Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

Sounds like a good deal. For the first time ever, my hubby and I are seriously thinking about leaving California. He was born and raised here and I've been here most of my life, but the kind of lifestyle you have seems to be getting out of reach here. 10 acres and a mule, or a tractor, sounds great! I like the idea of being self-sufficient, but that's hard to do on one acre. Of course growing up in earthquake country, I have an irrational fear of tornadoes.
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Do you have them in Indiana? Wouldn't want the fluffy butts to get sucked up into a vortex!
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Rarely but yes they hit the "70 corridor" so if you stay south or north of US 70 its safer
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Indianapolis has been hit HARD like every 10 years. I been here in Indiana my whole life. We still have the old fashioned values in the rural areas... Many good people further southeast you go, its solid farm country living. We have friends out there in CA my DH was stationed with in the USAF, a few are moving out here. They want to enjoy a lil more laid back living.Its Flatland north, hilly south and except dec to march almost always green, peaceful and alive.
 
...........my thoughts are this: 15 chicks... I will probably keep 4 in the long run... will rehome the "ordinary" in the summer, and get marans in the Spring, the availability of marans is limited before Spring... and my order specifically states that I will accept marans or faverolles as a substitute should the EE's hatching rate be low. my birthday is Wednesday... I expect the gang to make me a Pie... it'll be a Poop Pie, but... it's the thought that counts, right???

I just so love the EE's... love the colored eggs, love their temperaments, love their looks, I love big fluffy heads and big muffs and beards... they look more "hawkish" rather than "chickenish"

ahhh... time to leave for work already... I overslept... cuz of that cup of coffee last night, I stayed up way past my bedtime...
 
Why thank you. :) can you imagine, after a day of climbing up and down mountains, you get to change a tire, take it to the station, only to discover there's nothing wrong with it! (Insert music from psycho here) fun. The way these hollows twist and turn, you'd never guess what's just over the ridge. I Love puzzles, the really hard ones. Fun to do with a few people too. Been looking for some when the g kids move here. Drats...I thought I might be onto something with the watercan. The paint might not stick real well to galvanized....but I might try it with one can. Where it sits it gets the first ray of the day, and the last one at night, they do have to go outside since I always slop it sliding the can back into place. The next thing today is to secure the tarp roof over the pop door, I am hoping for inspiration but it hasn't struck, so until then, just doing temporary things. Then I also get to dig some post holes for the front roof poarch, since I decided log poles would look cool, match the house. A miniature chicken cabin. I am hoping for broodies this spring (mostly hoping they decide to brood in the coop so i don't have to go find them) its a given they will start mulitplying in a few short months, and they are so good at hiding. Everybody has slowed dwn on eggs, must be that time, two hens have just started laying though. Then the hens spend the afternoon preening and snoozing inside the coop, I think they have started a bridge tournament. Occasionally a rooster will wander in and they make a big deal about it....out! Out! They squawk, and run him off. My rototiller hen followed me around yesterday, I was clearing up some old slab wood, semi stuck in the mud along the woods, and she'd goble up all the earthworms under it, I had other things to do but had to keep at it for her, then one roo decided to come over and take credit for the find...we knew better. Usually they turn up their beaks at earthworms, but that's about all that's left now. Well, back to work.
 
I like your list, i was perusing available chicks tonight too... compiling a list... I would love marans as well ~ i like the cuckoos, love the dark chocolatey colored eggs. I heard both raves and boos about orpingtons... but they are beautiful, esp. the lav's and blue's.
I want more EE's, but those I can breed myself. I really need to get more hens for the # of boys... one of my friends wants to get red stars in the Spring, and was asking if I want to split the order with her... I would be interested in a few, but not 12... started pullets are a decent price at the hatcheries, but I might fare better with someone local. choices choices... I want geese and turkeys too...

ok, had an impulse control issue and momentarily lost my mind, but have already rationalized the whole thing as my Ultimate Birthday Present.


projected shipping date 12/3/12 !

