Just Ordered Chicks!

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doeseatoats

doeseatoats

Hatching
6 Years
Feb 1, 2013
6
0
7
Northern California
Hello everyone!

I'm Jordan, 25 year mom to a 6 year old daughter (homeschooled) and 17 month old son. I have been waiting to get chicks since I was 7 or 8 and just ordered my first chicks! I am so excited to start my homesteading dreams.

We are expecting 2 Araucanas, 2 Australorps, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Columbian Wyandottes, one Partridge Cochin hen and one Partridge Cochin Roo. (Fingers crossed! I know what we're expecting can be a lot different than what actually arrives.) We are going in on an order with a friend, so I'm a little nervous about being able to pick our chicks out of the mix. Considering just upping our order to 25 and getting them ourselves, but that seems like an awful lot to start with, and I don't think my husband would appreciate it overmuch. We haven't built a coop yet. If we order with our friend they'll be here March 18th, if we order ourselves we'll get them a month earlier.

Too excited!!
 
Greetings from Kansas, doeseatoats, and
welcome-byc.gif
! Great to have you aboard. Yeah, I know what you mean about not being able to pick yours out of the batch - day old chicks can look a lot alike. Some of the ones you mentioned will be easy to recognize - others, not so much. I wouldn't order more than you can handle. Is there a way the hatchery you are ordering from can mark then for you? Good luck to you!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC
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Good luck with your chicks and enjoy!
 
I'm so envious of those of you who get to order chicks! I ordered in the fall and my coops are full right now so no babies for me this spring.

If you wanted to place your own order for a smaller number of chicks you could order from someplace like My Pet Chicken that does small orders. Their chicks come from Meyer Hatchery and I usually order 8 to 10 at a time, never had one DOA yet. I think you might have a hard time trying to figure out who is who amongst 25 chicks.
 
Thank you so much, everyone!! I think we have decided to go ahead with the 25. We live in Northern California on six acres, which we rent. We don't have a good close outbuilding to brood them in, or a garage, but I think we'll keep them inside a few weeks and then move them out to the front porch, which we'll enclose in cardboard and keep covered. I talked to our local feed store and they said they would buy extra pullets from us, or that we would be able to sell them easily on Craigslist in this area. We also are thinking we may lose some to predators - we have coyotes, hawks, skunks and a bobcat that we've seen. We're diligently researching and taking steps to help keep our flock safe, but we want them to free range while we're home. We want the chickens to help keep the tick population down a bit, so we want them to be able to free range during the day.

We're in the planning stages of the coop. Planning for 25 is so different than 10! We want to do it as safely and cheaply as possible. I've been scouring the coop section here. Does anyone have any favorites for big flocks?
 

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