Consolidated Kansas

[WichitaKidd]

Ok I have a question!

I am getting my chickens this week

eek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However I'm wondering if the guy is giving them to me for a reasonable price. Just thought I'd ask since I've never raised chickens before. He wants $15 per Barnevelder 7-8 month old and $10 per White Rock 6 month old.

Any other tips on buying hens from people would be appreciated!

Prices seem a little high, but reasonable based on what I've seen online. For comparison, if you were buying day old hatchery chicks the Barnvelders would run about $9 & the White Rocks less than $3 at straight run pricing. Based on the age of these birds he's making a little on you, but not much. If you feel comfortable with the guy who's selling them you should be fine. If not, I would probably consider passing. There are lots of folks on this forum who sell birds & I'm sure you could find what you're looking for.
Good Luck!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

The buff that you think is "japanese" - legs are too long for a regular jap unless it is a long leg variety. Stands wrong also. Another guess would be a Nankin. I don't know what they look like as chicks, but the color is right. And they are tiny. Is that a bantam cochin with her? If so, probabily a nankin. They come in rose comb and straight comb. If it is a nankin I would LOVE to have it.

I am not sure if nankin was on the bantam list for Ideal or at least I did not see it.. Maybe a dutch???? I dunno ,, yes that is a bantam cochin same age. They will be 2 months next week




Is this the pic you need??

 

[shell55]

I have been reading this thread for quite some time and thought I better finally introduce myself and say Hi! I live about an hour east of Wichita. We got chickens a year ago...started with 4 and now have around 35...ha...guess i'm figuring out the chicken math. I really enjoy the chickens though and love hatching chicks!! I have a 3 year old son that loves them too! I have Cochins, Barred Rocks, Gold Sex-links, Silver Laced Wyandottes and a few Silkies. I just finished helping my MIL, jeanniec, hatch some Lavender and Lemon Cuckoo Orpington eggs from Chicken Danz and had a great hatch. Now I am really wanting to hatch some chicks for myself again, just not sure what I want to hatch yet. I really enjoy following this thread and am learning so much from all of you. I look forward to continuing to learn and get new ideas from all of you!

 

[HEChicken]

Ok I have a question!

I am getting my chickens this week

eek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However I'm wondering if the guy is giving them to me for a reasonable price. Just thought I'd ask since I've never raised chickens before. He wants $15 per Barnevelder 7-8 month old and $10 per White Rock 6 month old.

Any other tips on buying hens from people would be appreciated!

Those prices sound pretty reasonable to me. Barnevelders do tend to be a lot higher than other breeds - I don't know the reason for that. I am interested in getting one or two myself and did notice when looking at hatcheries that they run around $9 for a day old chick versus only $2-3 for most other breeds. So to get them raised to 7-8 months old and only pay $6 more than you could from a hatchery - and no shipping charges either - I would jump on that. As for the Rock, they are far more common but I would say for a point of lay pullet, that is a decent price.

Wanted to add some corrections & clarifications to HEChicken's post.

1. You can pick up an AMP application form at animal control. However, their offices are now located at the new facility on north Hillside & K96 next to the new Humane Society complex.
2. One of the big changes they made when they revised the form last year is that now you have to attach a layout of area where you will be keeping your birds (aka page 2 of the form). Doesn't have to be extremely detailed. They just need to know the size of the area, where the property lines are at, where your coop/run is located in relation to residential properties & how big it is, fence locations, etc, etc. The form has a list of what all needs to be identified.
3. You do have to file your permit & pay your fee in person the first time. You now have to do this at City Hall (Central & Main) not at Animal Control. There is a payment window on the first floor; same place where you can pay your water bill, parking tickets, etc. Note: the permit window isn't staffed over the lunch hour. Discovered that when I filed my AMP. Spent 25 minutes waiting for the lady to get back from lunch. You will have to go thru security screening as well (as does everyone who enters City Hall) so leave all your guns & knives in your car.
4. Renewals do come in the mail roughly 30 days before they are due. Definitely if you have moved or no longer have birds notify the city permit office. If you forget to renew there is a $5 late fee. As HEChicken said, don't assume that by not responding to the permit renewal that the city will automatically cancel your permit. A simple phone call can take care of it & avoid the hassle.

If anyone in Wichita is interested in filing for an AMP I have a copy of the form that I can send you. Just send me a PM with your email address & I'll get it to you. I'd even be willing to help you fill it out based on what I learned from doing it myself last time. The municipal codes & AMP forms are really focused on dogs not chickens & there are a lot of things on the application form that won't be applicable (ex: rabies vaccination tag #). It can be somewhat confusing if you've never done it before.

Wow, a lot has changed in the relatively short amount of time since I went through the process.

I've just been out and taken pics of my now completed hoop coop. Will get them uploaded here before the day is out.

