What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

My mail order chickens

Thagirion

Budgies are best
Starting this thread after seeing the questions about chickens in the mail order thread. As some of you know I'm the bird nut here. I have and have had many birds over the years and am still a breeder of the smaller parrots. I have been wanting chickens for quite some time now and two years ago I placed an order with My Pet Chicken and have been extremely pleased. I actually picked up two baby Rhode Island Reds from a local feed store that I named Henrietta and The Cheeper.

flatchicks.jpg


Here are my two girls sleeping. They were so little back then! Weeks later I decided I wanted special breeds. My Pet Chicken allows a minimum of three chicks which is nice because most other places want a minimum of 25 and that's too much for most backyard chicken owners. So I ordered three Easter Eggers and three Black Copper Marans. Easter Eggers lay colored eggs. Each chicken lays only one color. But you can get blue, green or pink eggs. The Black Copper Marans have the darkest eggs of all breeds. They are called dark chocolate eggs. So I wanted a natural Easter basket every day once my girls got old enough. I made a video of the day my sweet babies arrived. Chris helped film me getting them out.

<object width= "500" height="409"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p7TzcyoDbBM&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0&color1=0x05555F&color2=0x01DEF9&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p7TzcyoDbBM&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0&color1=0x05555F&color2=0x01DEF9&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="409"></embed></object>

I wish I had taken pics but at the time my photo camera was also my video camera. I do have pics of the chicks though. I named the Easter Eggers: Raptor, Gamma and Mocha. The Marans wer named: Zucca, Expresso and Omega


Omega by Thagirion3, on Flickr


Zucca close by Thagirion3, on Flickr


Gamma or Mocha by Thagirion3, on Flickr


Raptor close by Thagirion3, on Flickr

Here are some of the eggs I got. They start to lay eggs around 6 months. Waiting for that first egg is really hard once the date gets close. As for my Easter Eggers I ended up with Raptor and Mocha being blue egg layers and Gamma a pink egg layer.


Naturally colored chicken eggs by Thagirion3, on Flickr

And the Marans eggs.


Black Copper Marans eggs by Thagirion3, on Flickr

Not as dark as they could be but still pretty dark compared to the normal Rhode Island Reds. I'll stop here. I need to go let them out now and feed my flock and tend my plants. But I will add more to this later. I have pics of them growing up and now as adults. They are wonderful pets and Henrietta has become quite the demanding dominant flock leader. She's special and spoiled.
 
welcome to the world of chickens. do you have the adults free ranging?
 
Thanks. Oh yes. These chicks are all grown up. They are two years old now. My flock of 8 birds free roams my yard which is pretty large. They are very friendly and follow me all over the place when I'm doing yard work.


The Cheeper drinking by Thagirion3, on Flickr

Here is The Cheeper drinking the drops left in the hose after I watered.


Hens looking in my window by Thagirion3, on Flickr

They come to all the windows looking for me too. Usually for their second feeding of the day. They know I spend the most time in the kitchen which is this window, the patio and the computer room in the front of the house.
 
Awww they're so cute! I love chickens.. I cant wait til I have my own house, totally plan on having some of my own... I want Silkies SOO BAADD.. But I will definitely pick up some Ameraucan/Araucanas too.. Too bad true 100% Araucanas are so hard to find.
 
I don't know why but somehow laying rainbow-colored eggs makes them even cuter. I love the peeping in the video!
 
Brie, they are wonderful to have around. Yes definitely get a small flock if you get a house. I didn't get any bantams because I wanted them mostly for eggs but silkies are cute too. But now I have more eggs than I know what to do with. Eight eggs a day is too much for two people. Hehe, and I want more because they're great pets. Yeah it's too bad that true Arucuanas are so hard to find. They lay only blue eggs that are very bright. I'd love to have some, though they aren't a very pretty bird.

Thez_yo, yep. A colored egg tray is why I picked the breeds I did. No white egg layers though because they are too skittish. Easter is the only time of year I buy eggs now. You can't dye eggs that are already colored or dark hehe.
 
What is the upkeep cost like? I mean, how much do you spend per day/how many eggs do you get?
Also, those birds are much mroe adorable than I thought chickens could be...
 
I love the plethora of eggs colors! Have you ever tried parrotlets? I don't think you can get any smaller than that.
 
My familiy had several chickens on our half acre lot in Southern California several years ago. I miss having chickens :(
 
  • #10
I don't know. I don't keep records of costs on a daily basis. I just know they are cheaper than budgies, pigeons and parrots. If you build the coop yourself you'll save a lot. Coops can be as cheap or expensive as you want them to be. I don't even factor in that cost, though I made mine too cheap based on someone else's drawings and will have to rebuild it within a year. I built my pigeon's coop and should have stuck to my own plans.

