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Jester57 said:
When I was a kid, which was back in the 60's if you're keeping count, my folks bought us some chicks at a feed store and the next morning they were all dead. Assuming this was still going to be the case, my 11 year old daughter and I bought a bunch of chicks, of which I assumed 1/2 would die from just being fragile and 1/2 of the remainder would turn out to be roosters, which we can't keep here in the city. I assumed wrong.

It turns out that we're really good at raising chicks. All 22 of them have survived from day old to their current age of 7-8 weeks. I converted an old shed to their new coop to give them enough room and attached it to a 200 sq ft run that I also plan on using as a greenhouse/aquaponic/composter as well, eventually. It's starting to get cold here in Missouri, so I'm using their combo brooding plate/heater to heat the coop at night. It's got below freezing here a couple of nights and so far, so good.

BTW, I get that having a heater in your coop is really controversial, but 1). these are still pretty young birds, 2). frankly, from all of the discussions I've read, you'd better be adaptable when it comes to chickens as each situation is different. I plan on running the heater until we have a string of warm nights and letting them adapt after that. Before that, though, we're going to have some pretty cold nights.

As far as the rooster ratio; so far I've got 2 definite (a blue Polish and a black copper Marans), a white Polish that's a probable (he's completely bald on top from being picked on so much, but he's showing a lot of wattle), all 3 of my daughter's pet Silkies have trailing feathers on their crests so they're probables as well. My maybes include a Rhode Island Red with a red comb and slight wattle growth, an Easter Egger that is larger than the other EE and acts aggressively with the rest of the flock but is scared of me, a Lavender Orpington with a lot of red in the comb (also scared of me) and a Buff Brahma who took longer to fletch and is now slightly smaller (but rapidly catching up) than the other BB.

I've come to really enjoy the time spent communing with the chickens, they're fascinating to watch and interact with. Most of them eat out of my hand and I've found that I have several "pirate" chickens who fly up to sit on my shoulders. The ones that are standoffish really surprise me; especially given their breeds. The Silver-lined Wyandotte will not have a thing to do with me; she, the EE mentioned above, a Jersey Giant and 2 of the Silkies are the only birds that have never eaten out of my hand. Things may change; the other EE took a long time to warm up to me but is now one of my friendliest birds. The Black Star, the Marans (although the roo's getting pretty assertive), the Barred Rock, one of the BBs, the littlest Silkie and the white Polish are the other really friendly birds.

My main concern right now is making sure the run is well ventilated and made more predator proof. I also want to keep the noise and smell to a minimum as I need to be a good neighbor. I'll try to post pictures of the flock in the near future: I am hoping for some sexing help with the debatable individuals. It grieves me that I'll probably have to put several in the freezer, but I'll do my best to re-home before that. I'm recently retired, so I'm able to devote a lot of time to the chicks; so far, that time has been very rewarding personally. Any and all advice is appreciated. Everyone have a good day.
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Welcome! And aww that’s a big assortment! If you give them eggs they won’t be mad once your chickens are old enough to lay. Definitely the dry run will help, especially when It gets muggy out ( if it does for you). ALWAYS make sure they are locked up, or else something will catch on that its not locked, predators are really smart. i Put hardware cloth on the bottom of my run- outdide going about 1.5 feet out. Good luck and happy new year!
 

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