New to chicks!

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JanPaulchicks

JanPaulchicks

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Hi all
this site is brilliant! thanks

We have had 5 hens from POL, hybrids but all different. We then, after 18 months of having chickens for first time, planned to incubate hatching eggs and hatch them over Easter when our kids and grandchildren would be here. Out of 16 eggs 3 were infertile, 10 hatched successfully and weirdly 3 of the same breed, cream legbars grew but died before pipping. Am trying to talk to farmer we bought them from.
Now we have 2 barnevelder bantams, beautiful brown markings, 4 Wheaton marans, gorgeous yellow chicks and 4 exchequer leghorns, yellow with black markings.

We have them in the house in boxes with Brinsea heater, all seems good but am concerned about how big they will be and whether they will survive in their new coup at end of April (at 4-5 weeks) as boxes will be too small I reckon!! (unless we get hold of even bigger boxes) We can tape the flaps up so boxes will be taller, I have taped 2 together with an opening between the 2.

We live near London, uk and temperature overnight can go down to 7 deg C at the moment.

Be good to hear from others about the chicks. Our hens are good and enjoy the sunshine when it comes :-) we have separate runs for the 2 flocks and do wonder whether they will mix!

Thanks for all info here. Wondering if there any UK members?
J
 
400

Hello :frow and welcome to BYC!

Excellent flock you have! That is a great hatchrate for your first time. There are many UK members here ;)
 
Thanks Peep-Chicken.
I finally got hold of the farmer who I bought the hatching eggs from and it seems the humidity wasnt quite high enough for the Cream Legbars. will get hold of a hydrometer for our next hatchings.

our chicks are changing day by day!! Oldest was born Good Friday, last Saturday overnight. They are so inquisitive, they can run so fast!!
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on the successful hatch! Adorable chicks! You can often find big cardboard boxes at places like furniture stores, also supermarkets sometimes have gaylords that things like watermelon come in that make great brooders.
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 https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
I have read on other threads that cream legbars are not the easiest to hatch. Some folks have good hatches but, others have had a succession of bad ones and have given up on the breed. You might want to search for a Cream Legbar thread to inquire of others that raise them.
 
Hi
Thank you for your welcome!
Will check out the info, feels like I'm reading so much about chicks!!
One tho, I was recoding a video of them and only when watching it found the youngest chick with a pasty butt! It will be difficult catching it as I think it stays under the heater a lot.... The only one when I check them is under there, all others are exploring.
Otherwise all fine so far

:-)
 

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