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[Marie2020]

Hi! We are new here. Our 12 year old daughter hatched chicks in an incubator in October. We borrowed the incubator from a friend and she gave us some of her eggs to hatch.
They are all mixed/questionable breeds. We have 11 almost 6 week old chicks. We have no idea which are pullets or cockerels. We live in the a small town and can only keep 6. So we want to be sure we don’t give away pullets instead of cockerels.

Hello
it's good to meet you
You must be an really good mother teaching your daughter about chickens.

Congratulations to your daughter. That's amazing her dealing with the incubation.

 

[Jenbirdee]

hey! nice to meet you! welcome to BYC

 

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC. Glad to have you here in the poultry lovers community.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!!

Congrats to you and your daughter on a successful hatch!

Usually, the ratio of males to females averages out at around 50/50. Some folks here are really good at this if you can take close-up pictures of them.

If you have any silkies (black skin, 5 toes with feathers) forget it for at least 5-6 months.

 

[Boppo]

glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC. Congratulations on your hatch, and best wishes with your flock.

Here are my favorite beginning articles that helped me as a newbie. I hope you will find them helpful as well. All articles are short, have illustrations, and reviews, which are often worth looking at for the comments.

1. Intro to chicken keeping

2. Common mistakes & how to fix them

3. Ventilation (important to chicken health), with helpful links to coop designs organized by climate (because what is just right for my New England hens won't work for my brother's Arizona chickens)

3(a). Farmers Almanac on Building Coops (Includes size requirements!) Allowing plenty of space for chickens is really important because, even as chicks, they will start pecking each other or plucking their own feathers, or become unhealthy if they are overcrowded. Here is a link to Colorado State Extension's publication on space and temperature requirements for chicks as they age.

4. Predator protection for new & existing coops

5. Dealing with a muddy coop and run

6. Gardening for chickens

7. BYC Lists of Chicken Ailments and Cures

To look for articles on your own:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but use the Advanced Search choice, and select ARTICLES at the top of the box. Just enter your keyword(s) and scroll through your results!

B. I find it helpful to notice the rating and reviews. All articles are by BYC members, and all the reviews/ratings are as well. The ratings help a newbie like me sort the most useful and reliable articles.

C. You can bookmark the articles or posts you think you want to refer to again using that bookmark icon at the top of articles or posts. You can find them again by clicking on your own avatar and looking at the list of bookmarks you have built up!

 

[Yard Farmer]

Welcome to BYC!
It's a pleasure to meet you!

We can help gender ID your birds once they're around 10 weeks old, for the best guess.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! It's very nice to meet you! Make yourself at home here!

 

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[Tookie]

Hello and welcome to BYC! We're so glad you joined us!

 

[CrazyChickains]

Hi! We are new here. Our 12 year old daughter hatched chicks in an incubator in October. We borrowed the incubator from a friend and she gave us some of her eggs to hatch.
They are all mixed/questionable breeds. We have 11 almost 6 week old chicks. We have no idea which are pullets or cockerels. We live in the a small town and can only keep 6. So we want to be sure we don’t give away pullets instead of cockerels.