Six Chicks for Nic!

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mopilgrim

mopilgrim

Hatching
5 Years
Sep 29, 2014
2
0
7
Hi, my name is Donna Hovey, and I live in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I have a husband, Thom, 12 children, ages 2-24, a bearded Dragon, and (6) 4-month-old chicks. My third child, Nicolas, has been obsessed with chickens since he was a little boy, but we were never able to own any due to not having the best property to do so. We bought a house on a half and acre in Plymouth 5 years ago, and entertained the idea of getting chickens. By the time Nic was about to graduate high school, my husband and I decided to get him some chicks before he would leave the nest himself, so we surprised him on his graduation day with (7) 1-week-old chicks. One died the day after we brought them home, and we were so upset! But the other 6 have thrived and are living outside in the small little-red-barn coop. They are all different breeds and are now 4-months old. All the kids love them and play with them outside almost every day. We were told that they would start laying around 4 months, but all I have seen on these forums is that it is much later, like 6 months. So we don't know when to get their boxes ready, as we were told to close them up until they were ready to lay. We also have no idea what breeds they are. So I will post some pictures later that maybe you all can help us identify. Looking forward to learning from this forum!
 
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6 months is a more likely age for laying. Some of the signs include a very red comb/wattle, and squatting down when you come near. Once those things happen they should be laying soon. Place some fake eggs or golf balls in the nesting boxes so they know where to lay. Good luck to you.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Sounds like you are enjoying your new flock! As Liz has said, the average age for laying is around 6 months. Some breeds can start at 5 months however.

You can open up the boxes as long as they all know how to roost at night on the roost bars. Closing off the boxes just prevents them from sleeping in them. But pretty soon you will want to open them up so the birds can investigate them and start to learn where to lay their eggs. So at least keep the boxes open during the day. Put a fake egg in each box so they know where to lay. And sometimes those first eggs are laid where ever the bird may be at at the time until they learn to go into the boxes or what an egg ready to lay feels like.

Enjoy your new flock! If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC!

You will find a lot of good information here. Keep on asking questions and you will get many good answers.

You may also want to read the FAQ below.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Nice graduation present! Sorry about the one you lost. You can post pictures of your chicks in the What Breed/Gender forum for help with figuring out what you have https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this X5, chickens will start to lay at different ages, what breed they are makes a difference also, the commercial layer types usually start sooner than the more ornamental ones.
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'm so sorry you lost one of your chicks. It's always hard to lose one of our flock. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your chicks.
 

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