Check out these chicks!

[John K Jordan]

The first batch of the season is almost completely hatched. About 60 so far with just a few not yet hatched. From a few hours to one day old.

A hat full of chicks.
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Chicks in a bunch.
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I think they are watching the news. Notice the looks of shock on their little faces.

i have over 100 guinea eggs in the incubator which should hatch in a week or so. There are buyers already calling. Anyone in the area who might want a few chickens or guineas holler at me and I'll give you some.

The peacocks are starting to lay now. In the last couple of days I picked up 3 peacock eggs and put them in the egg cooler. Keeping them at 55 deg and about 60% humidity can improve the hatch rate over uncooled eggs.

JKJ

[Bill Bukovec]

Nice looking birds!

[Howard Pollack]

Adorable!

extra letters needed to post

[Jim Koepke]

A hat full of chicks.

If you were a hockey fan, would they be Hat Chicks?


The peacocks are starting to lay now. In the last couple of days I picked up 3 peacock eggs and put them in the egg cooler. Keeping them at 55 deg and about 60% humidity can improve the hatch rate over uncooled eggs.

To me it used to seem strange to find a hen's nest appearing to be abandoned, but the hen would tend to get upset and chase me away. Then after a while the hen would sit on them. Then it occurred to me that was the way nature arranged for all the eggs to hatch at the same time.

There were also other hens that would lay eggs next to the one that was going to be the sitter so one hen would end up doing the work of a few.

Though it seems store bought chicks never have the nest sitting instinct.

jtk

[Alan Rutherford]

You have good-looking chicks! Here are ours. We only have about 15 and we didn't hatch them. Here they are, 3-4 days old and under the stairs in our living room. We didn't plan to keep them there but the day they arrived there were major weather problems and this was easier than outside on the porch. The stairs is a convenient place to hang the light and the towels that shield them from the ceiling fan. This morning we doubled their space with an identical cage that attaches to this one.
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We've had chickens before but it's been a few years. We found it was too hard to find a chickensitter when we wanted to go away. It was time to re-stock and I've been building a large coop/run. That's been a significant undertaking considering post-holes, 4x4's and 4x6's, and my advanced age. I didn't hear about the chicken crisis until a week ago. Thought I'd just go on-line when I was ready and a box of chicks would show up in the mail. Turns out there's panic-buying and a shortage. We got these from the local Ace Hardware by pre-ordering, pre-paying, and getting none of the breeds we wanted and a couple I'd never heard of. Looking forward to seeing what we have.

Take care of your chicks. Watch out for rustlers.

[John K Jordan]

We've had chickens before but it's been a few years. We found it was too hard to find a chickensitter when we wanted to go away. It was time to re-stock and I've been building a large coop/run. That's been a significant undertaking considering post-holes, 4x4's and 4x6's, and my advanced age. I

I probably could have mailed some chicks to you - I didn't think of offering that. Never tried it. The offer of some free chicks stands to anyone reading who lives close enough to drive. (If not familiar with raising and keeping chickens we can tell you exactly what you need.) I started collecting these eggs to incubate right before I heard about the sudden massive demand. I suspect I won't have any problem selling them on Craigslist!

Lots of varmints around here, but only hawks have gotten in the chicken yard and then only twice. There are enough trees/bushes in the yard for them to scurry under when needed. If we had no bushes I'd consider adding something in the middle of the yard with a roof and a couple of 2x4s for an outdoor roost. I'm thinking about stretching strong deep-sea fishing line in a random pattern across the top of the pen to foil diving hawks.

Some animals will dig under the fence. When I installed mine I dug a small trench about 8" or so and put the the bottom of the 2x4" welded wire galvanized fencing below ground. Another thing that works is stretching barbed wire tight right at ground level. Also, electric fence with conductors part way up and also at the top keeps climbers out. I've had skunks dig under the wall in other buildings (one killed and ate part of a young peahen once) but never in the chicken yard.

I put a small entrance into the building with a heavy guillotine door and a rope stretched up and across two pulleys with a ring on the end. I hook the ring on a screw to keep the door open and can lower it to lock up the coop at night.

I also built nesting boxes into the side wall with a wide door that hinges downwards so I can gather eggs without going inside. That part is out of the weather since coop is section of a larger building walled off with framing and welded wire.

BTW, chickens can fly out of the fence but they never do. I raise them elsewhere and when I put them in the first time I clip the ends of the wing feathers on one wing. By the time the feathers grow back they seem to have forgotten they can fly.

I had another chick hatch this morning, perhaps the last of the first batch (60+ hatched). The first batch of guinea eggs are due to transfer from the incubator to the hatcher soon. And I've picked up 5 peacock eggs in the last few days - in the egg cooler now. I'll probably start incubating them by tomorrow and may get another egg or two by then.


JKJ

[lowell holmes]

This post took me back to high school days when girls were some times called chicks. :)

[Alan Rutherford]

I probably could have mailed some chicks to you ....

That's very generous of you put we're good for now.

I hear guineas are especially good at eating ticks. We could use that.



This post took me back to high school days when girls were some times called chicks.

And some guys were called chick magnets. Not me, unfortunately but lately I've been a tick magnet.

[John K Jordan]

This post took me back to high school days when girls were some times called chicks. :)

I did not title it "Check out these cute chicks!" on purpose. :)

Had one more hatch today, that's probably all for this batch. I've given up trying to count them.

Guineas should hatch May 5th. I will probably start a batch of peacocks eggs tomorrow.

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

John, I think they like to be called "eggs iststenshulists"