Covid-panic-induced chicken keeping?

[LaFemmeKatia]

Thanks for being kind towards the covid chicken buyers. I suspect most will fall in love with their chicks as well. If not give it a couple weeks and we'll be seeing plenty of cheap or free hens lol

I am sort of a “Covid buyer”, but it’s more complicated than that.
I have wanted to raise a small flock for years and I always held back because it’s a big commitment.
I saw chicks at TSC when I went in for dog, cat, and duck food, and I took the plunge.
I bought four last week, and two were more frail, and didn’t live. Fortunately, the two that lived are very healthy. So I bought two more this week, and I was more careful to choose sturdy ones (with no pasty butt).
I am home all the time now and I have a lot of quality time on my hands to begin a project like this. My husband and I are drawing up plans for our coop and run, which we are going to make ourselves.
Meanwhile, our new babies are in our spare bedroom (Which is safe from drafts and air-conditioning - in fact it’s HOT AT 90 degrees, lol), in their makeshift brooders, and they are thriving.
The ones I’ve had for a week have grown bigger already.

 

[Djgm]

I'm sorta a Covid induced buyer....I've always wanted them, freshman year when we dissected fertile eggs, the teacher had too many left over and a few hatched. Brought a baby home to do a research paper on the the growth of it. Poor little Shea didn't make it. No internet then to google how to care for it. I felt terrible and have wanted them since. However, living with Mom (she's widowed) she was always a firm no. Thanks to Covid she relented and my research began! Now my girls get here the end of next month, and I've found all you fine folks to help me along the way. Coops being built, my little emergency aid kit slowly building up, toys, grit, ect ect all on the way from good ol Amazon prime. Wish I found you guys sooner lol....so many DIY things on here, I coulda saved a bunch of $$$

 

[Chicken Heel]

I too share the concern about what will happen to the various types of poultry when the new practitioners go back to their normal lives. But I also look at the positives which include the many folks that have realized what a joy it is to raise them. The more people that we have doing that the better off we all are. This world is far too dependent on getting our food via global and commercial means so backyard raisers are definitely needed to ensure diversity. And maybe there will be many more people that get the same feeling I do when I look at a bunch of baby chicks which is one of pure affection. This affection for me is the same today as it was 55 years ago when my chicken adventures began.

 

[FluffyButtTikiHut]

Actually, now has been the best time for me to begin my journey into chicken keeping because I stay home all the time, and I have all day to keep a close eye on my baby chickens.
I spend hours researching chicken care, and making sure my little fluff-balls are eating, drinking, and warm enough.
I bought some last week, and two more this week. I have them separated at this point until I can be sure the new babies are healthy.
My husband and I are going to begin work on our coop. It’s actually a great distraction.
I have wanted to have a small flock for years and I have finally taken the plunge.

And just like kids they grow up fast! Only FASTER! Enjoy! I'm in love with mine...so much I hate leaving them to go to work lol!

 

[jbadams66]

We got our first chicks a month ago but had been planning it since January. Had a friend give us a free TSC coop that needed some work. Got it fixed up with plans for getting 2-3 laying hens but plans changed. We got chicks instead and went from the planned 2-3 to 4 barred rocks, 6 easter eggers and 2 welsummers. Needless to say the free coop has cost us a lot of money.

Hope to have the large coop finished by first week of June to move the birds out of my shop. Have to say that the TSC coop has made a nice brooder.

Real bad thing is now I want to get some wyndottes, white rocks, speckled sussex and the wife wants some reds. The big coop isnt finished yet and already too small.

 

[azygous]

Chicken math. You gots it. Gots it bad.

 

[ojust4today]

We lost the market because of a spiral effect less traffic and less farmers, to the point that it sat empty and it was turned it into a homeless shelter. At least it went to a good cause.

That stand is adorable! Love the fresh colors and does look very versatile. The one I mentioned was a waist height raised garden bed with a removable green house top, very simple.

I'm trying to grow plants we'll eat and try to stagger the planting times. I've thought about doing a string trellis for peppers. The garden's about to get tilled and then I can plant. Never thought I'd be excited for that haha. Starting with dwarf ocra, bush beans, tomatoes, next row is red & green bell peppers, cucumber, cantaloupe.. trying to keep companion planting in mind too. I have some radish, spinach, cabbage, kale and some pole beans(oh boy!) growing in a container garden.. totally planted wrong but they're doing surprisingly well. Thought about transplanting some wild daffodils and wild onions around the perimeter... Thank you for the tip about freezing! Might have to talk hubby into a small stand alone freezer lol

You are doing a good size garden. That is great. We have tilled the I’m going to plant tomorrow. My plants are two months old and ready for the ground. We have had so many obstacles so far. We had late frost a few nights if frost, then heavy winds and now the last couple days rain. We will have to stay in touch we are growing alot of the same things. This is our first big garden venture. We are excited!

