IDEAL POULTRY - Bantam Cochins *April 17 HAWAII

[brandoncakes]

Wish me luck. I heard about someone's tragic shipment from Ideal this past February, and pray that it won't happen to me. According to a local farm supply, a lot of chicks die on their way here to Hawaii. I really hope they all arrive safe and sound. I ordered:

Bantam Cochins
5 Birchen
5 Buff
5 Mottled
5 Red
5 Gold Laced

I will post pics and updates once they arrive . If you have pics of your Ideal chicks/adults from Ideal, please post!!

Brandon

 

[GardeNerd]

Best wishes for your shipment of baby chicks. Did Ideal say if they would ship overnight or expedited since they were going to Hawaii? I have had shipments from Ideal when the weather in TX was in the upper 20s and almost all the chicks arrived alive to Calif.

Almost everyone of the bantam cochin chickens I have had have been from Ideal. I get their assorted Cochins about once or twice a year. However, based on your list, I have only raised to maturity the buff. I have had three Buff hens. Most of the cochins have been very cute and nicely shaped, but one Buff was nick named "greasy chicken" because she had very poor feather quality making her look kind of homely. The only main complaint I have had about Ideal's buff cochins is the shells. For some reason, all 3 buff hens I have had laid eggs with thicker than normal membranes making them a less than prefect choice for hard cooked eggs. No big deal.

There are some pictures on my blog with my cochin chickens. Here is a link to where most of my cochin pics and where a few videos of them can be found. My photo storage here at BYC was maxed out without an upgrade long ago. Sorry.

I can't wait to see your chicks!

 

[brandoncakes]

THEY ARRIVED! Sorry for the late update, but the chicks arrived on April 18th. They hatched a day early, and took 2 days to get here. The postage on the box said Priority Mail, but maybe the postal workers knew they were chicks so they rushed it through. I was really surprised when I got the call on the 18th. I had to rush home to get the brooder light turned on and food/water set up before I went to get them. One died during travel, and another died 2 days ago(lost one Gold-Laced and one Mottled).

Love your photos/videos!!! Here are a few photos and a video of my new babies:

The box of chicks the day they arrived:



Red Cochin bantams:


Buff Cochin bantams:


Mottled Cochin bantams:


Gold-Laced Cochin bantams (lost one in shipping):


Birchen Cochin bantams:


Sleepy chicks 13 hours after their arrival:


VIDEO(

):

 

[aef808]

Hi Brandon, I am looking for a bantam source. Who did you order your Bantams from..I have my brooding hen in need of chicks..lol Amy

 

[brandoncakes]

Hi Amy,

I got my chicks from Ideal Poultry in Texas. I ordered directly though them. If you go to Kaneohe Farm Supply or Waimanalo Feed Supply, they will order for you(same hatchery), in whatever quantity you want. Kaneohe is more likely to cater to whatever breed/quantity you need, but they put the order in when enough people order. I ordered chicks through them back in February, and never received a call until April. Apparently they forgot about my order, then rushed in a new one when I sent a follow up email.

If you want to have your hen accept a brood of chicks, you gotta do it at night. Slide the chicks under her while she's sleeping, but monitor her throughout the night and the next day. You don't want to wake to a cage of injured/dead chicks.

 

[aef808]

Hi Brandon,
I just visited Ideal site... what a selection... too bad I wasn't raising chicks when I lived in Texas...My bantam raised all of my last year's group of standard hens..she's a great little hen, but she has no bantams to travel with. Mama as I call her is a blend of silkie and my "little red hen" a small hen I adopted from the humane society.. since taken by a neighbor and never seen again...she was quite unique and looked like a small football...cute!

thank you for the direction...I will send photos once I have a few new chicks...with mama of course... A

 

[brandoncakes]

Here are some photos of the babies. Top photos are the day they arrived(2 days old), bottom is 3 weeks old.

GOLD LACED:


BUFF:


RED:


MOTTLED:



BIRCHEN:


Lost a Gold Laced during shipment, and a Mottled 2 days after arrival. Other than that, everyone's feathering out nicely and doing well. They're definitely getting too big for their cage.

Brandon

 

[aef808]

Hi Brandon
I love the photos...
What kind of a coop set up do you have?
Amy

 

[brandoncakes]

Well I don't plan on keeping all 23, only 5 or so. They'll be in a small cage during the night, and out in the garden during the day. The cage is located in the house. I know what you're thinking, "EWWW Chickens in the house????" Yup. My adult cochin lived her entire life in the house. No smell, no mites, no dust. As long as the cage gets cleaned twice a day as usual, everything is super!

 

[brandoncakes]

If you mean what kind of setup they're in now, then its a large rabbit cage. Its getting really small now that they're bigger.