Chicks arriving in 2 weeks! (Update: Finally here!)

[WashingtonWino]

See how long I grieve? Lol, got a chick list from the local feed store, who uses Dunlap hatchery in Idaho (practically local!). What do you know, Easter Eggers are their first shipment, coming on Thursday along with Barred Rocks, White Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. To try another EE, (plus a friend, of course) or not to try.....? Dang that chicken math!

Now it is time to read up on integrating new flock members and trying to engineer my brooder so I don't have to buy another heat lamp. If only I had as much space as Chickenmommma it would be easy as pie!

 

[chickenmomma16]

See how long I grieve? Lol, got a chick list from the local feed store, who uses Dunlap hatchery in Idaho (practically local!). What do you know, Easter Eggers are their first shipment, coming on Thursday along with Barred Rocks, White Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. To try another EE, (plus a friend, of course) or not to try.....? Dang that chicken math!

Now it is time to read up on integrating new flock members and trying to engineer my brooder so I don't have to buy another heat lamp. If only I had as much space as Chickenmommma it would be easy as pie!

You MUST have EEs in your flock (and of course you can't have just 1). Ha! Chicken math... its a BIG problem.
My story in a nut shell:
My aunt needed to move and I heard about her chickens needing homes. I told her 10. Came home with 16 and 2 chicks (who ended up being n(t)asty cockerels) A fellow BYC enabler gave me a nice rooster and a dozen "for fun because I had a broody eggs" Hatched chicks and moved to a bigger property with a huge coop so I filled it with 22. But now I'm down to ONLY 8 adult hens and no rooster!

But I have 17 chicks in the brooder... That will bring my number up to 25 (minus a couple Welsummer cockerels). Someone tell me how THAT happened!!

So from one addict to another, yes, you need more chickens.

 

[WashingtonWino]

Chicks hit the feed store on Thursday and NOW all of a sudden, after being totally indifferent to my chicken endeavors, my husband states that he MUST have a barred rock and it will be named Plumpy. Leave it to some fluffy little chicks to melt that Grinchy heart of his

What a stud.

Question for you, it is a bit of a hot topic I know, but do any of you use sand in your brooders, coops or runs? Do you like it? What do you use for scooping? Those little chick poops would go right through a kitty litter scoop I think.

 

[chickenmomma16]

Chicks hit the feed store on Thursday and NOW all of a sudden, after being totally indifferent to my chicken endeavors, my husband states that he MUST have a barred rock and it will be named Plumpy. Leave it to some fluffy little chicks to melt that Grinchy heart of his

What a stud.

Question for you, it is a bit of a hot topic I know, but do any of you use sand in your brooders, coops or runs? Do you like it? What do you use for scooping? Those little chick poops would go right through a kitty litter scoop I think.

I have pine shavings in my coop and Sweet PDZ granules on my poop boards under their roost. I scoop it like litter until its gone or I have a bunch of little leftovers or I start to smell it. I have to scrape everything out and put new PDZ down every few months or so when I had 20+ chickens in there. For the brooder I just have pine shavings. Not sure what I want to do when the chickies are old enough to roost in their brooder.

 

[WashingtonWino]

Chickenmomma, what do you have in your run? I just spent the weekend expanding a pre-fab coop with my father in law, there's just dirt in the run area at the moment. Peeps just hit 2 weeks old so I've got some time to figure all this out. Deep litter or sand? Horse stall pellets? Pine shavings? Hmmm..... PDZ is a MUST. I love that stuff in my dog run.

 

[WashingtonWino]

Field trip out to the garden today! They seemed to enjoy hanging out in my raised bed. Happy Spring!

 

[chickenmomma16]

Field trip out to the garden today! They seemed to enjoy hanging out in my raised bed. Happy Spring!

Love it! I'm not brave enough to let 17 chicks outside just yet. I do however open the barn door if it's nice out an I'm home. Fresh air is always good.