 

[EarlJ]

We already had a flock of 19 (8 GL Wyandottes, 8 Barred Rocks, a Buff Orpington, a RIR, and a GL Wyandotte rooster)... plus 4 ducks and 3 guinea fowl.

Covid just encouraged us to scale up. We got a couple incubators and ordered more birds...
Have 5 Duck and 7 Guinea eggs from our flock on day 20 of their incubation. With only one female of each, we were happy to get that many viable eggs from them.
Got 14 Jersey Giant eggs from Ebay (ordered 12, but they sent 14 so that was nice) and 8 eggs from our mixed flock on day 7 of incubation. Just candled them today, and the Jerseys all look good. Some of our eggs might not pan out... our rooster has more ladies than he can manage : p

The lady duck is a Rouen, and we have a Rouen male and 2 Pekin males. All the attention seems hard on her, so we ordered 4 Pekin female ducklings. And earlier in the week we saw Jersey Giants at Rural King (we'd ordered the eggs because we gave up on seeing chicks around here), so we got 6 pullets.

So if everyone remains viable and no one keels over, we'll go from 4 ducks to 13, from 3 guineas to 10, and from 19 chickens to 47. Or 26 total to 70.

We already have 3 coops of varying sizes, but the missus has plans for something more in line with the larger scale. Because planting and working on the house won't keep me busy enough : D

 

[jpsr]

For me the COVID-19 pandemic was a strong influence to get back into raising chickens for eggs and meat. I had one of those "time to do what you know" moments. So, yeah.. I was sort of a panic buyer.
The panic didn't really hit me until I discovered that our oldest farm supply store had closed down, the local grocery was selling out of fresh meat, eggs, and milk; meanwhile TSC couldn't keep chicks in stock.
I felt lucky to finally be able to get 15 chicks (plus 1 freebee), a little bag of starter feed, and one little waterier at TSC. They were almost out of stock on everything chicken related.
I found a few places with 50# bags of starter-grower 30 miles away. It's become good practice to call before you go to the feed stores these days. I can't even find seed in my town.

My thoughts are that a whole lot of people (in my location) have bought chicks, feed, and a little prefab coop-run combo. They probably didn't realize how fast the chicks will outgrow those cute little coops and will end up selling a lot of their chickens cheap, or maybe even giving them away... I'm up to 40 now not counting a couple of turkey and duck (hatchery deal that I couldn't pass up) . I might re-home the ducks, haven't decided yet, lol.
In any event I am able to properly house and care for my chickens until harvest time, and have space to separate hens from roos, expand the runs if necessary, etc..
I don't know that I can take in some of those chickens that people decide they don't have time for anymore, but I suspect that I will be able to take a few of them. I like dumplings .

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

For me the COVID-19 pandemic was a strong influence to get back into raising chickens for eggs and meat. I had one of those "time to do what you know" moments. So, yeah.. I was sort of a panic buyer.
The panic didn't really hit me until I discovered that our oldest farm supply store had closed down, the local grocery was selling out of fresh meat, eggs, and milk; meanwhile TSC couldn't keep chicks in stock.
I felt lucky to finally be able to get 15 chicks (plus 1 freebee), a little bag of starter feed, and one little waterier at TSC. They were almost out of stock on everything chicken related.
I found a few places with 50# bags of starter-grower 30 miles away. It's become good practice to call before you go to the feed stores these days. I can't even find seed in my town.

My thoughts are that a whole lot of people (in my location) have bought chicks, feed, and a little prefab coop-run combo. They probably didn't realize how fast the chicks will outgrow those cute little coops and will end up selling a lot of their chickens cheap, or maybe even giving them away... I'm up to 40 now not counting a couple of turkey and duck (hatchery deal that I couldn't pass up) . I might re-home the ducks, haven't decided yet, lol.
In any event I am able to properly house and care for my chickens until harvest time, and have space to separate hens from roos, expand the runs if necessary, etc..
I don't know that I can take in some of those chickens that people decide they don't have time for anymore, but I suspect that I will be able to take a few of them. I like dumplings .

I just had the same experience at TSC. We got our Muscovy ducks last spring, and I have been buying their food at TSC since then. Never had a problem. Earlier this week I went for their food, (plus my new chicks and ducklings food) and they were cleaned out! I never saw that before. Fortunately they had a shipment yesterday, and I called first, then made a bee-line to TSC. Guess I have to start calling first.