Raising Baby Chick-Along

[AUChickenGal]

I got my order from Meyer today as well, and I also think my Meal Maker is a Rhode Island Red! They must have had a surplus of that breed this week. Mine are all doing well (only six in the box, all standards - I'll be keeping four and selling the two Easter Eggers to a friend).

 

[JJByrd]

Wish I had other options, but no hatcheries around us so mail order it is. Feel so bad for them being shipped, but so far the rest look good and are active, eating, and drinking.

 

[rjohns39]

I've gone both ways... As long as there are at least 15 birds in the shipment, they do better than hatching eggs. That said, the birds I'm working on--no one will ship live birds, so I'm stuck with buying more eggs than I need to compensate for the lower hatch rate.

 

[WVduckchick]

I've gone both ways... As long as there are at least 15 birds in the shipment, they do better than hatching eggs. That said, the birds I'm working on--no one will ship live birds, so I'm stuck with buying more eggs than I need to compensate for the lower hatch rate.

What breed? Hopefully you've tried some BYC sources?

 

[Chickening101]

I think Sav-a-chick is good, I heard great things about it, but natural homeade electrolytes are also really good!

 

[rjohns39]

What breed? Hopefully you've tried some BYC sources?

I have. Barred Hollands and Rhode Island Whites. I think I have enough RIWs and will know in a couple weeks on the BH.

 

[WVduckchick]

I've had this trio of hens sitting on eggs for close to 5 weeks. First set of eggs, i think they rolled between them too much and none developed very far. I didn't really care if any hatched or not, i have so many already! But finally, day before yesterday, one hatched! I checked the other eggs under them, pulled a couple more quitters, but a couple looked good.
got home yesterday and they were outside with the new baby and left a live one pipped in the coop. I took it, plus the other egg, inside to the incubator for a while, then when they settled in for the night, i tucked the eggs back under them. This morning, we have another baby!

 

[orrpeople]

Wish I had other options, but no hatcheries around us so mail order it is. Feel so bad for them being shipped, but so far the rest look good and are active, eating, and drinking.

I was talking to my mom about my grandparents' farm in North Dakota and she was telling me about how they got chicks in the mail every spring - and this was back in the 1930's! So chicks have been traveling across the country for a very long time!!
That said, I got my last (I promise) chick shipment yesterday

- East Frisian Gulls in three colors - Gold, Lemon and Silver. They are so incredibly cute! I already had some 1 week old silver ones and got the other two colors because I'm addicted to unique looking birds! There were a bunch of people in the post office so I gave a quick clinic on chicken shipping and they all wanted to see the babies. Just spreading the love of chicken ownership to the good people of Redding.

 

[orrpeople]

Question of the day!! Why did you start raising chickens? What was it that made you take the leap into poultry ownership? Did you grow up with them, or is this a brand new thing?
A lot of you know my story, so I won't repeat it, but if you're curious, here's the link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...rney-a-little-chicken-ownership-memoir.72528/

 

[orrpeople]

I've had this trio of hens sitting on eggs for close to 5 weeks. First set of eggs, i think they rolled between them too much and none developed very far. I didn't really care if any hatched or not, i have so many already! But finally, day before yesterday, one hatched! I checked the other eggs under them, pulled a couple more quitters, but a couple looked good.
got home yesterday and they were outside with the new baby and left a live one pipped in the coop. I took it, plus the other egg, inside to the incubator for a while, then when they settled in for the night, i tucked the eggs back under them. This morning, we have another baby!
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Wow! I love your broody adventures! Very fun!