Idaho?

[polenslager]

Coeur d' Alene, here! Say, we're brand new--will be starting a small backyard flock this year, and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on reputable places to acquire chicks in this area... Most interested in Orps, australorps, rocks, etc....mostly for eggs, but looking for breeds that will do well around the kiddos. Thanks for any help!

Post Falls here. Last year I got some ducks and banties (black silkies) from Big R on trent. Good place to get chicks I think. We dont have the ducks anymore.. too messy!
The banties did well. Out of three we had two rosters tho.. I will have to give on away this spring. They seem to have good stock. Nice people there.

I like the D & B on government way in CDA a lot. They are by the fair grounds, and I think got bought out by Big R.
Another nice store to get chicks.
We have bard rocks, and buff orpintons and a red cross. All those have done well.

 

[Delilah1337]

I got my girls from D and B (Government Way and Kathleen) last year and they are really healthy and happy. Now that Big R took over Im hoping the quality of birds stays the same. I also got a couple of EE's from a feed and farm store further up Gvt way near Hanley and they couldnt be any more perfect. Good Luck with your new birds.

 

[Mr Peeps Mama]

I am in Meridian! I have a small flock of 20...black austrolorps, white rocks, polish, buff orpington, Osterwhite (sp) RIR , golden sexlinks and I have no idea what my little bantam rooster is. I should get around to posting a pic bcuz I'm sure someone would know what breed 'Little Henry' is. All of my hens, except the 2 Henry fathered are full size and it is hilarious watching this little teeny guy herd his big ladies around. I love my chickens! They get alot of care and it is showing, theyre laying pretty good for winter! How's everyone else' flock doing?

 

[LaurenV]

Mine's is awesome! But, my dad just killed 3 of them, they were old, and because we are going to get 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Silkie, and 1 Cochin.

 

[BeccaSmith]

My girls are on lock down from free ranging due to predators. How due you like the temps of the buff orpingtons and golden sexlinks? I'm going to get some from Dunlaps in February. Tempted to get some more barred rocks, but they were pretty aggresive towards the rest of the flock and any newbies so I was thinking of holding off on getting more. I lost them due to predators sadly.

I am in Meridian! I have a small flock of 20...black austrolorps, white rocks, polish, buff orpington, Osterwhite (sp) RIR , golden sexlinks and I have no idea what my little bantam rooster is. I should get around to posting a pic bcuz I'm sure someone would know what breed 'Little Henry' is. All of my hens, except the 2 Henry fathered are full size and it is hilarious watching this little teeny guy herd his big ladies around. I love my chickens! They get alot of care and it is showing, theyre laying pretty good for winter! How's everyone else' flock doing?

 

[Mr Peeps Mama]

Hi Becca! I LOVE the temperament of my buff orpington hen...she's the only orpington I have and her name is 'Buffy'. LOL How original, huh?
I have 4 golden sexlink hens, 2 of them are over a year old and then I bought two from Dunlops last year...they are all soooo people friendly and don't seem to fuss with the others. My austrolorp hens are the ones that are kind of bossy and I was surprised because I had always heard how docile that breed was. They are soooo pretty though and I love their little black eyes. All of my chickens are people friendly and dont seem to mind if I'm in their henhouse cleaning while they lay their eggs. I came up with a great idea for easy cleaning in the coop. My hens roost above the nesting boxes so they always get poop up there on the top of the boxes so I bought some contact paper and put it down then every morning I use a thin putty knife, scoop the poo off into a dust pan and then wash down the contact paper....works super good and I was surprised how durable the contact paper has been, it's been on there for about 8 months now and is just now starting to get little scratches in it. I chose one that had a bit of texture to it so they wouldnt slip slide around when walking it.
I have seen a red fox on our ditch bank 2 days in a row now and my dog wanted out at 4 am this morning. When I went to the coop this morning the chickens had evidently raised a fuss in the coop and broke their heat light...luckily it didnt shatter, it just broke in the socket. Something must have scared them. I'm fairly confident that the coop is predator safe but there's always that little worry. I have had the experience of losing some to a weasel and it is really heartbreaking when you make pets out of them like I do. So, you live in Meridian, where do you get your feed? I used to buy from D & B but now get it at the Feed Mill on Main st.

 

[BeccaSmith]

Beware, foxes will dig into your coop! We have lined one side with some landscape brick we had on hand and wasn't using to discourage predators from digging as we were seeing signs on digging along the outside of the coop. Pretty sure it wasn't the girls scratching and dust bathing.

