Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Time for some cute chick pics!

Trouble says, "MINE!!!! They're all MINE!"

 

[Faraday40]

I really needed some quality chicken time today. Yesterday was horrible!

Due to our handyman's tractor issues, our lawn went over 2 weeks with no mowing. The guys finally came to mow the lawn yesterday. They didn't mean to, but when moving the chicken tractor, they put it down on Asha's head. (Asha was the 10 week old OEG chick that DD hatched from eggs she got for her birthday.) I normally move the tractor at night after the babies go to bed in the big coop, so they must have been pretty freaked out. Ironically, we use the chicken tractor to keep them safe. I did not see it or hear any squawking due to the mowing. Sadly it was DD who made the gruesome discovery. Yesterday was her last day of school. When she came home she went right to the chicken tractor to play with her babies. I was working in the garden & heard her screaming. Asha was the blue brassy back that loved to be rubbed. She would stand perfectly still when being pet and leaned a little into it. She acted more like a dog than a chicken. I just can't believe it!

I'm still a mess with emotions. I'm in shock & angry, but I also know it was an accident. Our handyman's a long time friend and I know he'll feel bad when I tell him about it. My kids are devastated. There were a lot of tears and I can't bring Asha back. DD was looking forward to spending today training them. The bantam buddies were all crying out for Asha at bedtime. DH was already exhausted after a long day & had to bury the body in the heat. Also, how come it's always the favorites?

I just lost my all-time fav roo, Mr Dummy. One of my orig hens, Precious, is dying (internally laying) and will have to be put down at some point. And now, poor, sweet Asha.

RIP Asha

Before all that, I had a good day. I was happy about the recent hatch (4 blue, 5 lav, 4 laced, and 3 black), was receiving emails from people wanting chicks, and got some stuff planted in the garden.

So, I worked at keeping myself busy and played with some chicks for therapy.

 

[chickendreams24]

So sorry for your loss. Sending hugs for you all.

Poor little Asha

I know how devestated your DD must have been.

There seems to be an oegb shortage on the illinois thread.

Just feeling out right now if anyone would conaider going in on an order at some point for oegb or any bantams? No certain plans yet but I'm thinking my silkie group is looking boyish and I've been planning to add some more oegb to my flock for a year now. The problem is I don't want the minimum order.

If anyone is interested we can discuss it later, as I said I'm just feeling it out. The nearly 75 chicks I have in 5 different brooders in the porch will all be heading out to the back side of the coop after Saturday. That's good. The two smallest brooders aren't covered because I ran out of our homemade covers (I've never had 5 brooders of chicks before!) So they have learned they can fly out and have take over half of the porch. Yesterday I walked out to find DH2B had baracaded them on that side of the porch using one of my cookie sheets... Of course they have since learned that they can jump that too.


LOL

 

[cavemanrich]

Faraday..........

 

[Molpet]

I really needed some quality chicken time today. Yesterday was horrible!

Due to our handyman's tractor issues, our lawn went over 2 weeks with no mowing. The guys finally came to mow the lawn yesterday. They didn't mean to, but when moving the chicken tractor, they put it down on Asha's head. (Asha was the 10 week old OEG chick that DD hatched from eggs she got for her birthday.) I normally move the tractor at night after the babies go to bed in the big coop, so they must have been pretty freaked out. Ironically, we use the chicken tractor to keep them safe. I did not see it or hear any squawking due to the mowing. Sadly it was DD who made the gruesome discovery. Yesterday was her last day of school. When she came home she went right to the chicken tractor to play with her babies. I was working in the garden & heard her screaming. Asha was the blue brassy back that loved to be rubbed. She would stand perfectly still when being pet and leaned a little into it. She acted more like a dog than a chicken. I just can't believe it!

I'm still a mess with emotions. I'm in shock & angry, but I also know it was an accident. Our handyman's a long time friend and I know he'll feel bad when I tell him about it. My kids are devastated. There were a lot of tears and I can't bring Asha back. DD was looking forward to spending today training them. The bantam buddies were all crying out for Asha at bedtime. DH was already exhausted after a long day & had to bury the body in the heat. Also, how come it's always the favorites?

I just lost my all-time fav roo, Mr Dummy. One of my orig hens, Precious, is dying (internally laying) and will have to be put down at some point. And now, poor, sweet Asha.

RIP Asha

Before all that, I had a good day. I was happy about the recent hatch (4 blue, 5 lav, 4 laced, and 3 black), was receiving emails from people wanting chicks, and got some stuff planted in the garden.

So, I worked at keeping myself busy and played with some chicks for therapy.

 

[Molpet]

Well I guess I had better fire up the incubator.. just in case... These poults are very dry and fluffy for supposed to hatch Monday the 4th...no chicks in sight in, just 4 poults.... She had six eggs of each.

 

[Justso]

I really needed some quality chicken time today. Yesterday was horrible!

