So Thursday as I was working on that play yard I got a call from the post office the 3 EEs were there. Slap up the fence and go get the hens. Weird thing now is One of the EEs, her 3 days is showing more sign of laying. And I'm betting she'll have a green egg. Getting the bunch happy integrated is a bit tricky.
BETTING? or HOPING?
Because I do not know of any way to determine the color an EE will lay OTHER than knowing the parentage. Unless one is a purebred Araucana or Ameraucana and the other known white or brown layer breed or mix (though all in the mix must be either white or brown breeds), you get what you get.
You express ship them and have contact with the post master to ship adult birds. Food and water isnt a big deal with express shipping being so fast.
You should contact the PM for chicks as well, they like to know when live animals are coming. My guess is that the stress on anything other than a day old chick is still pretty high even with express. And express 'time' depends on distance. Taking an adult chicken to the PO in the morning isn't going to guarantee it gets somewhere the same day. In fact I would guess same day is not very likely at all unless the distance is pretty short and both the sender and recipient are not way out in the boonies. My wife is a Postal Clerk and has dealt with chicks, ducklings and bees. She only started back in November so she hasn't seen any turkey poults yet but I bet she does later this summer. Only having seen the customer side of the counter at the PO, I have found (and so has SHE!) that the PO is WAY more complicated than I would have ever imagined.
Either way I'm waiting and waiting. I'm just hoping they start this year.
This next year I am going to somehow start hatching eggs in october-december, that way the chicks will be starting to lay come spring time. I hate hate hate getting chickens in spring and having to wait until next spring to get some eggs.
But it is hard to find eggs to hatch in winter. Maybe I will run some lights in my coop and fool my hens this year. Just add a few extra hours of light so I can build my layers for spring.
Really? My 2 day old chicks came on June 15, 2012. The first to lay was early Nov, the last early Jan. Seems like a spring chick would lay well before the following spring.
Mine laid through their first winter as expected and most slacked off big time after their first moult last fall. Don't know how much was based on the "norm" that most don't lay in the winter after they moult and how much was that plus lack of light. Most of them started back up mid Feb. My girls will hang out on free room and board until they die of natural causes. I figure (but with no knowledge of same) that they will lay more years if they get their natural winter rest period so I have chosen to not add light to force laying (they 'need' 12 if not 14 hours, if youdo it, add in the morning, not at night). Though I have to say, seeing all your chickens in the coop and getting 0 to 1 or 2 eggs a day for weeks is a bummer. And I only got that because my remaining Partridge Chantecler moulted in July!, started laying again the end of August and never stopped (until she went broody again last week
) and my smaller Black Australorp didn't moult until the end of January!!! All mine seemed to stop laying about a week before their feathers started flying off.
Bruce
