New babies coming

[ChickyLove]

This Friday I have five new baby gold laced wyandotte pullet chicks coming. They'll be about three days old when they get here. Currently I have two 15 week old EE teenagers. A pullet and a roo. The EE's are very bonded to one another and extremely affectionate to humans. I wonder how they will react to having babies in their run with them as time goes on. I wonder if after a week or so I can bring the babies into the run for supervised "play time" to get everyone used to eachother? Any suggestions? I'd really like everyone to play nice, considering that Enoch (the roo) will have his very own harem of 6 pullets total. This is nervewracking!!

 

[ChickyLove]

Chickies arrived - I really don't know whether to laugh or cry. The postman delivered them right to my front door, they were peeping like crazy right in the box. Then I opened the box. I had ordered 5 gold laced wyandotte pullet chicks. What I got was SIX gold laced wyandotte pullet chicks and SIX silver laced wyandotte pullet chicks. This WAS NOT WHAT I ORDERED!!! Apparently when I was on the phone with the hatchery I got too chatty. I told the lady I had considered silver, but settled on gold. She got confused and gave me BOTH! The hatchery is refunding me the cost of the extra chicks, but now I have a grand total of 14 chickens. This is realy not the time I want people to err on the side of generosity. My hands are still shaking! I just don't get how they could make a mistake like this? Fortunately everyone is alive and healthy. They are all eating, drinking, peeping and very very cute. But really, what am I going to do with all of them??

 

[dianaross77]

Well, if they're pullets you should be able to find someone who wants them. Especially being SLW. You could always keep 3 of each... Put up an auction and/or an ad on CL. You could also go to your state's thread and ask if anyone wants them.

 

[Cakela]

Too bad my DB isn't willing to drive for chickens! I have 4 SLW already and one turned out to be a roo. Wish I could help

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Don't worry, calm down, it's not that big of a deal...

Being females they are very easy to sell on Craigslist or to friends.

Hatcheries will often send "packing peanuts" which are extra chicks for warmth anyway, and oftentimes they are boys, so at least you got girls!

To answer your first question, I would not put the babies in with the Bigs until they are roughly the same size, I would say about 4 months old. The very best thing you can do is pen them next to the Bigs so they can all get used to each other and see each other. Then in the evenings you can let them all out together for supervised playtime. After about a week of this you can move them into the coop with the Bigs.

Another thing you can do is to get a good size rabbit cage and put the babies in it (after they have feathers, as they will need to be in the house under a heatlamp until that time) and put the cage inside the coop, that way the Bigs get used to the babies being in their space.

Just watch everyone really closely and make sure they aren't picking on and hurting each other, some small squabbles will be normal as they all adjust into their new pecking order positions.

Hope this helps!

 

[TinyChickenLady]

Oh what I wouldn't give to take a few SLW off your hands!!

 

[ChickyLove]

Well, I've decided to leg bacd the ones we are keeping with their names in permanant marker (would soft cloth velcro bands be okay?) and then let the others feather out and then find them homes. Thankfully they have all had their Mereck's vac. and are being fed Manna Pro medicated chick start. As I wrap my mind around this, it's more and more amusing. When I said I was blessed to overflowing, I didn't realized I was goong to be overflowing *that* much! LOL! Every day is a new adventure!