When ten chicks turn into more.

[madisonjar]

Wife and I decided to redo our coop after 13 years straight of chickens (weak floor points, ladder falling, run needing to be re predator proofed) and Gave our 7 chickens who were still laying strong after 5 years to a local person who has a big farm and loves chickens. We didnt realize that the whole world wanted chickens as bad as they do and saw most places sold out of chickens till august and sept and later...WHAT?!?! so it got our butt into high gear and we did a lot of repairs this weekend with more to come (speaking of that we have always had just dirt in run but I read that you can use pine chips or wood chips in the run and give them a dusting spot still is this a thing? that will help keep the run a little neater) anyways. We started looking for chicks and went to rural king who said they sell out as soon as they come in, Hartville Hardware isnt ready yet and Tractor supply who you guessed it, sold out of white and brown egg layer mix....well I just happed to be on Tractor Supply website when the 10 bird assortment went into stock and got it...WE were excited... Got a brooder box from rural king and just needed a new heat lamp. WEnt to tractor supply to get the heat lamp and uh oh they had Amercaunas in stock and I had been reading on here that a lot of times when chicks are mailed some of them dont make it. We have the space for 12-13 chicks comfortably so I thought well if we start with 16 that will be a good number so we got the americaunas and production blue (4 americaunas 2 blues) and then suprise without notice our other chicks show up the next day....So Here we are lol may have gotten too excited but we now have 16 birds and they all seem to be very healthy and active (did clean up one pasty butt already that looked weak from tractor supply and it has bounced back nicely) added acv to water and now need to expand...Only thing I regret is I didnt get a list of what we got from hoovers hatchery, so now we have ten mystery bids...2 yellow ones with black dots on head, 6 yellow birds, and 2 redder colored birds (maybe isa browns?)...

 

[FunClucks]

Sounds like you are in for some fun!!!

I went out intending to get 3-4 chickens. Was a victim of chicken math, and after multiple trips to the feed store ended up with 19 after a week or so. I didn't have a coop yet, so I just built a bigger one. There are so many fun varieties to get!!! We rehomed two, and one died, so now we have 16. They're almost a year old.

Once they're about 6 weeks old, you can post chick pictures in the "What Breed or Gender is This" forum, and we can help ID your chicks. Make sure you read the sticky so you take pictures that show what folks need to see to ID them.