Hi Liz. most hatcheries suspend shipping during the hot months and don't start again until early spring. Baby chicks are very tender. A good resource for information is hatchery web sites. Here's a couple:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
The best bet in the fall is local aggy fairs or Poultry shows. 4H or FFA youngsters frequently sell off their poultry projects before returning to school. These are usually very good chickens and beyond the critical chick stage. Be very careful when buying adult chickens. Some chicken merchants are less than honest.
I have used Kite string strung across the top of a run to keep competing birds on their own side of the fence, so to speak. Most young chickens can fly well enough to clear a 7 foot fence. This ability is diminished as the chickens grow heavier. Clipping wing feathers is a safe and humane way of keeping them on the ground.
A good book will help. 'Storeys Guide to RAISING CHICKENS' or 'Raising chickens for Dummies' are both good and in rural communities can be found in the local library and farm stores, usually. Amazon caries both.
Ol' George
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "Liz" <lizsimmons@...> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone. I've been reading this list for a few weeks, since my husband and I have decided to prepare this summer for keeping chickens. I am trying to learn more about this all and have made a list of the breed(s) I am interested in getting, primarily average to above-average layers with good temperament. This brings me to my first question; I'm sure there are cautionary measures to take when purchasing chicks or young chickens and I've seen that some people actually will ship them - perhaps this is the eggs being shipped and not the chicks. I guess I'm wondering how most of you acquired your chicks? And would late summer be a poor or impossible time in NY to acquire baby or young chicks? Another question I have is about the run. We will begin to build the coop and run soon, and the main concern of course is protecting them from predators. We are considering covering the top of their daytime run to protect them from hawks as we have had a pair of red-tailed hawks frequent our backyard in the past. Do you think this is necessary, and if so, will it make the chickens unhappy - I've read that some breeds can be "fliers." Thanks everyone in advance; I'm so glad to have found a forum full of experts on chickens!
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment