cute princess GrandpaIn happier news, I got a pic of the Princess
Hi fellow NY State residents! I just found this group, so I may as well start by including the intro I put up on 'New Members' board a few weeks ago, with a current update at the bottom - apologies for anyone who likes to 'keep it brief' - I'm longwinded!
HI Everyone, I'm originally from Worcestershire in the UK, where I grew up with a mixed flock of chickens, I have been living in upstate NY, about 40 mins from Buffalo for 9 years now. In July 2014, we got our first 2 chickens from a neighbors farm, when they were about 10 weeks old. The brown one turned out to be a Brown Leghorn we named Sylvia, and the white one a Plymouth Rock we named Miss Pearl. Here they are working on leftovers from a baby shower - they love watermelon!
As new chicken owners, we were so glad they made it, in the coop we built ourselves, through the worst winter we have had for a while, anyone remember seeing stories about 'Snowvember' in the Buffalo area in 11/14? Sylvia did get a little frostbite on her comb, good old Pearl just kept on laying - whatever the weather!
Our newest additions are some pullet chicks we picked up from Nature Berry Farm nr Rochester just last week (got these chicks on 6/17). According to their chick page hatching list, our Silver Grey Dorking on the right, was hatched on May 15th, and our Silver Laced Wyandotte on the left hatched on May 22nd.
Can anyone out there give me an idea if these ages are correct? Our Dorking still has fluff on her chest and shoulders, 1 cute adult feather coming in on top of her shoulder blades, if she really is 5 weeks old wouldn't she have more adult feathers, and be larger? She weighs 116g. The Wyandotte, supposedly 1 week younger, dwarfs her, has more adult feathers and weighs in at 205g. They are both active, eating, drinking, and pooping well. I have a hard time tearing myself away, I love watching them.
Very glad to be part of the BYC group, I have been finding this site very helpful since we got our first chickens, so after almost a year of 'lurking' now I'm officially part of it!
7/7/15 So, here we are 3 weeks later, and sadly our little Dorking chick Pixie was our first experience of 'failure to thrive' - seems my instinct that she seemed small and underweight was right. She did great for the first 5 days, then really declined rapidly, despite still eating enthusiastically and passing normal stool, she just kept losing weight, and getting weaker. I got lots of help via the folks at Nature Berry Farm, the 'emergency' thread here, and the Dorking breeders group, but despite following all their advice for feeding scrambled eggs, giving nutridrench, and using a heating pad, I found her dead on her 8th day here. When I had initially circulated her pics everyone guessed her age at 2-3 weeks, when in fact she was almost 6 weeks! General consensus being that she had some sort of problem with absorbing the nutrients in her food, because she just didn't grow.
So we were left with the bigger Wyandotte chick, who was all alone for the first time in her life, and very agitated about it. That evening I did another 4 hour round trip to Rochester, for a replacement chick. Initially I was going to get another Dorking, but seeing the rest of the group who hatched the same date as Pixie, and seeing how much bigger they were, with so many more feathers, I just couldn't do it, too sad. So I looked at the batch that hatched on May 29th, and there was another breed from my shortlist, Partridge Rock - this little lady was feisty from the start, we walked in to find she had flown up, away from the rest of the gang in the chick pen, squeezed through a tiny gap in the trellis covering the pen, and was surveying the world around her from the wall of the pen. I named her Honey, as that's what came into my head when I saw the different shades of brown on her head.
She was not at all intimidated by the bigger Wyandotte chick Fern, and they were soon drinking side by side
Now she's been here for about 10 days, and so happy to report both chicks thriving, gaining weight, getting new feathers etc. We are preparing to move them outside - we have a small wooden ark we will set up in one of the 2 runs off the main coop, the chicks will be secure inside there, and our 2 adult chickens can get used to seeing them, before we try mixing them all in future (when they are around 3 months is what we have been advised).
In preparation I took them outside for their first time on the lawn last weekend, while the adult chickens were free ranging on pest patrol in the veg garden. At first they were so alarmed about everything, vehicles going by, airplane overhead, but they soon settled down and were fighting over their first slug, eating grass, and when the excitement all proved a bit much, flying up to the perch for a rest.
Look forward to sharing our chicken journey with some 'locals' - thanks for reading.
Hello & welcome from a fellow ex-pat! Your babies are adorable - enjoy, they grow too fast...I too, have been to Natureberry farm for chicks. I like the set-up, love the owners, however, out of 6 chicks I bought 2 died fairly soon after purchase. This year I got all my birds from peeps on this site - all are healthy & thriving. Someone once told me that Natureberry gets their stock from Ideal poultry.
The NY chickenistas' are having another Chickenstock gathering in September. It's not too far from Syracuse, so it might be a long drive for you. Look up the Chickenstock thread.
Glad you are enjoying the site, tons of useful info here and if you can't find what you are looking for, just ask.
Cheers,Sue
yes I have looked at the charts.I really think it depends on the chicken! I have 2 Barnvelders, one is very personable, the other not so, same with the Delawares. I really like my Welsummers for the rich dark brown, speckled eggs, Barred rocks seem to bulk up nicely. Have you checked out Hendersons chicken chart? It gives you a lot of info about each breed. It will help to decide which breeds you want.
[COLOR=4B0082]yes I have looked at the charts.
[COLOR=4B0082]Does anyone have and breed Dominiques around here? I also, would rather buy from a local breeder of whatever I get. I don't want hatchery chicks again their color, size and demeanor vary wildly. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=4B0082]I have another question... How do you know your chicks are doing well?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=4B0082]Not that mine are doing poorly, I bought 13 and still have them all... How do you know they aren't too skinny? Mine are alert & active, allowed to free range when I am there with them 4-5 hours a day, eat like little piggies, get healthy chicken snacks fresh fruits, veggies, scrambled eggs. They always have food & water available, their coop is clean and dry.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=4B0082]They were supposed to be in the run by now however, the last wind storm dropped a huge tree limb on the back of the garage where the coup and run area is to be but there was so much damage the roof had to be replaced/repaired along with their coup and run.[/COLOR]
