Where to get chicks?

[arvmontessori]

We are a small private Montessori school in Little Rock and inherited a chicken coop and 3 chickens a few years ago from one of our previous families. 2 of the chickens have died we're pretty sure due to old age. We would like to have 6 total chickens so we're looking to get 5 chicks. One of the chickens we had was a white Silky and we'd like to get another silky. Can anyone give advise? We know very little about chickens but we're very willing and open to learning!

 

[N F C]

Welcome to BYC!

You might check with the members on your state thread to see if anyone close to you has some for sale.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread

Once you have 20 posts, you can use the buy-sell-trade forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/67/buy-sell-trade

Some of the online hatcheries may still have some. I did a quick look at Murray McMurray and they still have a few breeds available. This time of year, a lot of the hatcheries are out of chicks until next year.

Good luck!

 

[OopsChickens]

Ideal has silkies right now... But they also have a $25 order minimum.

 

[donrae]

How big is your coop and the run? That's going to decide how many birds you can appropriately house.

having silkies in a flock of large birds is a hit or miss kind of thing. Since you're not necessarily supplying eggs for a family, you could go with all ornamental type birds..silkies, Polish, Sultans, bantam Cochins, etc. They're also more likely to be docile and good pets for the kiddos.

Your best bet might be putting out word of mouth or a wanted ad on your local CL. This time of year, chick availability can be spotty, you might be better off to wait a few months and get some in Feb/March. If you get day old chicks, you'll also need a place to brood them until they're feathered.

BYC has a learning center with some great articles about raising baby chicks.

 

[tenman78]

www.mypetchicken.com allows you to mail order as little as three 1 day old chicks ,never used then yet so cant say how good they are,but i plan to in the future.

 

[chickentvforme]

I have 6 3 week old chicks from mypetchicken.com. I ordered 7 but one died. One of mine is a silkie and other than the one death they are doing great. I even let the company know that one chick died and they refundedy money with zero hassle. You do have to purchase a min.of 3 chicks. Order more than you think you need.

 

[tenman78]

Someday i will use them. I have three 3 week old Barnyard Mutts I got from a friend, I know their father is an Buff Amercauna, mother is a Mutt. They eat like pigs and poo like then too.