Baby chicks

Just some cute for the day

Was at a pet shop to buy a chameleon for my daughter and came across these cuties.

«1

Comments

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    Baby chicks are so cute!!

    They had chicks in Tractor Supply today. And they had a new way to house them. It looks like they will be better taken care of but they are hard to see.

    Chicken food went up today too. Can't wait until I can start to forage my group more and raise their food. Baby chicks are probably higher this year too

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Our neighbors are hatching out chicks this month for a school project and we are going to take the chicks once they are hatched. Hopefully there won't be any males. Last time we got chicks from Orschlens we ended up with two roosters. They were a few months old before we heard them practicing crowing.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @naomi.kohlmeier My one friend was really good at being able to id them as chicks. She was over 90% accurate. I don't need any rooster either. If I get chicks this year I will buy local.

    I do want to find some ducks though

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    i dont have any broody hens yet so my chicks are on hold lol. hopefullu soon usually around march.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    If you were closer....I am trying to sell all my runners & 1 muscovy hen. If they don't sell, I will have plenty of duck eggs. They were excellent layers last year.

    The gender guess can so much depend what type they are sexing. If they are auto-sexing breeds, that's easy! Feather sexing (not reliable unless it is a certain hybrid like fast feathering roo over slower feathering hen, I believe it is), comb growth, leg thickness, and behavior does give one ideas, but with any of my purebred, I have not found these overly reliable. It works best with certain hybrids. Then you have that stinker that fools you and switches overnight!

    @Jens Your daughter us one lucky gal. I would love to own a chameleon. You will have to post pictures!

    @naomi.kohlmeier Haha! There will be males. It's very rare to get more than 50% females.

    @nksunshine27 Gotta love those broodies! 😁

  • JennyT Upstate South Carolina
    JennyT Upstate South Carolina Posts: 1,273 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This time of year I have to avoid Tractor Supply if I can help it. Because I can not walk out of the store with out any of those cute fluffy balls of delight. And I most certainly can not have my kids with me, they'd want them all.😀

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JennyT try to avoid it too, but if I get chicks this year (I need blue egg layers) I plan to buy locally from farmers

    There's always a line by the chicks at this time of year in the store. They are just too cute

    @LaurieLovesLearning If you were closer I would take your ducks!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @Denise Grant You probably already know, but I'll be getting chocolate ameraucana that are to lay sky blue eggs. Both are rare here. Chocolate is new, and nobody has pure sky blue here. They are always green & blue...which is nor what they should be.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I have been trying to get a good blue for years.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Well, when I get my eggs, I'll post. I asked for the bluest egg layers in the Ameraucana. Then, if I'm lucky enough to have any hatch, I'll post pictures in this category.

    I am so very excited to get some! Oh, and I inquired about peachicks this morning too. I'm branching out!

    Do you have any pictures of what you have for egg color? There are some great breeders in your country. I have seen some of the most beautiful eggs from some folks south of our border!

    You might want to see if these folks know anyone in your area that have sky blue only layers:

    There is a color card too for knowing what shade the eggs are. I think that you can get it through here.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Love baby chicks too. between our meat birds and layers we have about 275 coming near the end of May. Still way too cold here to get them now. Had some several years ago called Whiting True Blue that were supposed to be a good blue egg layer. Eggs were a very pale blue and some were greenish. Not very good layers at all. And scrawny, skittish birds. Ended up with two roosters. One was extremely mean to his brother. Had to separate them pretty young.

    We would love to get our hands on some chanteclers but they seem to be hard to find over here.

    Early on we had terrible luck with roosters. Our very first add to group had 4 roosters. While we were trying to decide which one to keep and which ones to get rid of they made the choice for us. # of them ganged up and beat the daylights out of one. Left him bleeding and stuffing his head in the corner to protect himself. Kept him got rid of them. He was fantastic. Saved several hens from a fox. Poor guy had piles of feathers all over our yard where the fox almost got him. Next 6 roosters we had were terrors. One would come from half an acre always to attack me. Got mad and chased him with a stick for 20 minutes after he drew blood on my leg. After that if he saw me with a stick he wanted nothing to do with me.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @vickeym I have three very nice and extremely protective roosters now . I lost one yesterday that was a favorite but he was old. He was fine in the morning and gone later that day. I think it was old age. He was a beauty. I saved his feathers for crafting

    Its hard to get nice roosters and if they are mean they join us at the kitchen table. That's one thing I do not put up with.

    I have to wait a bit to get chicks too. I have gotten them early but they are twice to work and usually suffer from being shipped in the cold

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @vickeym I choose calm breeds first. Usually purebreds are most reliable for particular traits. With hybrids, they could inherit anything! Then I choose for other traits.

