New to chickens? how many are you starting with?

[aclee]

I talked DH into letting me start with 6 meat chickens so we would know the commitment was finite. We have 39 two week old chicks in the garage right now. SO I guess you could say we started with 40, but we've had one casualty. We have one non-meatie, who we are totally in love with, but I think it's a "he" so we won't be able to keep him. I do have a few rescue hens coming in May that DH doesn't know about, so I think those will start our laying flock

I'm looking every where for turkey poults too.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I've never had chickens before and finally had the opportunity to do it. When I originally started planning (a year ago) I wanted 4-6 chickens that I was going to get from a friend. Then I read more about chickens (and more about breeds) and decided I wanted more of a variety. I'll spare you the details (I'm sure you can extrapolate from your own experiences) and I've now got a wide variety of 31 on order (for my large family of one, LOL). I don't care that they'll be hatchery mutts, I wanted to look at all kinds of colors and markings. They'll be here April 19th! I have promised myself that I cannot call McMurray hatchery again to add to the order and I've been so far successful in avoiding TSC Chick Days.

And a coop expansion is already planned.

 

[redhawkou812]

We started with 14, and now have 12 (two extra roosters went in the freezer). Actually, if we had just wanted eggs for ourselves, we could have done with 4 - lol. The 11 girls are still laying between 8 and 11 eggs a day, so we have lots extra that I give away if I can't sell them.

 

[Deanner03]

I started with 5 hens and 10 meat chickens. Now...5 hens, 4 chicks in the brooder, 42 eggs in the incubator, and 10 quail on the way. Heaven help me.

 

[kilkieran]

We started off with 5 last year. Now we have almost 60. LOL. I am a chicken junkie. I can't wait till the feed store starts getting chicks, usually after Easter. I'm in MA so I guess we get them a little later than everyone else. I'm so jealous. Although we did get 25 chicks from McMurray in Feb. I need more.

 

[aclee]

Quote:
Not sure where in MA you are, but Dodge Grain in Salem has had chicks in for a month or so already. Might want to give them a call

You have to buy 12 though

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

when i started, I got 6, that was 7 years ago, now I've got over 400 (i quit counting at 400) plus I've got ducks, geese, quail, turkeys and guinea hens

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

I started out with 2 Red Sexlink pullets the first saturday of September 2005. Then some friends gave me 2 roosters and a Black Sexlink pullet the very next saturday. So then that added up to five chickens within a week.

By March of 2006 I was given 10 more hens and 2 more roosters by the same friends. (they were going to Speckled Sussex so they were clearing out their year old hens and giving them to me)

A Black Sexlink hen named Abbey hatched 2 chicks from my own flock in May. Oh they were SO cute!! I just knew that I was hooked for the rest of my life.

Two months later found DJ and Rusty dead. A Raccoon had just taken their heads. Poor babies.

Then 2 weeks later I lost one of my original RSL hen to a stupid Raccoon. Oooooo did I scream!!

In Febuary of 2007 I bought 4 BR pullets. LOL Two of them turned out to be Roo's. One died and I kept the other roo named him Sal and his 2 girls Peppermint and Patty.

Then in August of 2007 I got some EE eggs from my uncle who worked at this farm and my Black Sexlink hen Little Shadow I hatched 3 out of the 12 eggs and they were just the cutest things ever with their little puffy cheeks!!!

Out of those 3 only 2 survived. I still have them and they still are pretty good layers for almost 4 year old hens. Plus they both lay blue/green eggs.

In September I bought a pretty Batnam light blue Cochin pullet that I named Lil' Blue for $5. She was my little sweetheart.

That December I sold 10 hens and the 2 extra roosters for $100.

Sorry I had to get to church and that's why I left off with my story like that

May of 2008 came with Peppermint hatching out 4 purebred BR babies. Two of them turned out to Roo's and two turned out to be pullets. Oh I loved them. But one of the pullets died. She was crossbeaked. I was going to sell Teddy the extra BR cockeral and keep Cloe and Patrick. I also had bought a lovely Silver Laced Wyandotte pullet and a nice Barred Rock pullet for $10. I sold the SLW for $15 about 3 months later. But I kept the BR pullet and named her Penelope. I loved her. She and the BR babies and Lil' Blue would hang around me wanting to jump all over me and just wanted me to pet and love them.

Later on my RIR hen Rhonda hatched 6 EE babies and they were the cutest chicks I've ever seen.

I sold Sal for $10 in mid June because he was starting to get a bit mean to the hens. I didn't really want to but he had broke about 4 hens necks and they had suffered a cruel and painful death. He was just a bit to rough for my girls.

The last week of June came with me coming home from Camp to find only 9 out of my 20 chickens still alive. Dang coons murdered most of my poor girls. I only had Peppermint the BR, Marshmellow and Blueberry the EE hens and Rhonda and her 6 EE chicks.

With some good friends of mine help we rebuilt my coop compleatly. But it was until my father stuck tires in the loft that I quit loosing chickens. Until then I lost Rhonda, and 5 out of the 6 EE chicks to coons.

Peppermint went broody again and I stuck 12 RIR eggs under her that I had bought from the fleamarket. She hatched 4 out of the 12 eggs. They're were 3 roo's and 1 pullet out of that batch. I sold one of the roo's to someone for $15 just a week before Christmas.

I sold the other roo for $10 after the New Years. I kept the best roo and the pullet and named them Rusty and Bunty. I fell in love with RIR's and decided to start breeding them once they got old enough.

2009 came with me totaling up to 11 hens and 1 roo. I hatched 2 BSL chicks (a roo and a pullet). I named the pullet Little Shadow II after my first Little Shadow.

The fair came and went with Rusty my RIR roo winning 1st place and Marshmellow the EE hen winning 1st place and Grand Champion. Then about a month later Pepper hatched out 6 RIR chicks from Rusty and Bunty. They were so cute. But I lost 4 of them to being drowned and being weak.

The 2 left are doing terrific.

I bought 3 RIR pullets from some friends who raised them from the 4-H Chick Chain. Paid $25 for Robin, Ruth and Reggina. Gorgeous dark red pullets who are pretty sweet.

Now it's March 21st of 2010 with me adding up to 17 chickens. Six Rhode Island Reds, two Barred Rocks, two Red Sexlinks, three Easter Eggers, one Black Sexlink and 4 Mixbreed hens and pullets.

I'm getting around 3 to 7 eggs a day now and am thinking of selling ALL of my mixbreed hens and pullets (except for Little Shadow II and my EE's hens) and just concentrating on purebred RIR's and BSL's to sell. I'd be down to 12 chickens then until I can hatch more baby chicks from my hens and pullets and maybe get some unwanted chicks from TSC after Easter.

 

[kilkieran]

Thanks Acelee. I live in Spencer, western MA. I'm so tempted.

 

[Jasmine1998]

I ordered 19. 6 Barred Rock, 6 Buff Orp, 6 Gold Laced Wyn & 1 surprise chick that comes free with the order. My co-worker is supposed to be taking some of them once they are feathered out & ready for their regular coop. So...I am hoping to end up with 10-12. (For now......then I will probably want to add more once I get the hang of it).