17 baby chicks hatched on Christmas

[newwestchick]

I'm actually not sure!
I sold them both to a Neighbour who butchered them at home - I never asked and it's not likely he weighed them anyways.
One was rather large and the other small, I would say about 4-5 lbs for the larger and 3-4 lbs for the smaller one.

 

[Tatiana110]

Hey Tatiana!
Well, the boys went off to the processor at 16 week, MAN were they huge! The Sussex dressed out 5-5.5 lbs, and the Barred Rock at 4.5-5 lbs. They are delicious with gorgeous yellow marbled fat (sorry if you are not eating your cockerels, if you are I would be thrilled to hear how they fared!).
And, very exciting, the girls started laying last Saturday. Chicken Little (believe it or not, the Light Sussex that got almost pecked to death) is the rock star so far, an egg every 24-36 hours or so and two double yolkers. Her eggs have been all over 45g, with a 72g one yesterday! Also one of the Caramel Queens - Ginger - lays a nice small speckled brown egg every other day so far. She is not winning any awards for size but they are adorable. Tody, very thrilling, we had our first Ameraucana egg, I was not home but I suspect Cordon Bleu the lavender hen. She was making all kinds of crazy chook noises last night. It was big for a first egg, 50 grams.
I gave them some stinging nettle this morning and it has been our most productive day so far with 3 eggs all before midday. Herbs are in the nesting boxes and they seem to be dropping them in there for the most part.
I would love to know how yours are doing!!
Cheers
Vanessa

Hi Vanessa,

It is very interesting that one of our Light Sussex pullets also laid two very large eggs (70 and 72 g). Her first egg was 45 grams. Her other eggs are 58-62 grams so far, but seem to be getting bigger. She has been laying every day now, has not skipped a bit! Very impressive. Same as our largest Barred Rock pullet, Bella, who lays small eggs, but also every day. The other one lays every second day or so. Welsummers have not started to lay yet, but that's expected. We have 2 Barred Rocks who have not started laying yet, one is small pullet for a Barred Rock, but the other is large/normal size.

Our Cinnamon Queen lays small but very dark chocolate eggs with cinnamon sprinkles. Very beautiful.
(the large blue egg are from our 2 year old Ameraucana hen, and the extremely large greenish egg is from our 2 year old Ameraucana/Light Sussex cross)





Have yours all started to lay now?

Tatiana

 

[newwestchick]

Wow!!
I'm so happy to hear they are laying
Our caramel queen lays just solid brown eggs. Similar to a Rhode Island
That one is gorgeous and special!!

 

[Tatiana110]

Our Light Sussex pullet went broody and hatched chicks. The chicks are now 2 weeks old. The Mom is 7 months old. She is a great Mommy!

This is a picture of them the morning they hatched.



Now our Welsummer pullet is sitting on eggs, due to hatch next Tuesday. We were blessed with young broodies! LOL

newwestchick, how are your pullets doing? Any broodies yet?

 

[Tatiana110]

Our 7 month old rooster, Vaska. The father of the chicks. I can't believe how huge he got! Very nice boy, gentle and quiet and calm.

 

[newwestchick]

We did have a broody! One of the caramel queens. I put 6 light Sussex eggs under her (we don't have a rooster, I got them from True North) and she hatched out two chicks, both pullets. One got taken by a rat at one week old, the other made it through and is now almost as big as her mom! She should start laying by Christmas We named her Louisiana.

 

[Tatiana110]

We did have a broody! One of the caramel queens. I put 6 light Sussex eggs under her (we don't have a rooster, I got them from True North) and she hatched out two chicks, both pullets. One got taken by a rat at one week old, the other made it through and is now almost as big as her mom! She should start laying by Christmas

We named her Louisiana.

When did she hatch?

Our Light Sussex is still brooding. 9 weeks and counting. The babies are almost half of her size now! The picture is taken 2 weeks ago, after a hawk's attack. Momma did not lose any chicks (we had 4 attacks so far), she lost some feathers fighting. 13 babies.

 

[Tatiana110]

So far we lost 4 ducks to predators (2 to a bear, 1 to a bobcat, and 1 to a fox (yesterday). But we did not lose any chickens yet.
Had a mink in the brooding pen 2 weeks ago, Stan caught it with a milk crate. No chicks were lost. Fox came, but it opted to kill a duck instead.

 

[Tatiana110]

Vanessa, are any of your pullets molting right now? 3 out of 4 Barred Rocks are molting now, and not laying since they started to molt.

 

[newwestchick]

Nobody molting, all still laying and the broody Ginger has resumed laying too.

Ginger hatched Louisiana on July 10, she's been done with her for about two weeks now. She won't have anything to do with her baby anymore!