" Chick Days " To wait or Not Wait????

Chick Days at the AG. Center/feed mill order chicks that day there will cost over a dollar fifty less per bird. Free lunch and coffee too.

To Wait for "Chick Days" would save me about $40 Bucks on my New chick order. But the wait ...until March 17th will drive a Guy Nuts!

I keep changing my mind on Bird Types....

Law Dog had me hooked on White Plymouth Rocks....but Hoovers does not sell those this year.... and Id like the cost savings of ordering March 17 . So...

The Delawares
And
Saphire Gems are Now my Top Consideration

I think I'd wait, not just the savings which is a plus but less winter for caring for chicks. Are you wanting layers only or meat birds too?

If you want hens, you should always buy chicks Sept-Oct; they will be laying throughout the summer while the feed is free. Spring chicks will start laying just in time for winter to make them stop laying.

I like and Sell LG. Brown Eggs...
So Prolific Layers ...

I buy new birds at 2 years and when the New chicks grow & start laying I sell the last flock to cover the costs!!!

delewares are great dual purpose bird

This is the best way to do it, if you don't already have chickens and want eggs. However, few people do it that way and few people are willing to pay more for pullets just starting to lay than chicks they will have to brood for a few months and feed for 6 months before getting a return, even though it makes economic sense.

Keith

We have too many Hawks here that ate my first birds...

So we have a Roomy Insulated coop with a Long chicken wire enclosed run. ACTUALLY Two coops
So I feed all year and they lay well even when its -zero out.

You can often buy pullets, just starting to lay, for well under the price of purchasing chicks, plus the electricity used brooding them, plus the feed fed them for 6 months, plus a heck of a lot of time watering, feeding and cleaning up after them. Check Craigslist.

Keitj

Its fun to be able to select your preferred breed and raise the birds and gain that connection with them. Pullets are not typically priced low locally, usually 15-20 per bird.

Same here, used to be like Keith said in my neck of the woods but now they want premium. If I were still doing it I'd hatch my own, on my time frame.

i am gonna wait till tractor supply or rural king has some meat birds
hatchery prices have gone nuts

I love starting chicks in Jan/Feb. You can just put the heat to them!

In spring there’s a lot more swings in temp.

put 17 in the incubator yesterday and 13 today.batch 1 is on its way.

It costs an average of $21.60 a month to run 1 250 watt heat lamp. Chicks brooded in the cold part of the year, in cold areas will need 3 months of heat. It's dangerous to run only 1 heat bulb in a brooder. 2 bulbs cost $43.20 a month to run. The bulbs are typically just over $5.00 each. The lamp is usually just under $10.00. Bedding is $5.00. Just in heating and bedding you will have $78.00 before you consider the cost of buying or feeding a chick.

Hatcheries like Murray McMurray don't sell any pullets in small numbers for less than $4.35 each. Some hatcheries are selling pullets for as high as $15.00 plus for breeds that can't really be considered that rare any more. Rarer breeds are even more.

I do understand wanting to grow up your own chicks. I am just pointing out it's not cost effective for small numbers.

Keith

I would wait and not just because of the delivery money.

typically in a chick delivery they ride from hatchery to drop location kept warm with the post office not a guarantee.

march 17th is not that far away and spring is far enough away that you don't want to have to heat and house them inside for longer than needed.

true you will get eggs 3-4 weeks sooner but your waiting 20-25 weeks to egg 1 any way.

generally hatchery days are based off common annual weather for your area much before first hatchery day and your keeping them inside that many more days and paying heat.

Keith, I never seen that kind of rise in my electric bill. We hatched our own in the spring and had two lights going in the pen. I don't have my books anymore but it was cheaper for me to do it that way or I wouldn't have done it. We had a variety of chickens before we settled in on Golden Comets for laying. The meat birds were separate.

If you want lots of brown eggs I dont know how you can beat red Sex links or even black sex links. When they turn 3 they won't lay as well as they did the first 2 years but it dang hard to beat them for laying eggs.

I would order now to make sure I get what I want but would also order from a different place that had the white Plymouth rocks as well.

I've currently got a bunch of hens that I bought at the feed store a few weeks old for $.50 ea when they got to the ugly stage and were unsold, hope I find another deal like that. They were Easter babies, replaced in the store the next day with new babies @$2 ea. .
But if I'm going to brood them, I want fall chicks, old enough to feed and grow through the dark days with out heat or lights, and they will be laying by Easter. Just keeping lights on all winter to fool the birds into eating and laying is more costly than buying eggs already cooked.

