We raise chickens. We didn’t plan to really. We fell into it through a program called the Chick Chain with a local 4H Club. Our then 9-year-old son received 25 one-day-old chicks to raise for about 4 months with the agreement he’d bring his 5 best to the local County Fair. These chicks would then be auctioned to the highest bidder, and those funds used to buy chicks the following year for the program. What we didn’t expect is our son Mo received the Reserve Grand Champion award, which meant his chickens were the 2nd best of the show.
And from that moment on we were all hooked! I’m sad to say Mo’s affection for the chickens has worn off, but me and our three Littles love to care for them and they offer me a form of therapy honestly. There is just something therapeutic about watching them interact and to learn their language. They actually DO have different clucks and calls that mean different things. Now I’m not a chicken nor do I speak chicken, but I do understand a lot of their language. I come running out the back door for instance if I hear our rooster sending out a distress call, and I now know why our grandmas used to say “Now don’t go getting your feathers all ruffled” because I’m here to tell you the ladies most definitely DO ruffle those feathers at a certain time … or rather, after a certain event involving the rooster.
Fast forward a few years and we’re knee deep in chickens. Black sex-links from 4H, New Hampshire Reds from last year’s Spring chicks we raised and a lone one I believe is a Bantan. On March 25, we went on a whim one day to the feed store and picked up 12 new chicks. We chose 6 Bantam pullets and 6 Buff Orpinton female chicks. We were so excited especially about the Buffs as we’ve always wanted some and they are so sweet and fluffy! Up until May 7, our babies were growing and had also outgrown the brooder. We did lose one of the Bantams on the second day they were home, finding the pullet one morning on the bottom of a pile of chicks. This can happen as they all huddle together to stay warm. We do use heat lamps for them as well, but they naturally like to stay close together just as they would with a Momma hen.
Unfortunately, we had a tragic circumstance with a stray dog we found across the street and had taken in as our own. He was so curious of the chicks and one evening while we were all away, he was able to enter their fenced pen and also breech the metal locker, which we’ve used two years for our chicks when we transition them outside but before we put them in with the adult hens. We had thought they were safe and he was safe from having access to them, because we knew he wasn’t ready to be alone with them off-leash. Our chicks had been outside only a week when the tragedy occurred. They were just 7 weeks old, but we were already loved them very much. This last collage shows the last photos we have of them, and they were all taken the last week of our sweet babies’ lives. We will always miss them! They all had names and we had great hopes for them in our flock.
It is a tough lesson for our Littles to endure and honestly it hit me hard as well, but we’ve learned that sometimes farm life involving animals can leave us facing circumstances that are just heart-breaking and difficult to walk out. We will always remember those weeks we had with our Bantams and Buffs, and one day again we will have more Buffs. They are just too sweet and cute. The photo at the top of this post was taken of one of our Buffs when she was a couple of weeks old.
Just a week before we lost our early Spring chicks, we had 5 chicks hatch from our new incubator. These babies are all from our own flock, which is a first for us! They were born on April 30 and May 1!
We still have a lot to learn as we discovered that 13 of the 18 eggs we incubated were in fact fertilized, but for some reason only 5 of the 13 hatched and of those 5, only 3 survived. They are doing so well and are now 5 weeks old and were more than ready to be transitioned outside. We kept finding them walking about the garden shed where we keep the brooder, presumably having flown the brooder! On Sunday, we moved them to our second pen to begin their acclimation to the outside world. They have spent time outdoors under our watchful eyes, and they are always chasing bugs that fly into their brooder. They are spreading their wings literally, practicing flying and just so precious!
While the keeping of chickens is hard work and the pay-off monetarily doesn’t make sense practically speaking, there are rewards and gains that can’t be measured in dollars and cents. Our children are learning valuable lessons in responsibility, nurturing of creatures, putting others’ needs above our desires, and that farm fresh eggs really do taste better! Nothing is honestly more thrilling in the simplest of ways than arriving in the henhouse right at that moment when one of our ladies has just laid an egg, and we gather it up noting its warmth and thanking her for her hard work!
I hope to share more posts about our chickens as I revive this oft-forgotten blog. Please let me know what you’d like to know about chickens and I will try my best to make this as educational as possible!
Our chicks from our own flock are now about 6 weeks old and we just moved them out to the pen and small hutch! They were scared at first, but now they love it and are exploring and testing their flying skills too! They are just adorable! I will add more photos; these were taken within the last two weeks.
Baby Chickens in
Utica, Illinois
We have many Rare Chicken Breeds for sale in Utica Illinois,
including Sussex Chickens, Welsummer Chickens, Turken Chickens and more.
Be sure to check out the Bargain Specials, as you can combine different
egg layers in smaller amounts and buy as an assortment. Utica
Illinois also has poultry equipment for sale, game chickens for sale in
Utica Illinois, bantams for sale, ducks for sale, geese for sale,
turkeys for sale, guinea for sale, peafowl for sale, pheasant for sale,
chukar partridge for sale, bobwhite for sale, many different breeds of
baby chicks for sale in Utica IL.
Baby Chicks
Raising in
Utica, Illinois
Thumbing through a baby chickens for sale in Utica Illinois
catalog is a yearly traditions in many houses. My kids and I eagerly await
the Murray McMurray Hatchery catalog. We love looking at all the cool and
different chicken breeds available. Catalogs are free so head on over to
their site and request one if you are interested.
