Chickens arrive on Wednesday!

So here is the Chickshaw MiniMe (a la Justin Rhodes) where they will live and hopefully thrive. 8 poults coming, electric poultry netting to keep them in (and hopefully critters who like the taste of chicken out).

First chicken attempt here, so it should be interesting!  

Awesome! Please post more pictures when they arrive and keep us informed on what's working- and what you needed to improve if anything.

By way of update...it is Sunday, and still no chickens.

Ordered what I thought was going to be pullets, which I thought would be at least two months old. Apparently the Craigslist lady (and admittedly some others) call sexed chicks pullets.

I didn’t really want to raise chicks, and didn’t have the necessary set up for them given the need for heat, container, etc...  and, the chicks apparently hatched late.

Anyway, it will likely be NEXT Wednesday, and it will be chicks vice young chickens. So I have to scramble to find and buy stuff.

The fact of the matter is I could have ordered chicks myself for less than half the price. I agreed to pay more as I was led to believe they were 2+ months old.

Craigslist lesson learned. These chickens are getting expensive, between coup costs, poultry netting, and now a chick set up!

Hopefully someone will benefit from my lesson learned - be very specific in your terminology, and don’t fall for Craigslist duplicity!  Really the lesson is, order directly yourself to save money and be sure you are getting what you want.

aww, that's too bad. we have a guy locally who gets hatchery chicks and raises them for sale at 8 weeks old. we also talked to a local breeder and got 8-to-10 week old birds once. between those two it's been really nice to not have to do a brooder setup and for the birds to go directly to a coop when they arrive.

That was the plan, Greg!  Great minds think alike.

But it’s all good, a chance to learn about brooders and chicks and so forth.

Artie Scott wrote:That was the plan, Greg!  Great minds think alike.

But it’s all good, a chance to learn about brooders and chicks and so forth.

It sure is.  My daughter got quail, then wanted more.  I encouraged her to brood them before getting into incubating.  She's 3 weeks in and love it.  She did help me with incubating and brooding before, but she told me today it's different when she's the primary caregiver.  I find it incredibly rewarding and raising chicks makes handling a breeze.  My favourite thing is watching eggs hatch and raising the chicks, though I'm going to do my best to get broody hens to do the work for me.

You set-up looks just fantastic.  I always just seem to slap shit together at the last minute.  

Artie you have an adventure ahead of you! One definition of "pullet" is: "Once a chick develops feathers rather than down, it is then called a pullet if it is female or a cockerel if it is a male." Usually if they're just day-old chicks they're referred to as "sexed chicks", but technically the seller wasn't lying. Most farmers call older females who are almost ready to lay "Point of Lay" birds or POL's for short. We try *really* hard to get the seller to commit to a "number of weeks old" as that's really the only way to keep everybody honest - if they're vague, the birds are often more "pre-lay" 15-16 week olds and we've had some of them take a full month to start laying.

Having some of the brooder equipment isn't a bad thing. Sometimes I've used some of it with an injured chicken for example. Today one of our young layers was *really* looking broody. Thank goodness I had a little spare infrastructure, so she's now in a safe place on 8 eggs with her own small feeder and waterer. Since she'll look after them, I won't need a heat lamp, but I'll still need baby-sized feeders/waterers for them. As a general rule, I prefer mom-raised birds. They're not as "human friendly" but they have much better chicken or duck "manners".

Nice setup Artie. Chickens are so much fun to have around. It's unfortunate the way the sale went down but baby chickens grow fast. Enjoy!

Chicks have arrived!  

Craigslist Lady pulled a couple more fast ones - were supposed to be 4 different kinds, and ended up with only two, blue Maran and Easter Eggers, but live and learn, definitely done with that nutcase.

They seem to be settling in, and have discovered the water, food and brooder, so all seems well at the moment.

Very cute Artie! They should be all the entertainment you need for some time!

Agree, Jay!  They are fun to watch.