March 17 is the Order date...you get to choose may or July delivery. You only pay when the birds are delivered. Sound like Ill wait and get my chicks delivered in May. Buying them fron hatchery that way Ive only needed the birds under heat for 4 to 6 weeks here.

Jeff, if you have them in your house, you will run your regular heater less. $21.60 a month is the average cost of running a 250 watt bulb. I pay $300.00 some dollars a month this time of year keeping birds warm.

Keith

As the temps warm up in the late spring the less heat you need. They only need it from 4 to 6 weeks in the barn, a small brood isn't gonna add a ton to the bottom line imo.

You getting a couple roosters so that you can hatch some out yourself later?

I just changed my order to Murry McMurry's. I changed to 15 (brown egg choice) and 2 roosters.

I think I may try a couple dozen eggs to hatch again this year. Primarily Black French Copper Marans.

There's a supplier near by I can get them from. The price is right also.

Then I'll have additional mixed hens.

Ive only ever had the lamp on the spring chicks for 5-6 weeks so thats true!!!

I like your idea.

Ive had those Black French copper marans... the Shells were so Dark It was Very hard candling them! Near impossible!

Get the delawares, if they bred to standard you'll get a great layer and good eating roosters.

At this time...Ive decided Delawares and a few Saphire Gems

Black giants lay some huge eggs.

i see , chick days at he local feed store here you order by 2 weeks before and they start delivering in April with a twice a month delivery date typically. it has been a few years since I ordered

Thats pretty much hoew they do it here

They do that here at tractor supply.

Nice looking chickens.

Saphire gems

Up to 290 eggs a year possible

Sex links

I have one Black Jersey Giant rooster and he is awesome. Friendliest rooster I ever had and big and gorgeous.

These are Interesting birds also but sold straightrun at hoovers

A free lunch heck ya I’d wait! LOL you get them now you will have mess by the time it’s warm enough to stop worrying about them. I had a bunch in my fur shed one spring what a mess dust and dander on everything 1/4 inch thick.

My biggest peeve is when the person sorting my birds starts dropping them into the box at the feed store, I just slide in and say, I got this.

Buy your meat chicks at TSC or any other feed store if you are going to eat them, that way you know how they have been fed. To grow them properly you have to change protein content in feed as they grow.

Layers buy 20 week started pullets if you can, you get eggs pretty quickly. If you buy Golden Buffs or red Sex link and feed them right you should get 300 eggs/bird the 1st year. After 1 year production start dropping, sell them on Craigslist or Marketplace.for better than half of what you pay for them and start over.

My three hens (two Buff Orpingtons and some other thing I hatched from ebay...),just started laying in December, and I get two,or three eggs a day. I want to hatch some of their eggs again this spring for some meat birds, and maybe another hen, or two. I pretty much get enough eggs for my needs. But a few more cant hurt.

I pretty much have Easter covered.

Which rooster do you have?

The Saphire Gems are sex link birds....they lay up to 290 eggs...but Im not getting pullets.

My Rooster is a big friendly Buff Orpington.

Thats Cool !!!

Nice bird!!! Mine are always mean

I ordered through farm and fleet who gets their chicks through cackle hatchery. last year we ordered a surprise box that had 48 birds of a bunch of different breeds. this year we pre ordered 20 chicks 5 golden comets, 5 speckled Sussex, 5 red sex link and 5 black sex links. when farm and fleet gets the chicks they will have for sale at the store we are buying 20 more 5 cinnamon queens, 5 brown leghorns, 5 easter eggers, and 5 Delaware. we will also raise 25-30 cronish cross for meat. im fortunate to have a good customer base for farm fresh eggs at work and can easily sell 30 - 40 dozen a week. oh and out of the 48 birds I got in the surprise box from last year I got 39 hens I was amazed at that considering it was 79.99 free shipping. we currently have 18 chicken eggs in the bator and 17 duck eggs as well. the kiddos love the hatching and not a day goes by that they are not checking on the eggs making sure temp and humidity are at the correct settings. so adding 40 hen chicks and whatever hens we hatch ourselves and roosters will be butchered unless we get some crazy cool looking ones which happens when you have a large mixed flock. we have 7 roosters now and they all seem to get along fine and do their job so they will get to stay around another year until one gets mean then he goes in the soup pot.

the banties i hatch and sell more than cover my meat and layer costs.

