Colorado

[trsturself]

trsturself
Here is a pic of one of the little one. 2 weeks and two days old. They look like an easteregger but with 5 toes and a bit more fuz. They are quite cute. No idea of what sex they are however.

My daughter says, Yes! Where are you located?

Hello, I live in Elbert County. Just got my first chickens in early April from Kiowa feeds. Hubby built a great coop and run for them. I am really loving them! Just wanted to say hi to all my fellow Colorado chicken keepers out there. The girls were in the run for a few hours today when the day was warm. It was so fun watching them - I couldn't tear myself away - it was so nice to be in the beautiful spring weather.

Welcome! We call that "chicken TV". It's so entertaining!

Let me know if you'd like some when you get back.

Will do! If she's still broody it will be hard to resist.

 

[Aacre]

Anyone ever get a broody rooster? I keep catching one of my roosters sitting in a nesting box. It's no accident, because I've been finding him in there more and more frequently. He never eats or breaks the eggs.. It's kind of cute!

 

[maggiemo]

It's funny you bring up broody roosters. I have a little bantam rooster and he has started to sit in the nest boxes, not really broody, but just hangs out for an hour or so. He does this a few times a day. It is super cute, he coos and clucks while he sits.

 

[ryan820]

Hey guys how old are your new peeps before you introduce and combine the rest of your flock.


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[kismetspawn]

trsturself
Here is a pic of one of the little one. 2 weeks and two days old. They look like an easteregger but with 5 toes and a bit more fuz. They are quite cute. No idea of what sex they are however.

Oh my gosh that is the cutest critter!

Hello, I live in Elbert County. Just got my first chickens in early April from Kiowa feeds. Hubby built a great coop and run for them. I am really loving them! Just wanted to say hi to all my fellow Colorado chicken keepers out there. The girls were in the run for a few hours today when the day was warm. It was so fun watching them - I couldn't tear myself away - it was so nice to be in the beautiful spring weather.

We're in Denver proper and just starting our first brood. We're still working on our coop/run but it's enclosed enough to put the girls out during the day... only 3 of the 9 have enough feathers to truly go out right now. With this awesome weather I've been putting them out in the run while I'm gone during the day and moving them to an enclosure in the yard so they have some grass time when I'm home. It's been amazing how many excuses I've found this past week to go out and "check on them". LOL Oh, and I've been digging in my garden plots and moving stumps/rocks/planters to find them treats. I'm not a bug girl, but apparently I'll dig around for them to make the girls happy!

So I might have been a bit hasty declaring our black austrolorp to be a roo. I thought I was looking at pointy cape feathers, but when I took a closer look I was actually looking at pointy wing feathers. The sweep feathers are now coming in and they're rounded. The cape feathers haven't lost the waxy covering yet, so no way to tell on those just yet, but I don't think it'll be but a few more days before I can tell if they're rounded or pointed. So maybe it's actually a she with just really big freakin' feet! LOL I was watching them starting to establish their pecking order today and the BA was sparing off against the RIR who is about 2 weeks older. When they both postured and stuck their necks out they were both the same size, though the BA still looks more like an ostrich where the RIR looks like a mini-chicken now. The BA is a lot bigger than the golden comet and cuckoo maran who are the same age. I guess I won't know for sure until it pops out an egg or starts waking the neighbors.

 

[maggiemo]

Hi Mel,
How are the Delaware and OE doing? My Delaware's are really big. I have at least one roo, I am pretty sure. It isn't much bigger than the others, but his legs are really stocky and his comb is pink while all the others are pale. The OE'ers, I have 4 more. 2 are huge and almost fully feathered and 2 are still little puff balls. A friend came over and said the little puff balls were the roos, that roos mature slower. I am not convinced. Time will tell.

Ryan820. I just put my 3 week old chicks out in a fully enclosed pen with a light in the run with my flock. There are holes in the fence the little girls can run through but the big girls can't. So, the little girls run in and out. They venture out and if one of the big girls chases them they can get away. After a while everyone gets bored with chasing and they just become a flock.

 

[Aacre]

It's funny you bring up broody roosters. I have a little bantam rooster and he has started to sit in the nest boxes, not really broody, but just hangs out for an hour or so. He does this a few times a day. It is super cute, he coos and clucks while he sits.

How funny! Mine is an EE and he just looks plain ridiculous in there. I think he suspects this as well because he will come out all embarrassed looking. He is quite a bit taller than my hens, so he really has to do some ducking to get in and out of the nest box.

 

[trsturself]

Oh my gosh that is the cutest critter!