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Some of our ducks

Ring Teal

Our show Call duck

Bahama Pintail

Mallards

Woodies

American Pintails

More pics later

 

[HEChicken]

I have been reading this thread for quite some time and thought I better finally introduce myself and say Hi! I live about an hour east of Wichita. We got chickens a year ago...started with 4 and now have around 35...ha...guess i'm figuring out the chicken math. I really enjoy the chickens though and love hatching chicks!! I have a 3 year old son that loves them too! I have Cochins, Barred Rocks, Gold Sex-links, Silver Laced Wyandottes and a few Silkies. I just finished helping my MIL, jeanniec, hatch some Lavender and Lemon Cuckoo Orpington eggs from Chicken Danz and had a great hatch. Now I am really wanting to hatch some chicks for myself again, just not sure what I want to hatch yet. I really enjoy following this thread and am learning so much from all of you. I look forward to continuing to learn and get new ideas from all of you!

 

[JosieChick]

Congrats on new babies!!!

Yeah, it was a very slow drive through the flint hills in the down pour. Yuck. It had started to clear up by the time we got the horses down and unloaded so that was nice. I would have felt badly unloading them into their new home in pouring rain. Fortunately they were all pretty mellow about exploring their new pasture because it was a wet, muddy mess and the last thing I need was someone wiping out or sliding into a fence!

Josie, I hope you are able to get the hay and horses moved without too much trouble in the rain. Wow - we need the rain but the timing on this has been terrible. I've just come back from picking up one of our horses where he was away in training and bringing him back to our barn. Sloshing through the mud it didn't feel like the smartest choice to do it today but we had only contracted his board through today and the place he was at needed the space and really needed us to pick him today. At least my cheap Tractor Supply boots are holding up and didn't leak even though I walked through ankle deep puddles over and over this morning.

We have had some really good rain so I really can't complain. The ducks flew over the chicken yard fence and are thoroughly enjoying paddling in the puddles around our house. I set up my rain barrel under the coop gutter to try and catch some rain water so it should be filling nicely. It will be nice to have a water source right there at the coop for the next little while.

She won't lay anymore because her body has switched from egg laying mode to "setting" mode. Kind of like being pregnant, she can't do both at once! I wouldn't put anymore eggs under her unless you pull the one egg she is sitting on because she will have a really staggered hatch and the earliest chick may die because mom won't get off the nest. It is pretty common for broodies to attack anybody who gets near them or their nest. They become very bossy and mean in prep for being a mom and defending their chicks from danger. (Also, hehehehehe, kind of like pregnant women!)

Mrs broody pants is still setting on one egg. I've taken the bo eggs out and so she only has the one egg. Will she lay more? She also attacked my roo while he was trying to mate another hen is that normal?

Well here is the multi with the sick hen....hmmm. Well I sure hope she is feeling better soon! Bummer about your pens getting all wet! That is the worst.

Hope everyone is doing great, I really didn't have a chance to multi anything, so I'm sorry! Been extremely busy. The rain caused a lot of problems for me. I had to move all of my silkies into the barn into another horse stall and divide them up in there. So my oldest horse is now stall-less. But she doesn't really care, the feed bins in the stalls flip out into the breeze-way, so I turned it around so I can feed her and lock the other horses up. And now my silkies are DRY! Whew! Their pen got soaking wet! I'm going to need to dig out all of the bedding and let the pen air dry and start again. Which is fine, but I had so many other things going on, it was bad timing. I also have a very sick silkie-- the one that won at Nationals and then won Res Grand Champion Featherleg at State. I've been injecting her with Baytril-- I just do NOT want to mess around with her. So I'm hoping she pulls through! It's an upper respiratory infection. This is the first time I've ever dealt with bubbly eyes! But that is what she has-- that and a runny nose. Which reminds me, she needs her injection this morning. Sigh. I think she got really sick in the pouring rain a couple days back-- everyone else dried out and she looked like she melted. So I bathed her in warm water and blow-dried her out and then started her on the Baytril. Electrolytes in her water. I'm crossing my fingers she pulls through, I'm worried. I tell you though-- that VetRX really perked her right up! I put a drop down each nostril and she immediately came back to life-- probably because she could BREATHE well again!

What a nice boy! My kind of rooster, I can't wait to get rid of these extra boys I have that have no manners.

Josie, I observed a pleasing interaction with my Welsummer roo yesterday. A silchin rooster and a Sultan X Cockerel were duking it out - and I mean really going to town. The Wellie roo observed for a minute, I guess to see if they would work it out, but as they continued to spar, he moved towards them. I expected him to chastise one of them but instead he just calmly walked in between them, blocking their view of one another, which worked. They each ran off in different directions and that was the end of it. Funnily enough, Ned was headed over as well - I guess these big, calm guys just don't like conflict in the chicken yard.

Yeah!!!!! Those sound like very fair prices for pullets at point of lay. It cost a lot of money to feed and raise a pullet to laying age so I would expect to pay at least $15 for a hatchery production type of laying bird. I have paid $25-30 (or more!!) for some of the rarer breeds of heritage pullets.