A 50lb bag of chicken food is about $13. Compared to 30-50 for the same bag for parrots and pigeons chickens are really cheap. The big bag of pine shavings I get is only $6 and starting out with feeders, waterer when they are chicks isn't so bad though you do need somewhere to keep them. The wooden box I have is my snake's cage. I put him in a spare 20 gal tank and the chicks got his big cage until they were old enough to go outside. I already had a lot of the supplies on hand because of other pets I have. With 8 full sized chickens that 50lb bag lasts about a month and a half though. I'll have to write down the next time I buy one and the next time it runs out. They get two meals a day into two bowls. They have to because the dominant birds won't let the subordiant birds eat.

Thanks wire_man. No, but I used to know breeders of them and have played with them on bird shows I have done. Budgies are the smallest parrots I think. Parrolets weigh more. Parrolets are like miniature amazons. Small birds BIG attitude.

richjam, oh I would miss them too.
 
  • #11
Haha! I miss candling eggs and the anticipation of their imminent hatch.
 
  • #12
Wow - bring back lots of memories with this thread. I 'grew-up' in the sticks. While we had our base number of chickens - the ones that were pets (~3-5 would over-winter, depending on the year) every spring we would add 20-30 more. These additions would find their way to the freezer each fall and a few might end up on the table before that. Each winter, we (the kids) would scour the catalogs for possible new birds to try out - bantams, polish, etc as well as ducks, geese, turkeys. Almost every year we would try out some new species or varieties. I'm amazed that turkeys still exist since there was no proof that they had a brain. Geese had interesting personalities & liked to hang around people - which sounds great on the surface but when you're talking about a small flock of large birds congregating in the same area that we liked (ie: patio) & were obviously not toilet-trained - yikes (I don't think they made it the whole summer before freezer time). Some of the new birds would overwinter as pets but most went the other way (lots of arguments between parents & kids on this). Lots & lots of stories come to mind - wow!

.... and parrots. I'd always wanted to breed them & finally, after college, when we got a house, I set up several rooms in the basement. One was for conures (suns & jendays) and the other was for Solomon Island Eclectus. All incredibly beautiful birds with very unique personalities - I miss them ...
 
  • #13
I wish you had titled this post "Mail order chicks" instead ;-)
 
  • #14
You folks are on the verge of upsetting my wife. Much more of this and I'll end up with chickens again.
 
  • #15
I'm technically in the suburbs but with a big yard I keep my backyard flock. That all sounds so neat. I bet you would have been argued as kids which birds to keep for pets. I love eating chicken and turkey, but any birds that come into my yard are instantly under my protection. I love friendly birds. Wild turkeys are nothing like domestic birds. They still have the survival instinct and they can fly.

I have had the pleasure of working and raising many species of parrots. I have a set somewhere in my flickr of when I worked for a private aviary. My favorite was working with the hyacinth macaws. I used to hand feed the chicks baby formula. We had some eclectus parrots. I prefer the males. Not as pretty as the females but I liked their personality much better. Yes they all have personalities. From the smallest budgie to the biggest macaw they are all packed with personality and intelligence.

Whimgrinder, hehe yeah.

Rocketcaver, well no apologies here. I still have more videos and photos to come. :D
 
  • #16
Chickens can be very entertaining.
Imagine if you will a flock of 10 or 15 hens, a cold winter day, and a driveway on a very steep hill covered in solid ice. The chickens are at the bottom of the driveway, and feed has just been scattered at the top of the hill.
I wish I had had a camcorder.
 
  • #17
My daughter would love some of these. Any idea on the start up cost when ordering chicks?
 
  • #18
I'd only not eat/kill them if they stayed small forever. Too cute when little.. to far from cute when they're big.
 
  • #19
dionae, the chicks themselves aren't that expensive. They can range from 2-15 dollars each depending on if they are a rare breed or common. The feed bins and bowls aren't that much either. I'll PM you some info on it. They are fun for kids.

mass, there's nothing to eat when they're small anyway hehe. Think of the adults as little dinosaurs. I have had no frogs or toads in my mini pond ever since the girls moved out there. I think they're cute, but I can see why some people would think they are ugly with the bare faces. There's one ugly breed called Turkens I think that has no feathers on its neck. Why would anyone like that?
 
  • #20
Look like vicious predators to me -- and still ticked that they have the genetic memory of once being eight ton roadrunners from hell . . .
 
Back
Top