chicken mamas- check in here! - Page 3

[chantald]

Originally Posted by OceansEve

At what point can I combine these two groups. 2 Buff Orp 8-10 weeks and 4 barred rock chics. The largest buff orp is very matronly toward the other orp, putting her wing around her and letting her snuggle in underneath her. Very sweet.

I combined my 4 weekers with my 2 weekers and the little ones were really scared of the big ones for a day or two. I just kept an eye on things and made sure no one was getting picked on too much.. They worked it all out.. I'd say that the little ones should be at least a week or more old.. I'd not put newly hatched chicks with older chicks..

[Twwly]

Originally Posted by ElliesMomma

2) with a little one (she's 2 years old) there is a concern about disease transmission from the poop. do you agree?

Nope, I don't agree. Have her wash her hands before she eats if you're really worried, end of discussion.

Originally Posted by Past_VNE

Do you Turkey Mamas find that your turkeys constantly poop on you? So far, my 4 turks seem REALLY gross. They have shat on everyone that's held them, I think.

Um... they are turkeys not dogs, eh? Why do you want to hold them?

[Sasha_girl]

I think we just got our last batch of spring chicks--8 more Cornish x's and 4 Rhode Island Reds.

I'm kinda glad. I'll be glad to have my bathroom back, lol.

[Past_VNE]

Originally Posted by Twwly

Um... they are turkeys not dogs, eh? Why do you want to hold them?

Because they're going to be our breeding turkeys, not butchered ASAP, so I want them to be friendly in a people-socialized kind of way.

[paisley]

Congrats on the chicks, Chrissy! We have 5 that are a month old: Barred Rock, Welsummer, Black sex link, Speckled Sussex and an Ameraucana. I second the backyardchickens.com link a few posts above - awesome info there!

Originally Posted by Past_VNE

5 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes (for broody mamas)

Oooh, what color pattern are yours? Pics, pics!

[kokotg]

We got 6 chicks in January, but we're down to 4 now (one died the second night she was here; one was a rooster so we had to find him a new home). We have a silver laced Wyandotte (Zora), a barred rock (Flannery), a Buff Orpington (Nedcy), and a white leghorn (Super). We just got our first two eggs yesterday! very exciting. I'm loving having them--they're very friendly (well, except Zora. But she's coming around), and so fun to watch. And they make eggs for us!

[OceansEve]

What age should I really be able to tell the difference between a cock and a hen with my barred rocks? I did the upside down test and one was able to pull up.

[MammaGehl]

What a fun thread - we have been talking about getting chickens, but decided to wait until next year... now I am tempted to pick up a few this year.

My husband thinks that if we are going to get two or three birds we may as well get a dozen. Is he right? Or would a pair of birds be a lot less work than a dozen?

[mamadelbosque]

The big thing with chickens is having the right amount to feed your family. A dozen hens will give you rougly a dozen eggs a day! Some days a few more, some days maybe a few less. But right aruond there. So if you and yoru family can EAT that many (or give that many away, or sell, or whatever), then thats awesome. If not, then you'd be better off with just a few. We've always had a rooster too, so that the eggs are then 'fertilized', and thus have more nutrients in them. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want a rooster. If you get a dozen and then decide you only want 3 or 4 you can always butcher the others. We have a straight run (25) right now and plan to butcher around 20 of them.

As for the care.. 2, 5, 20, its all pretty much the same - you go out, let them out in the morning, check on the water/feed, and collect eggs. In the evening lock them up and check feed/water again. (We lock ours up over night to avoid racoon problems... we've lost LOTS of chickens to coon's over the years!!)

[steffanie3]

We currently have 7 Barred Rocks (like 2 months) and 5 Speckled Sussex (about two weeks). I am wishing our Welsummers would have came, I guess they didn't hatch and I can't find them anywhere right now. We have had interesting chicken adventures with our first year doing this. At one point we had 11 Buttercups, that were supposed to be 14 speckled sussex so we ended up taking them back, I think their fancy combs would have froze. Oh, we have three Rouen ducks too. I totally agree about the ducks growing super fast and being messy. I wish I could figure out a way to keep the waterer clean.

Originally Posted by 1jooj

Our coop chickens are friendly and love eating tablescraps. People ask me about composting because I live on a farm and have a garden...I don't know a thing about composting, because I don't have to. I just feed the chickens. We do let the manure sit for a year before using, but that's all I have needed to know.

What all can they eat or do they really like?

[philomom]

We picked up our three chicks this morning. One Amercauna, one Orpington, one Austrolorp. They are so incredible when they are tiny!

Kids will be out of school in a month. Designing and building the coop will be one of their homeschool projects for the summer.

[1jooj]

I give them just about anything, but their favorites are noodles, rice, couscous, and lots of leftover cooked vegetables. I give them trimmings off beef and lamb meat, breads, cereal with milk, oatmeal (they love oatmeal too), corn cobs to clean the specks off, watermelon rind, salads with tomatoes and cucumbers...whatever they don't/can't eat, we sweep away and throw on the manure pile.

