Idaho?

[AnotherMeOhMy]

A word of caution:
I read a thread here on BYC about a lady who took some chickens from someone that couldn’t keep them anymore. They were completely human raised mostly inside the house.
These chickens had absolutely NO clue about danger or predators or anything.
It’s like they had no instinct anymore.
The lady said a hawk came down and as she was running outside and her birds were running for cover these other chickens just continued foraging or just stood there.
Unfortunately one was taken by the hawk before she could do anything.

Yes that is one of our big fears. Its one teason why we wont try to send him/her into the flock. Although there is a possibility that August wont be run off by the others, we dont feel he/she would be safe if we turned him/her loose outside with all the other ranch chickens. We have concerns that August will either be attacked by the flock members or taken by prey. We plan on making a fully enclosed run for August to be able to spend time outside being a chicken.
Currently I place large dog kennel outside on the ranch and just temove the tray. That way he/she can still see the other birds,watch them and get good periods of time out on the ranch but with an arena thats safe.

 

[CannedMonster]

Yes that is one of our big fears. Its one teason why we wont try to send him/her into the flock. Although there is a possibility that August wont be run off by the others, we dont feel he/she would be safe if we turned him/her loose outside with all the other ranch chickens. We have concerns that August will either be attacked by the flock members or taken by prey. We plan on making a fully enclosed run for August to be able to spend time outside being a chicken.
Currently I place large dog kennel outside on the ranch and just temove the tray. That way he/she can still see the other birds,watch them and get good periods of time out on the ranch but with an arena thats safe.

I’d keep trying to find a friend or two for August.
Is it still a chick?
If it’s less than two weeks old it shouldn’t be too hard to integrate a couple of other chicks.
If it’s older you could try a chick close to the same age or older.

 

[AnotherMeOhMy]

I’d keep trying to find a friend or two for August.
Is it still a chick?
If it’s less than two weeks old it shouldn’t be too hard to integrate a couple of other chicks.
If it’s older you could try a chick close to the same age or older.

August is 35 days old.
I tried several times to get the mother hen to care for August, but all attempts failed.I tried a couple times to introduce her/his hatchmates which also did not work out.
So I was stuck in a dilemma.
The mother hen started out with about 7 chicks. 3 days later she had 3. Now she only has 2 . Not great odds.
When I found my chick he/she was half dead laying in the dirt,abandoned by her.
I had a choice of leaving it there in the dirt and walking away in day 1, or trying to nurse it back to health. Was a runt so tiny. I honestly didnt expect it to live,neither did the rancher.
Somehow I nurtured it enough to thrive.
So the baby was alive and kicking. Returning to the flock wasnt an option as the mother still couldnt bothered.
If I left it outside after I got it healthy its chances of survival out there were maybe 20%.
If I had never picked it up,its chances were 0%
The more I cared for it the stronger and healthier it got.
At that point I didnt have much choice but to raise it. Integrating wasnt working and just the same as I couldnt leave it in the dirt to die on day 1, even moreso after I managed to get it healthy I couldnt bring myself to leave it with the flock on day 3 now that it was imprinted on me. So I was in a catch 22 and decided its better to be alive since it was healthy than to let it fend for itself and likely die some sort of painful death. I never anticipated that it would peck and push away other chicks.

So I became a mother hen.

 

[Budda's Birds]

Does anyone here in Idaho show? Are there and good bird shows besides the fairs around here?

Oh by the way I’m from Nampa.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

Does anyone here in Idaho show? Are there and good bird shows besides the fairs around here?

Oh by the way I’m from Nampa.

As far as I know there's nothing around but the fairs.

 

[Chicken Whisperers]

Hey! I'm from western meridian, really close to Nampa. I think theres only the Western Idaho Fair every August. Next year I'm planning to enter my EE roo, but I've never showed a bird before. Well see .

 

[Budda's Birds]

Thanks for the quick replies, I want to get more serious about breeding and thought that showing might be worth a try as well.

 

[CannedMonster]

Thanks for the quick replies, I want to get more serious about breeding and thought that showing might be worth a try as well.

I’m planning on doing some breeding too.
Mine will be mixed breeds for the most part.
I also have a friend up here in Emmett who has a lot of chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.
She sells a lot of them.

 

[Budda's Birds]

I plan on breeding Wheaten Marans. I started this endeavor in 2011. I had built myself a nice flock of Marans but I spread myself thin hatching other breeds for fun and then school also took high priority than the birds. Now that I’ve been done with school for two years I want to get back on track. I hatched 3 chicks from my aged old flock 2 pullets and a cockerel.

They look promising and hopefully will be a​

good start to the flock. I also hope some of my old girls will lay a little in the spring and I can use some of them. I have also ordered the most recent APA SOP. The version I currently have was printed before Wheaten Marans were approved by the APA.

Here are a few photos of my 3 young birds.

 

[CannedMonster]

I plan on breeding Wheaten Marans. I started this endeavor in 2011. I had built myself a nice flock of Marans but I spread myself thin hatching other breeds for fun and then school also took high priority than the birds. Now that I’ve been done with school for two years I want to get back on track. I hatched 3 chicks from my aged old flock 2 pullets and a cockerel.

They look promising and hopefully will be a​

good start to the flock. I also hope some of my old girls will lay a little in the spring and I can use some of them. I have also ordered the most recent APA SOP. The version I currently have was printed before Wheaten Marans were approved by the APA.

Here are a few photos of my 3 young birds.
View attachment 1579251 View attachment 1579252 View attachment 1579253 View attachment 1579255 View attachment 1579256​

Beautiful!