Good Morning from Washington State!!

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lilfarmmomma

lilfarmmomma

Chirping
6 Years
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Mar 7, 2013
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Hi there!

My name is Keri. I live on 17 acres with my husband and 3 of our 6 children. I stay at home with our 5 year old son and decided to raise chickens so that I can sell some of the eggs and eat the rest. This is not our first time having chickens, but is the first time that I have raised a whole flock from start to finish. I currently have 3 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Ameraucanas in the hen house. I have 4 Delawares, a Danish Brown Leghorn and an Australorp brooding in my dining room. Tomorrow I will be picking up a few Anconas to add some more white eggs, and will also add some more Ameraucanas for the colored eggs.


I have been a lurker here for a while, but decided to join so that I can share things along my journey and ask questions as they arise. =)
 
Greetings from Kansas, Keri, and
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! Great to have you in flock! Best of luck to you and your chickens and chicks!
 
Hi Keri,

Your post grabed me becuase we are building on 17 acres...but in Australia
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, I have just put my first ever lot of eggs into the incubator! Very exciting!

Can't wait to see some Pics of your Chicks !

Shalyn
 
Thanks, everyone!!

I am excited to be here. I am still learning, and did not have the best luck with these first 2 batches of chicks. I lost one Red the 2nd day, I sat with her and tried to nurse her, but she didn't make it. I have never been good with animals dying, she was the first that I actually was able to "deal with" myself. I got 6 in my next batch, lost 3 over the next 24 hours (these were 1 day old chicks), the feed store that I got them from was great and replaced them, but were out of the Danish, so I got an Australorp, then purchased 2 more Australorps, but ended up losing 2 of them too. I know it is normal to lose a couple, but that seemed like a lot. I think I will not do the 1 day olds again, but stick with the 3 or 4 day olds, as they seem a little hardier.

I will get pics of the chicks and my coop up soon. I am really proud of the coop, it is just very basic, 8x8, but was built with all materials we had on hand, so cost us zero. I won't be as lucky with the run, but that's ok. =)
 
Hello and welcome to BYC
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Sorry to hear about your losses. Losing a chick now and then is not unusual, but you've lost a couple now... How is your brooder set-up? Temperature, bedding, what are they eating etc?
 
I have them in a large Sterilite storage tub. We used them for horse tack in 4-H, so they are quite large. I have a heat lamp and had made a "shield" to put over the top to keep the heat in while they were tiny. I have pine shavings in for bedding, they eat the medicated chick starter.

The first batch did ok, just lost one, but they were 4 days old when I got them. This last batch were 1 day old, I got them the same day they arrived at the feed store. They also were from a different hatchery, so I do not know if that plays a part. I do know that when I went back and came home with the Australorps, all 3 that I got that day were doing fine and were quite active. The chicks all seemed to be getting along and such. The next morning, one had passed, the others were still fine. Got up earlier the next morning to find that 3 of the 4 Delawares were using one of the remaining as a bed and I could not save her. At that point, I separated the remaining Australorp and she is doing just fine. The Delawares seem to be quite bossy and a little bully-ish, even at this young age. They started to pick on the little Danish, but she seems to not take any crap from them and pushes right back. I will watch them when I get them out to the hen house and if that behavior continues, they will have to go. I wanted the variety of color in the flock, but will not keep bullies around.


Also, when I went in to get replacements for the orig 3, the store had also lost some and had another well on her way out. So, I don't think that it was anything I did.
 

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