Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[MamaShell]

Hello, I have an order in for 4 Black Australorps, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 golden Buffs, 3 Buff Orpington, 3 Delawares, 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Dominiques and a meal maker. They are coming from Meyer on March 17th. I think it will be a beautiful mix of good layers but I am now worried about fighting. Some say that Delawares can be very aggressive. Should I replace them with something else? What kinds of experiences has everyone had? I am new to Backyard Chickens - the site and the lifestyle! Your words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

 

[christine9]

Hello, I have an order in for 4 Black Australorps, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 golden Buffs, 3 Buff Orpington, 3 Delawares, 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Dominiques and a meal maker. They are coming from Meyer on March 17th. I think it will be a beautiful mix of good layers but I am now worried about fighting. Some say that Delawares can be very aggressive. Should I replace them with something else? What kinds of experiences has everyone had? I am new to Backyard Chickens - the site and the lifestyle! Your words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

My Dellie is definitely the head of the flock. She was since the first day. She is not really aggressive. The rest of my girls do everything she does. She also lays a beautiful dark brown purplish egg. So while she is bossy, she is not mean.

 

[shannybell]

Hello, I have an order in for 4 Black Australorps, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 golden Buffs, 3 Buff Orpington, 3 Delawares, 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Dominiques and a meal maker. They are coming from Meyer on March 17th. I think it will be a beautiful mix of good layers but I am now worried about fighting. Some say that Delawares can be very aggressive. Should I replace them with something else? What kinds of experiences has everyone had? I am new to Backyard Chickens - the site and the lifestyle! Your words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

Welcome!! I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the Delawares but hopefully someone else on here will be and can give you some advice.
If you do decide to swap for something else, the Easter Eggers would fit in nicely with your birds that you've chosen and they would add some great blue/green color to your egg basket! The EE's have a nice personality and are so cute with their fluffy cheeks .
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[NotableNancy]

We lost all the chicks we were worried about plus the all black polish(?). The polish was an accident. I'm sorry to hear about that one though, I really wanted to see it feather in.
I didn't see bantam EE or rare breed assortment available for this week so I asked them to replace them with EEs.

Aww, so sad for you. So they are going to send you EE's this week? how many are they sending? Do you have to bring the order up to 15 since it's only the beginning of March?

I had to cancel my Meyer order cause I didn't think about the minimum 15 chick thing. They said they would not have actually sent it that way and didn't know why the computer allowed the 6 bantams order to even go through.

So I'm headed to a swap today to see what I can find. I already have a lady holding a 6 month old Sultan pullet for me! Yay!!!

If the swap doesn't work it's already March so you wouldn't have to wait that long to get a smaller order unless they're not even available. If you get a Sultan post a pic... they're on my list to get someday. They're so cute!!

I almost can't believe it worked! I substituted almost everything for stuff I had around and it didn't stick to itself at all before baking, but it worked!

I have to make one of those... expecting tons more snow tomorrow into Monday so I know they're getting a bit bored.

Hello, I have an order in for 4 Black Australorps, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 golden Buffs, 3 Buff Orpington, 3 Delawares, 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Dominiques and a meal maker. They are coming from Meyer on March 17th. I think it will be a beautiful mix of good layers but I am now worried about fighting. Some say that Delawares can be very aggressive. Should I replace them with something else? What kinds of experiences has everyone had? I am new to Backyard Chickens - the site and the lifestyle! Your words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

While I don't know anything about Delawares and I'm still kinda new to the chicken thing, with the breeds I have they can be either nice or bossy. I have 2 Rhode Island Reds and one is a sweetie and the other I call the 'nest police' and decides who is going to lay their egg in what box or if they're even allowed to lay the egg. I still find eggs outside the nest boxes and I'm sure it's because she kicks some girls out. I have 2 Black Australorpes and one is a loud mouth and boss of food and the other is near the top of the pecking order but very harmless. And my EE's are all about the middle of the pecking order except one is at the very bottom and scared of her own shadow.
My only regret in my first order of chicks is I didn't get more EE's or a few white egg layers. I love a colorful egg carton and since I'm starting to barter (rather than sell eggs) my customers love all the colors too. But you picked some really nice breeds and you should get lots of eggs from them.

