are going into the greenhouse as a brooder until they are bigger. I'll post pics when they arrive.
Felicity...2 Black australorps, 3 Buff orps, 2 Arucaunas, 5 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Dominiques, 2 SLWs, 2 Sexlinks, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 RIRs, 3 Barred Rock