Chicks 2024- Peavey Mart and McMurray Hatchery

Thank you for sharing your chicken photos. I raised white crested black Polish chickens a couple decades ago and loved them! They should be watched carefully if putting them with aggressive breeds as their limited sight makes them handicapped at avoiding bullies attacks.. My Polish were mostly long lived and laid well into senior years. The small to medium eggs were produced at a fairly good rate as well. Quiet flock and beautiful to watch roaming about the chicken yard. One lived to be the oldest chicken ever for me, 16 years I believe ,with several living over 10 years and continuing to lay some till about ten years old. Make nice pet chickens. The eggs seemed to us, to have large yolks for their size, as I recall.

Thank you for sharing! We only have 2 of these chicks left- a golden polish pullet and a golden campine pullet. We had the electricity to our shed cut off when a landscaper accidentally cut off the cord that supplies it. So most of the chicks died as the heating pad wasn't working and the tiny serama hen was only able to cover a few. Three had escaped the kennel prior to that when my husband was feeding them and he didn't realize it until after they were killed by rats. We rehomed the wyandotte free cockerel chick with a gold polish pullet. This past Saturday we rehomed another gold polish pullet with the remaining buttercup who turned out to be a cockerel. We aren't allowed to have roosters. Still glad to have 4 hens/pullets and we are going to another auction on Saturday to look for a hen or two.

bantamsrmyfav said:

Thank you for sharing! We only have 2 of these chicks left- a golden polish pullet and a golden campine pullet. We had the electricity to our shed cut off when a landscaper accidentally cut off the cord that supplies it. So most of the chicks died as the heating pad wasn't working and the tiny serama hen was only able to cover a few. Three had escaped the kennel prior to that when my husband was feeding them and he didn't realize it until after they were killed by rats. We rehomed the wyandotte free cockerel chick with a gold polish pullet. This past Saturday we rehomed another gold polish pullet with the remaining buttercup who turned out to be a cockerel. We aren't allowed to have roosters. Still glad to have 4 hens/pullets and we are going to another auction on Saturday to look for a hen or two.

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Good luck and best wishes for your chicken flock! One of the important things to remember about raising chickens is that everything likes to eat them! Lots of great information here to help avoid problems. If you lack experience, reading extensively about raising a small flock safely is vital to success without too many painful lessons along the way. I have over five decades, as an adult, raising chickens and learn useful "stuff" here and elsewhere all the time. Accidents are likely to happen, but we can minimize them. I have had chickens do the strangest things and had other animals also be unpredictable in regards to how they reacted to my chickens. I had a large and aggressive guard dog that was instantly protective of my chickens when he first met them. I had another sweet, small, usually very gentle dog, that usually minded very well, suddenly attack and start killing as many as he could, disregarding my shouts and attempts to stop his attacks. He had been around them several times before without showing any aggression. You never know for sure about these things ,it seems. I found brooding chicks in the coop risky due to corn snakes that would eat them till fairly large and even a six foot plus snake got in through a hole about 11/4 inch in a corner near the roof. HE was larger in diameter than the hole but like a rodent, if their head will squeeze in , they are coming! Note : the snake can't escape out the small hole they entered, with the chick in their throats so you can catch them and release far away, if so inclined. Think like a hungry predator and you may outwit them with enough effort. I cover or fill all holes my finger tip will enter in the secured coop. The run is also entirely covered with wire to prevent larger predators and birds from entering. Still rats may get in and enter though the hen door in the day time and hide out in the litter. I free range my bachelor flocks of young roosters usually, and some feed the wildlife. I watch them carefully and have nearby dogs to sound an alarm. Still some feed the determined foxes or occasionally a large hawk. We all eat chicken around here. I try to grow enough in the garden and in my coops(chickens) to feed me and the wildlife a bit. I usually, do not kill any predator animals except rats. I keep my livestock safe by providing them a safe environment and accepting some predation on the free ranging flock that may be attacked by a determined animal, despite my attention. IF you try to kill or destroy all possible predators for a few free ranging chickens, you should not keep chickens, just my opinion. BTW, the Campines are beautiful birds, as well as the Polish, to look at and enjoy as pets. I encourage you to try many varieties of chickens over the coming years! I did that and enjoyed so much and learned a lot about many varieties. Most had something that I really liked about them. I now raise chickens for eggs to swap or sale mostly, but still keep some just for looks or "fun". Currently keeping Pearl White leghorns, Welsummers, Whiting True Blues, Black Minorca, Buff Orpingtons and a couple Partridge Cochins. I have enjoyed dozens of varieties over the last seventy years. Blame my Mom! She started it with getting me a pet rooster and a duck for Easter in 1954.

PS. I still remember that first pet roosters name! Henry! I could tell you a good story about him that is one of a kind, but a long tale.

That’s my goal, to collect as many chicken breeds as I can! Too bad we are only allowed a certain amount of hens. I won’t say how many in case there are chicken police on here, lol. I’ve had chickens since I was a child but didn’t get into their breeds until about 25 years ago. I’ve always lived in places with chicken ordinances so mostly lived vicariously through BYC pictures. Although it might seem cruel or sad any chicken I get my husband makes me keep (unless it is a rooster or a hen that would be rehomed with a rooster) so I don’t get sad like I used to when they die. So if I want to ever get more breeds of hens would have to wait until they die of old age and in your case 16 years- wow. I won’t feed them straight to predators ofcourse but I understand everything needs to eat. If a hen is sick I still try my best to save her. On Sept 16 our oldest cochin was wheezing. I gave her ventolin and vetrx but she only slightly improved before dying at the age of 5. Most chickens only live about that long, especially if they are closely inbred like my hen was. She was a show quality hen. But we appreciated having her around and now she is in chicken heaven. I wasn’t getting any buff breeds as she was already buff so next year I’m getting a buff laced polish. No blue birds- I already have a blue serama hen. No gold laced either- got a gold polish. I have a brown red serama and want a dark brown egg layer. Why do the darkest brown egg layers have to be black copper marans, which are brown red. I’ll probably get a cuckoo marans or welsummer instead which lay lighter eggs but it’ll depend on what will be available when I order this winter for June. I thought about getting a gold pencilled Hamburg but campines are gold pencilled. They seem to have a different pencilling though so I might still get one.

I have loved the Welsummers! Some variation in the darkness of the brown egg color from bird to bird, but some are very dark rivaling the Marans. I also love the medium to somewhat, dark brown eggs with dark speckles most other hens often make. A few lay about the same lighter brown eggs as is more common with other brown egg layers. They are consistently large eggs, with occasional jumbos. I select only the darkest eggs or best speckled for hatching. You might find you like the variations possible with the Whiting True Blue breed. I have bought a couple dozen now , and find them a delightful mix of about every possible color and patterns of color. Some may or may not have beards and muffs and often look like other breeds in their feathering. They breed true to laying blue eggs but everything else is totally random it seems. Some are very similar easter eggers or ameracaunas but others may not look like them . BTW, Most of my chickens over the years have ,in general, not lived much beyond about 5 or 6 years. The White Crested Black Polish are my record holders for longevity. Keep on enjoying the wide range of experiences that variety can provide. I also confess, that many of my birds live out a retirement life past their usefulness and soak up food and space that a serious farmer could not afford to put up with. That is why I had to build another coop to augment my other two this year. A lot of old hens I can't bring myself to kill or eat. I am best to eat any birds young and usually just the cockerels before I get attached to them. Eating old "Fluffy", I have found, is usually lesser quality and even if it wasn't, I just can't enjoy it. I have made a large batch of dog food for the freezer from old hens but they are more likely to die of old age around here.