Thanks! Happy to be here! I have only lurked on BYC for about seven years. LOL
It's so great to finally be "expecting"!
Silkies are becoming a favorite here too. You have a nice mix planned!
Thank you! I had a slightly different mix chosen until I realized MPC wouldn't ship what I wanted until May...then I had to start all over again with what was actually available May...
Haha It won't take long once your DH sees those chicks and starts staring at "Chicken TV" He will be smitten.
I didn't know BR and EE came in bantam size. I have one of each in LF and they both lay the largest and nicest eggs-- and my EE's is the prettiest of course. Silkies have grown on me since I've been on this thread (around a year now). I am hoping to get a couple of them in the future. I will get your avatar to you tomorrow.
You're so kind to do that for me!
Yes, DH is definitely coming around. It doesn't hurt that I have made my family watch the live brooder cam on Animal Planet...so in a way he has already seen "ChickenTV." LOL! But it will be so much better to have "live theatre." We have four children, so the three old enough to understand what we're talking about have already started picking out names. (Princess Layin', anyone?) The three oldest are boys. I thought they might be blasé about the birds, but I showed them the photos on MPC and they have already picked out which ones are "theirs." Now just crossing fingers that all the chicks are healthy and travel well. Thankfully they'll all be in school when I pick them up from the PO that day. Baby girl is just excited about "chickie butts." Not sure she understands we're getting our own. She will be three then. She'll probably go crazy!
Re: the bantam BR and EE, they must be fairly new, because they didn't show up on any of the "choose your chicken" selectors online. I had to backward research them from the "available" date, cross reference them to BYC and other sites to see if they were any good. The EEs should only be 24 oz at maturity! Tinier than the BRs or Silkies. (BR will be about the same size as the Silkies per all the info I could find.)
Supposedly all these breeds are good with kids. So important when you have almost as many kids as you'll have chickens, I think. I want those kids to have fun with them and help Mama out with birdie chores.
Now if I can just figure out what to do about a run...we inherited a lovely coop from the previous homeowner. I did the math and it's the perfect size for six bantams...but no run attached! We live on a hill and it drops off right next to the coop, so I'm not sure how I'll work that out, but feel pretty sure I need one, since we have two dogs. I plan on training the dogs stringently to leave the chicks alone (possibly even to be protective of them, if that's possible), but we need a run, regardless.
Here is a silly question perhaps y'all can answer for me...is it better to have a detached run that I can move around the yard, or to figure out how to attach it stationary to the coop? I've been thinking stationary because I have a small fenced yard. We have 3 acres altogether but only about 1/3 acre is fenced, and that's where I plan on letting the chickens roam. We already have trouble with grass because we live in the woods, so I'm not worried about burning up a nice lawn. I feel like we should cut a hole in the side of the coop even though it's on a hill, and just make stationary run there,but if there's some advantage to a portable run, I'm open-minded about that.
Thanks for the warm welcome!!!
Pretty cute. They haven't been able to find a good spot to bathe with all of the mud and snow. The bulk of my chickens will be leaving this weekend to go live with Chick Rookie, she will be a fantastic mama to my babies. I had been in a sort of "partnership" with the chickens with a friend that lives about 15 minutes from me. We were splitting costs and agreed that she would come up twice a week to help with care and was taking 1/2 the eggs. She got a new job and her husband didn't take to the experiment so she hasn't been able to help me much with the chickens. I have decided to go it alone in order to be able to reduce flock numbers and since I was doing 95% of the work myself anyway. So most of our "partnership" chickens have to go 
It didn't seem fair to keep them all and completely cut her out and I didn't need as many for just myself. I did talk to her and we agreed that I would keep a few of the oldest hens (3 years old) since we are the most attached to them and a couple that I bought myself. Then I will add some of my own and do this by myself. I really wanted a couple female Cochins and a Maran for the dark eggs so I have ordered chicks for the first time! All of my experience has been with getting pullets that were close to the point of lay. I am super excited and a bit nervous to have them in my super small house! I am also concerned about getting too attached to them - it seems a bit easier to only get kind of attached when you get them as adults. I am going to be Mother2Hens in no time raising them myself! I of course had to order extras to meet the order minimum, so I am not sure how many I will get attached to/keep in the end. I am nervously awaiting the arrival of my chick gear as well as the following chicks: 2 Partridge Cochins, 1 Red Cochin, 1 Gold Laced Cochin, 1 Buff Brahma, 1 Buff Orpington, 2 Easter Egger. All were sexed as pullets and don't be surprised if I offer some of them at some point, I really need to re-home some of the extras if I can make myself do it! And I am getting Brad's latest three Birchen Maran chicks and hoping at least one is a female! I am also working on a new screen name since Farker Farms was our "partnership" farm name. If someone new while alarmingly familiar with you all starts posting, probably me!
