I do believe we've lost our minds...

[Jeffross1968]

So, yesterday, we ordered 25 chicks from Murray McMurray, for a ship date of week of 2/20. We chose this because our incubator had 8 eggs in it and we needed a few weeks to brood them and set them outside in our small coop we use for brooding of 3-4 week plus old chicks. However, we are at the end of day 22, with no pips, and we were harassed (ok, just one email) by Ideal with some rare pullet special! I could have fought this by myself...but no, Gretchen, my wife, said, "hey, we should do that since we won't have any chicks in the house until late February!!!".

So there you have it. 25 chicks week of Feb 1st, and another 25 the week of the 20th. We've gone over the edge, we realize this, and now we'll just have to embrace the insanity....

 

[ssellis]

Might I ask how much Land do you have,I ordered 25 from mcmurray too. my coop only holds 10. Guess the rest will have to free range. or swap out.I want to later build a hoop coop.

 

[Jeffross1968]

Well we're on a full mountain acre and they free range almost all day. Believe me, the utilize the hole property. I'm planning an addition to our coop, but most of these will probably get sold after we decide on the ones we like the most. The Ideal one is a "rare breeds" order, so we probably won't know what we have for awhile. The ones from McMurray are 8 different breeds, and we should know relatively early on which ones are which. Planning on keeping one of each breed and selling the rest. Guess it depends on how big of an addition I'll be making

 

[OkChickens]

Chicken math is wonderful! We are almost done hatching 16 dozen RSL Eggs! We sell all of the male chicks and we keep about 80 females to grow out to replace out 1 1/2 year old RSL. I love hatching and raising chicks! We are on 2 acres and the 80 RSL Free Range the whole 2 acres every day!

Nate

 

[gryeyes]

I know exactly what you mean! I am fighting the urge to order another pullet special, while I have 23 chicks only 3 weeks old which I incubated and hatched. Hatching is wonderful, and you can get special breeds, but it's straight run results. My flock of freely ranging 50 "or so" forage all over my .62 of an acre.

MORE! More! I want more! Mwaaahaaahahaaaaa

 

[bj taylor]

baby chicks are scary. my first ones come in a few days. they're going to be soooo fragile. i figure #1 is keep 'em warm & #2 is keep 'em hydrated - then figure it out from there.

 

[HHandbasket]

I know what you mean. I am looking at all the hatchery websites & droooooooooling over all the cute fuzzybutts! We'll probably order our turkey poults sometime in the next couple of weeks because we wanted to raise our own for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, and Ideal has assured me that they will fill the box with extra roosters. I told them go right on ahead, I'm sure they also will be very tasty when the time comes. Mwahahahaha.

 

[yoie]

I know I've lost my mind. If my sweet DH only knew how many chicks were coming he would kill me! I have two orders one from Ideal that has a mix of different breeds of female chicks for layers, 25 silkies so I and a few friends can get a girl or two, a few ducks and a pair of geese. Then I have another order from Mt.Healthy for some EE's and Dixie Rainbows for more layers. Both orders are coming Feb. 29th and I still don't have my new coops built. The plans look awesome on paper, but that is as far as I got. My plan was to have them built by the time my chicks come so I can use my current coop as a brooder since it has electricity. But looks like I'm brooding 17+25+15 chicks (looks like a smaller number that way

), plus 4 ducks and 2 geese in my house. You do the math and let me belive it's not that many chicks coming to me. Did I mention I live on an almost acre. Chicken math you've got to love it!