Utah!

[Cynthia12]

You'll have fertile eggs before next year- last year, I got a BCM chick about this time last year. Turned out to be a rooster. I hatched his first babies at the end of August. The mommies were 15 month old EE. Sooooo, you could have babies sooner.


Corvidae, I'm dying to see this ugly rooster of yours!


Here's my two lav ameraucanas in the middle.



lavs on far left.

Oh dear, I may not be feeding my lavender enough. I mean, mine is so small. I wonder why? Both of yours really do look like girls.

Ooo. loving that BLW on the left in the bottom picture..and love your Golden LW!

 

[corvidae]

It's a BLRW--hatched from my own little flock (proud chicken mommy here!). It had fluffed out a bit before I came in to work and was looking a little more like a BLRW, though it was still doing that collapsing-I-fell-asleep-on-my-feet thing the newly hatched chicks do.

Aww, look at that full tummy of yolk. It has it's eyes open, wondering what in the world? It's cold all of a sudden! Then it doesn't take them long to start acting like chickens. Pecking at each others eyes, and toes. Looking for food. No mom to show them, just out of a bator. I find some are more mixed up with that than some. What is this breed? Going to be a pretty black chicken. At least from first look!

 

[Sphinx]

I loved seeing the recently hatched pics of your BLRW!!!

Red, she looked ok to me, but I am soooo not the expert.

Cynthia, I knew you'd love that one- that's Cobalt, the one who was darkest from the very beginning. I'm a little put out- I'm pretty sure that Zuli (the chick I helped out) is a boy. Drat.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Phoenix-Glad you found a home for your big boy. 'Strawberry' will have to figure out how to behave! and 28 chickens holy cow!! Now I do not feel near as bad for 12. Uh oh here goes chicken math in my head. If you have 28 then maybe a few more won't hurt at all.....maybe 15 is ok for me lol BTW I called IFA and they said more Marans on Friday. and Polish on Thurs....Sphinx I might have to go take a look. They would be sexed pullets, no torture waiting to see what they are haha!

Donna- what a sweet newborn pic! That little thing is precious. Glad they are hatching ok

Sphinx-your girls (and boys haha) are looking so pretty! That GLW has pretty lacing now. The lavs are so beautiful....I do believe mine are not that filled out either. Cynthia---mine both eat like pigs and are looking a little scrawny too. My small one is so tiny. I think the big one bullies her a bit with the food. But wow they go through so much I cannot believe it. My big one is about the size of these of Sphinx'---maybe a bit smaller. What does it all mean! Will we ever know!! Boys or girls, c'mon show us! I keep waiting to see something definite....too early still I guess!

Red-- are those on the shoulders/wings? I have had two that are really bony right there, it took me a minute to see what was going on.

 

[Sphinx]

Lisa, I was at IFA yesterday in Ogden, and they had Polish. They were straight run though. Feel free to pick up sexed ones if you find them though. Please don't feel like you have to wait on me. If you don't want polish, I may actually have her send me a different variety. So don't feel pressured at all!


I had no idea my chicks were bigger. Remember the one was significantly bigger than the other four, but yeah, the smaller one has caught up a bit.

 

[RedIII]

Cynthia and Sphinx - Thank you. I was wondering if I was really that dense at picking chicks and had to grab the oddball one. It's nice to know that this is fairly normal!

Lisa - The bumps are kind of on the shoulder and back area, right behind the wings in the pictures. It's hard to see except for in person. I should have gotten a side view of her, too. Other than how bumpy she feels, she seems to be okay. It's cute to watch her stretch out and then dash across the brooder and flap those little wings. She's a lot zippier than her 'sisters'!

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Lisa, I was at IFA yesterday in Ogden, and they had Polish. They were straight run though. Feel free to pick up sexed ones if you find them though. Please don't feel like you have to wait on me. If you don't want polish, I may actually have her send me a different variety. So don't feel pressured at all!


I had no idea my chicks were bigger. Remember the one was significantly bigger than the other four, but yeah, the smaller one has caught up a bit.

Ugh! Maybe they are not sexed! I did not ask her (the clerk) specifically, I just thought they would be if they were at the store. We will go take a peek and see what they have, I will let you know what he decides for sure! My son is driving me crazy, he keeps pestering me lol. He is as much of a chicken fanatic as I am

I had to bring the lavs back in the garage last night---tried the coop but the bigger one will not hide out in the place I made, just running all around the coop all frantic as the big girls chase. I kept putting him in there, popped right back out only to get chased again. I did not dare leave him out there all night....I think I will try again later this week while I can watch them and try to show them what the deal is. So now they are in the garage with the smaller four...they seem pretty happy together, so I might try all 6 of them at once. I always stress out over mixing them up, I have mental images of the babies getting eaten "Chicken integration anxiety". I won't sleep at all their first night out there, better do it on the weekend so I can sleep in or take a nap! I feel like a new mommy

 

[Sphinx]

Yeah, I would be terrified to mix these little chicks with full grown hens.

I was a little nervous when I brought the little guys out- even though they were only four weeks younger, the big girls were double their size! However, there were 7 littles and two bigs, so it seemed to work out ok. Daisy (the GLW) seems to be asserting herself as head hen. It'll be interesting to see if things stay that way when the little chicks catch up.

I noticed they had several bins with straight run chicks in it this year- it seems like they were trying to get more exotics to appeal to the back yard chicken owner. I also noticed half the chickens were bantams. There were even some silkies. Seems like all of those were straight run.

DH keeps talking about buying meat chickens. I noticed that they were $1.29 each. The paperwork I read said to plan on about 10 lbs of feed per chick. I don't know- it just seems like so much work. Plus, I don't like dark meat. LOL

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

I have wondered that about the meat birds too----not very cost effective unless they can free range on pasture so it does not cost for feed. Plus the butchering and plucking....ew. I think I will stick with hens for pets and eggs

 

[Whittni]

I couldn't do broilers without feeling bad, but I love dark meat.