Kentucky people

[mollymoore]

@kysilkies Your birds are very beautiful! I only wish I had room for more chickies!



Edit: Just to give the locals an update on my order of 4 wyandotte chicks. The first 48 hours home has just passed and everything has gone perfectly so far. My chicks' hatch date was Monday, they were packed and shipped around noon. They went to Cleveland from Meyers hatchery and left from there about 9pm Monday night. They made it to Lexington about 10am on Tuesday. I couldn't get to the post office until I finished my shift at work, but I had them home by 4:30pm Tuesday evening.

When I went to check on them and clean their dog crate home yesterday, I noticed everyone has lost their egg tooth. Today when I got home they're up to chick antics, eating, drinking, pooing and napping happily. If I didn't have such poor lighting, I'd share a photo. I'm tickled pink.

I just thought I'd give an update since you guys were so supportive of me when I was trying to figure out how to get my tiny flock started with my favorite breed. Thanks, y'all!

 

[McKennA]

Does anyone know the rules for selling eggs at Chicken Swaps? Less than 60 dozen, so from what I understand I do not need license, but do they have to be in new cartons, washed and refrigerated? I usually just rinse mine in warm water, and put them in the fridge. If selling do you have to sanitize with some kind of solution? I am pretty sure I have seen eggs in reused cartons, but I am not sure if that is correct.

 

[CluckyInKY]

From Utica in Daviess County, 7 miles south of Owensboro.
A little background info:
We live on a corn & soybean farm where my husband is a 4th generation farmer. I always begged my mom to move to a farm & have chickens, and look at me now! Living the dream! We also have an 11 year old daughter(Julia), 5 cats, and a sweet (but useless) cocker spaniel.
I'm new to this chicken raising stuff, but I'm already a bit obsessed with my six 4.5 week old girls! We have a variety pack of breeds, and to be honest, I'm not even sure which breed some of them are. My daughter and I were a little too excited after FINALLY getting the ok from my husband to start our flock. Went straight to Rural King and my daughter started putting chicks in the box before I could even see what she was getting. We do know they all came from different bins & all (supposedly) female. I know Roxie, my favorite, is a Barred Rock... She will run to you, loves to be petted, and will cuddle you when you hold her! Never knew chickens could be so loving! I'm fairly certain we also have an Austrolorp, named Raven, (who is a loud mouth, but adorable & little). 3 had the chipmunk pattern when they still had their baby fur. I want to say the bins for them were Pro Red and some type of Leghorn... the last bin was unmarked, but I guess that's what you get when you buy from a feed store (which I now know isn't always the best idea).We had one chick that started out very blonde, which we got out of the Buff Orp bin, but someone on BYC told me she def was not BO. I know we didn't get any EEs bc I wanted brown eggs... One of the few facts I knew about chickens at that point.
So, as we build our coop and run, I'm accounting for chicken math, so I doubled the square footage needed for my existing girls... But even before we are finished, I'm wishing I would have built bigger. Good thing we have 1,300 acres to work with! We have finished our chicken run, where we let the girls out for "recess" when we are home- we haven't completely predator-proofed it yet. Now I can't decide on a coop design... And these chicks aren't getting any smaller in their brooder! Does anyone have photos of their coop that they could share? I'm mainly concerned with ventilation and insulation with our extreme temps... I don't want them to roast in the summer humidity or get frostbitten toes this winter. These are obviously our pets, so I know I will be constantly concerned about them if I think it's too hot/cold in their coop. Also, any advice on how to keep my girls more secure from outside threats?
I'm so thankful I found BYC, as I have learned so much since our hectic trip to pick up our chicks. I'm even more excited about finding this thread! Getting coop advice from others that understand the weather & predator threats for our area is exactly what I was looking for!

 

[CluckyInKY]

 

[mollymoore]

@CluckyInKY I can't tell you all the details to make your coop completely predator proof, but I can give a few tips. I found out the hard way with my first flock that chicken wire is not, aviary netting and tarps are not. I'm in Lexington, in town, in a neighborhood where every other house has a dog...... and lost all but one member of my flock to an opossum. It seems there's a general consensus that half inch hardware mesh is good. I don't know what sort of predators you might have but some will dig, some can swoop in like owls and hawks and the most extreme predators are wild cats and bears, if you might have any of those around. On a happier note, your babies are beautiful! Just wait until they go through puberty though, they get all moody! It's funny!!!

 

[mstacey]

Our girls are here and seem to be doing great!!!

 

[jltho]

Hi all! Im in Floyd County, Ky. I bought my first chicks in April. I now have 6 buff orpingtons, one production red, 2 rocks and 5 supposed to be araucanas, but i belirve they are easter eggers.

 

[kfelton0002]

Looks like a white rock or possibly a cornish rock cross. If it gets HUGE fast with big thick legs it is a cornish rock cross. If it grows normally like your others it is probably a white rock. It looks too "heavy" to be a white leghorn but it could possibly. Your black chicks could be black giant or black australorp. Keep an eye on the bottoms of their feet. Yellow bottoms of feet and they are giants, pink flesh colored bottoms of feet and they are australorps.

 

[kfelton0002]

@kysilkies How do you go about getting NPIP certified in KY? I have tried to find info but no one in my area knows. Thanks!

 

[kysilkies]

Email sue. [email protected] or go here http://www.kyagr.com/statevet/