What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[grracee]

My 3 x lav orp chicks are now 11 days old and i decided as the sun was shining nice this morning I would put them out in the run for a little bit and they loved it! My older hens were a little interested, mostly the buff orps!

Pretty certain they are 3 boys now though....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Madchook]

lovely pics again They haven't got much feathering for 11 days hey, I have no experience of orps, but my 2 and 3 day olds have nearly as much wing feather... dunno if that means anything though!

Are you going to try again?

[tom123]

Lovely! I think you're right about them being boys though. My girl orps have fully feathered wings by 2 weeks

[grracee]

I don't know whether that is anything to do with the breed? I havent hatched orps before but last time I hatched I had some light sussex x maran and they were all cockerals and they feathered up really quickly

I dont want the hatching to put me off doing it again but out of the last two (and only) hatches i've done i've had 7/7 boys altogether! Think if I did it again though i probably wouldnt have the eggs posted, I spent around £40 including postage on the last hatch

[tom123]

Every time I hatch I leg ring every chick that has a reasonable amount of wing feathers by day 7. 90% of the chicks I have ringed have turned out to be girls so I tend to rely on that but some are different, I had one chick which didn't have any feathers until 2 weeks and I thought it was a boy. It is now laying eggs

 

They are girls! Sorry to hear about your 7/7

[Griffin]

I dont want the hatching to put me off doing it again but out of the last two (and only) hatches i've done i've had 7/7 boys altogether! Think if I did it again though i probably wouldnt have the eggs posted, I spent around £40 including postage on the last hatch

 

I know how you feel, I've spent a fortune on eggs and I hatch mainly boys too

[Madchook]

But you see statistically, your next hatch should have a female sway