Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[MamaShell]

Awesome set up!!  How big is the coop? 5X8?  That looks similar to ours except for a different stain and it came with a metal roof. Not necessary but that's how it came. 
I think they will be very happy. What is the top of the run going to be? Maybe you said but I don't remember. We used the welded wire on part of it because we already had it. That's about the only thing we didn't need to buy     We had a paddle tennis court with fencing around it that we took down and saved so that's what we used. It looks exactly like plain old chicken wire but it's made with heavy welded wire. We laid it on the ground too, about 1 1/2 feet both inside and outside coop under dirt then pavers on top from Home Depot just for a finished look. That was to protect from diggers.

Our coop is 5x8, good eye! I ordered it from lancasterchickencoops.com and we picked it up. A metal roof was extra $ that I didn't want to spend. I am really happy with the coop and I ordered early, so I got last year's price. We are using the 2x4 welded wire on the top of the run. We are building an 8x8 overhang on the back of the coop for shade and a dry area where the feeders and water will be. That will come later. My husband only has Sundays off and he has already spent 3 on this project. We hit ledge digging the post holes and had to rent a jack hammer the second weekend to finish digging the holes. The good news is, I don't think we will have too many predators trying to dig under the fence. We did do 12"-18" of hardware cloth into the ground to discourage them further.

Like I said, I can't wait to finish and get the girls out there!!! Our brooder is 4x6 but it seems smaller everyday!!

 

[NotableNancy]

Our coop is 5x8, good eye! I ordered it from lancasterchickencoops.com and we picked it up. A metal roof was extra $ that I didn't want to spend. I am really happy with the coop and I ordered early, so I got last year's price. We are using the 2x4 welded wire on the top of the run. We are building an 8x8 overhang on the back of the coop for shade and a dry area where the feeders and water will be. That will come later. My husband only has Sundays off and he has already spent 3 on this project. We hit ledge digging the post holes and had to rent a jack hammer the second weekend to finish digging the holes. The good news is, I don't think we will have too many predators trying to dig under the fence. We did do 12"-18" of hardware cloth into the ground to discourage them further.

Like I said, I can't wait to finish and get the girls out there!!! Our brooder is 4x6 but it seems smaller everyday!!

Are you in PA?

 

[MamaShell]

Are you in PA? 

I'm in CT, but, my husband goes to Manheim Auto Auction a few times each month. The coop place was only 20 minutes out of his way home and we have a flat bed we ise to bring cars back and forth. Very convenient!

 

[daniellea2912]

I don't have any Welsumers but I had 2 Buff Brahma. One was feathering much slower than the other so people told me that it was a cockerel but it turned out that the faster feathering one was a cockerel! I'm sure that doesn't make you feel better if you're hoping for a pullet though. And the other issue I had was a Columbian Wyandotte (Sweet Pea whose name was changed to Pipsqueak) She was soooo slow to feather and was really tiny compared to all the other girls. But now she is the same size as the rest and isn't even at the bottom of the pecking order. So moral of the story... you just have to wait it out. But I'm voting for a slow growing pullet

I hope shes just a slow feather grower too

We are in a similar situation of suspicion with a Buckeye, except we only have one of each breed (so no breed comparison), they are almost four weeks and she's shown some roo like behaviors (not scattering when the other run for cover when my husband sneezed and jumping and flapping at the girls, especially the top two and she is much noisier) sigh. Good luck, they are adorable, I wish we had gotten a Wellie but I couldn't convince my husband on a seventh chick, we may be down to five if "she" crows :/

Yea mine seems a little braver than my others as well, as soon as my hands go in the brooder she comes running up to see if I brought anything while the rest hang back and wait to see whats happening.... Good luck to you as well, here's hoping we both have ladies!

I say it's still probably a girl. 90% accuracy in sexing is a good chance it's a girl. Maybe just a runt? Good luck!

True!

 

[NotableNancy]

I'm in CT, but, my husband goes to Manheim Auto Auction a few times each month. The coop place was only 20 minutes out of his way home and we have a flat bed we ise to bring cars back and forth. Very convenient!

