Quote:
Originally Posted by
chicharomirinda 
Last night around 10pm I heard some cackling/egg song so I went out to check--twice-- just to see what was going on. Couldn't see anything wrong and then they were quiet. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a predator around or something. Of course, maybe they could sense a raccoon in the neighborhood or something. That's the first time they've ever made noise at night.
yesterday after work I had the first supervised mingling session between the big girls and the 9 week old chicks in the run. I opened the gate between the sections a small amount so the little ones could go out if they wanted to. It went fairly well. 3 cockerels were the first to venture out. the black/lav ameraucana acted like he owned the place. he went over and drank out of their waterer and even went up to a few hens and pecked at them. 2 wyandotte cockerels went exploring. they did get scared when confronted by the big ones. then a few girls went out for a bit. So it went well but they are not ready to be thrown all together yet. But I'll keep doing some supervised visits.
After the big girls put themselves to bed (they go to bed as soon as the sun goes down while the little ones stay up and party a bit ), i opened up the gate so the little ones could have the whole run. Some of them really liked that and went flying around.
No takers on my craigs list ads for the cockerels. Time to move into free rooster mode, I guess. I had 2 inquiries about the golden cuckoo marans but no takers. Since he's not crowing yet, I'll wait to put him up for free. One person wanted to see how colorful he will get. And the other wondered if I had hens left. Um, I think I would have put that in the ad if I had hens. Sure would be a lot easier to sell them....
The black/lav split is crowing every day so I really want him gone. It still sounds kind of like a crow or goose so it's not too bad yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SunnyDawn Oh no Missy!!! This is horrible!!! Have you got the needles and syringes you need to vaccinate the middle chicks? Oh man, now I wish we had vaccinated last weekend, though it doesn't sound like that would have helped anyway since it takes 2 doses 4 weeks apart to be complete. 
I haven't gotten them yet. Do I need to get a separate syringe for each dose? (13 chicks to dose in the first round.) And how big do the syringes need to be? I can probably hit Green's Feed tomorrow after Russ gets home. Does anyone know if the vets have a bulk deal on syringes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chicharomirinda Last night around 10pm I heard some cackling/egg song so I went out to check--twice-- just to see what was going on. Couldn't see anything wrong and then they were quiet. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a predator around or something. Of course, maybe they could sense a raccoon in the neighborhood or something. That's the first time they've ever made noise at night.
yesterday after work I had the first supervised mingling session between the big girls and the 9 week old chicks in the run. I opened the gate between the sections a small amount so the little ones could go out if they wanted to. It went fairly well. 3 cockerels were the first to venture out. the black/lav ameraucana acted like he owned the place. he went over and drank out of their waterer and even went up to a few hens and pecked at them. 2 wyandotte cockerels went exploring. they did get scared when confronted by the big ones. then a few girls went out for a bit. So it went well but they are not ready to be thrown all together yet. But I'll keep doing some supervised visits.
After the big girls put themselves to bed (they go to bed as soon as the sun goes down while the little ones stay up and party a bit ), i opened up the gate so the little ones could have the whole run. Some of them really liked that and went flying around.
No takers on my craigs list ads for the cockerels. Time to move into free rooster mode, I guess. I had 2 inquiries about the golden cuckoo marans but no takers. Since he's not crowing yet, I'll wait to put him up for free. One person wanted to see how colorful he will get. And the other wondered if I had hens left. Um, I think I would have put that in the ad if I had hens. Sure would be a lot easier to sell them.... The black/lav split is crowing every day so I really want him gone. It still sounds kind of like a crow or goose so it's not too bad yet.
I have found that the danger sound is much like the egg call, without the high BAWK. The only reason I can think of them making that sound after dark is if there was danger. Original uses that noise a lot... often right after the dogs have chased off a cat.
My black/lav split roo acts like that, too. Looks like I'll have to prepare to give these cockerels away. Or I could just butcher them and eat them young. Which is a shame for a designer ameraucana, but it would make sense for our sustainable hippie/redneck type family that we have going on here. I'd rather sell them for a few dollars, but if you're not getting takers, then I doubt I will, either.
Chick update...
Yesterday afternoon, Dijon (cream brabanter) looked miserable. The poor baby would try to take a few breaths, then gasp so deeply she almost fell over, then sneeze in an adorable but very disturbing way. I just couldn't cull her without someone to hug me after, and was worried about being a bad parent because of the emotional rollercoaster, so I waited for Russ to get home. He saw how attached I was to the little mohawk chick, so he said, "Let's give her antibiotics and wait the night out. If she's worse tomorrow or has a puffy face, we'll cull her." We dosed her, and 4 other chicks that were snotty and sneezing: Burger, my silver spangled hamburg, Korma the brahma, General Tso the cochin, and Fried Rice the speckled sussex. And then we prayed a bunch. (If you haven't guessed, we do that a lot.) This morning, Russ woke me up with, "Well, she's eating and drinking on her own." She's still gasping a bit, but she's more alert. When I refilled the food, she willingly joined the hustle for a spot at the feeder. The other 4 are sneezing, but are eating as well. We've decided that, if they get no puffy face, and they recover with the antibiotics, we'll just let them take that route. I'm so hesitant to cull these little babies for snotty sounds, even if some chicken owners might advise that. And honestly... if these chicks do have coryza after all the precautions we took, then the laying hens are exposed too. And if they don't come down with any problems, then they have a high enough resistance to prevail.
good luck! 
