Chipmunks? And Banties?

[babffel]

To help you identify silkies they have black skin and five toes...and furry feet. I got four of them my TSC last Wed.

 

[Tikkijane]

To help you identify silkies they have black skin and five toes...and furry feet. I got four of them my TSC last Wed.

Yes, thanks

- I was mostly ho humming about whether or not I'd be able to *see* the differences (like the 5 toes for silkes vs the 4 for cochins and the black skin on the silkies) if they won't let me touch them ahead of time. Normally, they scoop them up and dump them in the box while you are standing outside the cattle gates..............

Maybe I should take my binoculars and one of those grabbit poles so I can "reach" in and keep it still long enough to USE the binoculars.....

 

[nikki1]

Do you have a feed store nearby that actually knows what they're selling? The one I go to has week-by-week order list posted so you'll know ahead of time what they'll have when, and when they get them each breed has its own separate bin. They were also happy to have me pick my own, which was nice because I could give each a quick once-over. Furthermore, the family that owns the place is into chickens a bit, too, so they know what they're talking about. Surely TSC isn't the only game in town.

Just an idea...

--Nik

 

[Tikkijane]

Do you have a feed store nearby that actually knows what they're selling? The one I go to has week-by-week order list posted so you'll know ahead of time what they'll have when, and when they get them each breed has its own separate bin. They were also happy to have me pick my own, which was nice because I could give each a quick once-over. Furthermore, the family that owns the place is into chickens a bit, too, so they know what they're talking about. Surely TSC isn't the only game in town.

Just an idea...

--Nik

Nope. TSC is the second game in town, lol. We have a single other feed store (and nothing else for 110 miles in any direction, although the hatchery itself is about 100 miles away) in town, whereby they have a single chick day right before Easter. They order 4 breeds, mostly pullets (very few straight run) - BO, BR, EEs, and PRs. They also don't sell them; they "give" away certain amounts depending on how much feed you get because our state apparently has a law that prohibits the selling of any fewer than 6 at a time. So, this is how the only other feed store gets around it. I've emailed and asked them if they can order me some silkies in with their big order, but they don't get any bantams at all, so I'm not sure how that would work on the shipping.

Last year, the original feed store ordered almost 2,000 chicks, for their 'chick days' which were to be a Friday and Saturday. By the time I got there Thursday afternoon, almost 1/2 of them were gone already and they were sold out completely Friday at 10 am. They did put in another order for those that missed out, but as far as I know, they only let you order the original 4 breeds. I may just have to go down there and haggle if the TSC deal doesn't work out.

TCS "never" knows what they will get, including whether or not they are all going to be straight run or pullets. And I mean, really, the hatchery they get them from is the one 110 miles away, so you wouldn't think that $$$ are the driving force behind the "non labeling."

Last year, I was happy the feed store had those breeds because they were the ones I wanted, and because TSC only had meaties for eons and eons. This year, the only time I went in to look at chicks (I was purposely staying away

), they had a few s/r banties; one bin of st. run and then the rest were unknown pullets, although some of them were "reds."

I guess I'll just head down there every day they get new chicks in and see if they'll let me see the packaging to try to decipher anything and worst case scenario, I suppose, is to wait for the regular known pullets and snag a few. But that would mean no silkies.

Oh, the chicken dilemmas............

 

[nstilwater]

When i breed my EE roo all of his chicks have the same cheek puffs as him. look for cheek poofs, some of his babies get orange legs from their mom but all get the cheek pouffs

 

[babffel]

my TSC let me pick out the ones I wanted so I was able to pick out all the silkies they had, once she put them in the box I could of told her that I wanted a different one but didnt.

 

[BantamoftheOpera]

Yeah, I know how frustrating that is. The first year I ordered with my feed store I placed an order and they had all of them separated out. Last year I didn't know I was going to get more until the last minute. At that point there was just a pile of 3-5 week old "pullets" of various breeds. I asked if they had any gold or silver laced wyandottes, and they gave me a list of the potential breeds that had been in that shipment. I asked for a golden comet and a light brahma. The woman laughed at me and said she had no idea how to tell any of the breeds from each other except for the brahamas because of the feathered feet. They keep them in an enclosed run where they need to be caught with a net, so I couldn't select my own, otherwise I would have been able to identify them at 3-5 weeks. I brought home my two light brahmas. Minerva and Rowena. I took them out of their transport container, took one look at the expression Minerva was giving me and said "honey we have a rooster. He didn't believe me for another eight weeks. Now Minerva is Sephiroth, the rooster in my avatar photo.

 

[gapeach717]

I am another mystery chipmunk mommy! We should start our own breed thread while we wait to see what we got! Haha!!

 

[Dutch552]

Certain cochins, speckeled sussex, some hatchery lines of partridge rocks, EE's, certain OEGB/MGB color variants I have seen look just like chipmunks with the little stripes and all.

 

[somadlyinlove]

Some colors of old english game banties are chipmunk type. Silver and Golden duckwing for example also female crele. Any OEGB's will be tiny compared to other chicks.