Raising Baby Chick-Along

[orrpeople]

Hi everyone. This is a great thread. I have been reading it all day. Still sort of a noobie, and love the learning this site provides. My husband is like "backyardchicks" again? Everytime he sees me on the phone. can not help it... So we started our crazy chicken love journey in May. We ordered our first chicks last April to be delivered in May, then found the perfect home and closed on it fast. We built a coop and before we had finished a lot of predator proofing we lost 2 and had two injured. Demo'd everything and made a mini Fort Knox with a similar med bay for our injured girls. I am also making a large hoop coop.
Father asked me half way through contruction if chicken math was contagious and asked me to get more...so we are waiting on a shipment near Sept 13th. Some day I want goats, but as I have 10 more boxes and totes to in pack, a basement with all the unneeded things waiting for organization, and the base of a hoop coop calling my name. . . Maybe in a few years. I want to grow my chickens food first before more animals. Learning about fodder for chicks.
Anyone grow thing for their flock?

This is a my kids favorite rooster. He cuddles her. The temp tractor was made of pvc. I know it is not a good solution. Was temp for yard during contruction while supervised. Waiting for delivery of HC etc.

Hello! I am so glad you are here! What breeds of chickens do you currently have? What breeds are coming "special delivery"?
Do you know which specific predators got your birds? Usually folks have more than one, but sometimes there's a particular pest (hawks, for us, during the day and raccoons at night) so we have made specific accommodations for those.
We love pics, so any time you have some to share, go for it!!

 

[shartnett5]

Hello! I am so glad you are here! What breeds of chickens do you currently have? What breeds are coming "special delivery"?
Do you know which specific predators got your birds? Usually folks have more than one, but sometimes there's a particular pest (hawks, for us, during the day and raccoons at night) so we have made specific accommodations for those.
We love pics, so any time you have some to share, go for it!!

A barred rock, a buff orph, 2 speckled sussex, 2 sex links (another 8 for my dad) and some "ameraucanas" which when i asked if he ment easter eggers (from learning on here) I kinda offended him. I appologized, and said learning all this quickly. Lol
For predators we definitely have hawks, and I have heard fisher cats, foxes, weasels, the list goes on. The day we lost birds, we were rotartilling 20-30 feet away. Stopped to get a glass of water, came out to find a shredded carcass w head ripped off. Continued rotartilling for another hour. Rinsed the rotartiller off and found another. They were in a temp run made of 1 inch steel fencing. We knew we needed to hardware cloth it all. They were young and only out while supervised while we waited for delivery of supplies. It had scared them to a corner and snagged them through fence. And it came back while we ran to garage for what ever supplies we could muster and injured the other two.
We since have made things more secure. HC everywhere w skirting buried everywhere. The creature obviously was a brazen lil rascal. It has been 8 weeks w no more incidents

 

[shartnett5]

We have a more "wheaten" colored easter egger. I think that is what you would call her. She is nearly 3. Lays tinted green eggs. She came to us because she was being ravaged by a rooster and his harem. We kept her separate for about a month. She is top hen for now. Keeps our young boys in line as well. She seems to lay every day with out a day off. Is that too much? She started to lay the day we took her. They said they never had green eggs in their basket so she prob never laid for them.

 

[orrpeople]

We have a more "wheaten" colored easter egger. I think that is what you would call her. She is nearly 3. Lays tinted green eggs. She came to us because she was being ravaged by a rooster and his harem. We kept her separate for about a month. She is top hen for now. Keeps our young boys in line as well. She seems to lay every day with out a day off. Is that too much? She started to lay the day we took her. They said they never had green eggs in their basket so she prob never laid for them.

Sounds like she is making up for lost time! Stress really messes with laying habits, so it's no wonder she wasn't laying in her former location!
Yeah, the Ameracauna thing is tricky. I think a lot of the hatchery birds are a gamebird cross with some true Aracauna lineage in there somewhere (for the egg color). I have three of them and I don't love them any less because they're really just a garden variety Easter Egger - in fact, they've been quite handy at making Olive Egger chicks - so I'm happy to have them. I don't know if I would ever get them again though - more from deciding to only do business with small and/or local farms when i purchase my hatching eggs and my chicks than any kind of breed snobbery lol

 

[CapricornFarm]

I have decided that these three birds are not Ameraucanas, that i bought at the swap. Not enough beard or muffs. But i just bought them to teach the guineas to roost so it is ok if they are EE. It will be interesting to see what color eggs they lay.

