# babies at our place too



## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

DW and I decided that we want to start raising chickens. We cleaned out an old chicken coop, went to Tractor Supply and got 1 dozen mixed red straight run peeps, along with a feeder, waterer, feed, shavings, and a heat lamp. I was told (by my dad) that straight run means hens and roosters together. Can anybody tell me if that's right? It doesn't matter; they'll either be in the crock pot or laying eggs. Win/win either way. Just checked on the little things right now and it's 90° in the pen and they are all snuggled up on the edge of the light beam. All looks to be well.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Jason said:


> I was told (by my dad) that straight run means hens and roosters together. Can anybody tell me if that's right?.


Affirmative. Hopefully you'll get mostly hens. Pics Please. 

Good luck in your new venture. There really isn't much involved but if you ever have questions, someone here can help you out.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Congrats! :2thumb:

Just so you know  once you have had home grown chicken you will not want to go back to the 'factory chickens'  Which is not a bad thing. lol


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

*Andi said:


> Congrats! :2thumb:
> 
> Just so you know  once you have had home grown chicken you will not want to go back to the 'factory chickens'  Which is not a bad thing. lol


Same goes for the eggs. No comparison.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks, Joe. DW picked them out so if they're all roosters, it's her fault.  

I raised cornish hens when I was a kid but we've never had layers to amount to anything. We will be taking pics today and hopefully I'll upload one or two later today/tonight. Sometimes the dialup lets them load and sometimes it just kind of putts along forever.

Happy Easter to all. We just got back into the house from hiding plastic eggs full of goodies all over the yard for our boy.

The peeps did fine overnight. I checked on them about 6:45 this morning and all were warm, happy, and healthy.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Jason said:


> if they're all roosters, it's her fault.


Even after 4 hatching's here, I can't tell the difference until they get older.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Andi, if this works out I'd like to expand into some meat chickens as well. Not too many-just enough to put some extra meat into the freezer. If we make a go of it we'll add a few more and see where that takes us.

All, I just uploaded 2 pics of the new little gals (hopefully) and guys into my photo album under "all albums".


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Love the pictures! Your son is soooooooo cute!


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks. He definately got his mommy's genes. He's as smart as he is cute, too. LOVES being outside and playing with animals. He hunted Easter eggs several times today and we couldn't get him to give up. Sometimes we even have to drag him (figuratively) into the house kicking and screaming (literally) when it's time for dinner or bed. In short, he's a typical farm kid, and100% boy.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

He looks fascinated. I'll bet he'd like to give them a great big squeeze.


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

I hope all of you included the additional family members to feed on your *censless* questionnaire form.:scratch


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I didn't see a place to add peeps onto the census form, Bob. Now I guess they'll send someone around to count the chickens. 

We went camping for a week here recently. Came back and the peeps were all feathered out and MUCH bigger. My dad was on critter duty while we were gone and didn't have any problems. The heat lamp held them over nicely through the cold snap. 

How old will they be when they start laying? It looks like we did get lucky- I only see 2 of the 12 that I'm sure are roosters.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Jason said:


> How old will they be when they start laying? It looks like we did get lucky- I only see 2 of the 12 that I'm sure are roosters.


Most pullets will start laying eggs at 20-24 weeks of ages and and congrats :congrat: about the roos.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

The chickens are all doing really well. We didn't lose a single one. We've had to put in a bigger waterer already and we've opened up the coop to let them run the legnth of the coop now. At first we had them confined to the enclosed end of the coop because it was cold at night and there's a heat lamp there. My father in law is slowly building a chicken tractor and I'm looking forward to starting to use it.

A question for those with chicken tractors and/or free range poultry: How do you keep predators from raiding your birds? Around here we have *****, fox, possums, owls, hawks, even the occasional coyote.

I'd also like to get a few guinneas, just because I think they are neat birds. Any advice for those?


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Jason said:


> How do you keep predators from raiding your birds? Around here we have *****, fox, possums, owls, hawks, even the occasional coyote.


