Now I would rather, if I lived in a climate more temperate, that we order chicks when there was no cold weather, but in Maine, there are only a few months that it would be considered OK to order live chicks through the mail. Another issue is that the U.S. Postal Service is not exactly caring about the fate of day old chickens that happen upon their post offices. Here in Warren, you have to practically hound them hourly in order to find out when the chicks have arrived. We choose to pick them up at the PO since being stuck in someone's car while they deliver mail around town is more than I care to trust the average postal worker with. We just want our chicks, who we pay extra postage to get quickly, alive and well.
Some people are shocked that the USPS even ships live animals anymore. The business is HUGE money for the USPS and they know better than to mess to much with farmers. McMurray Hatchery alone(one of more than 20 hatcheries in the US) ships over 100,000 chicks a week from their Iowa hatchery, year round in all temperatures. Most times the chicks that get where they are going in 2 days or less are completely fine unless someone is careless and leaves them by a drafty door or out on a loading dock.
I don't mean to complain, so I need to get to the point of the post. We chose to go with Ideal Hatchery out of Texas this time, as we have a few times before. Ideal has good layer breeds and a good reputation for quick shipping. I don't know how, but we always get our birds quicker from Texas than from Iowa, which I would suppose would be because of the way packages are shipped nowadays. I am always amazed how quickly they can get these little peepers most of the way across the country in just a few days. I am also amazed how much it costs to do so. It usually is about 50% or more of the cost of the chicks themselves.
What we decided on, after much thought (and some hints from the kids) was to get another 15 layers and let the kids have some birds for pets. We got a variety of egg layers, which starts off with the most productive white and brown egg layers you can find. Ideal's "236" is a white layer that is a leghorn variety known for producing more than 300 eggs a year. The Production Reds are a brown egg layer and average over 275 eggs a year. The Americaunas (spelling??) lay green and/or blue eggs and are a beautiful bird. I am going to attach pictures of these birds soon, maybe at the end of the post, so you can see what we are getting.
We decided the kids would get 5 birds each for their own, so Virginia picked a Silver Laced Wyandotte Bantam, and Nathaniel got some Mille Fluer Dutch Bantams. Both are beautiful plumage birds that are cold hardy and will live in their own pen apart from the larger, egg layers. Virginia will be responsible for the bantams, and Nathaniel will continue to take care of the layers and broilers(seasonally).
This batch was decided more on the basis of production, cold hardiness, and broodiness in the bantams. We would like to let the bantams hatch some of their eggs and felt it would be a great way to get started hatching our own eggs.
Mark
OK, I did the pics, and they are from top to bottom, Ameracaunas(pullet on right), 236 (pullet in front), Production Reds(pullet in front) and then the bantams will be mixed, with the larger ones being male, smaller being female.
