17 baby chicks hatched on Christmas

[Tatiana110]

I'll keep you posted! Since most of your Sussex appear to be Roos it might be a good fit for you

We have been calling her Chicken Little due to her "sky is falling" attitude

How is your Chicken Little doing? And the rest of the flock? Today was a lovely day outside, and I wish we were at home to bring the chicks to the greenhouse to forage a little bit... By the time we got home it was already getting dark. Hoping for another nice day sometime soon!

Our chicks are still doing well in the brooder, it seems there is enough space for them to play and scratch, so we

have no pecking/feather pulling happening.

We now feed our babies fermented grains 3 times a day + grated veggies once a day (and greens with every 2nd feed) + 1 feed of fodder (oats or barley). They were not sure about fodder at the beginning, but today they ripped it all apart and ate every single bit.

 

[newwestchick]

Chicken Little is back in with the flock! And is the only one with a name haha.

They are all treating her well, but she is just a naturally more timid pullet - which is likely why she got picked on in the first place. I don't think she has gotten up the courage to leave the coop yet, all the others go out as soon as it is light out and peck and scratch and practise flying. She still hangs under the lamp a bit more... Maybe her bum is cold haha. She may not ever get tail feathers!

Mine have been out for increasing periods each day, the first day was pretty crazy for me since I basically had to go out every hour or so and make sure no one was "lost" and unable to find their way back into the coop (where the heat lamp is). After two days they all got the hang of navigating the hatch... It's been much lower maintenance since then, and yesterday the coop was open from 6:00 AM until about 4:00 PM when they all put themselves to bed. They're pretty smart little guys!

I have one light sussex cockerel who is waaaaay behind on feathering. Most of the chicks are almost fully feathered but he is pretty naked... Just a few wing feathers and that's about it. Otherwise he is developing fine and likes to challenge everyone. He looks like a giant baby chick.

I am so happy it's been warm enough for them to be getting out! They sure do love it and they forage so well they aren't really eating too much of the pellets.

 

[Tatiana110]

The babies at 7 weeks - getting really big

All happy and healthy, busy pecking, scratching, and fertilizing our large greenhouse (8'x24') during the day.

Out of 5 Barred ROcks, we only got 1 rooster. We though we had 2 (because of slow feathering), but one slow appeared to be a pullet.
Out of 5 Light Sussex, we got 3 roos. Again, 1 hen was slow feathering, and 1 was fast feathering. All roos were slow.
3 Aumeraucanas - still hard to tell, except one who is a definite roo, and a beauty!
3 Welsummers - 2 hens and 1 roo, as we guessed originally, from day one.

The largest bird is the Barred Rock rooster, named Vas'ka, he was 920 grams yesterday. A smallest is still a bit over a pound.

 

[Tatiana110]

newwestchick, how are your chicks doing? I have been thinking about your chicks and your coop, and wondering how they fit in such small space....

Our 17 babies barely fit into our temporary coop, which measures 2.5' x 6' and 2-3' tall. The only good thing about our small coop is that is it so small for them, so they stay really warm at night. We turned off the heat lamp at 5.5 weeks.

They spend a day in a large greenhouse, pecking and scratching. They make a lovely cleaning crew in the garden, with a great bonus of pooping all over the garden beds. Nothing live survives their thorough search

Tatiana

 

[newwestchick]

Yours are looking great! Here's my set up and some recent pictures

The little coop door is open 24/7, and the fenced area is totally secured. They get access to the green lawn daily under supervision, but all 22 can actually still fit in the little house at night! Not for too much longer though I don't think. My aunt is taking 6, hopefully soon, and the roos will go to the freezer at the end of April. We plan to keep 9 pullets, but that might go down to 7. A neighbour is interested in purchasing any extra we have, and depending on production we might let two more go.

The little lavender is a pullet, of the six Ameraucana's only one cockerel, and he is very shy but gorgeous. Too bad we are unable to keep him. Our barred rock cockerels are the biggest too, although I don't have a scale so have no real idea of their weight.

 

[Tatiana110]

What a great setup! And the lavender pullet is absolutely gorgeous!

Glad to hear your chicks are doing so great.

What is the size of the mesh you have in the run area?

We have weasels here, and they can get through a really small hole. The neighbor said that a weasel got through 1" hole and killed all chicks in her coop. We are very worried. Too many predators here, in our area, from bobcats to hawks. I hope bears will not be too interested to get to the chickens through the electric fence...

 

[newwestchick]

Where are you? We have predators (coyotes, raccoons, roaming dogs, roaming cats) here but also lots of natural things for them to eat so they don't seem very interested in breaking into my (or my neighbours) coop. I'm most worried about aerial attacks as I am in the river delta and have loads of Eagles and Hawks.

The overall is 2" galvanized mesh, then the lowest 2' is overlayed with regular chicken wire. It's been effective keeping out the giant rats we have here so I would imagine it would keep out a weasel. They have tried tunnelling in at a few spots - but only to eat the feed. I think I'll employ my husband to make a treadle feeder for me haha. One of my neighbours told me she has rats living IN her coop :/ I hope to avoid that!

 

[Tatiana110]

We are in Anmore.

Bobcat took a duck from our neighbour recently when she let them out to their pond.

Yep, hawks pick up chickens, unfortunately.

I am not worried about rats (we have quite a lot here). But worried about weasels, bobcats, hawks - these are real treats.

We also have raccoons finding ways into the garden whenever they want to, despite the electric fence, so we need to tighten the fence security around the perimeter of the property.

 

[newwestchick]

Oh you're just about 15 Km from me. Near port moody right? All that back country behind you would bring a lot lore predators than I have!

 

[ladyearth]

Tatina110
what type of millet goes in your homemade chick feed ? is it hulled type??? thank you