Emyers, I second Nelda's vote, start off with day-old chicks. I ordered from McMurray hatchery my first time and all the chicks showed up alive and healthy so in that respect they're pretty good. As far as the quality of the breed I'd rather go with Ideal Hatchery. My RIRs from McMurray are consistent layers but they lay small to medium eggs and RIR are suppose to lay large. Also the Americuana roo from them doesn't have the earmuffs they're suppose to have. My Americaunas from Ideal are beautiful and are breed standard. So for quality of breed I'd go for Ideal hatchery. Plus they allow smaller orders. As for raising chicks, they definitely don't need a chicken to raise them. In fact if you stick a bunch of chicks in with a chicken that is not it's mom chances are she'll kill them. Here's how I raise my day old chicks... First of all you need a brooder box. Chicks need to be kept very warm at first, 95 degrees the first week and then decreasing 5 degrees for every week after that until they are feathered out. I usually get my chicks in the summer because it makes it much easier to keep them warm. I built my brooder box myself and I designed it with a removable bottom so I could let the chicks be on the grass and eat bugs during the day. (you shouldn't let them free range until the are almost full grown or they will get picked off by hawks. It's basically a 3'x4'x3' two by four frame with hardware cloth sides, a hinged plywood top, a bottom that connects with 4 latches, and my nephews training wheels attached to two corners of the bottom so I can move it around easily. At night I cover the whole thing with a old comforter. I pull back one part of the comforter and I put one of those radiant dish heaters up against the hardware cloth to keep them warm. I always keep chick starter food in the brooder box and plenty of clean water. If the chicks are crowded or bored they can peck each other bloody. Putting them on grass during the day alleviates that and to help at night I throw a bunch of grass clippings on the bottom. If you do this, it'll probably keep them from starting to peck which is good because once they start they are really hard to break of the habit. When they are a couple weeks old I add some roosts to the brooder box so the get used to roosting. If you don't do this when they are young they may not roost at all. This kind of brooder box also helps when introducing new chicks to an older flock. I did that this summer and it worked great. The big chickens would come everyday to check out the chicks through the sides of the brooder box so they really got used to them early on. I've heard some horror stories about big chickens killing chicks when people tried to put them in together. They say to wait until the chicks are grown before trying to blend the two flocks or there will be trouble. But because my chicks and chickens got to visit with each other everyday I was able to combine the chicks with the chickens at 6 weeks. I watched them closely when I combined them and gave them a lot of supervision for the first week or so but they did really well. The chicks were definitely bottom of the totem pole but beyond the occasional "watch it youngun'" peck from a chicken everyone got along well. Another bit of advice, when you build nesting boxes build them with the tops at 45 degree angles so chickens can't decide to sleep up there. I think 18 inches wide is a good width for the nesting boxes. My coop came with our house and the nesting boxes were built with flat tops and half of them are only 12 inches wide. The chickens like to walk around on top of the boxes before they go in to lay which means chicken poop to clean up. Also they all fight over the bigger boxes, sometimes they're be two or three hens smooshed into one of them. My nesting boxes also came with nailed on fronts that go about a quarter of the way up. This keeps the hay in the nesting boxes well but makes it a hassle to clean out. I plan on rebuilding them when I get the time and when I do, they'll all be 18 inches wide with slanted tops and hinged fronts for easy cleaning. Okay and for the end of this book of a post. Chicken poop doesn't really have a strong odor if it gets mixed with litter. It's only when a bunch of it is on it's own that it gets stinky. (which is why I'm always cleaning off the top of the stupid nesting boxes!) My hen house is in a stall of my barn which is about 300 feet from the house and I have never gotten the slightest whiff of the chickens at the house. Actually though, I usually don't smell anything until I'm in the barn. If there's a strong smell in the barn then I know I really need to clean out the coop. To sum everything up most of my work goes into setup to make my life easier. The training wheels on the brooder box keep me from killing my back. The detachable bottom means I can hose down the bottom instead of scraping it out. The grass clippings greatly reduce the amount of stuck on poop. The hardware cloth sides mean I can combine the flocks sooner which means half the work. The new design on the nesting boxes means easier clean-up. You get the idea Jenica

I would never feed a plant that is not showing signs of active growth and am careful not to encourage too much fall growth. I do not amend planting holes, either. But I do feed- I do throw Holly Tone around every spring as well as some 10-10-10. While my soil tests show that nitrogen is needed the truth is that I do it for me- so that I feel like I am doing the best possible for the plants in my care. It's pathological- I am a feeder. I would list my job description (I'm a stay at home housewife) as "I Feed Things." I feed my husband, my dogs and cats and fish, and my plants. And I make sure that all of them get the very best possible- I have a refrigerator full of live worms for my aquatic friends, a freezer full of raw bones for my raw fed dogs and cats, and a grocery bill full of organic foods and fresh produce for the humans. Why should fertilizer be any different? :) My gardening experience is rooted on 30 years in the tropics where the "soil" held no nutrients whatsoever and my plants relied on my weekly feedings. I have scaled back tremendously since moving to a temperate climate, but yes- the urge to feed still exists. I want them to be happy. I know I'm ridiculous- don't need Ken pointing it out, LOL.

Dot, the question is moderation. There is a concept called sheet composting, which means one sort of layers organic materials and allows the organic matter to compost in place. If one piles grass clippings deep they will go into a very hot heat and change the soil temp near the surface and leach a tea that is probably problematic but if they are placed on the soil in thin layers they are wonderful. The same would be true if you put a small amount of rabbit poo on the soil would be good while a layer deep enough would be a problem. Someone may be able to say how deep per input such as grass or manure, etc but using some caution almost all organic matter on the surface of the soil is good. I always look at the natural situation and try to do what seems to be how it might work naturally. I've talked about fairly thick mulch, bark or wood or even leaves. Bark and wood are usually coarse with a lot of air and they compost slowly, leaves are naturally composted fast so they are more of a problem thick but not so much because they are called a brown in compost terms. All this is to say let prudence guide what you do and it ainÂt hard or dangerous. Yes, I know I just built a watch when all you wanted was the time.

Ken knows so much so I am going to take his advice. ==>> ken also says to throw them on the driveway.. or hoik them around the yard while dividing ..... you going to follow that also??? crikey.. you have me talking in the third person ... steve does it to perfection.. dont ignore him.. i try to break it down to fundamentals ... and everyone else is in between .... but start easy .... and complicate your life later.. when you get some experience under your belt .... so i say.. in any decent soil.. including my sand.. just plant them.. and let them settle in.. and then in july.. do a LITTLE fert .. IF YOU WANT ... and think about steves system next year ... trust me.. i used to kill a lot of stuff.. treating them like babies.. thinking they NEEDED to be fed... BTW.. schmid can barely grow them in GA ... by what i recall as his own admission.. i wouldn't rely on him for cultural info .... but lordy .. you want science .. he's your man .... your humble servant ... ken