How many "packing peanuts" are you getting from ideal right now??

[sparkles2307]

I got 12 cochins from Ideal and 10 Leghorn packing peanuts....

 

[noodleroo]

Last week I got 11 buff orpington pullets from Ideal and they included 10 male silver laced wyandottes as 'peanuts'. 2 days in the mail and all have survived and are very lively. I couldn't be happier with them, that is unless some of my 'peanuts' are little girls!

 

[Berkshiremom]

Well I'm scared now!!!!!!! I just ordered 2 favorelle roo's and 4 favorelle pullets, and the women on the phone said I would definately recieve extra's for packaging warmth!!!!! what on earth will I do with the extra's? I just have a little backyard! And i'm still really new...how hard is it to tell the favorelles from the peanuts? Guess i'm gonna find out on friday...lol

 

[Doodle_Doo]

i got 8 cubalaya and got 13 production red males.

 

[IwannaBEaMERMAID]

I'll find out how many i'll get on Friday!!

 

[jossanne]

I got 16 bantams on April 20, and got 5 BR males for warmth.

Berkshiremom, it will be easy to tell the packing peanuts from your faverolles, I bet. Your babies will have fluffy beards around their chin and feathers on their feet, and the packing peanuts will be highly unlikely to have those. You could probably get rid of the extras very easily on craigslist. I was able to give mine away just a day or two after they arrived.

Look down at this bottom of this page , and you will see pics of what your babies should look like. Your peanuts will most likely look nothing like that!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Faverolles also have 5 toes, even as chicks. You could post an offer for your chicks on Craigslist, FreeCycle, your feedstore bulletin board, etc. Try to get someone to take them all at once. Especially if you think you'll be tempted to want to keep them. Let someone else feed & tend them, and decide what to do with them when they're grown.

 

[Berkshiremom]

Thank you so much for the link!!! That helps alot! I'm going to put the packing peanuts on craigslist right away...because I CAN"T get attached...lol I live in a small town and we are limited to 10 chickens total. But it will be really fun to see what kind of suprises come in the box...are they normally roo's...if I put them on craigslist, should I tell people they are roo's, or straight run? Thanks in advance for all the help.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

When you post your ad tell them what you know. That they are extras the hatchery sent you for warmth & protection. They are purebred somethings -- the hatchery may be able to tell you, or post pictures here & other folks can guess. That they are most likely to be roosters, the hatcheries typically use them for packing peanuts because that's what they have the most of to spare. However, the hatcheries can have up to a 10% margin of error in their sexing, so there is a slight chance there is a pullet there. This is different from straight run, where chicks are selected from a group that has not been sexed, and you hope for around a 50-50 split of sexes.

If you advertise them as straight run folks wanting a fairly even division of pullets & cockerels will be disappointed if they all turn out to be roos. If you advertise them as what they are, you should still find folks who want them, but will know what they're getting & why.

Last summer I was grateful to be given 2 different batches of packing peanuts from other folks' hatchery orders. They were SLWs & RIRs. A few went to other folks who wanted those breeds of roosters to husband their hens. The rest came in for dinner with my family, a worthy purpose.

 

[Berkshiremom]

Well my salmon faverolles came today..what a suprise!! It only took one day from Texas to MA!!!! and they were delivered to my door by post office!! I received 8 black/yellow chicks as packing peanuts, so it was really easy to tell them apart....and thanks to craigslist all packing peanuts were picked up within the hour!!! Ideal Poultry gets a thumbs up from me!!!