How come people don't know what they have?

[Hope119]

Quote:
My friend rented an incubator a year ago in April and got a doz eggs from that person, who herself initially had chicks from a hatchery, but chicks of different colors - she kept one roo. My friend ended up with 6 hens (4 different colors, I think) and 4 roos, kept one roo. Then this April I rented the same incubator, but took 2 doz eggs from my friend, plus 1 doz brown eggs from some farm store for which I never saw the chickens (only 3 of this last doz were fertile). So I ended up with 24 (well, now 23) chickens of mixed breed and don't even know what breeds their grandparents were. Funny, my friend got 6 hens out of 10 and looks like we will get only 8 hens out of 24.

 

[lauraleigh]

pw30, your post made me laugh! and I probably AM over-thinking all this! I just know I gotta make a place for them to live, be safe from my own animals, safe from coyotes, and safe from the elements. But I can't wait, and I'm so enjoying all your stories! I had no idea people gave away chickens! How fun!

 

[Cheep]

I inherited my 6 hens from my daughter's family. They had to move to a place where they could not have chickens, so I took them & had to find out (one way or another) what they were. It has been a fun process.

 

[matthewschickens]

Well. Murray McMurray sells things where you don't know what you get.
Some people just don't know! I didn't know the difference between a white and a black chicken when I started!

 

[Chicklette 1]

i am scared to death of getting too many roos but I had found one place, I think it was Purely Poultry or something like that which gave you a choice of male or female or straight run. I think I remember it was .50 more per chick if it was sexed. They also can ship small quantities because of having a short term heater they pack with them. Anybody ever tried them. Maybe if you are just starting out with a new flock, it would pay to make sure you get only pullets. I have one roo for sure out of my 5 three month old chickens and I don't want to have to get rid of any more.

 

[damselfish]

Chicklette I haven't heard of that hatchery. You could try MyPetChicken, they will ship small quantities too. And some breeds can be definitely sexed as day-olds...Red Sex-Links is an obvious one...Welsummer boys vs girls have different shaped head-markings, I'm sure there are others but I don't know which they are. Ask the hatchery for something with foolproof gender, they will know.

 

[Ariel301]

Quote:
Most hatcheries will sell sexed chicks from the large breeds, not so much on bantams because they are so tiny it is hard to do. Usually it costs a bit more for all females, and there can be an occasional accidental male in a box of pullets, but they are pretty accurate. The owner of Purely Poultry is on this forum; I have not ordered from him, but he seems friendly and knowledgeable.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
I have never had cuckoo Marans and after seeing lots of pictures and posts on here, I'm STILL not sure what the diffence is between them and barred rocks other than egg color. Ok, so maybe I'm stupid, lol I Know Doms have a rose comb, but darned if I can see a difference between Barred Rocks and Cuckoo Marans, esp. as chicks.

I Also ordered a "Suprise order of 100 chicks. I am sure of the breeds of three, yes three chicks and they are two weeks old.

 

[shesaredroan]

Mississippifarmboy,
I've been dealing with the same problem.......telling barred rock and cuckoo marans apart. Then I read something about barred rock having yellow shanks and the cuckoo have white shanks. I think I've got that right, at least that's the method I'm using for now. Hope it helps.

 

[kathydoolittle]

As for me I have what is known as chemo brain which means you memory isn't very good and you can forget something within seconds. When we got our chickens I was on chemo and can't remember all the breeds I got.