Due to our handyman's tractor issues, our lawn went over 2 weeks with no mowing. The guys finally came to mow the lawn yesterday. They didn't mean to, but when moving the chicken tractor, they put it down on Asha's head. (Asha was the 10 week old OEG chick that DD hatched from eggs she got for her birthday.) I normally move the tractor at night after the babies go to bed in the big coop, so they must have been pretty freaked out. Ironically, we use the chicken tractor to keep them safe. I did not see it or hear any squawking due to the mowing. Sadly it was DD who made the gruesome discovery. Yesterday was her last day of school. When she came home she went right to the chicken tractor to play with her babies. I was working in the garden & heard her screaming. Asha was the blue brassy back that loved to be rubbed. She would stand perfectly still when being pet and leaned a little into it. She acted more like a dog than a chicken. I just can't believe it!

I'm still a mess with emotions. I'm in shock & angry, but I also know it was an accident. Our handyman's a long time friend and I know he'll feel bad when I tell him about it. My kids are devastated. There were a lot of tears and I can't bring Asha back. DD was looking forward to spending today training them. The bantam buddies were all crying out for Asha at bedtime. DH was already exhausted after a long day & had to bury the body in the heat. Also, how come it's always the favorites?

I just lost my all-time fav roo, Mr Dummy. One of my orig hens, Precious, is dying (internally laying) and will have to be put down at some point. And now, poor, sweet Asha.

RIP Asha

Before all that, I had a good day. I was happy about the recent hatch (4 blue, 5 lav, 4 laced, and 3 black), was receiving emails from people wanting chicks, and got some stuff planted in the garden.

So, I worked at keeping myself busy and played with some chicks for therapy.

Very sorry to hear! This is a tough spring.

 

[Life is Good!]

Question for those who sell chicks on Craigslist (I know you're here - I've seen your chicks advertised! LOL)
What do you do if you sell chicks and the buyer wishes 'only hens'? We all know that's not reality...do you take chicks back? Do you grow them out and sell older pullets? How to do you manage this?
All advise is welcome before I jump into this pond!

 

[Molpet]

Question for those who sell chicks on Craigslist (I know you're here - I've seen your chicks advertised! LOL)
What do you do if you sell chicks and the buyer wishes 'only hens'? We all know that's not reality...do you take chicks back? Do you grow them out and sell older pullets? How to do you manage this?
All advise is welcome before I jump into this pond!

I used FB and since I raise for the freezer... I offer to take them back, no one ever bought any back because they didn't want them eaten LOL


Faraday usually sells as straight run

 

[Faraday40]

Question for those who sell chicks on Craigslist (I know you're here - I've seen your chicks advertised! LOL)
What do you do if you sell chicks and the buyer wishes 'only hens'? We all know that's not reality...do you take chicks back? Do you grow them out and sell older pullets? How to do you manage this?
All advise is welcome before I jump into this pond!

I offer to take them back (not for refund - just as a favor if they can't have roosters) I also do my best to help them pick out females. If they bring males back and later buy more chicks - then I may take a few $ off. Most of my customers come back wanting more after owning a pair of my orps. They also spread the word to their friends.

I simply give away any chicks I beleive are male (to people willing to take them) or I process them myself if they're 10wks or more. Yes, I should grow them out for 5-6 mo, but when they're that young, it's like eating a very big quail or cornish hen.

The harder part is if the buyers bring back a rooster & also own hens from other sources. Due to biosecurity, I do not allow that rooster in my yard. So it's either process him ASAP or keep him in the house until he finds a nice forever home. If the rooster came from a place that only bought chicks from me, I'll let him stay in the garage until a home is found. I've had a few very worthy, wonderful roosters that I was happy to place in new homes.

Selling chicks is rewarding = You'll meet a lot of great people & stay in touch with some of them. I really enjoy seeing how my chicks turned out & hearing how well they're doing in their new homes.
Selling chicks is time-consuming = You'll spend hours answering email ?s & hosting visitors. Some people only want to take up your time, use you as a chicken prep class, & petting zoo.
Selling chicks requires patience = You'll get a lot of silly people that must be screened out. "What's a coop? Can't I just let the chicks "free range" in the backyard?" or "I already have a few hens, I was thinking of adding a few chicks. The adults will keep them warm and care for them right?" or "I need a 2nd chick because my other feed store chick died..... We ran out of the free sample of chick feed, so we just gave them bread...." (Sad to say, but I get about 1 call a year from someone who killed a chick & is looking for a replacement buddy bird or wants to dump the remaining chick here.)
Selling chicks only sometimes makes $ = After all your work hatching, caring for chicks, posting ads, and answering all the email ?s, you may end up selling only 2 $5 chicks. I have a small list of people who I can donate extra chicks to if I end up with more than I can handle. Last year I actually lost $ on my choc cuckoo orps. I thought people would like a rare purebred that was sexable at hatch, but they're just not as cute as my lav chicks. I ended up selling off all my chocolate orps. The few people who bought them send me pics & wanted more this year. I think they were just too rare for most people. I'm seeing the same with my laced orps. People love the way the SLOs look but they are a very, very pricey breed, difficult to obtain, and "fussy" to breed. Other times, someone from out of state will seek me out and want to buy up the entire brooder.
Selling chicks works in cycles = In March I just didn't have enough chicks. As soon as they hatched, they were gone before I even posted an ad. Right now, there are a lot of people giving away free chicks. There's also a lot of people who ordered hatchery chicks and are selling off the extras. I still have a lot I wish to sell. Perhaps I need to learn how to use Facebook......