well we have now gone at got ourselves two bantam chickens, 7 weeks old.
It all happened by accident.
We found one a week last Monday in the garden and it was half dead.It must have been out all night.
After about 1/2 hour I got it feeding on some Robbies dog food of all things!! anyway its made a full recovery and after a couple of days I decided I couldn't give it back. It belonged to people at the rear of our garden who have loads of chickens, ducks and guinea Pigs all in a tiny back garden. Anyway I went round last Friday teatime thinking I'd have to give it back and they said I could have it it and after asking if they had another about the same age that I could buy, they let me have its sister ( hope its a female anyway!). I offered to buy them both but they said I could have them:o) They incubated them theirselves and have the mum & dad which I saw.
I've offered to give their young blue roan Cocker a make over in the salon if they would like, in payment for them both.
So we now have two young Pekin bantam chicks.
We've had to learn very quickly about keeping poultry and sort out a coop for them for when they get older. they are too young to sleep out yet so are in a large dog crate (what would we do without these) in the garage with wood shavings and a box with shredded paper in to sleep in. We have rigged a pen up outside for when its sunny and they go out there, but only when we are in as I'd hate something to get at them. they are so cute especially when one finds something and the other just has to come and investigate it as well.
We've decided to call them Georgie & Maisie :o)
When we found Georgie my hubby started calling it (as we didn't know what sex it was) Chicken George from the 'Roots' series years ago. I decided to call the other one Maisie as I worked out the must have hatched in May and they are the colour of maize and the also will eat maize when they're older. Good eh??!!

If anyone else on here has Chicky Licks I'd appreciate any help/advice you can give me.
Anne

LMAO you SUCKER!!!!!!
Oh okay your like me!!!!!
Thats how I got chickens and ducks!!!!
Found a duckling walking round the school where I coach, and walked round for half an hour until dark (duckling a day old) trying to find sign of mum, nope. So I took the duckling home!!!!
Then decided sydney (f) would be lonely so got 2 POL chickens, then decided she needed ducks, so got 2 indian runners.
As it happens the indian runners are now seperated as they like feather plucking, but from that one duckiling I now have 3 ducks and 2 chickens!!!!
Built the house for £25 from left over stuff!!!!
And the eggs are FAR supirior from shop bought ones :) :)
Good luck with them :) :)
Mine are called Elmo Grover Sydney Charlie and Lola!!!
Lea :) :)

Oh I also buy layers meal, as it has everything needed foir them. And feed them everything out of the kitchen, and grass clippings as long as not been treated :) :) :)
And have mite powder to put in the house every time we clean them out :) :)

We used to keep chickens,ducks and geese - until a regular foxy visitor decimated our brood.(couldn't have them with the Eskimos or Mals anyway now).They had a huge fenced run and shed and kept us and family and friends in eggs for years.We feed them on layers pellets and corn -chicken crumb when they were little.Good luck :)

Thanks Lea and Cornishmal.
We have bought a coop off gumtree. Went to see it last Saturday after all the rain and it was dry inside so that proves it must be watertight. We go and pick it up in the morning, so tomorrow will be spent giving it a thorough cleaning out and steam clean. Sunday I'm off to Leeds ch show. wanted to go tomorrow really to see the Catalan sheepdogs but the chicks have now got priority!! Well for the moment ;O) I'll catch up with some TT folk on Sunday so alls not lost.
My TT's don't really know what to make of them.
Anndee

Well Lea, what can I say...you and Anndee are smarter than me because I paid for all my birds! Had to laugh at the names--we had three Elmos at one time because no one could tell them apart. U have a very sweet buyt shy Indian runner, keep meaning to get him a mate, especially since last year he decided that he wanted one of the vblack rosecombs :-O! After that he became known to all as Papa Lazaroo :)

Got our coop on Saturday and its really nice. spent the afternoon pressure washing it and disinfecting it. I'm sure it didn't need disinfecting but you can't be too careful. we are going to treat the wood with preservative. Ordered some today online so when it comes thats what we'll be doing.
Does anyone know anything about Silkies. I really quite fancy one of those and it should go with the Pekins as they're about the same size and both have feathery feet, so need the same sort of enviroment. Now where can I find one for free??? ;o)
Had a lovely day at Leeds Ch on Sunday. saw some of my TT friends and had a great time sat with friends at the Chinese Crested ring, a breed that non of know anything about but one of our friends had a friend in them who was showing. So we were chatting, relaxing and soaking up the sun on such a glorious day! Who needs to be showing at a ch show to have a great time ;o)
Anne

i have white silkies and they are very sweet, kindly birds. I have one surviving hen of a trio I bought 8 years ago and she stills lays the occasional egg and will boss around much larger hens--she's the queen now. Her mate just passed away at the weekend and he was the sweetest, most loving cockerel I have ever known. Little Roo used to sit with his hens the whole time they were on eggs and when their broods hatched he used to follow behind his chicks. He was very quiet and an absolute gentleman and I miss him so much.

They are reasonable layers and don't seem to have any health problems beyond the usual mites you'd treat any hen for.

I thoroughly recommend them, but be aware they can and do get insanely broody. I had to physically take mine off the nest to get them to eat and drink. I don't think they'd have starved to death, but they are such little birds under all that fluff I didn't want to leave them to their own devices.

I also recommend Welsummers and of course my dutch bantams, all very steady pretty girls although dutch bantam cockerels make a hell of a racket considering their size. Do give thought to keeping a cockerel with your silkies, they seem far happier that way :)

Hi Jay15
Sorry you lost your cockerel so recently. Such a shame.
thats an interesting point about them being so broody. I'll bear that in mind.
I don't really want to have a cockerel (although i may have two now, what do I know!!!) from a noise point.
You don't know how I can find out if anyone near York keeps/sells Silkies do you?
Anne.

Hi Anne, I bought mine from a breeder near Cowling at Keighley, but I also go to the poultry auctions at Clitheroe, they have a pure breed/rare breeds sale every two months and the next is 06/08/2011 (see http://www.auctionmart.co.uk/poultry_sales_auctions.php). It's a good place to meet breeders, see what's on offer and can be much cheaper than paying up to £60 for a trio.

Craven fur and feather sales at Skipton are a good bet too but not as frequent or large. Their next sale is 03/09/2011.

The other thing you could do is look out for the large agricultural fairs--all of the above give you more choice than going to a single breeder, especially if you are after more exotic colours. I'd have gone to the next Clitheroe sale to pick up some Welsummers but will be at Nat. Gundogs instead.

You could also try contacts from this website, but not sure how current it is: http://www.bestofbreeds.com/countrybreeds/poultry/poultry.htm#North Country

From a noise point of view, silkies don't seem to make much, but I guess it depends where you live and whether it's the kind of thing that can disturb your sleep :). Good luck whatever you decide!