A .22 works pretty well  if they aren't too far away or if you're good at compensating for the drop at longer range



Jason said:


> I'd also like to get a few guinneas, just because I think they are neat birds. Any advice for those?


We have a friend with guinnea's. He has told us they make a great first alert system. Don't have any experience with them personally.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

UncleJoe said:


> We have a friend with guinnea's. He has told us they make a great first alert system.


My hubby has about 20 of them ... They are a first alert system. They are the first to start 'calling' when anything or anyone different comes around. They make a frightened shriek sound.  So keep in mind they can be loud. (alright very loud)

If allowed to roam they will consume more insects than other fowl. 
On a side note their eggs have the lowest cholesterol of all poultry. (If you can find their nest )

My hubby loves them and I like them on most days.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Can you just let the guinneas go loose? How do you keep them from wandering off? Do they just know where the food is?

We have a .22 and a .17 ready to go.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Well, we made our pilgrimage to Tractor Supply and got another dozen peeps. We got a half dozen layer pullets (not sure what breed) and a half dozen cornish cross meat birds. They'll be spending tonight in a tote in our basement and then they'll move out to the coop in the barn tomorrow.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

Just a hint for next run to TSC if they have black sex link straight runs pick only the black headed chicks.. the ones with the white splotch on the heads are all males the plain black headed ones are girls. Usually the sex link straight runs are a bit cheaper than the rest so they keep them in stock and if you know what is what you can get what ya want.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I did not know that. Thanks, Emerald!


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

I did not know that either. :thankyou:


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I didn't know it till we were looking at them and I knew that sex linked birds are supposed to look different when hatched and my dear son googled it on his phone while we were in the store and so we ended up with 6 females for a buck each at the end of the season when they were trying to get rid of them all. I would have gotten more but a young couple were there and they wanted a few so we split the 12 between us... I still see them and they loved having chickens for the first time...
Those black sex links do lay tons of eggs but tend to be a bit skittish compared to the heritage type ones that I already had. But very pretty too.. all black with reddish mottled feathers around their heads when fully feathered out.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

DW got the peeps moved from the basement to the barn today. During the day yesterday we lost one of the Cornish cross peeps. One had been isolating itself in the corner of the pen- I think it was just sick. All the rest seem to be happy and healthy though-overall they're doing really well.


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## HozayBuck (Jan 27, 2010)

*Critters an such*

*Well it's spring I guess here in the Piney woods , the move to the new homestead is done ( never again!!) after last falls predator losses we still have 6 older hens and 2 roos.. a big red and black and a Silkie.. ( Stumpy)

3 of the Snow Mallards made it and are loving flying very high in figure 
eights , the guy closest to us has 2 ponds which they love , but seem to come home to their smaller puddle for the night.. kinda cool!! never seen domestic ducks fly like this.. hope they don't get shot!!

For the last 4 year we know of there has been a pair of Mississippi Kites that return here to nest and raise their young... they returned last week and kept a patrol around the barn and padocks looking the intruders over.. so far nobodies been taken... guess it will happen sooner or later but they were here first.. also LOM says they aren't native to here and seldom get this far west.. so ..cool.. everybody has to eat.. if they get too pushy I'll let off a few rounds near them.. won't kill them.. we can get more chickens...lol 
In fact we just got another doz chicks from TSC all pullets..or so they say.. some silkies..maybe Stumpy can get laid now hahaha..

No word on the goatlings yet.. the 3 supposedly bred does sure ain't looking bred.. Old Buck...( know how he feels!!)

Some of the garden is in.. tilling the main one today.. looks like 2 peach trees saplings from 3 years ago may have survived the drought of the past 2 years and are sending up new growth !!! ...this is good!! all the nut trees died as did the others.. one apple tree has hung on for 4 years.. now that we are here maybe we can keep them happy and healthy..

Homesteading is hard !!! lol and expensive but this year things will be better.. we are getting 5 eggs a day from the old hens and don't use that many so all's good...

All in all as the world spins out of control and mother earth tries to shake us parasites off her skin things still look good.. we are all healthy and happy and what more can one ask for? really....*


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