Typically hatcheries online offer both standard breeds
and bantams. Bantams are fun hardy little chickens, they lay tiny eggs
that kids especially love collecting. Bantams typically weigh less than 2
pounds when full grown. Just like ordering anything online there are pros
and cons to ordering baby chicks online. Pros of buying baby chicks in
Utica Illinois * Big Selection - If you are wanting a large
variety of different chicken breeds and egg colors, you will find the best
selection at an online hatchery. * Both Bantams and full sized chickens
available * You get to choose what sex you want. If you want a mixture of
both male and female then choosing a "straight run" will save you money
and you will get a mixture of male and female chicks. You can also choose
all males or all females too. * Weekly specials. Hatcheries have sales on
chicks, you are likely to get a good deal if you are flexible with the
breeds you are wanting. Cons of buying baby chicks in Utica
Illinois * Order early to get the best selection. Certain breeds sell
out fast, sometimes as early as 6 months in advance of shipping! If you
are wanting a certain breed it's best to order your chicks in the fall
before their orders sell out.
Baby Chicks Order Online in
Utica, Illinois
Quantity - you must order a certain number of chicks. Typically hatcheries
will require you buy a minimum of 25 chicks at a time. The number is
necessary for the chicks survival during shipping. All 25 chicks are put
in one small box without heat. They are crowded in the box and produce
enough body heat to arrive in good shape. * The wait - If you choose to
buy chicks from a feed store you will have them the same day but if you
choose to go with a hatchery you have to wait until they are ready to ship
and then wait for the chicks to arrive. Ordering baby chicks online in
Utica Illinois is easy and has always been a very pleasant
experience of me. It can be a little frustrating waiting for the chicks
but it's so worth the wait. When the post office calls and you hear all
those little "cheeps" or "chirps" in the background you'll know the wait
was worth it! How to Care for your new baby chickens in Utica,
Illinois Baby chicks are quite
adorable as well as
hard to stand up to,
yet it's finest to plan for their
arrival before you get them. Prepare first
by gathering not only the
appropriate materials, yet
also the appropriate
expertise to care for
them. Raising baby chicks is reasonably
easy, you merely have to supply them with the following: A
clean and also warm and comfortable
habitat Lots of food as well
as water Focus and
love Environment Your environment can be a basic box, fish tank,
feline carrier, or guinea
porker cage. Line it with old towels as well as
blankets (without any loose
strings!) to start, and after a few weeks utilize straw over paper.
Note: Avoid utilizing only
newspaper or other sandal
surface areas-- or your chicks legs could expand
malformed. You likewise require
something to provide food and also
water in, such as a chicken feeder and also water
dish from the feed store, or a pickle container
lid for food and also a pet bird water dispenser from a pet shop. Also, as the chicks get
older you could present a perch
right into the environment to obtain them
educated on setting down. Warmth To
maintain your chicks warm you have to
supply them with a heat source.
This can be as simple as a 100 watt
light bulb in a reflective clamp design lamp from an equipment shop, or an infrared reptile warmth
light bulb likewise function extremely well (my
suggestion). Chicks require this
heat 24/7 until their downy fluff is
replaced with feathers (which could use
up to two months). The freshly
hatched out require a temperature
in between 90 and also 100 levels,
as well as each week this can
be decreased by
roughly 5 degrees approximately. The warmth resource need to get on merely one side of the cage
to enable chicks a variety of
temperatures. The chicks are your best
thermostat- if they are concealing in the
other edge of your heat
light, you have to
reduce the temperature level. If
they are surrounding each various other under the
heat (not simply cuddling),
you have to add some heat.
Home cleaning
Tidiness is key and also it keeps your chicks healthy and
balanced. Be sure to transform
the bed linen
often and also
always give tidy
food and water Food and water.
Chicks expand extremely fast
which needs lots of tidy
food and water. Give
enough at all times as well
as examine
commonly to prevent dehydrated and
starving chicks. Chick food is various than adult chicken food, and also it can be found in both medicated and non-medicated varieties. Feed chick food for the
first 2 months, after that
change to a raiser food (~ 17 %
healthy protein) for another 2 months,
and afterwards to a somewhat
lower protein feed or a layer feed
(if you have levels). Dirt Some chicks prefer to obtain a running start on taking
dirt bathrooms, while others won't use up that task up until they are
older. If you have the area in your chick
room, introduce a tray of sand or
dust for them to bathe in.
Focus and love There are a
few advantages to hanging
out with your chicks. First off, they will certainly probably bond with you as well as
not flee as grownups. Second, if you
analyze your chicks daily and also
watch their habits, you could
catch disease or other issues previously. Watch out for hissing, limping, or
other undesirable
signs. Make certain to
additionally consider
their poop, as looseness of the bowels could cause matted plumes and also clogged cloaca.
Finally, it is very
important to look out
for social issues, such as the
littlest chick getting badgered. Vacant nest syndrome So your
chicks are now completely feathery
and its time for them to leave the
safety and security of your home
and also move outside right into a
coop. Have a look at our
area on chicken coops to get more information
regarding cages and
proper cage habitats.
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