Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[dheltzel]

Hello Everyone!

I moved from Fl to Pa 3 years ago. I kept chickens in Fl (EEs And a BR) but this will be my first time having chicks here. I am looking for docile and friendly ladies! Sadly I’m no longer out in the country so no roosters are allowed in my township.
I’ve resorted to ordering my chicks online since every single Agway and farm store within a 50 mile radius sells out within a few hours of their arrival! It’s like the cabbage patch dolls in the 80’s.
I have a blue Orp, blue Ameracauna and a Salmon Faverolle on order from Meyer. The blues might be splash or black~ either is fine! As you can tell - I like my chickens fluffy!!

I noticed an earlier post about Welbars? Those are new to me- are they docile and/or friendly?

Pics at my website, welbars.com. They are Welsummers, with an added gene for barring to make the chicks easily sexable. I have a lot of different breeds, all of them very docile. That is only a help if you are near to me, what part of PA are you in?

 

[TravelingWillow]

Pics at my website, welbars.com. They are Welsummers, with an added gene for barring to make the chicks easily sexable. I have a lot of different breeds, all of them very docile. That is only a help if you are near to me, what part of PA are you in?

Cumberland Co, outside of Carlisle.

 

[dheltzel]

Cumberland Co, outside of Carlisle.

That is pretty far from me in Pottstown, Chester Co, but if you ever get over this way, I can hook you up with female chicks.

 

[BullChick]

I’ve resorted to ordering my chicks online since every single Agway and farm store within a 50 mile radius sells out within a few hours of their arrival! It’s like the cabbage patch dolls in the 80’s.

Oh my goodness, what a comparison!

 

[BullChick]

Brand new to the chicken world, lost all but one over the winter and now back up to 3. one sweedish black chicken and two brown chickens that I dont know what species they are. Haven't gotten any eggs yet which doesn't surprise me since the previous owners did not take good care of the chickens over the winter which is why I stepped in. How long should I expect before seeing eggs now that they are well fed/watered and have a decent size area to roam around?

Also has anyone used a rain catching system to feed a water bucket for the chickens?

They should start up very soon. That is, assuming they aren’t old. Depending on a few factors, old hens can continue to lay two or four eggs a week, or only 4 eggs a year. It sounds like you need another two or six hundred chickens.

Then there’s the ducks, turkeys...

 

[TravelingWillow]

That is pretty far from me in Pottstown, Chester Co, but if you ever get over this way, I can hook you up with female chicks.

I was almost to you yesterday - if only I had known! I’m not sure what I want to add just yet but those dark brown & olive eggs are tempting. When I lived in Florida I was about 20 minutes away from Greenfire. I remember the Welbars, now! Can’t remember her name but talked with the lady there about her birds a few times.
First things first- I have to finish my coop.
I built a gorgeous coop in Fl so I’m having performance anxiety here. Everyone expects something lavish and I just want functionality this time. Well, cute, too.

pic from Fl of my Viking Coop.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I moved from Fl to Pa 3 years ago. I kept chickens in Fl (EEs And a BR) but this will be my first time having chicks here. I am looking for docile and friendly ladies! Sadly I’m no longer out in the country so no roosters are allowed in my township.
I’ve resorted to ordering my chicks online since every single Agway and farm store within a 50 mile radius sells out within a few hours of their arrival! It’s like the cabbage patch dolls in the 80’s.
I have a blue Orp, blue Ameracauna and a Salmon Faverolle on order from Meyer. The blues might be splash or black~ either is fine! As you can tell - I like my chickens fluffy!!

I noticed an earlier post about Welbars? Those are new to me- are they docile and/or friendly?

