Thanks everyone.......I have 12 new babies

[pinkchick]

After spending many happy hours reading BYC to learn anything and everything I could, I gave in yesterday when my daughters asked if they could go to town with their brother and buy some baby chicks. Little did I know that they would be coming home with 12.

I'll be trying my hand at raising some yungins' and BYC' got my back. (wiping forehead)

I'm happy to announce we now have

6 buff orps....my fav
4 barred rock
3 sex links .......(meanies)
1 rhode island red
2 golden lace wyandottes (spelling?)
2 jersey giants

and mr foghorn the lucky Leghorn roo

I have never heard of the jersey giants before and are they a good layer? How big do they really get according to their name?

Being new, should I have partitions in my roost as the girlz fight over two spaces where they can lay, these happen to be spaces closest to the walls. The neighbor I received them from had them in very small cubbies to lay. How many roosts should I really have? Currently, my coop is 7'x7'x7'. and each laying hen has an area 12"x18" to use but they fight over 2. There's even an extra roost as I initially thought the neighbor was going to give me 7 hens.
So, what to do?

thanks

 

[lurky]

12?

Which are the newbies?

 

[pinkchick]

4 buff orps
4 barred rock
2 jersey giants
2 golden lace wyandottes

 

[the simple life]

My experience with the black sex links is that they are just skittish and nervous. I handle mine alot so that they will become friendlier. Last night my husband was sitting in the yard and he called over to the group and one of the black sex links came running up and jumped into his lap and then my son went into the hen house and put his arm out near the roost and 2 of them jumped onto his arm.
Yours may get friendlier but you will have to handle them whether they like it or not, eventually they give in.
I don't know anything about the giants but the rest of them I have as well and they are known for being good natured, especially the orps.
Congratualtions!

 

[SpottedCrow]

Congratulations!!

Here's a bit about JG's.
Jersey Giants appear in the Standard of Perfection (USA) in two varieties: Black and White. Cocks should weigh 13 pounds and hens 10 pounds. The breed was developed in the 1880s in New Jersey. It carries Java, Brahma and Langshan blood and its skin is yellow. The breeders who created the breed were aiming at a large roasting fowl. As a meat bird in the modern world, however, it is slow-growing and therefore not commercially viable. On the other hand, few poultry sights are as impressive as a flock of Black Jersey Giants on a green lawn.

Australorps differ from Black Jersey Giants in that the legs of the Jersey Giant are black (some tending toward willow) and the underparts of the feet are yellow. In Lorps, the legs are black, shading to dark slate in adults, but the underparts of the feet are pinkish white. This works with good show stock, but hatchery stock is more variable and you can't ever be sure unless the birds grow to the size of Giants.


Jersey Giant

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Uncommon. Was in decline, but now seems to be holding its own.
56%/28% (black/all other)
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10 lb/4.6 kg APA (1922):
Large: American Bantam: Single Comb Clean Legged
PC: Heavy, Rare


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Dual Purpose
[formerly Meat] Developed in New Jersey in 1870s. Never commercially popular, but bird of choice for capons

brown eggs medium to large




small
single comb
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yellow skin,
dark shanks
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red good brooder;
protective mother
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robust; very cold hardy
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very slow to mature not an economical eater; adaptable to confinement or free range; calm, gentle, easily handled