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I lost 8 show quality SLW last month to a predator....so now I'm patiently waiting on 8 SLW chicks and 8 SLW bantam chicks
..I'll miss my old flock for a while tho
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I lost 8 show quality SLW last month to a predator....so now I'm patiently waiting on 8 SLW chicks and 8 SLW bantam chicks
..I'll miss my old flock for a while tho
![]()
Thanks for the sympathy, @KDOGG331. I'm either made of pragmatic hearty peasant stock or a heartless old broad, but I do what has to be done, without hesitation. I did bring Peewee inside and tried to bolster her with additional electrolytes but she was dead by morning. Since this thread is for CHICKS!!!!I offer a pic of tiny Peewee at 3 weeks. All of the other in the Cackle Hatchery Surprise pack had 3" wings, and she still had this adorable wee stub!
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You have my sympathy.It's hard to lose them, for sure!
I've never had SLW but my one GLW was gorgeous! I have a mental picture of your future flock, with big and little versions of the same breed. It should be totally adorable!![]()
When I began on this journey with my fluffybutts, I knew nothing about different breeds. I started off with 3 dozen straight run chicks from TSC, and the split was even! Who could resist a dozen Dixie Chicks? Those Dixie Rainbow roos were RUDE!They started -- at the tender age of 11 weeks -- nailing my hands and forearms when I FED them! That made it easy to harvest them.
Payback was sweet. All except the one I kept, who turned out to be a real sweetheart. Big Sur suffered himself to be picked up, he would call his ladies when he saw me approach with treats then let them eat first, he would take morsels he found in the yard to a hen, and generally was an awesome flock master.
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Almost every other roo I've had since then has been aggressive. I don't put up with that crap.
Every year I have gotten a collection or an assortment, from the double Cackle Hatchery Surprise Pack, which taught me the perils of shipping chicks long distances, to my local feed store, where I pick them up a day after they arrive and survival rates are close to 100%.
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This was my Cackle Hatchery surprise! 104 chicks and poults! There were EEs, Polish, BRs, Leghorns, Turkens, some I never did identify, and 3 poults. There were far more pullets than I expected.
View attachment 1708217 TURKEY POULT PHOTOBOMB!!!!
The turkeys were AWESOME!They were gorgeous toms.
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I will always prefer a mixed flock. I like being able to tell them apart.
@KDOGG331 You're probably closer to transportation than I am by a good ways, so your shipped chicks might have better survival than I did from Cackle. My mail goes to Bangor, then is trucked 3 hours north to my local hub, and then on to my PO. I can get the chicks about 6:30 am, but the long trip from MO took its toll.
I recommend collections and assortments highly! The variety is wonderful. I also made a trade/sale with an acquaintance a half hour north of me, which cut the size of my flock and let me acquire an EE roo. Herb eventually turned on me but before he did, I got a huge clutch of eggs for a friend's incubator, and from those I still have 8 hens.
Joining here late. I am also getting chicks this year. I have an order from my feedstore coming in april 26th. 10 Plymouth Rock Blues, 10 isa browns and 5 australops. I also have an order of15 black blue and splash ameraucaunas from deer farm in june.