We buy our feed from the Feed Mill on Main St. as well. I don't think I like the pellets so well as I do the crumbs, but mainly because that is what they were raised on. Also the pellets seem to be pretty powder and builds in the feeders and we have to scoop it out with our fingers from the feeders since it will back the pellets up. We started out with feed from Zamzow and I don't recall having this problem, although I would think the feed comes from the same place but could be wrong because the Feed Mill is owned by another Zamzow's family member.

 

[Mr Peeps Mama]

Our hen house is a wooden storage shed (the ones that look like a tiny barn) and it is sitting on cinder blocks so I'm pretty confident a fox couldnt get into the coop but as I said you still worry about it.
I started buying my feed from the feed mill bcuz my brother runs the mill there and has for as long as I can remember. Every once in awhile I go to D & B and buy a bag of their crumbles, it's a finer consistency than then what the feed mill has. I also like the crumbles better and the hens seem to like it, too. I never buy pellets anymore bcuz I have had that same experience with the pellets turning powdery and getting hung up. I also give mine chicken scratch.
I used to let my hens out every afternoon but havent since summer. We have a pair of BIG hawks living in the trees at the back of our property. Our whole chicken enclosure has a roof over the top and if the chickens get out in the yard to eat bugs, etc I have to stay with them bcuz those hawks occasionally do a fly by over my yard!
Do you sell your eggs? I sell mine and always have new people inquiring. I have the 18 hens and really could use more to have enough eggs for all that want them.

 

[BeccaSmith]

We have hawks as well in our area, but they seem to leave the chickens alone (keeping fingers crossed). Our field backs up to an agricultural field that is farmed every year, so perhaps they don't have a need to prey on our chickens, at least they haven't yet. We have sold our eggs and sold them pretty cheap as we weren't looking to make a profit, just didn't want the extra eggs to go bad and it helped cover the feed costs. But early this month when we had our predator problem we lost half the girls and one rooster that came from our neighbors and decided he wanted to live with our girls and are down to 4 or our original flock & one is molting plus we have two we took in last November but aren't laying. We are buying chicks in February, wish there we more local breeders around other then Dunlaps Hatchery. I don't mind driving an our, but most of what I have found are several hours away and only sell straight run and I am not able to drive that far for chicks...I can't justify it to my hubby. I would buy started pullets too but I don't have a way to quarantine them from the current flock for 4 to 5 weeks. At least with chicks when they get large enough they won't have to have a full quarantine and can be in the coop but separated by a temporary fence for a short time. Out of the many valuable things I have learned on this forum is to quarantine any incoming adult birds due to diseases....I didn't do that with the two we took in but will never do it again unless I am properly set up for it.

 

[Mr Peeps Mama]

You have hawks in your area, too? Wouldnt that be too funny if your area was also my area? hahaha I'm off Franklin & Linder. I'm not sure what kind of hawks these are, but they arent just little chicken hawks (though I've seen those too). The ones that live on the property are huge...like bigger than the chickens huge and they occasionally fly around and around over our house. I kind of worry about our cat, too. In the summer when I would let the chickens out and then sit out there and watch out for them the chickens could spot the hawks before I would and would run under the rose bushes or under the shrubs, whichever was closest. I had one fly within 8 feet of me once, he just kind of swooped down in the yard and flew past me to my fence and just perched there a minute. He didnt seem to think I was much of a threat to him bcuz he wasnt in a big hurry to fly off either.
My husband IS the reason I sell the eggs....We have figured out that selling the eggs not only cares for the chickens but they pay part of the horses way, too....so finally he's okay with my animals. He didnt have any pets at all, not even a goldfish growing up and his parents wouldnt let them have any so his animal experiences were pretty much once a year when they visited Grandma in Oregon. We do have 2 dogs, a cat and 2 horses in addition to the chickens and he does love them all....kids me alot about eating my chickens though. THAT will never happen.
Yeah, I will never do the straight run thing either. I make pets out of everybody so that would never work for me. Some people do that and just eat the roosters. I had a mama hatch babies this year and ended up with 2 pullets and 2 cockerels. I probably wouldve kept the roosters but the one young one started beating the other young one up so I had to sell one of them. So now I have 2 roosters, the old one and then the one baby who is now 9 months old. The old one is really tiny, he's some type of bantam, not sure what breed, I should post his picture on here and have someone solve the mystery for me. Anyway, the old one has the young one buffaloed even though he's half the size of the young one so unless war breaks out I can deal with 2 roosters. I might get some more pullet chicks this year. I would like to have more of the sexlinks, they have such a great disposition and they lay really nice eggs. I would kind of like to have some barred rocks, too....I love the variety, it's so hard to choose! If I had room I'd probably have 2 of each!