Colorado

[Pozees]

coop question....
I have 3 seven month old chickens, and 4 almost 4 month old chickens.
My little girls don't like going into the coop at night because my big girls and mean to them.
What can I do? I divided the coop in half with chicken wire and left that up for about a month. The big girls
had access to the ramp and nesting boxes, but the little girls I had to put in and out by hand.
I pulled the wire divider down this week so that all of them could use the ramp, thinking this would make my
life easier, but the little girls will not go in at night unless I hand carry them in.
Any suggestions?
I got the little girls two months ago, so they've all been around each other awhile now.

Is that your new place? How nice!

How big is your coop? Is there enough room to add a second ramp and access door? I'm not sure it solves the problem, just wondering about it as an option.

One thing you can try is offering treats in both hands to get them eating near one another, to hasten the adjustment, and remember this is all part of establishing pecking order. You might make a point of putting the younger girls in the coop before the older ones go in on their own, and make sure there is lots of roost space. If you do this nightly, I would expect that eventually they will do it on their own, the trick will be watching the normal time the older girls go in so you can beat them by a minute or so each night until the little girls learn to do it themselves.

I have a similar situation where I have two older girls and five younger girls, but they still have separate coops, and this weekend they are moving into the larger new coop all together. Should be interesting. The younger girls are extremely deferential to the older girls, which the older girls seem to think is funny, and sometimes they'll just look or take a step in their direction and make them scatter. There are decreasing incidents of squawking and a feather pulled here and there, and never any blood drawn, so even though I want them all to get along better, they're doing okay. The little girls are very close in size to the older girls now, just at POL, and that seems to have helped.

 

[Pozees]

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.​

Wendell, what I think is most impressive about this is the fact that the ODDs theoretically should be slower growing, meaning letting them get a bit older would make the difference even larger. Very interesting information!

 

[wsmith]

Wendell, what I think is most impressive about this is the fact that the ODDs theoretically should be slower growing, meaning letting them get a bit older would make the difference even larger. Very interesting information!

The pullets from the ODD line were the last of my Doms to start laying, but the boys got bigger, faster. Weird .

 

[wsmith]

The pullets from the ODD line were the last of my Doms to start laying, but the boys got bigger, faster. Weird .

Also, a member of the Dominique club broke my numbers down even further into average daily wieght gain. The ODD birds outperformed the CH birds across the board from start to finish. And even with that, the ODD cocerels are still a little small when compared to the APA SOP. Lots of work to do!

 

[coloradochick]

Hey all, I'm new to BYC (just joined this morning) and am working on getting a backyard flock started up in the spring. I'm in Denver and am trying to figure out where and when I should get my chicks! I was thinking some time in February to get some eggs from the girls this season and that I could order from some online hatcheries. But then I see that the minimum goes up to around 15 chicks if I want them sent to me that Welcomeearly in the year. Do you know of any chick suppliers (large or small) close to Denver or would someone in the area be interested in going in with me on an order?

Heya jgurshtein!!! Welcome to BYC and our Colorado thread. I've always ordered from Ideal in Texas with good results. Or like someone else said wait for the farm stores to get them in, some of them in March. That way you can actually pick and choose which ones you want without putting them through the stressful trip. Good luck!!

 

[wsmith]

Heya jgurshtein!!! Welcome to BYC and our Colorado thread. I've always ordered from Ideal in Texas with good results. Or like someone else said wait for the farm stores to get them in, some of them in March. That way you can actually pick and choose which ones you want without putting them through the stressful trip. Good luck!!

Welcome jgurshtein. As has been stated by a couple others, there are many on this BYC forum who live in Colorado that would be glad to sell you some chicks. Another bonus with that is that you could probably go right to the location, see the mature birds and pick out the chicks you want, like at the farm store. I should have chicks available in March or April.I raise American Dominique Large Fowl.

 

[jgurshtein]

Ok, here's another question. How stressful would a car ride be? I mean, if I were to take a day trip out to someone's farm and hand pick my chicks, drive them home and then put them in their chick bin... that would probably be less stressful for the chicks than it would be for me worrying about my first chick purchase. And a less than one day car ride with their future mama would certainly be less stressful to the chicks than being packed in a box and shipped to me via standard postal services.

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.

 

[Ashdoes]

Ok, here's another question.  How stressful would a car ride be?  I mean, if I were to take a day trip out to someone's farm and hand pick my chicks, drive them home and then put them in their chick bin... that would probably be less stressful for the chicks than it would be for me worrying about my first chick purchase.   And a less than one day car ride with their future mama would certainly be less stressful to the chicks than being packed in a box and shipped to me via standard postal services.

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.

 

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.

 

[wsmith]

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.

We got shipped chicks from Cackle hatchery and fertile eggs from a breeder in Virginia. Picking them out at the farm is fun, you get to interact with the breeder/farmer and generally it is less stressful for the birds. Not that they can't handle it though. When you pick them up you are already prepared, and you aren't waiting around for the post office to call. Some brreds are naturally sex linked, the vast majority are not. The hatcheries have trained sexers who are fairly accurate in determining male from female. That is the biggest benefit (just my opinion) of hatchery birds. Another thing to be aware of is that not all breeds and lines are created equal... Hatcheries are in the business of making money, not producing show birds. They breed the hens that lay the best and are the most fertile, that way more money can be made. There is a big difference between a breeder's line of a particular breed and those of a hatchery. Hatchery birds are great, and are usually very healthy chickens that will lay eggs as advertized. Breeder birds are bred to APA Standard of Perfection (usually, there re some disreputable breeders out there), and not just to hatch out lots of chicks. You mentioned a few breeds, all of which are good layers. Leghorns are egg laying machines, but are not usually overly friendly. BO's (buff orpingtons) are nice birds that lay a nice sized egg. RIRs are very good layers, and get to be a nice size if you have any plans on eating them. Some do, some don't. Brahmas get big. Red Stars are a hybrid that lay extremely well, but do not breed true.
You may want to consider some other heritage breeds as well. Barred Rocks get big and lay a nice large egg. Some can be very friendly. Dominiques (which of course are the best... ) are smaller hens but are very efficient, much more than say a barred rock. It all depends on what you like or want. Do lots of reading, go visit folks with various breeds and see whaich ones you like. Some even like the fluffy Silkies, but I'm still trying to decide if they are really chickens... LOL

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

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...