Ahhh. Do you ever go? If you are ever in that area you HAVE to go to Shady Maple (it's in East Earl) Amazing Amish market and an entire warehouse sized building for the smorgasbord! It's famous. I love that area and daydream of buying an old farmhouse out there on 20+ acres!!

 

[MamaShell]

Ahhh. Do you ever go? If you are ever in that area you HAVE to go to Shady Maple (it's in East Earl) Amazing Amish market and an entire warehouse sized building for the smorgasbord! It's famous.  I love that area and daydream of buying an old farmhouse out there on 20+ acres!!

Sounds awesome! Maybe I will go down there this summer and check it out! Lancaster is a beautiful area. I don't blame you for wanting to live there!!

 

[NanaLynn]

well they have been on lockdown for 3 days and the 21 day is supost to be on monday but i have seen no external pips and i'm worryied that nothing will hatch which would really suck becase hatching eggs was my last ditch effort to get the breeds that i wanted heck the only reason i even consideed hatching eggs is because shipping for live chicks is outrageous i wish we had a hatchery here in texas we do but the min order is 15 birds i don't need that many.

Any peeps? I hope you get some to hatch!

That's great that your husband agreed to get another coop. So you're getting one of the lancaster coops too?

Cool.

I'm hoping to free range as much as possible.
And I second what was said above, see if you can find someone to order with. The shipping costs do some weird stuff when you add to the order. I was going to order only 15 on one website. Shipping was $19.99. When I put in 25 chicks, not only did the cost per chick go down, but shipping went down to $14.99. Ten more birds was only $7 more with them. When I complained about it on a local fb group that does co-op and group buys, one of the admins said she wanted more for this year. Now we're ordering over 100 together and I'm paying 1/3 of what I would have initially!

Wow, 100? You really got someone to go in with you with chicks. That's a lot!

Our D'Uccle lays great. My friend's silkie and D'Anver also lay well. I know the bantam cochins aren't great layers. It all depends on the breed same as LF.

We have a friend that buys eggs from us and she said her son only wants the bantam eggs now. If there's no bantam eggs he doesn't want an egg. lol! Unfortunately we only have the one laying bantam right now and DH usually makes pickled eggs out of them so we don't have many extra. We do have 5 bantam chicks though so we'll have more than enough eventually!

That's good to hear the D'Uccle are so cute too. What size are the bantam eggs, like 1 ounce or something? I may order some from Meyer's since TSC is done with chicks this year. I want to get them for a broody to raise though, which may not be a great idea since they can be flighty and that might make them even more flighty?

to bad i don't know anyone like that here I'm the odd man out for what "farm animals" in my community

I am in the same dilemma here too. I really do not know any chicken people near me. I feel like the odd one out here too! It's funny though it seems other people we know are considering chickens now too. That might work to my benefit.

I hope we made the right decision. I'd hate to find out the hard way that
we left our flock exposed! Here is our progress so far:



We still need to install the top, the overhang on the backside of the coop and the build the door. It's a lot to get done in one Sunday. I hope we can finish on Mother's Day!
Have you started a thread on BYC looking for people in your area that want pool together on a large order? You might be surprised at home many people are out there that are in the same situation as you! It's worth a shot!

Good work and beautiful coop!

Our coop is 5x8, good eye! I ordered it from lancasterchickencoops.com and we picked it up. A metal roof was extra $ that I didn't want to spend. I am really happy with the coop and I ordered early, so I got last year's price. We are using the 2x4 welded wire on the top of the run. We are building an 8x8 overhang on the back of the coop for shade and a dry area where the feeders and water will be. That will come later. My husband only has Sundays off and he has already spent 3 on this project. We hit ledge digging the post holes and had to rent a jack hammer the second weekend to finish digging the holes. The good news is, I don't think we will have too many predators trying to dig under the fence. We did do 12"-18" of hardware cloth into the ground to discourage them further.

Like I said, I can't wait to finish and get the girls out there!!! Our brooder is 4x6 but it seems smaller everyday!!

I checked out their website. Wow! Those are beautiful coops inside and out!! I can't afford them though. We have a big coop now though, so I think we're good!

