Chicks, whose got 'em? Or rather, whose raised them?

Here we go with another random Shortykilogyrl post, yeup my life is like these posts. haha So question to all of you in the now or in the past have you ever hatched and raised chicks, and I do mean the feathered kind. I'm considering hatching my own and selling some when they get older and keeping some for my flock as well. I have never hatched before but I did raise some last year. I had purchased 5, one died, which is to be expected, and ALL of the other 4 turned out to be cockerels! That's my luck. So my hens are all getting up there in age and I want to add some younger girls so I have constant eggs coming in, well I guess out, to sell. Of my 9 hens, 3 are currently not laying for whatever reason I can not figure out, the other girls are giving me close to 24 eggs in a 7 day period. Not bad for one being 8 years old (still laying), and 5 being over 5 years old. Of course it's the one year olds that aren't laying.   They are about to find a new home. I haven't had good luck with them from the get go. But they were transitioned from grower feed to layer feed WAAAY too early so that probably has something do with it.

Any who, I was wondering who has raised their own chicks, and hatched them from eggs. What type of an incubator did you use? I don't have a broody hen to use or else I would definitely go that route. I have researched online how to make my own incubator. This is the route I will go as I am going to purchase an infrared brooder so they can immediately go outside and start to learn what that's all about. So what's your experience? How did you hatch?

Ask Luv_my fishies she raises chicken. I went to see her tanks wall to wall of fish tanks. In front of her home were chicken coops.

SiRWesDragon wrote:Ask Luv_my fishies she raises chicken.  I went to see her tanks wall to wall of fish tanks. In front of her home were chicken coops.

Awesome, thank you!

But the good thing is spraddle leg is curable! Post pictures! Ducks are so cute. When we enlarge the run I'm going to add ducks I think. They make EXCELLENT baking eggs

Exactly!! though I have no idea where it came from. the leg bends like it should so no out of place tendon and theyve been on shavings since they were born (dirt/straw when they hatched under mommy) poor guys is still like 1/2 tthe size of his siblings for some reason. Though they were born the same size. Thy make excellent eggs over all is what I hear! And these are muscovy's so they could be good on the table too.
As for pictures I'm never on my computer so I always forget. My phone still has a problem not showing the servingthingy to upload and I've never successfully loged on to it from the site itself. >> otherwise it would be baby animals galore! Our bunnies are now 5 weeks old and massive >>

Spraddle leg is caused from the duck sticking to the inside of the shell and not being turned frequently enough causing them to be in the same position over a long period of time. I can't get the image uploader to work from my phone and half the time from my computer either. I just use photobucket and upload the image link If you have android or iphone they have an app for it. I have a blackberry so I just use the web browser but still super easy and an account is free. Try it out and have fun!

Huh. Haven't run across that one yet! (As an explanation)
Derp....I forgot I HAVE the photobucket app...

I love this blog and follow it. She has great advice and here is the blog she wrote about spraddle leg http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/spraddle-leg-in-baby-chicks-what-is-it.html

We have 4 barred rock hens that we purchased as chicks from Dells down near the Oly airport last spring. Thankfully, all 4 were pullets and we didn't lose any of them. Building the coop and run took way more time and $$ than we had expected, but in retrospect it seems worth it.

One of them went broody on us recently and threw off they laying of the others, but we're back up to 3 - 4 eggs per day now. We may add to our flock next spring; we'll see.

I bought an old dog run for $100 and then enough chicken wire to go around the base and under the ground to protect from predator digging (proven effective) and got all scrap wood from a local guy to make the coop for free. I ended up pretty lucky. I've spent more in hens and feed than I have for anything. I got 5 hens for $50 and then 2 for free and paid for a few others as well. I'm hoping I can sell some of these chicks when they start hatching and keep a few. Hopefully this summer I can get the coop/run moved and make them both bigger. It's just my boyfriend deciding where he wants it to go.

I built my run like a fortress - 1/2" hardware cloth all around, treated 2x2 construction, fully covered, 5'x15'. Mice can get in (though I'll be fixing that shortly), but rats cannot.

They have the run of my 6' chainlink-fenced back yard (maybe 1/5 acre or something like that) for several hours every afternoon. And my 2 weimaraners get along with them famously, though they don't appreciate the manic running back and forth all that much.

lol Our boxer and great dane do pretty well. My boxer especially, occasionally the dane wants to chase though. Our run is 6'x10' with the coop on the outside of it, then they get to range in our 1.5 acre yard and in the neighbors 2 acre yard if they want to

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html

We used to order all of our chicks from these guys.

They don't have the chicks I want in stock Neither does Meyer hatchery.

Lammmme!!!

Agreeed! But I found a farm in Yelm that has fertile eggs of the kind I want.

That's a haul! I hope you get em! Put up pictures. Chicks are the cutest!

She is willing to meet me in chehalis so that's only an hour away from me I definitely will post pictures if I do get some to hatch.

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:Agreeed! But I found a farm in Yelm that has fertile eggs of the kind I want.

I'm just a couple of miles from Yelm!   

This thread is Fowl!! DOH...

i personally was gonna do faverolles but my buddys property had more carnivores nearby then we thought, (all the chickens disappeared one night) i just like them because of their gorgeous colors and the fact that they are a good meat bird and great for our climate (they were bred for a very similar climate in france) literally couldnt find a single negative on them, anyways GL with your run. its always nice to have your own food on hand.

JimA wrote:This thread is Fowl!!  DOH...

  

Haha oh Jim!

It is nice knowing if we couldn't get out of our home we have dinner in the back yard