New chicken owner in Upsate New York

[Jimmy Whip]

Hello everyone.

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?

About a month ago I bought my very first chicks at Tractor Supply Company. I'm 42 years old but wanted chickens ever since my uncle promised me one when I was around 6.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?

Right now I have 51 chicks and they range from a week old to 5 weeks.

(3) What breeds do you have?

TSC mixed up the names of the chicks so I am discovering what they are as they get older. So far I believe/suspect I have ISA Browns, Amberlinks, Rhode Island Reds, Speckled Sussex, Barred Rock, Orpingtons, Cornish x, Asia Blue and maybe Wyandottes.

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?

I googled information on raising chickens and this board came up.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?

Fishing, hunting, gardening and shooting.

 

[N F C]

That's a lot of chicks to start off with, lol! It sounds like you have a nice mix of breeds. How nice that you finally got them after wanting chickens for so long.

Thanks for joining us!

 

[Dayrel]

Welcome to BYC, Jimmy Whip! Wow, 0 to 51 is quite a leap.

I'm sure you've already been doing plenty of reading, but BYC is an excellent resource for info. You might want to start by browsing the Learning Center. When you have specific questions, a quick search will usually find you an answer. If that doesn't work, then find an appropriate subforum and post your question. People here are happy to help, even if the question has been asked 100 times before.

 

[Jimmy Whip]

That's a lot of chicks to start off with, lol! It sounds like you have a nice mix of breeds. How nice that you finally got them after wanting chickens for so long.

Thanks for joining us!

It is chicken math I tell ya! I only want about 10 or so but things happen. I started with 9 of 3 different breeds. I bought 3 Barred Rocks, 3 ISA Browns, and 3 Cornish Crosses. About a week later I went to a different TSC where they had a different breed in which I was interested. They had New Hampshire Reds which were mislabeled and turned out to be Speckled Sussex.

Anyway, the Cornish crosses they had were big and they wanted to get rid of them all. They sold me 16 Cornish Crosses for $6 and 3 Speckled Sussex chicks for $1.50. At that point I had 19 Cornish Crosses, 3 Barred Rocks, 3 ISA Browns, and 3 Speckled Suxxex chicks or 28 birds. My brooder was not big enough so I had to quickly improvise. Given the fact that I didn't want to mix the rather big meat birds with the egg layers in a small brooder I decided to sell the 19 Cornish Crosses for $20 on Craigslist. They sold before the day's end.

Down to 9 birds and about a week later a found that 2 of my "barred rocks" and one Speckled Sussex are roosters. The roosters will be culled for the stew pot in short time. After culling that would bring me down to down to 6 birds. The last "Barred Rock" appears to be a Black Australorp. I went to a different TSC and picked 3 more Barred Rocks and 3 Amberlinks. At that point I had 15 chickens.

About a week later I went to another TSC and they had the birds listed at $.50 each. I ended up buying them out and returned home with 31 more chicks. The chicks were listed as Barred Rocks, Orpingtons, and Cornish broilers. The "Barred Rocks" appear as they may be Silver Laced Wyandottes.

So far I really like two of the ISA Browns but I'm not sure the ISA Browns are correctly labeled. The 3rd one is a different shade of brown and has different feather growth. Anyway, the two alleged ISA Browns are friendly and will sit on my lap. They are keepers. I'm going to keep 10 to 12 of the friendliest birds as egg layers and may list the rest on Craigslist.

 

[Pork Pie]

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC Wow, you definitely dove in head first. If you keep any of the CXs you'll want to feed them a lower protein ~18% to slow their growth a bit. We're so happy you joined us

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to Backyardchickens.com aka BYC!
We are glad you joined our flock.
Post pics of your different birds here and people will chime in to confirm the breeds.
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

 

[drumstick diva]

Wow, you are really good at 'flipping chickens,". I mean reselling the cornish x and making a profit. Smart thinking.

 

[Jimmy Whip]

Hi and welcome to BYC Wow, you definitely dove in head first. If you keep any of the CXs you'll want to feed them a lower protein ~18% to slow their growth a bit. We're so happy you joined us

I bought the book, Raising Chickens for Dummies which has a good recommendation as to the feed. I have separated the Cornish crosses chicks from the regular Chicks. However a new problem arose. My roosters are fighting.

 

[Jimmy Whip]

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Welcome to Backyardchickens.com aka BYC!
We are glad you joined our flock.
Post pics of your different birds here and people will chime in to confirm the breeds.
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

I plan on posting pics once the birds get a bit older to help with identification. It is a bit fun seeing what TSC actually sold me.