New member introducing myself

[piximommy]

Thanks so much Kelsie! The chicks were named by my sons first grade class As the story goes, my son is autistic & in a special class. The class borrowed 12 eggs from a local farm incubator & all. Their were green white & brown eggs. 8 hatched! All the chicks were getting returned to the farm & the class was sad. When I went in for the classes presentation of their chicks, well I left with 3 we knew were hens!! Most of this class is moving to the same 2nd grade class together, so the children were so thrilled that we were taking these chicks home & will be able to show them next yr how much they have grown. Little did I know how much a coop would cost & that's when friends offered their old coop "which is almost 're assembled". And little did I know how much our family would fall in love with these precious little ladies!! Our coop has plenty of room so we will definitely add a few more to our flock. I've always adored the silky bantams, but figured it might be best to find out what we have here first & if they would mix well. Any advice on adding to our flock? Should I do it now while their only 6 weeks or wait till next spring? And also don't want to buy if their are rescues in need of a home, but don't know much about the needs for homes for chickens I'm on Long Island, New York

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sounds like a fun class project, and really nice for the kids that they can watch these three chicks grow up and share it with their class!

Chickens make amazingly good pets and are a lot of fun, really is hard to believe how smart and personable they are.

With adding more chickens ... With getting more now or waiting, it would especially depend on how many chickens you will have total and if you will be keeping them as long term as pets (not culling them when they get older / stop laying) if you will have a small number you might want to wait until next year at least to spread out when you get them so you don't have all birds the same age but always have a few younger birds that will be doing more laying... chickens will keep laying for years, but their best ages are usually around 1-3 years, the rule of thumb is a chicken will lay about half or less of the eggs at age five years as it did at age one year ... and pullets will usually lay through their first winter but hens will not unless you add light (and even then they will usually molt and stop for awhile).... so over time you would keep geting two or three new chicks when you lose two or three older ones by attrition.

Your girls are old enough where you would probably have to go through the whole introduction thing to add to the flock (with small chicks it is usually pretty easy to just add them, but with older chicks/adults you have pecking order problems) There is a nice article in the Learning Center on integrating flocks you might like to check out, the part about actually combining them is after the quarantine section (depending on where you get new birds, you might need to do a medical quarantine) https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock and a nice article using the wire method https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method. If you get different age birds, generally it is best to wait until the birds are about the same size, and then have a long period of the two flocks being able to see each other but no touching, through wire seem to work best, ie dividing the coop into two sections or keeping the new/younger ones in a cage inside the coup for a couple of weeks to a month at least. The chickens will get to know each other and sort of work out a pecking order before actually coming in contact with each other. After a week or two, letting them free range together is a good idea and should help... It will take a couple of weeks to get the pecking order sorted out.
With Silkies, they do need special care, they tend to get picked on by other birds, and there is a good chance you would need to keep them separate from the general flock.
With finding birds, you might try your state thread (maybe you can find more school hatches etc, or put your name in for the next set of chicks if they are going to do it again etc?) .... with actual "rescue" birds be very very careful (read the quarantine section in the Learning Center) it is all too easy to bring something contagious home to your flock.... also most hens that people will be trying to place / give away will be spent / old hens that will not do much laying (most people who breed for egg production will cull hens when they go into their second or third molt because their egg production will go down because of age and so they don't have to feed a non-laying hen over the winter)... you usually see lots of these at sales or on Craigslist etc, or even the battery hen idea where the big producers will sell/give them away.

 

[piximommy]

Yes I was pleasantly surprised at what great pets they make! I've had many different pets through out the yrs & the chickens by far are the best. From what I've been reading so many people say the same. As far as adding to our flock. They will most definitely be our pets for their entire life span "hopefully long long after they stop laying!" We took them to have as pets, the fact that they produce eggs, eat all the bugs & give good fertilizer are all just "great perks" in having them
As for numbers our coop can accommodate about 8 to 10, maby 12, however their are rules on Long Island. 6 hens is supposed to be the limit for a residential home & your not supposed to keep roosters at all. With that said, many people here keep well more then 6 & keep roosters as well. I don't foresee having any issues with my neighbors over it, but in getting started I think I will play it safe & stay within the guide lines of where we live.
I know this particular teacher will be doing the whole thing again next yr with her class & I would definitely have first dibs on whatever chicks we wanted. So that is one option. I will try & get some pics up later in the section of identifying breeds to see if I can cure my curiosity of what we do have! Thank you Kelsie for taking the time to share all of that helpful info. I appreciate it so much!! I will weigh out my options before I decide to add to our flock now or later and how about yourself? How many chickens do you have?