After the racoons dined on my flock: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/745653/
I ordered some new chickens and here they are.
They are so cute!
They've arrived!
I ordered 5 of each of Black Star, Buff Orpington, Silver Wyandotte, Araucana, and Delaware. With the one they are supposed to throw in for free I should have 26, but I've counted them backward and forward and still only come up with 23.
This message was edited Sep 28, 2007 8:18 PM
So Cute!
Wow!!! They are just too cute for words! Seriously makes me consider not waiting till spring to start my next batch. My DH would kill me then kill me again and then go for a third time. But boy, those sweet little faces might be worth it. :) Congrats! Suz So have you started naming them yet? LOL
Awwww!! They are so adorable! I can't wait to see them on Sunday!
Very cute !!! I'm afraid to do chicks till spring so I have to content myself with the big girls for now...lol
If the hatchery shorted you on chicks you need to notify them asap to credit you !!!
Julie
got2Bgreen, The one thing I will always fondly recall about our Deleware hen was she was a good natured bird. She also laid JUMBO eggs almost every time. You'll notice that right away in about 5 months......assuming you have cured the raccoon problems. Enjoy the flock they are cute as can be. We have 11 eggs under a broody hen right now and as soon as they hatch ....... we'll have the whole lot under 2 heat lamps in an outdoor brooding cage/box (4X4X8 ft wire cage with a covered nest box inside & removable wood panels to prevent wind chill).
where did you order peeps from this late in the year?
We ordered from Murray McMurray. We ordered about a month ago but this was when all of the different varieties were all ready at the same time.
got2Bgreen, Murray McMurray located in Davenport, IA is the largest poultry company in the USA. Martha Stewart featured her flock of Ameraucana chickens or Easter Eggers several years ago on her 1 hr show. McMurray has more than 100 different breeds of chickens, ducks, geese and guineas & turkeys. They deliver from early February/ late January till October ... about. They have reasonable prices (but not always the best).
I think Ideal ships year round. Not sure about cackle hatchery.
Just in case those of you in the southern climates are feeling the urge to add more chicks, I'll enable...lol
Julie
Gosh ...... if Ideal really does ship all year then McMurray is doing likewise. I know when I was buying often ..... they all had "out till February" on most every breed in their catalogs. Ideal is a fairly large hatchery ..... but McMurray is twice the size. All the other hatcheries are so small that most chicken people would laugh if they drove by and recognized the company name.
Awwwwwwwwwww, from me too!
I didnt have to order , My Girls are all doing the nesting thing for me! So far I have 7 new babies and 8 eggs still waiting to hatch!
Chicks just make my day! We are having much cooer nights and early mornings here, but nothing the Chickies cant handle with their Moms nearby. So Im hoping that the little ones will be okay until our frosts set in , probably in late october. then it will be Chickies in the Brooder Box until fully Feathered and Moms back to the Flock!
Congrats again on such a wonderful mix of Chickies!
Eufala, Our frosts have just begun here. We still have 11 eggs under one of the "wild Game Fowl" hens. This is the last brood this year. I've committed 2 heat lamps for her soon to be hatching brood .... 1 shining down in front/top of the brooding nest box and another 18 inches to the north over the feeder tray and near to the waterer. These birds are outside in cages on the ground with wind protection on 2 sides now (3 if needed). I'm pretty certain they'll be fine. I've got 2 week olds under just the 1st lamp and they've done really well. The cool weather seems to cause them to feather out quicker than normal. It is a sight to see these hens running around after 2-5 weeks with 7-14 chicks in tow. I can let one brood out at a time during the day (ONLY) if they are the only hen with chicks. The broody hens will literally fight to the death (just like the fighting roos) if I make the mistake of allowing more than one young brood to run loose. They simply refuse to let their broods mingle and then ..... go at it quite violently. If the broods are 6-7 weeks in age difference ...... the older hen will not "care" so much and will be trying to discourage the chicks from following herself and the inter-mingling will not bother the mother of the older group. The mother hen of the younger group will still chase off the older chicks ..... causing them to stay away a safe distance from her brood. This is where it get dangerous. The hen with the older chicks will not care that they're being chased because she does the same thing herself ..... occasionally. I think next summer we'll try to raise 25 pheasants in these same cages .... but the darned pheasants will have to get separated at 5 weeks into smaller groups in the larger cages. Pheasants make Leghorns appear to be friendly ... for those who've ever raised Leghorn chickens.
My first and only experience with a pheasant was when I bought my Golden Pheasant, Corona. I put him in with my Mille Fleur and Brown Leghorns. They got along ok, the chickens did seem to keep their distance for the most part though. Then one day I heard a lot of clucking and scuffling, so I snuck to the pen and peered in through a small hole in the door. All I saw was a cloud of dirt and feathers. When the air cleared and the last of the feathers were floating down, there in the middle of the pen stood my pheasant with a beakfull of chicken feathers. : ) I found him a new home eventually.
I think at Murray, availability depends on breed. I would have loved to get Blue Laced Red Wyandottes but they weren't available when I ordered. I just checked and they are still not.
On a side note - is Wyandotte pronounced why-an-dot?
got2Bgreen, Yes it is. Its an American Indian Tribal name or sub-tribal. I think the chicken breed originated in NY and a choice was made to give the breed a truly American name. The breed is most famous for the Rose Comb. The BLR Wyandotte variety has interesting color pattern. In the US .... many fancy the less common dark BLR's. The breed became popular in the UK and the lighter patterned BLR variety is what made the color pattern famous originally. I have a photo of the British standard BLR from a breeder in the UK but its on my other PC (it has a bug).