It's Chick Days

[Just Curious]

Or at least that what the feed stores are doing... I set my first clutch of chicken eggs in our incubator... Araucanas...
One chicken that I used to raise but haven't seen many of them around lately were Brown Leghorns... They were a bit more flighty and lost a lot less of them to coyotes and foxes than any other egg layer that I've tried..
Anyone starting chicks yet?

 

[Limomike]

We always raise some laying chicks, and guineas.. about 100 of them..
We figure on 50 for the farm.. 50 for the coyotes and owls....

 

[Lammie]

I don't know how many chicks I will have this year, as I sold my Japanese banties and they were my best layers and sitters. I could incubate any chicken's eggs in their nests. I tried that with my silkies and they won't do it - yet. They like to sit on their own eggs, though. I don't have a rooster in there with them. "Sideways", my Silkie rooster, died this winter. I am going to break out the incubator to take to school for the kids.

Which reminds me, I have one of those Little Giant incubators. It turns the eggs and all. I have lost the instructions. What temperature should I keep the eggs at? I don't remember.

 

[Lammie]

We always raise some laying chicks, and guineas.. about 100 of them..
We figure on 50 for the farm.. 50 for the coyotes and owls....

Fire ants got most of mine last year. They would get into the egg before it finished hatching. Pitiful.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Lammie, Keep the temperature at 99.5 to 100. Dont forget the water for humidity.

 

[Gate Opener]

We have a mama hen that just hatched out 11 baby chickies. I love to look out there and see a mama with a bunch of babies.

I wasn't sure if she was going to be able to get them to hatch out since her nest was a barrel of corn. She planted herself in the middle of that corn and she and other hens layed their eggs in there. I didn't think she would be able to turn them or keep them from sinking but she did good. Only had 3 that didn't hatch out.

 

[mnmtranching]

I have these crossed up chickens, lay eggs like crazy this time of the year. Yesterday I collected 27 eggs out of 32 hens [about].
Brown egg layers with about a medium size egg. Later most all will set, and there will be a lot of chicks :shock: Really good eating, I butcher when they are 2-3 pounds. Oh yeah I NEVER buy feed for them, They live completely on waste grain from the cattle and insects once the weather warms up 8)

 

[Just Curious]

I started a thread last year on how I despise the "M" word.... Magpies.... There I said it
I run our incubators in the house and brood the chicks out in the barn in an old stock tank... Last year I made the mistake of leaving the barn's doors open one (Yes just one) afternoon and magpies went into the barn and grabbed and killed almost all of the chicks... I don't know if they killed them in the brooder, but I found their bodies in a couple of piles just a few feet from the tank... It appear that they would just eat the intestinal track and leave the rest alone....
Lord... I know that you have a purpose for everything, but when we meet, I would like to discuss the finer points of Your Magpie creation!
I am sure that Heaven will be Magpie free... Because all of the thieving little boogers will going a different direction.

 

[Susie David]

Have 125 six week old pullets in the garage...working on the laying house.
Nothing like grandchildren and a pellet gun to control the magpies...Dmc

 

[auctionboy]

Does anybody order chicks by mail, if so maybe you have a link to a website that you could post. Thank you.

 

[Gate Opener]

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com

 

[Just Curious]

http://www.strombergschickens.com/

 

[Lammie]

Does anybody order chicks by mail, if so maybe you have a link to a website that you could post. Thank you.

Murray McMurray has some good ones. I order mine from Ideal Poultry. I have never been disappointed in Ideal. Last year I got some Black Astrolorpes and year before that I got some Barred Rocks. I got smart last year and spend the extra money to have them sexed. Staight runs always have too many roosters.

 

[Lammie]

Lammie, Keep the temperature at 99.5 to 100. Dont forget the water for humidity.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

 

[Just Curious]

Check out this site... It's short and sweet but gives you a lot of good information on incubation...
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/fact ... 8.html#L3A

 

[bigbull338]

Check out this site... It's short and sweet but gives you a lot of good information on incubation...
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/fact ... 8.html#L3A

ive ordered chicks from mcmurray an bought chicks from TSC.when TSC carried chicks.running low on hens.but not going to raise chicks if i can get out of it this yr.wich means ill have to ordeer some next yr.

 

[peg4x4]

If any of the little chickes peck each other,use Desitan baby ointment on the wound..They won't pick at it any more..