Awesome...Ive only ever done single breed for two years...and then New choice.
This year Ill try 2 breeds.

You guys selling eggs......how much per doz? I get $2.50......or $5 for 2 doz. Sell all I have for that.

Next question.........seems to me that hobby trapping next to a chicken house is like shooting fish in a barrel. How many of you trap near the chickens?

No brainer to me! Both......Get your order in for the Sapphire gems and then go buy some locally! I would support both. The Lord will bless you along the way and you will enjoy what you want. We are not talking about buying a new truck or tractor - get out there and live life a little more - splurge the extra 50-100 and just get both.

BTW, I'm also in the camp that buys day old chicks (mine are Cackle chicks from the local feed store........they add my birds to their order). Usually around April 1st. I then brooder and raise them.........the get socialized to me that way. They will start laying around Sep 1st, old birds (about 28 months by then) are put on Craigslist.

Birds have about 700 eggs in them when born. They will put out 500 or so in that time, and after that, laying slows down. So they go and get replaced by new birds. First year pullets don't drop off much the first winter. I'm tending neighbor's 5 birds for a few weeks and they are cranking out 3 to 4 per day........and have been since September.

I have no roosters at all. Don't want any either.

Free lunch coffee and save $40.00 . Being really cheap WAIT. Use the time to keep deciding on birds.

Exactly what I Do^^^

But I have a rooster!

Thanks Ill do that!

I have one also.

The Plymouth Rock Rooster We have is One Mean Bird!

Yep had to sandal train the one I had standing in the mud with a sandal in hand must of been a sight to see with him walking sideways a bit, never had a problem after that good whack just the occasional “bring it” flap they give you now and then.

When my kids were shavers, my sons job was to protect his older sister when they gathered eggs as one of their chores. He was the best guardian ever and we had a mean Wyandot rooster. Well one day the rooster went to far and my boy whipped his butt, but had scratches on his arms. That was it, I went out to the barn and we had chicken for supper that night. Then the only roosters we had were a buff and a comet, they were good ole boys. One day I'll tell ya about the wild black australorps lol.

BlkAustralorpslivesmatter Catch

Those black australorps are nice layers with quite a few laying double yolk eggs.

Noted

Was replying to catch22's post mentioning black australorps.

One of my favorite roosters ever was a black giant black australorp cross I hatched out.Was my favorite rooster right up to when I was away at a union job and my wife got tired of his early morning crowing and.......ate him.

One day Catch

Lol, yes. The story goes when we bought a mini farm back in the day it came with about ten or so BA hens and a rooster. They had a coop but were left to fend for themselves and roosted in a maple in the back yard. So I retrained them to use the coop, great layers. Well the coop was in bad shape so we built really nice pens in the barn and I went in to move the birds to the barn. Well the rooster wasn't having it. So it was on and he would go for the face. He run me out of the coop a couple times and knocked my glasses off lol. So the last time he ran me out, my daughter was about 5 at the time was standing at the open kitchen window with her hand on her hip and yelled, what's a matter daddy, skerred of a little ole chicken. I laughed so hard. I finally got the rooster in the barn and the hens did good, he didn't like it and died a few weeks later. The end.

Lol

The meanest rooster I ever had was a barred rock.

Dang, she ate your rooster? He must have really peed her off lol.

Yep......I was not impressed or happy

black americana's,silver laced wyandotes,red sex links and 2 egg layin sumbums a banties.new this year was a pure white rooster and his 2 hens.

I want to get some more Guinea hens.

gramma always had em.we also raise 5 or 6 turkeys each year and may do pheasants.had a guy give me 25 rolls of 1 yr old-6ft chain link fence 2 yrs ago.all i had to do was take it down.5 coops all together.

Nice

Your wife will eat those screeching things for sure. They are about as loud as a peacock.

She did not like the taste of them lucky for the Guineas

She would

I like guineas. They work great with dogs. When the guineas start yelling, my dogs run to them and usually kill the cause of the alarm, which is to distracted by the guineas, until it's to late. They sell well as keets and adults too.