 

[MsChickenMomma]

I almost can't believe it worked! I substituted almost everything for stuff I had around and it didn't stick to itself at all before baking, but it worked!

It looks great! For some reason mine doesn't want to dry out like it should. It's firm around the edges, but the middle is still pretty soft. So mine is still drying in the oven. Do your girls like it?

 

[MamaShell]

Wow, ladies, thanks for the quick responses! I was thinking of switching for EEs if I made a change. It would be fun to get blue or green eggs in the mix! I'll give that some more thought!

 

[christine9]

It looks great! For some reason mine doesn't want to dry out like it should. It's firm around the edges, but the middle is still pretty soft. So mine is still drying in the oven. Do your girls like it?

I actually substituted so many things that I only used one cup of water. I also set the oven for two hours and let it stay in overnight. The second one is not as firm. Not sure why. Maybe I didn't pack it hard enough?

 

[christine9]

And yes, they like it. More interest at first, but every time I look out the window, it is swinging around. Lol

 

[MsChickenMomma]

I actually substituted so many things that I only used one cup of water. I also set the oven for two hours and let it stay in overnight. The second one is not as firm. Not sure why. Maybe I didn't pack it hard enough?

I only used a small amount of water too. I think it was about one cup. I left it in overnight as well. Maybe it still had too much moisture? I used extra applesauce because I didn't have enough molasses. Maybe that's it. I'm going to leave it in the oven to dry for another hour or so. If it's not completely dried by then, I'll just hang it out like it is. I'm sure they'll love it either way! I just don't want it to fall apart while they are picking at it.

 

[NanaLynn]

My husband and I have been having a very interesting discussion this morning. The city has been working on a creek restoration project for the past couple of years. We live right beside the creek, it runs right behind the chicken coop. Anyway our land has a sharp slope/hill in the front and back. When the kids were younger and played ball, the ball would always end up rolling down the hill to the creek. We always wished our land was more level.

The city has offered to level up our land in the front and reseed it and make it look nice while they finish up the waterway work that they are doing. They mentioned also doing the same in the back yard but the chickens are in the way also the coop, run and my garden. That got my husband thinking and me too, of course. We are going to see if they can still raise up our back yard too if we move the chicken coop. It may not work out but if it does, that means I will have a whole new coop for the chickens. Here is the current coop and run.

This is before the chickens were inside, we've added more fencing since this picture, plus we had to add tarps since the roof to the metal shed that we refurbished leaked.


Here is a current picture of the run and coop. The coop is under the ugly tarp. There is a family of squirrels living under the tarp now too between the roof of the coop and the tarp. They crawl under the tarp there on the side to get to their new home. You can see one of the cities machines there in the back.


Here is a look at the raised bed garden where they free range, you can see the coop and run there in the back and where the city is working, the creek is right on the other side of all that dirt.


So we'll have to move all of this and I will have to delay having a garden awhile until they finished.

In the meantime, our plan is to move them into one of our sheds. This one is 8 x 10, which is the same size as the metal shed they are in now, but it also is a lot taller with a real roof and everything. They'll have more space overall and I can give them some high roosts too. I won't have to use plastic to cover the windows either. Any windows we put we'll have to saw out of the sides, then the piece left over will become a cover for the window that I can close. I hope it works! If the city agrees to fixing the yard in the back, we'll have a lot of work ahead of us.

Here is the shed that we will convert over. It is much closer to our house and at the top of the hill.
This is a picture from the summer when everything was green and blooming and there was no construction. If you look beyond those trees to the left you can see the chicken run which is way down the hill.

Our plan is to first fix the shed as a coop. Then make a alley of fencing to lead them to it. After we get them all inside their new coop, we'll start dismantling the run, hopefully we can save the run to reuse. Then we'll demolish the old coop/metal shed. Should be interesting, if the plan works!

Sorry to go on so long, I am excited and you guys understand my excitement. My family does not get it. My husband is the only one here who understands.