Colorado

[wsmith]

I just have to throw EEs in for consideration! I got mine from mypetchicken as my first order (Yeesh, has it been almost 3 yrs already???). Anyways, I love them! Awesome personalities, highly inquisitive and sociable. And the green eggs don't hurt either! Absolute mystery what they will grow to look like(I love a good mystery). Now if I could just get them to stop taking a month to molt...

EEs are entertaining. How are your laying? We are getting (from 4 of them) an egg every other day. That comes out to 2 EE eggs per day. The fifth one still isn't laying.

 

[wsmith]

I observed some interesting behavior from our Rooster yeaterday. He chased the non-laying Dom pullet away from a pile of scratch I had just set out; twice. Just her, none of the others. Maybe its because , as she isn't laying yet, she won't let him mount her. IDK. Interesting though.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

My EEs stopped for a molt. They are looking better again but haven't started laying. Last year they stopped laying in mid/late November, so I am wondering if their earlier molt didn't trigger their winter halt. Last year they molted much earlier in the year and started up again about a month after they stopped laying. It's ironic though; they all started laying their first eggs in January.

 

[coloradogal]

My husband and I were thinking of getting a variety of birds for our start up flock so we can compare them and decide where we'd want to go in the future. So, we were thinking of one of each of the following breeds: Leghorn, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Brahma and Red Star. Of course I'm open to suggestions and advice on breeds and variety within a flock for a first timer. I'm also thinking that if I were to do the day trip thing, my choices would be much more limited. Also, since it's just the two of us, we were thinking of starting small with 3 good layers or 4 birds with varying laying abilities.

Chicken math will strike... I can't imagine a flock without marans for the chocolate colored eggs and ee's for the green eggs... production hens for the tons of eggs they give, silkies for their beauty and now dominiques for their calmness/sweetness. I'd go with shy's silkies, who is local, as they are some of the most beautiful birds. Wendell for dominiques. I only have mutts after this last batch. Pichuris has RIRs. Figure out what you want and just let us know. I'd still rather get them locally if I know the people. The only downside of getting local fowl is having the faith in the people to insure they are healthy. That's when knowing the people help alot.

We had chicks shipped, and also picked up some locally. I liked picking them up locally better. They were just happier, and it was less stressful all around. The ones we ordered were from mypetchicken, and we didn't have any issues, they got here in one day.
We also picked an assortment for our first chicks, so I could watch and see which I preferred. That has worked out really well, and we've enjoyed the different personalities. Then we found a woman with Cochins, and those are the ones we went to pick up.
No matter which you choose, chicks are fun, and having chickens in the backyard is entertainment every day. I'm really glad we jumped right in, instead of thinking about it for too long.

I agree with Ash. I also enjoyed picking up the chicks locally. I liked knowing where I was getting them, seeing the parents, etc. More than that, I liked knowing that the parents survived long enough to reproduce at our elevation with its unique weather. I've personally had a very, very hard time with hatchery polish chickens up here. I've tried 2 different hatcheries and of the 10 I ordered (5 from each place), I only have 2 make it to adulthood. This year, I have marans from both a local lady and a hatchery and the chickens locally are bigger, calmer and seem just seem different.

Weight comparisons at processing between hatchery cockerels and Heritage Bred birds from Old Dominion Dominiques.
The two cockerels that remained from Old Dominion Dominiques were processed at 23 weeks, along with 4 cockerels we raised from Cackle Hatchery stock. The cockerels from Old-Dominion Dominiques were larger than the hatchery cockerels, and averaged 5.62 lbs. live weight. The hatchery cockerels averaged about 4 lbs. live weight. Both groups of cockerels lost about 20% of their weight during the butchering process, with the ODD birds dressing out at an average of 4.5 lbs. and the Cackle birds at 3.2 lbs. dressed weight.
Two weeks later at 25 weeks, the remaining hatchery cockerels (one weighed 5 ½ lbs.) averaged 4 ¾ lbs. These also lost about 20% during dressing, for an average dressed weight was 3.8 lbs. The difference in waiting two weeks was a weight gain of an average of ¼ lb. live weight, but with an increase of just over ½ lbs. dressed weight. The Cockerels we hatched from Old Dominion Dominiques were about 1 ¼ lbs. heavier than the Cackle hatchery birds of the same age. Even waiting two weeks longer for the last of the Cackle birds, though they gained weight appreciably, still weren’t as big on average as the other birds that were two weeks younger. As the overall weight gain in the hatchery birds was only ¼ lb, yet the dressed weight was over ½ lb, the gain was conclusively muscle mass gain. This was very noticeable in the size of the breasts.

Source

Age

Live weight average

Dressed weight average​

Old Dominion Dominiques

23 weeks

5.62 lbs.