 

[CapricornFarm]

A barred rock, a buff orph, 2 speckled sussex, 2 sex links (another 8 for my dad) and some "ameraucanas" which when i asked if he ment easter eggers (from learning on here) I kinda offended him. I appologized, and said learning all this quickly. Lol
For predators we definitely have hawks, and I have heard fisher cats, foxes, weasels, the list goes on. The day we lost birds, we were rotartilling 20-30 feet away. Stopped to get a glass of water, came out to find a shredded carcass w head ripped off. Continued rotartilling for another hour. Rinsed the rotartiller off and found another. They were in a temp run made of 1 inch steel fencing. We knew we needed to hardware cloth it all. They were young and only out while supervised while we waited for delivery of supplies. It had scared them to a corner and snagged them through fence. And it came back while we ran to garage for what ever supplies we could muster and injured the other two.
We since have made things more secure. HC everywhere w skirting buried everywhere. The creature obviously was a brazen lil rascal. It has been 8 weeks w no more incidents

So sorry you lost your birds! It never gets any better.

 

[shartnett5]

You got that right. Esp when we were "supervising" them on there outing. And only went inside to get a jug of water. We were like where did we move to? Predator central? The rotartiller we rented was a big old loud jalopy. It should have deterred anything for a while. I love them no matter what they are. Though the boss cockerel man.. He is reaching maturity and is getting rough. "Rubles"

Also I love those olive colored eggs. Such a beautiful color. When the exchange posted a list of birds I just took 2 of everything and 8 sex links for my dad. He is in the city. I am excited for my shipment with the welsummers. I have never had birds shipped but our post office is half a mile away.

 

[orrpeople]

You got that right. Esp when we were "supervising" them on there outing. And only went inside to get a jug of water. We were like where did we move to? Predator central? The rotartiller we rented was a big old loud jalopy. It should have deterred anything for a while. I love them no matter what they are. Though the boss cockerel man.. He is reaching maturity and is getting rough. "Rubles"

Also I love those olive colored eggs. Such a beautiful color. When the exchange posted a list of birds I just took 2 of everything and 8 sex links for my dad. He is in the city. I am excited for my shipment with the welsummers. I have never had birds shipped but our post office is half a mile away.

Cockerels sure can change personalities once those hormones kick in! We've had them turn into absolute gentlemen and holy terrors! A few months ago, I posted a pic of one of my BCM cocks on a local fb page to see if anyone wanted him, with the caveat that he was going to be either processed or sold at the "swap" (which is basically the same thing, only someone else processes it) in a week. Someone commented how bad they felt for the poor boy. I replied that i would feel bad too, if he hadn't attacked me the second after the pic had been taken!
Moral of the story for us is that there's a million roosters out there that have good personalities, and about a million more that are just good tasting!

 

[rjohns39]

Cockerels sure can change personalities once those hormones kick in! We've had them turn into absolute gentlemen and holy terrors! A few months ago, I posted a pic of one of my BCM cocks on a local fb page to see if anyone wanted him, with the caveat that he was going to be either processed or sold at the "swap" (which is basically the same thing, only someone else processes it) in a week. Someone commented how bad they felt for the poor boy. I replied that i would feel bad too, if he hadn't attacked me the second after the pic had been taken!
Moral of the story for us is that there's a million roosters out there that have good personalities, and about a million more that are just good tasting!

I just put 19 in the freezer.

 

[shartnett5]

I just put 19 in the freezer.

Any one who processes chickens have a good link to info on this. I have been reading some on this for when the time comes. Hubby is honestly attatched to the rooster. He is the one who named him Rubles. I was calling him roo or roast. I got looks. He is all about giving him a chance. I told him I will only be an independent party for only so long. Then switch gears to butcher.
Am I neutral if I wonder if he is tastier than the store bought chicken I am used too? meat birds are a possibility in the future. We just bought 5 acres. Just not prepared for it this year. Kind of itching to see if I can do the deed and process him however I dont want to attempt until I have fully educated myself. Or maybe do with someone experienced the first time. Thoughts any one. A little evil or just inner farmer?