picking out chicks. Any secrets?

[Cass]

Quote:

 

[gritsar]

N&MSchroeder :

I'm from Idaho and have ordered 2 Golden Sex-link from my local feed store. I didn't know anything about them, but when I was ordering, I was told that they were the best and that if I ordered again next year, I wouldn't buy anything else. While I was in the store, 2 customers came in and ordered GSLs only. Hmm. My local feed store gets their chickens from Dunlap Hatchery. Here is what their website said about the GSL.

"This is our best brown egg layer. Imported originally from the Netherlands, this strain is used in over 60 countries worldwide. Capable of laying over 300 strong shelled eggs per year, the Golden Sex Link also know as the Bovan Brown is a very hearty bird that can withstand cold temperatures. When hatched, the males are a creamy white with the females colored in shades of red."

Hope this helps.

Please do yourself a favor. Call back and add a third chick to your order. Chicks are very much flock animals from hatch. If you only have two and goodness forbid something happen to one, you'll be left with a very sad, very upset singleton.


Take it from someone that just spent a very long 4 days with a single chick in the house, having to carry it everywhere and sleep with it even.

And

 

[N&MSchroeder]

Thanks for looking out for me! I actually have 6 total from the feed store and another 12 from My Pet Chicken. I ordered Buff Orpingtons and Black Sex Links at the feed store.

 

[gritsar]

N&MSchroeder :

Thanks for looking out for me! I actually have 6 total from the feed store and another 12 from My Pet Chicken. I ordered Buff Orpingtons and Black Sex Links at the feed store.

 

[ChooksChick]

If you hear one singing- seriously chirruping like a songbird- that's a roo. You'll be able to pick them out with that call, not that all of them do it, but every bird I've ever had that has made a songbird-like sound has ended up a roo.

I recommend getting to the feed store around 10 am, M, T or W. This is when the chicks arrive around here, though you should check your store.

Reason: the chicks will be fresh out of the shipping boxes and you can get correctly labeled chicks that haven't been mixed up by little kids.

I also like to get them fresh, because they won't have been through the less-than-perfect care that feed stores give.

 

[Sinfonian]

I'm getting 4, which would be a bit crowded in the ark when mature, but one's my extra. I do want all of them, but if one doesn't make it, or is a roo, I'm set.

Speaking of roos, the way I read it, they realy don't start crowing until about the time hens lay, or around 20 weeks. By then they're just about full grown and tender enough to eat... I can't have roos either (noise ordinance), but we'd planned on culling them when they stop laying anyway.

Lastly, our feed store told me that they get chicks between 10 am and noon, but they weed out the lost ones, dip beaks, etc. then put them out around 2. Since there's oddly not a Starbucks next door, I'm going at 2 on the day they get the chicks I want.

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

Well, roosters can start crowing as early as 5 weeks. I found that out thanks to my wonderful little d'anver roo....

And since he's a bantam, his crow is a whole octave above the other roosters...very lovely in the morning. But yes, go as early as you can get to that feed store. No mixed up chicks, and they won't have been subjected to the overcrowding and craziness of the feed store.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Five weeks? Impy was a whole two weeks old when he started crowing, right under my bedroom window.

 

[gryeyes]

And I have a young cochin roo who started at 3 weeks. He was King of the Brooder.

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

Quote:
Five weeks? Impy was a whole two weeks old when he started crowing, right under my bedroom window.

I feel extremely lucky now.