Our frankenchicks are growing fast, and the wee bantams that the broodies hatched are so little but full of energy. And now we have a RI Red sitting on a nest full of blue eggs. I think we're going to retire a couple roosters this weekend. There's some disruptive competition going on out there.

[MiaPia]

What a great thread! I love reading about everyone's chickens.
We are 2 months into our first-time chicken experience, and loving it. We got 7 (supposedly girls) chicks this spring, and THREE (possibly four) have turned out to be roos. I'm very disappointed as I live in the ciy. Luckily I found someone who is going to trade me 3 pullets for 2 of my roos. After the trade I'll have:
3 leghorns
1 blue silky
1 partridge silky - may or may not be a roo
1 Cuckoo Maran
1 Black Star
1 Buff Orp (definitely a roo, but a real sweetie, and not too loud, so we're going to try and keep him)

I have a new but needs-to-be-updated chicken blog.

[springbabes]

We got 15 chicks about two weeks ago. 10 were from the feed store--3 California Whites, 3 Barred Rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Golden Sex-links. And 5 were from a petting zoo--I have no idea what breed they are or if they are even sexed.

We've been raising chickens for 4 years now, but unfortunately we don't have any older chickens at the moment due to predators. We are going to get some electric net fencing before we put this new batch outside and hopefully that will keep the neighborhood dogs and foxes out of my pen!

Here is my LO with the chicks the first day we got them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18589233@N03/2506784275/

[steffanie3]

We picked up 5 Americaucona(?) pullets yesterday, I starting thinking about how my son liked the blue eggs we got from a friend.

Another friend brought by 3 sex-links, I know nothing about these. Two are light and one is black. Are they mainly for laying?

[UUMom]

We have lots of layers and we love them. We have Silkies, Australorpes, Barred Rocks and a couple of different varities of Rhode island Reds. So far. lol

[Jster]

We're a happy chicken family!

We started with three red sex links...and when they started laying, we wanted more!
So we got one production red pullet, one production white pullet, two barred rock pullets and a black sex link. I also picked up two black sex links and a red sex link for a friend. Then, she wanted to trade us two laying leghorns for the three chicks.

So now, we have 5 laying hens and 5 chicks (about three months old) in three separate places (because we quaranteened the two leghonrs, and good thing, since they have fowl pox!) I'm looking forward to having all the chickens in one place, when they will be easier to care for.

[chantald]

Originally Posted by OceansEve

What age should I really be able to tell the difference between a cock and a hen with my barred rocks? I did the upside down test and one was able to pull up.

I've been told that if you look at the heads, is there a white spot and their legs, is there grey/black on the front of their legs and tops of their feet.. that those two things can indicate a pullet over a roo in BR chicks.. Of course, even that isn't 100%

I'm getting ready to start letting the 6 week olds free range and I'm really nervous.. This was the plan and I want to stick with it..I know that there will be losses to hawks..I'm trying to think of how to encourage them to stay more towards our woods.. which has more cover from hawks..

I did let the 6, 6 weekers out yesterday for a few minutes. They were in chicken heaven.. loved it.. the 4 weekers were so jealous and peeping up a storm as they watched the older ones roam outside the run.. I do think the 4 weekers are still too young..

Should I wait longer to let the older ones roam?

[greenmagick]

I my chickens!

We have a buff orpington (dumpling), barred rock(kiev), and ameracauna(cordon bleu) from last year and this year added 3 more ameracauanas(alfredo, curry and pate'), a silver-laced wyandotte(tetrazinni), a light brahma(fingers), and a rhode island red(cacciatore).

I have some pictures of them on my blog (link in siggie). They are soo much fun. We have a tractor, but we really ended up letting them free range in the front yard all winter. Now that things are coming up, we moved them into the back yard and added the babies.

[livinzoo]

New chicken mama here. All I hear is peep, peep, pepp, QUACK. Lol I have ducks too.

I have 8 Easter Egger roos (sold as Ameraucanas, but they have green legs and aren't true Ameraucanas just what the hatchery sell as Ameraucanas)
3 blue cochin pullets
17 Blue lace red wyandottes (straight run from a breeder, 3 have single combs and 5 are splash)
Than I have my ducks
2 kahki campbell hens
1 kahki campbell drake
1 Cayuga hen

And I'm expecting eggs to try out my new incubator
I should be getting 6 Blue, black, and splash cochins, 6 Blue, black, and splash Ameraucanas, and 6 Welsummer eggs.

In July I will be getting as many Blue and black orphington eggs as the breeder can collect from her 3 hens. Since they can be held for 10 days I might come home with up to 30 of them.

The coop is going to consist of 2 converted stalls. And a large fenced in area that is covered by a net and surrounded by 3 strands of electric wire.