Ahhh. Do you ever go? If you are ever in that area you HAVE to go to Shady Maple (it's in East Earl) Amazing Amish market and an entire warehouse sized building for the smorgasbord! It's famous. I love that area and daydream of buying an old farmhouse out there on 20+ acres!!

I want to go too now!!!

 

[NotableNancy]

That's great that your husband agreed to get another coop. So you're getting one of the lancaster coops too?


I want to go too now!!!

It's very similar. The guy we got it from is the guy who puts them together so he'll build it with any changes wanted and he will deliver and put it where you want it in the yard.
Nice guy and he's getting very popular around here so there's a bit of a wait now. He also designed the automatic door as he's an engineer and loves to tinker with those sorts
of things.

Question about my new chicks... last time I didn't give them sand or dirt to dust bathe in (they just used their shavings to dust bathe in) but I wanted to this time. They are 2 weeks old it is ok to do this now? Do I need to give them
extra chick grit for the grass/clover they may eat or will they get it from the sand/dirt? I feel like a new chicken mama asking

 

[autumnhearth]

Question about my new chicks... last time I didn't give them sand or dirt to dust bathe in (they just used their shavings to dust bathe in) but I wanted to this time. They are 2 weeks old it is ok to do this now? Do I need to give them
extra chick grit for the grass/clover they may eat or will they get it from the sand/dirt? I feel like a new chicken mama asking

From everything I've seen from Fresh Eggs Daily and The Chicken Chick plus my 4 whole weeks of experience with our 6 very healthy chicks, yes you can absolutely add dirt for a dust bath this early. I decided not to do sand and though we bought DE I stopped using it after reading about respiratory issues (its ironic one blogger says sand isn't safe but DE is part of the holy trinity of health, the other sand is the best most hygenic option for everything but DE is dangerous, sigh). It just so happened we got two good piles of dirt and turf when we moved our gardens so I put the driest dirt in a bucket and have been filling up their baths from there. I did start giving our chicks starter grit on day three though I have read they will get grit from the soil if you give them clods of grass and weeds, I thought better safe than sorry

 

[MamaShell]

It's very similar. The guy we got it from is the guy who puts them together so he'll build it with any changes wanted and he will deliver and put it where you want it in the yard.
Nice guy and he's getting very popular around here so there's a bit of a wait now. He also designed the automatic door as he's an engineer and loves to tinker with those sorts
of things.

Question about my new chicks... last time I didn't give them sand or dirt to dust bathe in (they just used their shavings to dust bathe in) but I wanted to this time. They are 2 weeks old it is ok to do this now? Do I need to give them
extra chick grit for the grass/clover they may eat or will they get it from the sand/dirt? I feel like a new chicken mama asking

The coop was a lot more than I wanted to spend but, as my husband and I work so much, we couldn't afford the time to build one. As for the sand, some people like the Chicken Chick use sand as their brooder bedding without any pine shavings, so it cannot be that bad. The one thing they say is to get construction grade sand (the type you would add to cement) and not play sand which is finer and dustier. My chicks ate some of the sand in their dust bath which acts as grit, so, you shouldn't need to add more. Yet, it wouldn't hurt them if you did.

It's very similar. The guy we got it from is the guy who puts them together so he'll build it with any changes wanted and he will deliver and put it where you want it in the yard.
Nice guy and he's getting very popular around here so there's a bit of a wait now. He also designed the automatic door as he's an engineer and loves to tinker with those sorts
of things.

Question about my new chicks... last time I didn't give them sand or dirt to dust bathe in (they just used their shavings to dust bathe in) but I wanted to this time. They are 2 weeks old it is ok to do this now? Do I need to give them
extra chick grit for the grass/clover they may eat or will they get it from the sand/dirt? I feel like a new chicken mama asking

Good work and beautiful coop!

I checked out their website. Wow! Those are beautiful coops inside and out!! I can't afford them though. We have a big coop now though, so I think we're good!

Thanks! When my husband first say it, he said it was better built than some houses he has seen! We have some very spoiled chickens! The only thing I wish is that I ordered a bigger one - so that I'd have room for more chickens in the future. We are at max capacity already.