Ok I have a question!

I am getting my chickens this week

eek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However I'm wondering if the guy is giving them to me for a reasonable price. Just thought I'd ask since I've never raised chickens before. He wants $15 per Barnevelder 7-8 month old and $10 per White Rock 6 month old.

Any other tips on buying hens from people would be appreciated!

Welcome!!! Do you have banty or LF cochins?

I have been reading this thread for quite some time and thought I better finally introduce myself and say Hi! I live about an hour east of Wichita. We got chickens a year ago...started with 4 and now have around 35...ha...guess i'm figuring out the chicken math. I really enjoy the chickens though and love hatching chicks!! I have a 3 year old son that loves them too! I have Cochins, Barred Rocks, Gold Sex-links, Silver Laced Wyandottes and a few Silkies. I just finished helping my MIL, jeanniec, hatch some Lavender and Lemon Cuckoo Orpington eggs from Chicken Danz and had a great hatch. Now I am really wanting to hatch some chicks for myself again, just not sure what I want to hatch yet. I really enjoy following this thread and am learning so much from all of you. I look forward to continuing to learn and get new ideas from all of you!

Well we spent all day yesterday out in the freezing cold drizzle finishing chicken and goose pens but they are done enough to move everyone in! So I have a trailer and am going to load everyone up tonight and haul down in the AM. Still LOTs to do with setting up perches, nest boxes, feeders, waterers etc but will be good to have everyone in one place finally. I also have to pack up Molly and the barn cat Lily. Gonna be a full ride down.

Horses have settled in well and were all taking a nap together on the south side of the pasture this AM in the sunshine which was really cute. (All laying down)

Wish I could have taken pics this weekend, brought my camera but forgot the memory card! Geez!

 

[OzawkieBantams]

American wigeon

Ring billed duck

Get out of my cage!

 

[tazcat70]

I am in Haysville where there is no limit! I am starting with 6....but my coop can accomodate 12. I am pretty sure I'll be maxing it out soon. hehe Whoops, meant to quote ya HE Chicken Chris0110 I agree with Hawkeye about the Wichita limits. I lived there for several years with chickens before moving out to the country last summer. When I first got them, I looked up the laws and it said you could have 5 hens, so that is the number I got. I did later see somewhere else where it mentioned a limit of 3. Ultimately I got the permit ($25/year) to allow me to have 12 chickens, but my neighbor reported me after that, and Animal Control came out to visit. It wasn't any big deal because I was able to show the permit and he wrote off the complaint because I was legal. After that we had a really nice chat because he was very interested in the chickens and I told him about the discrepancy in the ordinances and asked him if it is for sure 3 or 5. He told me he thought 5 is the legal number and said there had been a change and they must not have updated the ordinances uniformly. However even he did not seem to be 100% sure? So if I were you, I would check into it more - perhaps even call down there - because the more you have, the better. First, 3 may not always supply enough eggs - since they don't lay every single day and take times off to molt, the more you have, the greater the odds you'll get enough eggs to supply your needs. Second, in winter, the more birds you have in the coop, the warmer they will all be. Third, losses are inevitable but if you start with 3 and lose a couple, you're down to one lonely hen, and its not always that easy to find a companion, depending on time of year. If you start with more and lose a couple, you have a little flexibility on finding replacement birds to take their place, since the remaining hens still have one another for company. I could go on but I'll exercise self-restraint here [smile], although I will add that Chicken Math is a very real affliction. Almost all of us started out thinking we would just have a few for eggs and wound up with multiple coops and pens and many more birds than we originally planned. My "five" hens multipled to 12 very quickly and from there the next step was to move out to the country where I have no restrictions.

My sister lives in Haysville and she is always telling me they aren't allowed.

 

[sapphireblu76]

Oh my, where to start! Welcome to the new comers!

Hawkeye, glad your girl is doing better. We've had a few that came down with similar symptoms this winter. That VetRX is great stuff!

I counted my birds today... I have way more than I thought I did!

100 on the nose. Plus I have a trio of Chocolate Orpingtons coming Tuesday or Wednesday; I'm so excited! I will be warming up the incubator tonight, too. I have 3 dozen eggs ready to set and will probably have another half dozen to add tomorrow. I'm setting mostly Easter Eggers, but there will be some Marans and Barred Rocks, too.

I thought ahead this year and bought 4 tons of layer and a ton of chick starter. I have never spent so much money at once on animals, lol. But I got a great deal on it all and had exactly just enough space to store it all. Unfortunately, the poor delivery guys got their truck stuck in my driveway! I think after all their hard work and inconvenience, I will go buy a McDonald's gift card for them and give it to them tomorrow when they come get the truck. I figure it can't hurt to make a good relationship with the Co-op guys.


One good thing did come from this, though. Hubby finally agreed (after 2 years) that it is time to re-gravel the driveway.