Question on chicken math with chicks!

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If you are concerned that 4 chicks doesn't give you any wiggle room if something were to happen, get 12-15. Raise them to 8-10 weeks. By then, you should have a good handle on sex and personality. Keep 4 pullets and sell the extras. It's no more work to raise 15 instead of 4 and the coop is plenty big.

I actually find it a lot harder to manage 15, than 4, especially if you want to tame them down. Stick to 4 or 5 at most, plan to replace some after you lose 2, you never want to introduce a single bird to an established flock. If you get hooked you may want a bigger coop down the road, but not everyone gets hooked, stick to the present.

 

[Seatrout00]

That is exactly what we want. Chicken pets that give us lots of eggs. As a single mom with medical disabilities living in a small house with a small yard .... a small flock is the only thing that makes sense, and we'd like to get to know our hens. I am leaning toward only purchasing five.

 

[GodofPecking]

Ah, well with those further details I'd suggest getting half a dozen silkies, fully grown hens. Kids love them, they lay but not quite as much, so the few extra will be handy, they go clucky and raise chicks 'at the drop of a hat' so you could get fertile eggs and put them under her for the kids to enjoy some chicks.

Thing is, that chicks take 6 months to grow, by which time half are roosters, so 12 chicks equates to 6 chooks plus 6 months waiting. In 6 months, it is too easy to find out who wants some of your chickens / half grown chickens, so by the time they are almost ready to lay you can sell, trade, or probably already have. Often 2 or 3 dozen chicks can equate to only the bare minimum you want and refuse to sell.

Chickens are easy to sell off or eat, but having 5 and wanting 6 is a whole different matter entirely. They have a pecking order and do not like a newcomer on their territory.

Having 6 or 12 or 24 and wanting the perfect 5 is less of a problem when you can sell or eat them but finding the perfect 5 it is better to just start with 5 egg laying hens which are all new to your coop and arrive not knowing who is boss and are a bit more gentle about working that out, then a home team and trespassers.

Silkies are just a suggestion, get a pure breed, not ISA Browns which are a disaster for kids just looking for a place to die, in my experience and my studies of the matter.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

That is exactly what we want. Chicken pets that give us lots of eggs. As a single mom with medical disabilities living in a small house with a small yard .... a small flock is the only thing that makes sense, and we'd like to get to know our hens. I am leaning toward only purchasing five.

Personally I would stick to the 4 or 5. This way you don't have an overcrowding problem in your coop/run and days you can't free range. Your children will have only a few to get to know (chickens are fun & have personalities). Food and bedding costs will not cost as much $$.

It doesn't make any sense to me to purchase more than you want, then go through the hassle of having to try to sell/give away. This will just be more added stress trying to sell, determining who to keep, and then there is the what to do if you can't get rid of them.

 

[Seatrout00]

I don't much like the look of silkies and really want some great layers - I like the dark colors so the BR and Australorps are perfect for us, really - good personalities and good layers and hardy in blistering heat - I won't know for sure if that is what we get until the feed store gets their next shipment in, but I have already decided if they don't get BRs, I will wait until February just to get BRs - I want that breed that bad.

I really don't want to deal with a dozen or more chicks - that is just too much. I am still tipping between 5 and 6 - but 6 would be the absolute largest number of chicks we'd get, hands down. I am sure I will do things wrong my first time around and will regret some decisions, but at least this way, I won't be over run with chickens and my kids and I can get to know their personalities.

I feel pretty good about the breeds I've selected with RIRs as my back up (should they not have Australorps) - that seems to be the most common breed my feed store gets and customers are pleased with them. My zoning office coordinator has some RIRs from my feed store, in fact, and highly suggested I stick with them, he's liked his so much - but as I've stated, my heart is set on BRs.

 

[Seatrout00]

Ah - not sure if I mentioned this, but I absolutely can not have a rooster - so hatching chicks isn't really a possibility for us. I used to have a small incubator I used for my reptile eggs - which is likely still in my attic, but even so, I am not prepared to hatch out chicks and without a rooster, any ladies I get won't be able to either. Not only do I live in a small, tightly connected neighborhood with neighbors who do not want to be woken up every five minutes past 5 am, I would likely hate the rooster waking ME up! (I can be a right bear when my sleep is disturbed) Now if I lived further out west close to the St. Johns and had more land .... oh yes, I'd have a roo and would hatch babies, but that is not a possibility just now and the feed store sells chicks so cheap and the batches they've been getting in are so healthy - well it seems like a no brainer to go there.

 

[Percheron chick]

I would take RIR off the short list. They can be bullies in a mixed flock. You are also apt to get something else as hatcheries use the name recognition to market production reds, sex links or any miscellaneous red hen. No EEs? Green eggs are pretty much a requirement with kids.

 

[Seatrout00]

That is good to know, Percheron - I have read that RIRs can be a bit bullyish, and that would be bad, yes. As far as EEs, this may sound contrite, but I hate pastel colors and I see that most of their eggs are pastel in color. They also seem to be lighter colored chickens ... and I've heard that they aren't the best layers. I know I'm in the minority, but they don't much appeal to me.

 

[blucoondawg]

Silkies are just a suggestion, get a pure breed, not ISA Browns which are a disaster for kids just looking for a place to die, in my experience and my studies of the matter.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Isa Brown chickens or any of the other red or black sex linked hybrid layers, this is the second thread now where you are claiming this rubbish. Your experience with retired factory farm hens who were likely kept in deplorable conditions until they left the farm is not at all an honest assessment of the breed, day old chicks kept on good conditions their whole life are going to be a different bird than the factory farm hen. Also the source of these birds is going to make a difference, not every hatchery uses the same stock therefore not every hatchery has the exact same chicken under that name, it's the same for any breed when dealing through hatcheries.

As far as the rir tending to be more aggressive I have not seen it in my birds, I like them, I have some new Hampshire who are nice as well one follows us around like a dog, and I also have 11 of those "horrid" ISA Browns, and there isn't a darn thing wrong with them either, healthy and good chickens.

 

[Wyorp Rock]