Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Hi! I’m in Northern Illinois, North of Rockford. I am looking for some chicks for my son’s first year of 4-H. We’ve got the Asiatic class covered, and Welsummers and Legbars on order. I’m looking for anyone within a reasonable distance with quality large fowl and bantams. Also looking for guineas and pheasants. Thanks!!!

My kids are in 4H too. We have Orpingtons. Many are rare colors from imported bloodlines. (silver laced & lavenders) Because those colors are rare in the US, they have not been accepted into the APA yet. We do get some black orps from our lavenders. FYI- Any blacks will genetically be blk-lav splits but physically look black. How well they do when showing will depend on the judge. My orps have the extra fluff and look round like basketballs. IMO- It's very impressive. They are not as small and sleek like most American Orpingtons. We do not have any chicks right now but will be hatching in spring.

 

[BReeder!]

Kids & animals will always make you laugh. You're lucky. With both you're guaranteed much amusement.

Your DS sounds a lot like mine. I'm sure I shared with you the story of a restaurant tantrum when he kept spitting out hard boiled eggs and screaming, "I want a REAL egg!" through his tears. (It was his 1st time tasting a store egg. He was not only used to eating backyard eggs, but also liked to pick out which hen it came from.)

Could you imagine a breakfast restaurant where you got to see the hen your egg came from? That would be cool.

 

[BReeder!]

My kids are in 4H too. We have Orpingtons. Many are rare colors from imported bloodlines. (silver laced & lavenders) Because those colors are rare in the US, they have not been accepted into the APA yet. We do get some black orps from our lavenders. FYI- Any blacks will genetically be blk-lav splits but physically look black. How well they do when showing will depend on the judge. My orps have the extra fluff and look round like basketballs. IMO- It's very impressive. They are not as small and sleek like most American Orpingtons. We do not have any chicks right now but will be hatching in spring.
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@kvent42 A+ in my opinion to Faraday40's Orps. We have two, 1 Lav and 1 Blue Silver Laced. The Lav in particular is a beautiful hen. Our's were hatched in July I think. They are still young and just coming into laying, but you can see the size and beauty already.

Lav's comb is starting to darken here as she just laid her first egg.

Like big butts?

Orps are off to the right at a nesting boxes.

You can see my Light Brahmas in this last pic also. They are the best looking hens in my opinion - the Orps are in a close 2nd and may sway me yet as they keep growing and looking better by the day. I don;t show chickens and am new to keeping them (only since March 2018), but we went to the Sandwich Fair this past Fall and my two Light Brahmas hens are far more attractive than what we saw there. They were hatchery chicks though from Farm and Fleet, so I really don't know the source. If I could keep a roo, I would breed Brahmas and Orps. I love the big hens!

 

[Faraday40]

Could you imagine a breakfast restaurant where you got to see the hen your egg came from? That would be cool.

That's an interesting idea...... I suppose we already do that for our house guests. LOL

We label each egg with the hen's name & date made. Our neighbors (who buy our eggs) stop by the backyard and thank the hens by name. LOL "Oh thank you, Bubbles. Your egg had such a creamy yolk and was delicious." We even get requests for specific hen's eggs. The neighborhood kids like Trouble's and Cookie's cute little eggs, and the guy behind us enjoys Jewel's big meaty Orpington eggs. (Those and the blue eggs from Tyrion are my favs.) To add variety, sometimes I'd slip 2 quail eggs in place of a chicken egg. We seriously had too many and there's only so many we could eat. I never labeled the quail eggs, so the best I could do was pull out a quail for a kid to pet.

I saw one egg company (organic, free range, pastured eggs that costs $9/doz at Whole Foods) which did something similar. They inserted a little slip of paper with a pic of their "hen of the week" and a little description of her breed, likes, etc. It was a cute marketing gimmick.

I suppose the closest thing to your restaurant idea would be "White Fence Farm" in Romeoville. I've never actually been there, but I was told they have a petting zoo at that location. I think it's a little closer to you, but perhaps we should meet up there someday.

 

[BReeder!]

That's an interesting idea...... I suppose we already do that for our house guests. LOL

We label each egg with the hen's name & date made. Our neighbors (who buy our eggs) stop by the backyard and thank the hens by name. LOL "Oh thank you, Bubbles. Your egg had such a creamy yolk and was delicious." We even get requests for specific hen's eggs. The neighborhood kids like Trouble's and Cookie's cute little eggs, and the guy behind us enjoys Jewel's big meaty Orpington eggs. (Those and the blue eggs from Tyrion are my favs.) To add variety, sometimes I'd slip 2 quail eggs in place of a chicken egg. We seriously had too many and there's only so many we could eat. I never labeled the quail eggs, so the best I could do was pull one out for a kid to pet.

I saw one egg company (organic, free range, pastured eggs that costs $9/doz at Whole Foods) which did something similar. They inserted a little slip of paper with a pic of their "hen of the week" and a little description of her breed, likes, etc. It was a cute marketing gimmick.

I suppose the closest thing to your restaurant idea would be "White Fence Farm" in Romeoville. I've never actually been there, but I was told they have a petting zoo at that location. I think it's a little closer to you, but perhaps we should meet up there someday.

We LOVE White Fence Farm. You really need to go. They do have a sort of petting zoo. I don't think guests get to go inside the animal patch, but you can walk up to the fence and pet the animals. I know they have Llamas and chickens. They may have sheep or goats too. Nearly every time we go it seems to be raining so we don't spend time by the animals and many are not out. Last time we were there my son got to see a Llama though in particular.
They have really good fried chicken and corn fritters (loaded with powder sugar). I don't think any of their food, even eggs, come from their own animals though. The animals are more for show.

 

[cavemanrich]

When I seen this.

This came to mind.............

Spoiler: Queen

 

[BReeder!]

When I seen this.

This came to mind.............

Spoiler: Queen

 

[BReeder!]

I came across this on Amazon.

 

[BReeder!]

Where is everybody? This thread seems to have slowed down lately. Anybody planning Spring hatches or placing chick orders? I want to think about Spring weather...

 

[NotAFarm]

There is an annual Easter hatchalong that will be a bit later this year than it was last year. Timing will be good for those of us in Illinois since Easter is April 21 this year.
I will put a link for the thread here when it gets started. All manner of fowl are hatched and the thread starts about 60 or so days before Easter so emu eggs can be included.