Look what we got!
If you saw my sunset Sunday post last night you will be anticipating this one. After church yesterday we went to our local Rural King (my favorite store) and spent a little money on things we needed as well as special purchase. As you can see in the pictures we picked up some chicks, 8 total. This is will be a new experience for me because I have never had chickens before, although my wife did have some when she was much younger. We bought 4 breeds, 2 of each; welsummer, dominique, ameraucana, and cuckoo maron all pullets. We are very excited to begin farming with animals other than our barn cat and dog, just one step at a time though. I will be sharing their growth progress and making a post about how I put together their coop. Aren't they cute? Amanda sure thinks so!
Please upvote and follow to keep up with the progress of our new homestead and even newer baby chickens! Have a blessed day.
Yaaayaa chicks!! I loved raising my chicks! First time this year! Mine should hopefully start laying as soon as next month!! Oh man!!
Wow your Feed store has chicks still?!?! Seems so late in the season. All of them around here in Oregon have stopped having chicks available.
I did want to mention though that the chicks yougot from Rural King labeled as "Ameraucanas", are 90% more than likely not Ameraucanas. They are likely to actually be Easter Eggers (often advertised by stores and large scale hatcheries as Ameraucanas or Americanas.)
Ameraucanas are an accepted breed that only ever lay blue eggs, Easter Eggers are mutt chickens that can lay any color egg, and Americanas, well that's just a bastardized spelling and is an Easter Egger.
Generally true Ameraucanas aren't going to be available to be purchased through a feed store Hatchery and would be needed to be purchased through a breeder.
Here's a helpful link! http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/12/ameraucana-vs-araucana-vs-easter-egger.html?m=1
Don't get me wrong, Easter Eggers are a fine bird! I have four! I like them fine! But they're not Ameraucanas.
I'm not sure how or why stores and hatcheries are allowed to be misidentifying these birds without any sort of repercussion... I also don't see why they think they need to do it! People ARE after Easter Eggers. People like the surprise!
What is it you guys got going there for the bedding? Looks realninteresting! I can't wait to see your chicks progression!
I replied to this already, not sure why it didn't show up..I'll just reply again. Yes, they had a lot of chicks left and some ducks. I was told they were on sale for 50 cents each but I guess we missed the deadline. I hope we got what was advertised but if the ameraucana turns out to be Easter Egger that's okay with me. Amanda picked this first batch out based on egg color so she may be disappointed but we will get more in the future. I think the next group we get will be meat birds.
We are using finely shredded pine for bedding at the moment. I meant to take more pictures of the coop inside the barn and some close ups of the chicks but the lighting was bad. They are in the basement of the barn and it gets pretty dark down there after 4pm or so. I'll post up more pictures when I get the chance. Thanks for your comments and have a nice day out there in Oregon :)
thank you for your vote @arama, I read your issues with steemit and am confused why you are here and with so much steempower and very little posting. Care to help me understand?
OMG Congrats! I cant wait until the day we get to bring our first chicks home ! (:
Thank you, it's quite exciting for us. Do you know when you plan to get some?
Well, I know that you can get them in the mail! but we are not yet to the research part of baby chicks! I would love any words of advice you may have!
I'm new to chickens so I don't have a ton of advice to give although I would say make sure they have a safe place to sleep where predators can't get to them.
YES! We will! (: I look forward to following your posts !
thank you :)
Fresh eggs to look forward to somewhere down the road! ;)
yep, and the next group of chicks we will get (next year) will be for meat as well.
Have you killed a chicken before?
nope, not yet