Item Qty Unit Price Ext. Price
Baby Chick Vaccination
15​
$1.00​
$15.00​
Easter Egger ($3.25)
--> Females (+$0.50)
15​
$3.75​
$56.25​

Subtotal:
$71.25​
Tax:
$0.00​
Shipping:
$36.95​
Total:

$108.20​

so... I will be brooding chicks indoors for a bunch of weeks this winter, but with the coop setup being so easy to modify, I can move them fairly quickly into the apple coop. i can board it off to cut draft, and separate a section of the enclosure for them so they can be beak to beak with the older birds, yet be safe and sound. 15 pullets (hopefully sexed correctly) by Spring will be 4-5 months old. that would give me 21 hens total, 7 for each roo. Royce doesn't have to give up his girls unless I want to change up the breeding pairs, and that would be temporary... plus he'll get one more to add to his harem...​
What hatchery are you using? I use Meyer (when I do hatchery) because they are close. The chicks get here fast, and I can pick them up if I want to. I also use them for their prices. $2.48 for the EE pullets, and $.53/vaccine.
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The Marans could be here in March.
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The new catalog said the Marans were $20/ pullet!
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Another mistake. I just looked, and they are under $10.
 
I went with My Pet Chicken. I looked at Meyer, they are less expensive, but I don't have any experience with them. round these parts most people use McMurray and MPC, so I figured, since MPC does not sell EE's as anything other than EE's, as most hatcheries call them Ameracaunas or Araucanas... and they have a good guarantee, lengthy time period, for sexing errors... eh... impulse sale anyway, so if I paid too much... s'my own fault for being so hasty... I just decided I didn't want to wait, so, I'm not gonna! I've gotten the tubs and radiator heater back out, have the bedding and the little feeders and waterers out, everything is spic and span and ready for their arrival! I just need chick feed, which I'll pick up when it's closer to their shipping time. the gang is outside, finished foraging, they are under the big pine, taking a bath. I can see them from here, but I'm going back outside, figured I'd pop online quick and see what's going on with everyone...

4 eggs so far! no egg from one BR, and none from Isis...

I can't remember what the marans were at MPC, think they might have been $10 also, not avail. til April... except on a very very limited basis...
 
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Hey Cheeka, look at these. They belong to cherylcohen who is in the east San Francisco Bay area. She's got all kinds of really cool breeds. Don't know if she is selling or ships, but thought I'd take part as enabler in your Chicken Math efforts! They just hatched yesterday. Off the cuteness scale!!!



"Lavender Marans babies, first born of the 4th generation!"

 
Wow, I actually just read this entire thread... I am never going to get a THING done today, but dreaming. This was a dreamy thread. Marans.... oh that I could find a few. :)

In response to the stuff on Buff Orps, my vote is so definitely FOR. They are the most darling of personalities, they are not the best layers I have ever had, but hardy and consistent. They lay on into years, a big plus.
 
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GardenSimply
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& to OK's hen party...lol, I'm amazed that a few have read through the entire thread! I'm overdue to write a poem... so overworked lately... they just aren't flowing... and I'm with you, the orps have a lovely fluffy healthy appearance... I don't have any, although there was a buff orp in the flock that I took care of in the 90's. broodiest girl ever... I feel bad, truly, that I didn't know what all that sitting meant back then... should've gotten some hatching eggs...

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W4W, they are so darling! I'm in it for life now... if I don't end up with Marans this year, there is always next year... !! in the meantime, I'll just
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What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? DH (he really isn't but that is another story) will only be home tomorrow. I made the mistake of saying I would make a turkey (it was in the freezer anyway), and that he should invite his brother. This is the first time I have made a bird since I did the deed to the roosters (that sounds so wrong!). I am hoping I don't cry.
So ... Turkey, meatballs, stuffing, apple sauce (home canned) yams, mashed potatoes, and whatever vegetables I have canned. Oh, and the garlic monkey bread.
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It is rising on the counter now, and will be baked in the morning. The meatballs JUST came out of the oven. Do you think I should add sauce? And am I forgetting anything?

Please ignore the Drake Cakes in the garbage can.
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Gotta love N.J.!
 

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