We have very close selections: I ordered a buff Orp, blue Ameracauna, Salmon Faverolle, Sussex, Dorking, and Blue Splash Marans from my pet chicken, but they will be shipped from Meyer. I usually get my chickens from Dennis, but my son has to have an ameraucana, so I decided to get some other chickens I wanted with it. I'm still worry about getting roos and dead chicks in mail. We will see how it goes. When Dennis starts to sell ameraucana pullets, I will be happily done with the mail order chicks. All my chickens from Dennis are friendly, except one Rhodebar that he doesn't have anymore. The Rhodebar girl was skittish from human, but would draw bloody from her flock mates for no reason. I guess that came from her Rhode Island Red gene. Welbar are all good layers of dark brown eggs, calm, friendly, like to follow you and beg for treats, but not really for cuddling. Olive eggers and Legbar like human contact more. One of my olive eggers, Molly, liked to ride on my should when I walking around and would fall sleep on my lap.

 

[TillyPeeps]

They should start up very soon. That is, assuming they aren’t old. Depending on a few factors, old hens can continue to lay two or four eggs a week, or only 4 eggs a year. It sounds like you need another two or six hundred chickens.
View attachment 2583460
Then there’s the ducks, turkeys...

Chicken mathI started a order of 4 chicks this year, because it's mypetchicken's minimun number. Then I could not decide Sussex or Dorking, so I add both. Then someone said her Blue Splash marans is so cuddling, then I had to call to add one. There are still many more looking good... But I HAVE to save some room for next year when Dennis has Ameraucana pullets and black sexlinks.

 

[dheltzel]

I was almost to you yesterday - if only I had known! I’m not sure what I want to add just yet but those dark brown & olive eggs are tempting. When I lived in Florida I was about 20 minutes away from Greenfire. I remember the Welbars, now! Can’t remember her name but talked with the lady there about her birds a few times.
First things first- I have to finish my coop.
I built a gorgeous coop in Fl so I’m having performance anxiety here. Everyone expects something lavish and I just want functionality this time. Well, cute, too.

pic from Fl of my Viking Coop.

Funny about Greenfire's Welbars. They announced them and I expected them to make a big splash and be serious competition. They posted some pics and I commented in some public forums and I think even on their website, that the cockerels they had in the pictures were single barred and would not produce autosexing chicks. Fast forward some months and nothing out of GF about Welbars. Finally, word got out that they had abandoned the Welbars because they could not get them to be reliably autosexing. Seems they can buy and sell autosexing chickens, but have no idea about what makes the genetics work.

The best buy I ever made was getting Rees Legbars direct from GF. That is the only thing I ever bought from them, but they are the stars of my chick sales every single year. So I have mixed feelings about GF.

 

[TravelingWillow]

We have very close selections: I ordered a buff Orp, blue Ameracauna, Salmon Faverolle, Sussex, Dorking, and Blue Splash Marans from my pet chicken, but they will be shipped from Meyer. I usually get my chickens from Dennis, but my son has to have an ameraucana, so I decided to get some other chickens I wanted with it. I'm still worry about getting roos and dead chicks in mail. We will see how it goes. When Dennis starts to sell ameraucana pullets, I will be happily done with the mail order chicks. All my chickens from Dennis are friendly, except one Rhodebar that he doesn't have anymore. The Rhodebar girl was skittish from human, but would draw bloody from her flock mates for no reason. I guess that came from her Rhode Island Red gene. Welbar are all good layers of dark brown eggs, calm, friendly, like to follow you and beg for treats, but not really for cuddling. Olive eggers and Legbar like human contact more. One of my olive eggers, Molly, liked to ride on my should when I walking around and would fall sleep on my lap.

I was worried about shipping chicks, too, so I called Meyer today. The nice gentleman said that ordering fewer was actually safer for the chicks. Apparently in larger numbers ”trampling“ is the leading cause of loss. He assured me that my 3 would have a heat pack and be just fine. Poor guy, I bet he gets lots of worried chicken mammas and papas calling.
I plan on 4, possibly 5 if I have to get 2 more after the initial 3. I am really looking for friendly lap chickens but I do love those dark brown and olive eggs.
Luckily I seem to be impervious to chicken math! I started with 4 in Fl and never added to the flock. My sister started with 4 and now has “about 40”. That means 70 and that’s without counting her ducks.