More Bantam Chicks for Penguin
After 6 weeks of hoping Penguin would stop sitting and brooding, I am giving in. She really is a good mama hen, so I don’t mind letting her raise chicks, but the timing isn’t the best of us. We just recently started remodeling our 1/2 bath into a full bath, so I am kind of busy. However, Penguin is starting to feel a little thin, despite making her get off her nest to eat and drink once a day. I don’t think it would be good to have her wait too much more and she doesn’t want to give up.
Maureen, at Ideal’s customer service, said they were out of enough chicks for me to fill the order with any specific breeds this afternoon (Cochins of course.) But I didn’t want to wait too much longer, just to get my favorites, so I ordered a bantam assortment instead. Getting Penguin exclusively Cochins isn’t that important. She won’t care what kind of chicks she has, as long as they are tiny, just a few days old, and fuzzy.
Update: I kept 6 of the chicks from the assortment and sold the other 20.
There were a lot of possibilities of what kind of chicks we might end up with from the bantam assortment. It was fun figuring out what they will grow up to be, at a just a few days old. Click here to download Ideal Poultry’s Retail Price List of Bantams for 2011. There you can see all the different varieties that might end up in an assortment.
7 thoughts on “More Bantam Chicks for Penguin”
Hi Leanne!
This is Sue who got three girls from you a few months ago. Everyone is doing great and all three are now laying. Man, I wish I had read this two weeks ago when the frizzle Dolly decided to go broody! I already broke her of it otherwise I would love to stick some chicks under her 🙁 Can’t wait to see what you get! I have room for a few more in the coop 😉
Hi Sue,
Is the black frizzle cute? My neighbor’s 2 buff frizzles turned out much cuter than I thought they would be. If I ever get another frizzle in an assortment, I think I might have to keep it. I’ll let you know when I am ready to sell more pullets or extra hens, if you want.
Lianne
She turned out to be a very striking bird after she got over that awkward phase. The red of her combs makes a great contrast against the black feathers. Everyone always wants to hold her first. She was also the first to start laying, a full month before the other two. The friendlier darker buff is named Lulu and she is still a lovebug who follows me around like a puppy begging for treats and she likes to comes inside the house before she puts herself to bed to say goodnight by squawking and then flying up to perch on my shoulder…..we joke that she has an identity crisis and thinks she is a parrot. The lighter buff is Spazz or Spazzala for the obvious reasons. Though she has calmed down quite a bit since starting to lay. My dog Eva is enamored with all of them, but likes to follow Lulu around the most. They have all been a dream come true. I looking forward to letting them try and hatch out some eggs if they want maybe next spring or over the winter if the mood strikes them. I really want that blue penciled chick and maybe a white chick as well that you got! If only I had someplace to put a brooder! I will send you some pictures of the girls!
Sue
Thanks for the email with the photos. Your rabbits are stunning!
I was outside on my cell phone when I ordered from Ideal Poultry. I think Prissy, my buff cochin, was listening in. The reason I say this is last night I went out to check on the hens, she was in a nest box, puffed up and screeching for me to leave her alone. I guess she is hoping to get a couple of the extras.
I love your beautiful photograph! I want to be there…reading a book, relaxing and talking to your girls. It looks so peaceful. Now that I have 3 girls of my own, we call them “girly girls.” I am curious about your nastursiums. My girls devoured mine in a flash! Here today…gone…gone…gone. Yours don’t eat them, obviously, they are amazing.
Oh, this group of hens does like to nibble my nastursiums, but there are enough of the plants, all over the yard, that they don’t make too much of a dent. Plus, with the cochins being petite, they do less damage to most of my plants. I have 4 different varieties of nastursiums that have cross pollinated. I intentionally spread the seeds around in bare patches. The nastursiums die back around here in the warm dry summer months. As soon as it cools down and the rains come, the seedlings start sprouting up everywhere.