We're in Denver proper and just starting our first brood. We're still working on our coop/run but it's enclosed enough to put the girls out during the day... only 3 of the 9 have enough feathers to truly go out right now. With this awesome weather I've been putting them out in the run while I'm gone during the day and moving them to an enclosure in the yard so they have some grass time when I'm home. It's been amazing how many excuses I've found this past week to go out and "check on them". LOL Oh, and I've been digging in my garden plots and moving stumps/rocks/planters to find them treats. I'm not a bug girl, but apparently I'll dig around for them to make the girls happy!

So I might have been a bit hasty declaring our black austrolorp to be a roo. I thought I was looking at pointy cape feathers, but when I took a closer look I was actually looking at pointy wing feathers. The sweep feathers are now coming in and they're rounded. The cape feathers haven't lost the waxy covering yet, so no way to tell on those just yet, but I don't think it'll be but a few more days before I can tell if they're rounded or pointed. So maybe it's actually a she with just really big freakin' feet! LOL I was watching them starting to establish their pecking order today and the BA was sparing off against the RIR who is about 2 weeks older. When they both postured and stuck their necks out they were both the same size, though the BA still looks more like an ostrich where the RIR looks like a mini-chicken now. The BA is a lot bigger than the golden comet and cuckoo maran who are the same age. I guess I won't know for sure until it pops out an egg or starts waking the neighbors.

You'll know before then. If it's comb pops up all of the sudden and starts getting pink between 3-5 weeks then you'll know. The girls have pale combs until they MUCH older. I've never been able to see the pointed feathers on a roo until closer to 14 weeks when the second set of feathers comes in. The first set are still rounded. So don't go by that at this age. With a single comb chicken it's easier to tell the boys from the girls. It's the rose and pea combs (and crested birds) that I find take a bit more time.

Hi Mel,
How are the Delaware and OE doing? My Delaware's are really big. I have at least one roo, I am pretty sure. It isn't much bigger than the others, but his legs are really stocky and his comb is pink while all the others are pale. The OE'ers, I have 4 more. 2 are huge and almost fully feathered and 2 are still little puff balls. A friend came over and said the little puff balls were the roos, that roos mature slower. I am not convinced. Time will tell.

Ryan820. I just put my 3 week old chicks out in a fully enclosed pen with a light in the run with my flock. There are holes in the fence the little girls can run through but the big girls can't. So, the little girls run in and out. They venture out and if one of the big girls chases them they can get away. After a while everyone gets bored with chasing and they just become a flock.

Our first set of chicks have been out with the big girls a few weeks now in a separate enclosure inside the run and a few days ago I cracked their door enough that they could get out but the big girls can't get in. I was surprised how little chasing there was. All but 1 of our big girls completely ignored the chicks. Our broody hen did not like one of the chicks getting in the big pen though.
There was more squawking and pecking when we combined the 1st and 2nd group of chicks than there was with the big girls!

 

[kismetspawn]

I would love a mini cow! I did a little research, and think they're the cutest things. That of course is the problem, I can't kill something I think is cute and lovable.
We're looking at getting miniature fainting goats, hopefully next year. We thought about getting a pig, but I really need to find someone out here that'll butcher and package for us.

I'm thinking that'll be my problem w/the chickens. We originally got the chickens to teach our kids that food doesn't come in Styrofoam packaging from the grocery store. Our intention is to keep the chickens until they stop reliably producing eggs and then use them for food. My husband, an avid hunter, is all over that like white on rice, but it might be a bit harder for me since I'm the one who mostly takes care of them. Plus we named them, never a good farm practice. LOL So, I'm with you on little and cute being hard to kill. Though my thoughts with the mini-cow would mostly be for fresh milk b/c, from what I've read, one can produce about a gallon of milk a day. I'd love to be able to get raw milk, but milk shares are super expensive.

There are lots of processors for pigs. Don't let that stop you. I wish there were processors for chickens.

Mel, I think Meyer's guarantees 90% accuracy. Their website says they send 4% more chicks and that makes up for losses and wrong sexing...It doesn't for me.
I ordered 20 and one meal maker, zero extras. I got 21 and one was dead. Now with at least 4 roos, maybe 6 roos, and the two you got I have maybe 12 pullets...Those are some expensive birds.
I won't use Meyer again.

,
oh well...you have to try these things once. I'll buy local from now on.

What does "one meal maker" mean? I've got no experience with chicks, and I think I might have misjudged the one I thought was a roo who is several weeks older than the 2 I got from you, so I'm just curious what makes you think the 4 - 6 chicks are roos so early?

 

[Pozees]

For processing a pig I think you can go to Simla, can't you? I am led to believe they do birds as well, but they are not USDA inspected/certified so you cannot then resell the processed meat. There's another place out East that advertised a few times last year on Craigslist, can't think of the name offhand, that would process birds periodically.