Yesterday's arrival

noway2

noway2

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Yesterday morning, just as I was going to clean up to go to work, the phone rang and it was the lady at the post office calling to tell me that my chicks arrived. As of this morning, they all appear to be thriving. We're planning to pick up a couple of Black Australorps tomorrow morning at the feeds store. Here's what was in the box:

Blue Ameraucana Female
Olive Egger Female
Barred Rock Female
Welsummer Female
Blue Splash Marans Female
Black Copper Marans Female
Partridge Penedesenca Female
White Cochin Standard Female

I am particularly interested in the Partridge Penedesenca because it is a fairly rare breed that almost went extinct but was revived in the 1980s. Relatively speaking, she was expensive too at about $15. Of course, she was also the smallest of the bunch and the least active after being put in the brooder but she's been bopping around and eating and drinking so I think she'll be fine. I took them out of the box and we put vaseline on their backside to help prevent pasty butt and then dipped their beak in warm water and watched for the to tilt their head back and drink. The first one I put in the brooder started screeching in panic, but calmed down when I put the second one in with it.chicks.jpeg
 
As an update, so far, all eight of them seem to be thriving, bopping around, chirping, eating, drinking, pooping, you know doing chicken stuff.

In any case, my parents were at the feed store in Pittsboro this morning shortly after 8am. Here is the report from boots on the ground:

Ultimately we arrived by 8:20 only to find 27 people standing in line at the front door waiting to buy chicks. A very few minutes later about five people were admitted. Didn't take long for several of them to walk back out with a couple of boxes each. Then several more were allowed to go in. Actually it was best to regulate the number of people in there at a time cause space is minimal. Another couple people walked out with 2-3 chicken carriers. The very same size that our babies were mailed in. So I'm sure each box could hold 10-15 chicks. A few minutes later a man came out with no boxes and said that the only kind of chickens left were Road Island Reds. Obviously not what he wanted. Then about half of us left. So I doubt we'll be getting more chick at this time.
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In other news, the wholesale price of eggs dropped to about $2 the other day, but it will take about a month for the price change to impact the consumer pricing. I saw today at the store a dozen 'cheap' eggs was almost $5 and the "cage free" or "free range". which is a FAR CRY from backyard living, are selling for $8 - $10 per dozen.
 
Blue Ameraucana and Barred Rock are among some of my favorites. They are a great backyard varieties.
 
noway2 said:
As an update, so far, all eight of them seem to be thriving, bopping around, chirping, eating, drinking, pooping, you know doing chicken stuff.

In any case, my parents were at the feed store in Pittsboro this morning shortly after 8am. Here is the report from boots on the ground:



In other news, the wholesale price of eggs dropped to about $2 the other day, but it will take about a month for the price change to impact the consumer pricing. I saw today at the store a dozen 'cheap' eggs was almost $5 and the "cage free" or "free range". which is a FAR CRY from backyard living, are selling for $8 - $10 per dozen.
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Grabbed Hillcrest Farms eggs at Teeter for $4.29/dz yesterday.
 
hp468 said:
We have been extremely happy with the birds we ordered from Meyers last year. All lived, all are healthy.

What hatchery did you order from?
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This is the third time I ordered from Meyer. Except for the one that died last time, I’ve been very happy with them. I think the one that died got smooshed or something in transit. Within an hour of putting her in the brooder, she was sitting in the watered with her head down and asleep or unconscious. I honestoy felt bad enough for her that I couldn’t bring myself to discard her in the compactor at the dump and instead she’s buried under a rock near the chicken coop.

CZfool68 said:
Grabbed Hillcrest Farms eggs at Teeter for $4.29/dz yesterday.
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That's a deal right now.

I do have to wonder if there is going to be some sort of negative side effect from so many folks all of a sudden wanting several hens? Best case scenario is that it’s more folks being able to feed themselves.
 
noway2 said:
I do have to wonder if there is going to be some sort of negative side effect from so many folks all of a sudden wanting several hens? Best case scenario is that it’s more folks being able to feed themselves.
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IMO it’ll be short lived, most people don’t have the patience to keep a flock up long term. They will find out that it’s cheaper to just buy eggs in the store and sell their $500 TSC coop on marketplace.

These kind of surges are short lived fads. Just my opinion.
 
When the Partridge Penedesenca starts laying you gotta post good clear color photos of her eggs!
 
Cowboy said:
I helped the wife finish setting this up today. She wants to get 4-6 chickens. I mean happy birthday.
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it’s like the one RIR we have left of the original four. It doesn’t matter if she lays eggs or not, she was a 20th anniversary gift and she stays a pet,
 
sadly, the smallest, the partridge Penedesenca seems to be not doing so well. We moved it to a bin on its own with food snd water and there is little else we cam do. The biggest chick was literally standing on it earlier today. :mad: I hope it recovers.
 
Oneofsix said:
I'm checking Meyer's website, seems I'm too late to order some for the spring.
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They don't seem to have much right now. There's a button to expand the calendar. When i last looked, they're going to have more stock later in the spring.
 
Cowboy said:
I helped the wife finish setting this up today. She wants to get 4-6 chickens. I mean happy birthday. View attachment 583440
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Ok so as a first time "farmer" I learned a valuable lesson. From this picture can you more experienced folks tell me what I had to do last night in the poring rain after getting three chickens?

Let me help you out!
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It's called chicken wire for a reason. 🤦🏻‍♂️
 
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Except for the rare one that didn’t make it, the other seven are thriving, eat a lot, drink even more, and make lots of noise chirping. They’ve already started to develop wing tips and have doubled in size.
 
noway2 said:
Except for the rare one that didn’t make it, the other seven are thriving, eat a lot, drink even more, and make lots of noise chirping. They’ve already started to develop wing tips and have doubled in size.
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We have two new arrivals here, now 2 weeks old. Our experimental mom has turned out to be a good one. It’s a modern family, two different chicks with different daddy’s being raised by someone who isn’t related to them. 😂
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