Maybe not Marans? :(

[JacinLarkwell]

The cuckoo?

a green egg-laying mutt. She's a funny girl

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

So we have renamed the red one Ruby, (instead of Lady Godiva), and we may possibly keep her. He is thinking there were straight run RIRs there that day, so if a RIR did jump the crate, then it's also possibly a male? This just keeps getting better lol

But it sounds like we are leaning away from keeping the Bielefelders, which makes me a bit sad, but they would potentially be way bigger than all our other chickens, and we are limited on space, (aren't most people), so maybe they will be a better fit for one of the couple people we have in mind who would be starting or re-starting a flock from scratch.

We'll see what happens as they grow, how this plays out... Thanks to everyone who chimed in!

If nothing else it prompted DH and I to have a more serious conversation about why or why not we might keep one bird or another, so that aspect has been productive. If they go to my family member, we may also part with the two laying light-eyed Australorps and the one sweet, runty Welsummer. Understanding that letting go of "perfectly good" laying hens (3 out of the original 11 we started with, or actually 5/11 if you count predator loss), makes room for the next year's group to come in without losing so much production overall. If I can still convince him to get the cockerel this season, then the Marans will likely have to wait till the next spring.

As an aside, I did call the store and the employee told me they would give me my money back, but they don't really have any other chicks to give me anyway! Hahaha which is how we got here in the first place, everyone panic buying chickens and everything selling out before our eyes!

So as I sit here watching them all piled up and sleeping sweetly, I do feel very lucky and blessed, and it honestly feels like such a wonderful problem to have these days.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I have a green egg-laying mutt. She's a funny girl.

I'd recommend Mars Bars for a Green cross. Black Copper Marans and Cream Crested Legbar. They are sex-linked, so you can get rid of the boys really quickly, and the hens all come out looking like BCM with lightly feathered feet, a tiny crest and lay a nice, large green egg.

Ah! This thread...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...r-guesses-possible-ee-or-wellsummers.1559081/

...just made me realize too that the brown chipmunky ones in the sge bin grow out to look just like welsummers, so if my core birds are the australorps welsummers and eventually marans, then those girls and the Mars bars would all fit right in!

Hopefully these buff / red chicks don't grow out to look too scrappy, since it sounds like we're keeping them. Ha. But even then, I feel like once we have some marans in the mix, it may bounce off their copper and maybe I won't mind so much. Lol

This is only our second season doing chickens, so we're definitely taking lots of notes.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Update: I went back to the store and she did refund me for the four "premium pullets." I also showed her pics of the chick who is definitely a cockerel, and pointed out that another chick we have looks like a RIR, which is a completely different bin. They had RIR pullets in another bin again today, where DH thought he remembered it saying straight run when he was there.

She did say she saw some come in with feathered feet, but did not appear to have any left. She also asked me if they all had this thing on their heads, and pointed to the chick's comb.

Oddly enough, the Cinnamon Queens, RIR pullets and Black Sex Links were all marked 50% off! Someone could really make a killing buying those up lol