Keith

If theyre at the feed store this year Ill get some guineas for ticks

Everyone says wait but then you walk in the store and hear them chirping and it all over then. Like a hungry coyote to a dying rabbit call! LOL

I know its Exactly like That!!!!

When the wife and I walk into a store during chick days I hang my head and shake it back and forth then wife asks what's wrong, I just say, "can't you hear them?"

They come in all different colors now also.My favorite is the royal purple or blue ones.

Chicks are cute. I have hatched chicks at least once a week, usually at least twice, every week of the year for 8 years, plus frequently before that, since 1995. I am running 2 full Sportsman cabinet incubators now and will be running 1 more and 2 Dickeys again, probably in April. Right now I am only hatching quail. I won't set chickens until around the beginning of March, depending on the weather. I'll set guineas one week after they start laying.

Keith

My wife just goes her separate way

It's amazing how fast they grow.

They like to eat....now what response?

Everything likes to eat

Unusual announcer but good info on breed history

Nice looking birds I have hatched few uggos in my day fun to see what you get. Like you I get a different type of bird each year to keep track of their age.

That is strange.I remember back in the day when they would inject food coloring into fertile chicken eggs to get chicks those colors but those are adult chickens.

They dipped the chick in dye after they hatched out. They did not do it in the egg. The adult silkies in the video were dyed too.

Some people also dye white homing pigeons. They do it a lot for LGBT&Q events and call it rainbow releases when they let the homers go.

Keith

I remember hatching out the eggs as a child.You could buy them around Easter time.The chicks would come out all different colors.

You're right Bruce. I looked it up. They did use to inject dye straight into the eggs too. Apparently many places made it illegal. I have only seen them dye already hatched chicks.

Keith

Too Wierd though

Thanks for looking it up.

Whose had the Silver laced wyandottes

We did.they were our first birds we chose

I have raised Silver Laced Wyandottes for around 10 years. They lay a nice sized brown egg. They generally lay okay during the Winter without extra light. The eggs hatch well and the chicks are vigorous. A lot of hatchery production stock will have the improper straight combs. Well marked Silver Laced Wyandotte hens are beautiful and the cockerels are spectacular. They are one of the two standard breeds I am raising this year, though I may still add a few breeds.

Keith

Keith

Did or do you ever have them blow out their rears...with goose sized eggs?

We had 5 of our SLWs lay massive Triple sized eggs then tip over dead
Other than those...we loved them!

Eggs and cat bait a win, win.

Ha! But no- we felt terrible

I do to as I write bait on the bag. LOL

I have never had Silver Laced Wyandottes prolapse. I have had Ameracaunas, Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks prolapse, but only a few birds out of many hundreds.

I have had lots of coturnix quail prolapse. Usually it happens at around 7 weeks mostly with a few birds doing it later. Often the eggs are normal size. I probably lose around 3% of hens that way in coturnix. Usually the other quail will cannibalize the part that prolapsed.

Keith

Wow!
Now I really wonder why my SLW did that? Plus its wierd that my birds that did that had eggs that were bigger than Turkey egg size.

I think prolapses mostly happen when a hen fails to lay smaller sized pullet eggs first, to gradually stretch her out. Laying one massive egg, without progressively laying larger eggs to that point is likely a cause of prolapse too. I have had old chicken hens, that had mostly stopped laying, lay a regular size egg and prolapse.

I get lots of weird eggs, though the actual percentage is low out of all the eggs. Some of my Malaysian Serama hens will lay tiny, very round, but jelly bean size, pullet eggs with no yolk. Some of my coturnix quail hens will occasionally lay eggs with no shell, with just the shell membrane holding them together. They bounce very well. I had ringneck pheasants that commonly laid double yolked eggs. I hatched a 3 legged pheasant once, that a 3rd leg growing out of its back. I posted pictures of it here when it happened. I have had 5 yolks in 1 chicken egg a few times. I had 6 probably 5 year old Copper Maran hens that almost always laid triple yolk eggs on the few occasions they still laid.

Keith

Well Keith, thanks for your replys

Ive wanted to get SLWyondottes again someday. I always wondered if it came from odd breeding or type of feed .
Not this year ... but down the road I will get them again, but from a different hatchery.

Really thought this post was about something else

Eggs?

LOL!

Women chicks?.....lol

Thought is was about Valentine's Day

Lol

Nah

Nice video

Some of the chicks Ive decided on in a month!

Thought is was about Valentine's Day

It was!!!