    Whitings are hatchery hybrids, so they won't be carefully bred for temperament, but bred for numbers to sell. I'm surprised that they didn't lay well as that's usually a hatchery's main goal. Scrawny is not good and would be disappointing. Chanteclers, well bred, should be reliable in their traits. I wish I could send you some from Canada. You are so close, after all. 🤔 Someone just has to have some escapees that happen to fly over the border...(🤫 I didn't say that...)

    I am surprised how many folks up here are selling hatching eggs and chicks already. It is way too early!

    @Denise Grant We clipped the feathers off of our bielefelder roo & will give the to my oldest. She does horse & cowgirl jewelry with them. I bet once I have a peacock, she'll be all over those!

    What crafts do you make with the feathers?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning Ways I use feathers

    feather art landscape if I have enough and varied colors

    Jewelry

    dream catchers

    and I use them on gourd art

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited February 2021

    @Denise Grant We have so many feathers here of so many colors & sizes. Ideas are always welcome. Do you have any pictures of your feather art landscape? That sounds fascinating and like something I might try myself. If you sell them, how much do you sell them for?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @LaurieLovesLearning I have to get the photos off the computer that is half retired. I'll post some then

    And yes I sell them. Small one, very small are $25 and they go up. Thye are fun to do and I think they actually have a name for feather art in some of the other countries. I will have to check on that. Mine are a combination of feathers and water color.

    My mom and I have had art shows together. I think its fun and amazing that we have been able to do this as a family. (she is very talented)

  • @LaurieLovesLearning I haven't heard about the chocolate ameruacanas! That sounds awesome. I loved my ameruacana hens and loved the variety of egg colors. Mine were just barnyard bred, got them from a friend. I still miss having chickens, they are so cool!

  • JennyT Upstate South Carolina
    JennyT Upstate South Carolina Posts: 1,273 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I haven't heard of Chocolate Ameraucanas either. And with blue blue eggs. Sounds delightful.

    @LaurieLovesLearning We really love our Buff Orpingtons. They're more like pets then anything. Pets with benefits.😀

    Is there a special place for their kind? Like the link you shared about the Ameraucanas.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @JennyT

    I like my buff Orpingtons too. They have sweet personalities. I have a few that are cochins too and they make me laugh.

    Problem is with chickens there are just too many cute breeds and not enough room for all of them

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    This year tractor supply put all the chicks in a fancy almost factory type living "thing". At first glance I thought it was good, less cleaning and food mess. But after I went home and thought about it, the chicks are on a metal mesh in a very small enclosed area. You also can not see them well, which is always a selling point for chicks

    I would think taking them home after that and trying to adjust them to a normal setting would be very difficult on them. Plus its really too cold in our area to be getting them. Even shipping them to the store and getting them home can be hard on them. I talked to the one cashier and she did not like their new system either.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Jens, Thanks for sharing the video. Now I know what to do the next time I want to share a video without having to put it on YouTube. I never thought of Dropbox.

  • @Tave when I first wanted to share a video I just didn't want to create a YouTube channel. I just tried the Dropbox as the video is referenced via a link. And it just worked out fine. 😊😁

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @JennyT I will leave a link in a new discussion thread. I was not familiar with one, but it was easy enough to find.

    You can't have them all, even though it could be fun.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    For those who don't know, that little table the chicks are running under is a heat plate. I plan to get an extra small one for my seramas soon.

    For all my others, I use heat mats. They are much less expensive. Both are considered safer than a bulb brooder. I know some fanciers like ceramic infrared bulbs too.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I figured that might be what that was and it looks much safer. Those heat lamps are dangerous and run up an electrical bill fast.

    My concern was that these chicks are stacked in towers with about 10 layers. Maybe its safer and cleaner but it looks like a factory.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited February 2021

    @Denise Grant Is it like these brooders?

    (Screenshots from Strombergs Chickens)

    I knew a lady that had two of the five level version. What I didn't like was that the chicks were on wire. It would have been easy to clean with pull out trays beneath, though. She put a specific day's hatch or a specific breed in each layer.

    She kept those in her south facing sitting room that was warm due to lots of large windows.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning

    Yes.

    I did like the fact they were easy to clean and water and food would not spill but they have them stacked 10 tall and the birds on the bottom (ducks) are in shadow and you can barely see them.

    I see pros and cons to this and I do not like them on wire. If they don't sell fast I think their will be foot issues. I think the birds may have more stress too once they get to a new home on chips and water that sloshes all over.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    I would be concerned with bumblefoot too if they were in there very long.

    I think they'd feel freedom & excitement (!) once put out on shavings.

    I did buy a few chicks from that lady & then travelled 4 hours. With a bit of ACV in their water, they did just fine.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes, I thought about bumblefoot too. If they sell fast they should be ok