4.50 lbs.​

Cackle Hatchery

23 weeks

4.50 lbs.

3.20 lbs.​

Cackle Hatchery

25 weeks

4.73 lbs.

3.74 lbs.​

Was there a huge taste difference?

This is the rooster, Baby, previously known as the chick in my avatar.

How can you tell its a boy? He looks very close to my EE gals.

 

[gardendufus]

JGurshtein, I got most of my initial birds from Elizabeth Country Corner and Kiowa Country Corner.......later a few from Wendell. These stores are an hour from where I live, and probably also about an hour from where you live also. In about January, they will post a list of what breeds they are getting in, and what dates they will arrive. I got my first 3/2, and I think they had some come in as early as Feb. These two stores are only about 6 miles from each other, so I ended up ordering from both stores in order to get all the breeds I wanted.

These stores get their birds from Cackle Hatchery. If you have no problem with hatchery birds, they are a good alternative. They (the stores, not the hatchery) allow you to call in and order any number of birds you want, even just one, of as many breeds as you want. Of course different breeds come in on different dates, so it may take more than one trip to get all the breeds you want.

I found that if what you want is egg production, hatchery birds are perfectly acceptable. If what I wanted was to breed, I would not start with hatchery birds. Luckily, I only wanted eggs.

First and most important: BUILD YOUR COOP BEFORE YOU GET YOUR BIRDS. You can then brood in the coop, rather than in your house or garage.

Good Luck.

 

[nigelthefish]

Ok, so after a short delay I have my coop set up and am now the proud keeper of an elderly (but still laying!) RIR and a young Leghorn! I'll post pictures shortly. Really enjoying it and I think my wife is a bit surprised at how much she is too. My 11 month old daughter is fascinated by the birds and my little dog is learnign to leave them alone. Just need to find a 3rd chicken to complete the backyard flock. Seems hard to find grown birds this time of year and I do not want to raise a chick...

 

[marlo1968]

EEs are entertaining. How are your laying? We are getting (from 4 of them) an egg every other day. That comes out to 2 EE eggs per day. The fifth one still isn't laying.

Are you still getting eggs from your EE's then? Mine quit....just up and stopped....about 4 weeks ago. Not one blue or green egg since. My leghorns, Red Stars, and SLW's are all still laying. The red stars a little less they are nearing molt age, the slw's not too much they just started a couple weeks ago. The EE's were hatched in March, started laying in early July, and then the beginning of October they just quit. Any ideas?

 

[mynamesjenelle]

^^^ My EE hatched in mid-April and I still haven't gotten a single egg from her. She also looks exactly like Mommato's rooster in that picture up above, except she doesn't have the pointy saddle feathers.

Ok, so after a short delay I have my coop set up and am now the proud keeper of an elderly (but still laying!) RIR and a young Leghorn! I'll post pictures shortly. Really enjoying it and I think my wife is a bit surprised at how much she is too. My 11 month old daughter is fascinated by the birds and my little dog is learnign to leave them alone. Just need to find a 3rd chicken to complete the backyard flock. Seems hard to find grown birds this time of year and I do not want to raise a chick...

Yaaay! Congratulations! :cd

Honestly you wouldn't want to raise a single chick anyway. It would take months for it to be big enough to live outside with the big girls, and since they are social creatures it would be a very lonely childhood. It's much better to get 2, or even 3 just in case one passes before adulthood. BTW this is how chicken math starts, right from the beginning!

You might be able to find some adult hens or older pullets on craigslist still. If my barred rock keeps being a pain and pecking the other girls I may put her up for grabs. Hate to do it since she lays the most and biggest eggs, but she's just such a little twerp to her sisters.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Ok, so after a short delay I have my coop set up and am now the proud keeper of an elderly (but still laying!) RIR and a young Leghorn! I'll post pictures shortly. Really enjoying it and I think my wife is a bit surprised at how much she is too. My 11 month old daughter is fascinated by the birds and my little dog is learnign to leave them alone. Just need to find a 3rd chicken to complete the backyard flock. Seems hard to find grown birds this time of year and I do not want to raise a chick...

I have three dark blue Silkie chicks (13 weeks). I THINK I have two girls and one boy but it is soooo hard to tell. I was looking at possibly listing two of them, $6 each(basically enough to cover food and egg purchase price). I was only looking at keeping one girl. Let me know if you are interested.

 

[Ashdoes]

I have three dark blue Silkie chicks (13 weeks). I THINK I have two girls and one boy but it is soooo hard to tell. I was looking at possibly listing two of them, $6 each(basically enough to cover food and egg purchase price). I was only looking at keeping one girl. Let me know if you are interested.

What age do you know for sure the sex of your Silkies?