Velvet, the cabinet was part of a double blessing. We have a small hobby farm and I swear I try to have one of every living creature on it, lol. For ages, I had wanted an emu and a friend called and said , contact this lady , you will get your emu.... so I did and what I got was the sweetest lady who was trying to home her late father's emus and wanted only a few dollars for the pair in order to compensate the neighbor who would have to give his time to assist us in catching and trailering them..... as we talked , I told her about all my chickens etc and she said, when you go to the barn there at dad's , look inside , there is one of those incubators and I do not know if it still works but you can have it' I know dad used it up until a couple years ago.....so I did ....got it home, kicked off some dust and she fired right up, works like a charm.....believe me, otherwise , I would still be using them good ole styrofoam baters, lol...... I count that day as one of my most blessed...... got my babies who I adore and a great bater to boot....

If you click on my 'My Page' link, there is tons of chicken info there that might help you, including on how to introduce new birds to an existing flock. I use a technique I call 'Meet & Greets' to get them used to each other in stages, which has worked great for me for many years. I turn my chicks out into the flock at the age of two months old when they are basically teenagers. Hens begin laying and roos crowing and mating at around 6 months old and so are considered adults then for all practical purposes. There is always going to be some squabbling and butt-kicking at first with new birds as the flock teaches them their place, and 99% of the time the newcomers will be at the bottom of the pecking order. It's up to YOU to be Head Roo (whether you are a man or women doesn't matter) and not to tolerate too much fighting. Remember that YOU are the head of the flock, no matter what. Good luck and congrats on the babies! :) Velvet ~:>

We have ordered two batches of chicks from McMurry and had no problems. But there are a few thing I would do differently. First I will never raise them in my basement again. We always order a delivery date of no earlier than May or June. The first Batch we ordered we started them out in a huge metal watering tank. We placed a peice of wire over top (they can and do fly up and out as they get their feathers in)We placed the brooder bulb in one of those automobile light fixtures that have a clamp on the bottom. We just clamped the bulb to the side of the metal tub and angled it down. I would recomend a red bulb so if they start picking at one and they draw blood it wont be so easily seen and there wont be a free for all gang fight on the injured chick. If that doesnt work a small dab of vicks vapor rub on the injured chick ensures that everyone will leave him alone. We found that as the chicks matured the smell was horrible. We got to the point that we were changing the bedding 3 times a day also as they get their feathers in they develope a "dust " that coats their feathers and this will coat everything in your basement and be a big ordeal to clean up. So we just choose not to go thru that again. So when we order and have a delivery date for may or june we only have to keep the chicks in the basement for maybe a week or less depending on the temp and out they go up to the chik proofed hen house. We have three different hen houses with coverd yards and we just rotate the hens thru. We like Rhode Island Red hens, they are very sweet and can be tamed easily. My 4 year old son carries them around all of the time. Now the RIR Roosters are an entirely different story. I hated the one we had he was the meanest rooster we have everhad and we finaly had to "dispose" Of him and he is now fertalizing the garden. This rooster would hide and wait to catch anyone unawares and then he would be on you, spurring the heck out of you. He has got me, my oldest son and even had my youngest on the ground pecking him on the head. He got my husband once to the point he had a puncture wound and was bleeding. It got to the point if that coop was out free rangeing or if I had to go into the coop to feed or clean water dishes I took a large stick and had to whack him to keep him off of me. Any way this is my 2 cents worth. Good luck on your chickens. The last time we ordered the Red Star/Rhode Island Red package, we ordered a run of hens only and lucked out that the free rare chick was the only rooster we got.......Josette

A couple of weeks ago, we bought 30 3-week old chicks - a mix of Aracauna, RIR, and Dominiques (although I believe they'll turn out to actually be Barred Rocks). Their new coop is part of what we were pouring cement for the other day. The old coop is down the hill at the old house and it was just a quick throw-together. We wanted something better for up here so gave the old coop up for a "new" shelter for the sheep. So, yeah, I'm with you on the new chick excitement! But I can't wait for the coop to be done so they can get out of my greenhouse. Diane