Illinois...

[NotAFarm]

West-central Illinois. Brand new to raising chickens, get my first shipment of chicks in early April: three silver laced wyandottes, three black australorps, and three barred rocks. Coop and run almost finished, just waiting for that warm weather to return.

and to the Illinois thread!

Nice looking coop! ....ditto on the waiting for the warm weather!

 

[cavemanrich]

West-central Illinois. Brand new to raising chickens, get my first shipment of chicks in early April: three silver laced wyandottes, three black australorps, and three barred rocks. Coop and run almost finished, just waiting for that warm weather to return.

Welcome to our thread.. Very nice coop. I have a few suggestions for you to give some consideration. I see that you do have ventilation at the top. That may be sufficient for cold weather, (depending on number of chickens) but insufficient for summer hot nights. I know that during the day, they will be outside in run area. You also may want to add some windows to give them natural light. The windows, if secured with hardware cloth would provide the extra summer ventilation when opened.
Above all........

 

[ChicagoClucker]

West-central Illinois. Brand new to raising chickens, get my first shipment of chicks in early April: three silver laced wyandottes, three black australorps, and three barred rocks. Coop and run almost finished, just waiting for that warm weather to return.

Nice Coop and Welcome

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Kind of regretting slipping those eggs under the broody hens. Found Minnie, the proven broody, off her nest for more than an hour today. Ugg, and she had the majority of the cuckoo eggs. They were cold when I went to see if someone else was covering the nest. So I slipped them under the other 2 broody hens just in case.

 

[ChiTownJavas]

I had posted this in Random Ramblings but it was suggested I post this here as well. A local farm museum is hosting a course on raising backyard chickens

If you know anyone in the Chicagoland/Northern Illinois area that was interested in chickens and didn't know where to start they can try here! It's at Garfield Farm Museum on the 19th at 1pm. They raise Javas (which I know a number of people on the site have gotten from the farm) and have a couple at the class.

Here's a link for your Facebook users out there https://www.facebook.com/events/398206040533356/

Otherwise, thanks for reading the post and enjoy your day.

Have a picture of a couple o' ladies gossiping around the water cooler

 

[cavemanrich]

@ChiTownJavas
Do you raise Javas? How are they??

 

[ChiTownJavas]

@cavemanrich I used too but we moved to Evergreen Park a few months back and it's not legal here (yet!) and had to sell them. For now I am working on changing the local ordinance and volunteering at the local farm to get my chicken fix

 

[Faraday40]

Does anyone know a trick to identify whether a chick is a Speckled Sussex, Brown Leghorn, or Welsummer?

When I was venting about the recent trouble with my Spitzhauben order, I didn't realize that they may have mixed up my SS as well. Last year I had a wonderful experience ordering Cackle chicks via Farm N Fleet. This year I went with the new store that is slightly closer. Basically they put all the special orders on the sales floor in one big tub. When I went to pick them up, a sales girl took the Cackle catalog & tried to pick out my chicks from the bin. She pulled out an EE & asked if it were a Spitzhauben. ??? I only found 3 chicks that resembled Spitzes, so they ordered me 3 that should arrive in April. I think they probably gave my Spitzes to someone else.

They had several chipmunk-like chicks. When I asked, they said that multiple customers had ordered speckled sussex. I took 5 & went home. Later I realized that they may not be pullets like I had paid for & perhaps even a different breed. They do not have pea combs nor beards, so EEs are the only kind I can rule out for now. That's why I'm asking if there may be any tips to help tell the differences between breeds. All have the "eyeliner" and 3 dark stripes, but a couple look fluffier. What shank color should they have? Any feather patterns to look for?


Here are the 1st 3 of the 5 chicks with view from the front, side wings, & top back. They are about 8-9 days old.







Here are the other 2 with pics from the same angles.

 

[Faraday40]

More chick pics:
@Junibutt
Here are Oopsie's chicks. (She has a 3rd one, but It's leg band fell off.) The blue one acts pretty friendly & DD likes it - which has always meant: rooster. However, its sibling looks about the same. Can't guess on gender yet.





Also can't tell if blue has a very slight head spot / barring. Oopsie's the only Orp that could make a blue chick. If it's barred, then Brick would have to be the father.

Close up of blue orp's wings. What do you think?



I only have one chick that I truly feel is a male. (I think it may be a Bielefelder mix, because it just has that shape. I'm pretty sure it's not a purebred black cuckoo orp & therefore likely a male biele x orp mix.) If anyone wants him, he's free. He'd make a good-sized dinner in the future. Both Bieles & orps are very docile & grow XL. Bieles grow a little faster and males seem to take about 5 months to crow.

 

[Faraday40]

Here are my Silver Appenzeller Spitzhauben. (They borrowed a guitar from Barbie....)

These are so much lighter than the ones I hatched last year.