Got chicks?

[Marsha Cassada]

We are down to just four hens so had to get some new chicks this spring. They've been in the house but were starting to fly out of the box so today we put them in the barn in an old tank. They are the calmest, mellowest chicks we've ever had. They are barred rocks.

Anyone else have spring chicks?

 

[atotton]

Cute. I have some Speckled Sussex chicks coming later this month. I am hoping to get a hatch of bantam cochins too.

 

[Debby - LB]

One of our pretty little dark hens hatched out 9 and I was so enjoying them but we lost them all and the hen to a Fox. I'm so sick of them, we thought we had gotten rid of them. A neighbor down the road killed 3 of them and we killed one a couple months ago that was coming up in the yard in the day time after our chickens. Poor thing needed killing her was bald with terrible mange and so skinny. I really felt sorry for him. It's heartbreaking when the fox or these darn hawks get after the chickens. I love to see the hens with their biddies.

 

[amysue]

Both incubators are full, one with laying birds and the other with ducks and geese. Should hatch in the next day or so. Banties have hatched a bunch already, all mixes between mille fkeurs, black and mottled cochins. My peahen is sitting on a clutch of 3, so hope she hatches them out. We have a hawk problem at the moment. I have been swatting at it with a pool skimmer atop the barn roof. Makes hubby laugh uncontrollably.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Friends of mine who live on the edge of town are losing chickens to foxes and hawks. We lost a hatched baby to a bull snake a couple of years ago, and once to a road runner. But not the whole family. What a heartbreak.

None of our hens went broody this year, so we had to buy chicks.

 

[dixie_belle]

Oh, I thought for a moment you said, "Got ticks" and I thought...duh, I live in rural Kentucky, of course I've got ticks. Then I reread the title and just had to say....nevermind. LOL

 

[lkblazin]

Yup got bantys in the mail. Barred rocks and frizzels. Also got like 20 some odd eggs under two broodies. But I don't think they are OK. The hens keep sitting on the wrong eggs. I go out there and another hen lays an egg, and then they sit on that instead of the clutch. Urrfgfg so irritating. I even had some good ones I wanted to hatch.

Been working on olive egger bantams. I have a few hens first gen. Now I need to get to the second gen, then I'll be satisfied lol

 

[Debby - LB]

we have a hen that's started sitting! yesterday in a nest we found in our green house. I hope she can raise them it hurts me so bad when something happens to them. All of our games are free range. The ones the fox got recently he got all but two little biddies I got up that morning and went out to 2 little chicks who ran around and screamed for their mama all day, I tried to catch them but no luck. By lunch only one was hollering and then nothing by the next day. Mother Nature is sure cruel sometimes.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

That's terrible, Debby! They are so tiny and quick. We can't catch them but varmints can.

We had a bad storm here yesterday. The wind blew the big barn door up a little, we suppose, as the barn got a lot of water in it. The chicks were soaked. Power went off. We brought them in the house and got the generator going. They got under the light and are fine. I took a video of the storm and put it on youtube. Another round due any minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-V09XxqlOQ

 

[Debby - LB]

oh no a hail storm! I clicked on the video link not expecting that! good thing the chicks weren't out in that. I'm glad they are doing fine. Hope your next storm wasn't bad! We had a hen almost 2 years ago who had a huge hatching of biddies, one day husband and I were on the front porch and I heard a commotion and looked across the field and a huge hawk was after one of my chickens! I was hollering and husband went out there and started climbing the fence hollering get the gun! the hawks wings were huge and the hen was fighting it but it would grab her and try to fly off and grab at her again. It didn't take long for it to have her drug over by the next fence. Husband ran it off and was able to get it but he came back and said the hen was laying over on the other side of the fence and not responsive, he poked at her in the brambles and she was dead or close to it. Well it was the hen with all the biddies and they'd scattered in all different directions, as the day wore on we'd hear peeping and calling coming from this leaf pile or at the base of this tree, in this tall grass etc. so sad, the babies were hid but calling out. About 5 o'clock husband came running in with you've got to come see this! the supposedly dead hen was out there rounding up her biddies! It was so sweet and I was so happy. All were there but 2.

 

[lkblazin]

I haven't seen many hawks this year...yet...shhhhh they are probably listening

 

[Kendra]

I've had two hens hatch chicks so far this year - one hatched 4, the other 7, all Partridge Chanteclers but one, which is 3/4 Chantecler, 1/4 Ameraucana. Two more hens are sitting, one of them I put duck eggs under! My Grandad saw a lady on the news who had a hen raising ducklings, so we had to try it. I want a few more ducks for eggs anyway - loving my laying ducks!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Our chicks are outdoors for a few hours a day now in the garden. At first they did not want to come out of the box, but today they came right out and started scavenging. They have not figured out how to fly up into thr raised beds

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I have wanted to get chickens for so long but we have so many foxes that live around us. We have talked about building a run for them but not sure I would want to see them locked up al the time. I also live very close to Inghams whom are probably the biggest supplier of chicken to most supermarkets in Australia. They have a massive creek that runs along the boundary of their property and from what we are told its a foxes paradise. I have seen them running through the back paddocks of a morning and even saw one very cunning one sitting in the middle of a paddock watching my thoroughbred eating his breakfast. I had to look twice as I thought it was my boxer who is a tan colour like most of the foxes here.

When we first brought in 2007 we had swans have babies but unfortunately they all didn't make it. Whats everyones thoughts and experiences on runs and having them locked up???. Ive seen some fairly horrendous photos over the years of chicken farms and the conditions that they are forced to live in and how little room they have to move around in.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions

 

[chandab]

My MIL has chickens, they have a pretty tight coop for night time and during the day they have a run with a gazebo, it's fenced with electrified mesh. She set flags down the center, so hawks and other such birds would find it less inviting (no clear path for swooping). I'm not sure, but her run is probably 10' wide and maybe 50' long (I'm horrible with distance, so just a guess on my part). She currently have about 18 chickens, maybe a few more.

Some people use chicken tractors for mobile coops to help keep them safe.

We do have fox and coyote around here, but perhaps hers are safer since they are practically in her backyard.

 

[amysue]

My banties need to stay under cover because the hawks were just decimating the flock. I turned old car port frames into covered runs. The key is bird to square footage ratio, no difference really than horse per acre ratio when planning paddock sizes. The commercial birds are raised so inhumanely to maximize profits. The home owner special type coops offered at retail outlets tend to be too small, really only ideal for 1-2 birds. If you can dream it, you can build it. Plan on how many birds you want, then build a coop big enough to accommodate them.

 

[chandab]

Oh, and when I said tight, I didn't mean space per bird, but rather safe for them. I'm not sure of the size, but all birds have plenty of room (it was tight when she had the whole lot she bought as chicks, raised them up with plans to make soup out of 2/3 of them, but then her help backed out of the dirty deed, so she sold them as laying hens, since they were all laying at the time, she had one rooster in the mix, and he did go in the pot).

 

[Debby - LB]

I'm excited to see some new biddies, tomorrow will be day 15 she's been sitting.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I love it when they hatch out! Mother hen is so proud and the chicks so cute!

 

[secuono]

No chicks, but I'm getting 8 Muscovy ducklings tomorrow! =)

Gonna keep the hens and rehome all but 1 drake.