The females are the orangey colored ones and the males are the black ones. Although I'm not sure which is which, the orange ones consist of 15 Gold Stars and 10 Production Reds. Gold Stars are one of my favorite kinds because they lay so well, they're reddish in color (I have a weakness for red or blue colored chickens for some reason...) and they are such a friendly easy-going bird. The Production Reds are also a great bird, slightly larger in size, lay relatively well too, and of course, are red. :-)
The black males are Black Australorps. I chose these because they are one of the larger breeds and hopefully I can get a lot of meat off of the 24 of them in about 4-5 months. They will be all black in color and have a large red comb and red waddles if left to grow to maximum size (I probably will butcher them before they get too big.) They're so cute now, it's hard to imagine them in the freezer in a few months, but such is life on the farm! Fresh chicken is oodles better than the store bought stuff!!
I had just refilled their food trays before I took the picture - can you tell? :-)
If raised in under a light (and following a mother hen around) these chicks will start out their lives with a tub temperature of about 90 degrees. Each of the following weeks, ideally the temperature is lowered 5 degrees. This is what all the "raising chickens" type books will say, however, as time progresses, the temp could probably be lowered. It depends on the temperature of the outside world and how many chicks are together and the type of tub they're in. I had some last year in early spring and they had a difficult time keeping warm in mid-April and these little guys started out with a heatlamp only on their first day (it was rainy and freezing cold here) and now they're under a 90 watt lightbulb and doing just fine. I just have to be a tending mother hen and adjust things so that they're comfortable. Usually a lot of loud peeping and having them all huddled under the light is a sure sign of being too cold. Quiet and spread out means they're feeling great.
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