new chicks and 28 tonight.

[bj taylor]

I bought 12 chicks today. four sl wyandottes/4 buff orpington/ and 4 Delaware. I figure out of that I should get some girls. the boys will go to freezer camp after awhile.
this surprise cold front is dropping it to 28 tonight. hope my brooder is up for it. i'll be going out there a few times in the night to make sure everything is going ok.

 

[Smart Red]

I love the way this garden site is talking fowl language!

Way to go. You're gonna love those little fuzz balls. They are more interesting to watch than anything on the boob tube.

I'm too chicken to trust my coop so I brood my chicks inside for the first two-three weeks. They enjoy the sun room and they're close for watching and tending.

 

[MontyJ]

Give them a second light if you can. That's what I had to do in the barn until I got the coop finished up and insulated. When I got mine I kept them in the house the first night. That was enough for me. No chickens in the house again.

 

[catjac1975]

If you use a second light make sure they can get away from it if it gets too hot. You can put an extra temporary wall up to make the heated space smaller, thus hotter.

 

[bj taylor]

I've got a second light ready to go. probably about midnight I will need to turn it on.
tomorrow starts a warming trend. i'm glad.

 

[baymule]

I have 7 Silver Laced Wyandottes in the utility room in a wire cage. They are ready to go outside, or at least I am ready for them to go outside. But the grand daughter will be here this weekend, so they get a reprieve until next week. She loves to play with them and it pays off for later, when they are grown, they are a lot calmer.

BJTaylor, you have some great breeds. I love SLWs because #1, they are eye candy, #2 they are great layers. A friend of mine has Orps and loves them. I never had Delawares, so don't know anything about them. Be sure to update us on your chicks progress!

 

[897tgigvib]

Keep the Chicken and duckie posts coming in the forum here!

I just wish I could have some, but reality is, I'd have to have a concrete walled coop. Seeing stories about baby chicken adventures is vicaree us vicareous...that word for kind of like doing it yourself. believe it or not i won a spelling bee back in the lower paleolithic...

I especially like seeing those exotic and rare breeds. Those chickens who are much more upright are so cool! I like reading about those which are purposely crossed. It'd be cool to see a cornish cross crossed with one of the white layers and then f2 segregated to get a basically cornish cross chicken that grows at a more normal rate and is a pretty good layer... just to have a line of cornish cross who are not hatched for the axe in 2 months. I really enjoyed seeing the f1 silkie x easter egger chickens who look mostly ee but with the silkie face and some extra silkie feathers there!

I guess if I ever had opportunity to have chickens I'd have them as breeding pets, separated areas for each breeding rooster and his breeding girls. I'd sure have the most unusual flock of rare exotics and hybrids!

...and im sure i'd be hearing...

RRR R RRRR R RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR from the roosters practically at all hours of the day! Cuz, I wouldn't be one to say, ohp it's a rooster, time to sharpen the axe. I'd be saying, ohp, time to make a new breeding flock pen and coop...or whatever those might be called

 

[baymule]

bj, how are your babies doing? We want pics!!!

 

[catjac1975]

Roosters crowing in the morning is a romantic notion. Full moon last night-they crow long before the sun comes up.

 

[vfem]

I wish you luck, I'm losing it! I have 6 chicks in my bathtub who are 7 1/2 weeks old already and 4 Cornish x who are 4 weeks old in a bin on my bathroom counter. Its been FREEZING night after night and I haven't put them outside yet. It STINKS and I keep cleaning to no avail! I wanted to move the birds out tonight, but its going to be down to 30 again tonight. UGH!

Hubby needs to fix my tractor coop because the top door broke off, and with the cold and rain and WIND he's had no time to work on it.

I want these birds OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!