skittish wee ones.

Bought 5 one day old speckled sussex strait run chicks (now 5 days old) . I lost two due to the trip home. Very displeasing but Its nature at its finest I suppose. My three that are left are amazingly healthy it seems curious always pecking at the brooder real loud like its very cute. They are pretty skittish and since the move beat them senseless I didn't want to handle them too much due to fear of Making them more sick. But they are fine now. Is there any thing I can do to get them to warm up to me? Lol they seem very freakin independent haha should give them plain yogurt by hand or something? Take them outside on a Nice day under watchful eye of course and not for too long. Oh and when can I expect to see hen and roo traits I hope their not all roos :/ anyways i love speckled Sussex and can't wait till full grown.

I have ten SS straight run also. I left mine alone for a few days as well and now I'm going to start get them accustomed to seeing me and hopefully they'll warm up to me.

From what I've read thus far, just letting them know you're there so they get used to seeing you and hearing your voice. If you have the time sit with them for some time when you can until they start to acknowledge you and come up to you. I always talk to mine and they are starting to become curious about me.

I'm going to try and give them some yogurt and some egg and see if that won't help us along lol. Best way to a chicks heart is through the belly they say, or is that just about men? lol

Also I have read a few different methods of sexing them early but none seem to be in cement, it seems that they are most easily sexed at 4-5 weeks. Though I did read someone who looked for pointed feathers versus round feathers when they were small and that person claimed it worked for them all but twice. Rounded = females pointed= males. I have not tried this so cannot say whether it works or not.

Good luck and post some pics of your little babes.

I notice my chicks seems pretty skittish their first few weeks in my brooder. But, after they get used to me popping in to feed, water and clean, they warm up. When I filled their feeder yesterday, they all decided they'd fly out of the brooder door onto my head and shoulders (almost all 20 of them). Then they all flew back in to get at their feed
When I had SS, the cockerels combs grew and reddened up pretty quickly. And, if I'm remembering correctly, something about the amount of white they get when they feather in can be used to predict gender, I think it was that the boys had more white. Good luck

howfunkyisurchicken said:

I notice my chicks seems pretty skittish their first few weeks in my brooder. But, after they get used to me popping in to feed, water and clean, they warm up. When I filled their feeder yesterday, they all decided they'd fly out of the brooder door onto my head and shoulders (almost all 20 of them). Then they all flew back in to get at their feed
When I had SS, the cockerels combs grew and reddened up pretty quickly. And, if I'm remembering correctly, something about the amount of white they get when they feather in can be used to predict gender, I think it was that the boys had more white. Good luck

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Oh that's wonderful to hear! And too funny! Thank you for sharing that, makes me feel better too!

Oh that's a good trick I will be watching out for that! And I think I read the cockerels have more white on their chest than the pullets do.
Even though I didn't post this thread this is still very useful! Thanks again!

Thank you very much! Their just freaking adorable. One is smaller and has more elongated feathers on its wings with two rows of pretty white dots on them. The other two are more big and barley have white on them if at all atm. And yes I will get picks up. I do hope I at least have one roo cause I want momma hen to raise some babes eventually i would love to cross a barnevelder and a speckled Sussex! And as far as I know the belly is always a good first place to start with the bonding lol will load the pics as soon as I retrieve some more service on my phone lol may I see some pics of yours!?

Notice the two lines of dots it is the smallest. Then I just recognized this but one of the bigger ones has a big ol white feather in its wings! They are only 5 days old!