Advice on buying chicks

[Frizz]

Hi, I am new to the forum and live in France. We are thinking of buying some chickens, can anyone advise, I would like to get baby chicks, ones that dont grow to big. Any advice would be appreciated as I want to be fully advised and prepared before we add to our family.

[Nicos]

Hi there!!...and welcome to the Vine!

I have 10 bantams..mine are Cayennes given to me by another Grape here on the Vine.
They are small- but lay most days. The eggs are 35-45g ( medium eggs are approx 60g)...but they are very hardy. I suspect most bantams are survivors!! ( one of my gals attacked a peacock)

I'd suggest you look into local bantams to your area.

French poultry care tends to be very basic- so check for lice/ticks/worms etc etc when you buy them..then treat them anyway!

Our chooks have changed our lives....enjoy!!

[chris]

I visited various sites - such as poultry.allotment.org.uk, and downthelane.net, which have a wealth of information. Combined that with millions of questions posted by myself in this forum I built up the knowledge on how to basically care for them (they don't need that much looking after really - depending where they are/if they need treating as above).

My daily routine is (bearing in mind these are in my garden) go out to see them in the morning, collect eggs, and take out fresh water (bringing it in each night now as its freezing here), and food. Let them out.

I've only 3 birds, so they don't make too much mess, but I tend to collect the poo from under the perch and put in compost bin.

Once a week, I clean out (replace shavings in the bottom of the coop, and straw in the nestboxes (which aren't at all boxes - I basically created a 'T' section of wood to create two places that can hold straw, before then I used old inboxes (that you have on your desk in work- but I found they kicked them out of the way and laid on the floor anyway.)).

As mine are in a permenant run twice a week, but free range around the garden the rest of the time I plan to worm them quaterly, as advised by members here.

Bar that, they're pretty cool things to have around

I don't want to say it and prove Nicos right (as I think I bet £100 over the forums i'd not get anymore!!) but *if* we did ever get any more I'd probably get a couple bantams - as you say the small ones. I've recently read here that the yolk size is the same size as a 'normal' egg yolk size, but the whites in them are smaller.

I converted an old bike shed (really old and falling apart) into a coop - if you search threads created by me in this forum (rule the roost) then you'll find my story (or, saga hehe) of doing it. Good fun though!