All my chickies are doing great! I only have 2 Welsummers that have distinct rooster like characteristics. Not bad out of 7. One guy has a much different beak then the rest. Its abnormally hooky.

. He isn't the one I was keeping anyway but looks like this might nominate him for the pot even though he is the friendliest out of the 2 boys. Bummer.

Something else I have noticed is my red leghorn is so high strung! Oh man she runs around like a bat outta hell when I break out the mealworms. I'm having a hard time befriending her, she is also super skittish compared to the rest.

My Partridge Rocks are also hard to befriend, they aren't skittish but they are very aloof. Everyone else dashes up to my hand to snag the goodies but they are quite content to sit back and calmly look for left overs on the sidelines.
Any ideas for befriending them?

 

[WashingtonWino]

chickenmomma, I've been having the same issue with my Welsummer, she's very skittish and dodges my hands when I try to pick her up. Even when treats are offered she'll hang back a little ways and pick off the scraps that go flying when the other chickens chow down. On one hand, I seem to have 6 very friendly, curious chickens already, do I need all 7 to be all over my case all the time? On the other hand, it would be nice if I could pick her up without her screaming like I'm killing her. Ugh. If you find some magic method, let me know.

Two new chicks from the feed store are settling in, Plumpy the barred rock and Fang the RIR. The Easter eggers sold out before I could get over there! So, no green eggs for me this year. Sherman, Brandon, Blitz, Twelve and Skittles II have developed sufficient personalities to be named. Richard Sherman is the loudest and bossiest, the Marans. Brandon (Mebane) is a big Australorp teddy bear. The skittish Welsummer has inherited the Skittles title from the deceased Easter Egger. It fits, she's psycho. Blitz is the Wyandotte and Twelve is a golden comet. The SeaGals have a blue and green coop under construction out back.

Speaking of rooster-y signs, do pullets chest-bump or is it just roosters? Marans and Welsummer got into it big time in the backyard yesterday, I hope that was just pecking order stuff and not two roosters squaring up. They are three weeks old now. Anyone here a good rooster identifier? I can post pictures.

Last question, how do you train chickens to come when called? What sort of call do you use? I'm considering going Classical Conditioning style and ringing a bell, since trotting around my back yard yelling "CHICKENS! CHICKENS! Come here CHICKENS!" doesn't really appeal. What's your method?

Sorry, lots of questions....

 

[21hens-incharge]

Mine are trained to come when I have a yellow feed scoop in my hand. I always carry the treats in the yellow scoop. I do think they trained me to carry a yellow scoop not I trained them lol.
Yes my hens will chest bump when having a disagreement about what treat belongs to who. It is a pecking order thing. Mine also will fluff the hackle feathers and get into a real scuffle if the treat is particularly valuable.

 

[Kadu]

You MUST have EEs in your flock (and of course you can't have just 1). Ha! Chicken math... its a BIG problem.
My story in a nut shell:
My aunt needed to move and I heard about her chickens needing homes. I told her 10. Came home with 16 and 2 chicks (who ended up being n(t)asty cockerels) A fellow BYC enabler gave me a nice rooster and a dozen "for fun because I had a broody eggs" Hatched chicks and moved to a bigger property with a huge coop so I filled it with 22. But now I'm down to ONLY 8 adult hens and no rooster!

But I have 17 chicks in the brooder... That will bring my number up to 25 (minus a couple Welsummer cockerels). Someone tell me how THAT happened!!

So from one addict to another, yes, you need more chickens.

lol this made me laugh.

You're so right though. I started out with 3, then kept adding more and within 3-4 months I have 11. Now I've added 27 chicks, and keep buying more... As of NOW, I have approximately 40 chicks and 6 ducks. -.- and I'm planning on getting a few EEs. -.- I need to stop. Seriously. oh and I forgot about the 20 eggs in the incubator+broody hen. yeah I'm done counting. lol