fuzzi's Chicken Journal

[fuzzi]

Look at how big they are!

 

[fuzzi]

One more:

 

[1muttsfan]

Michigan has put commercial Poultry and Dairy farms on lockdown, with no exhibitions, due to HPAI, so no shipping eggs for a while I'm afraid

 

[fuzzi]

Michigan has put commercial Poultry and Dairy farms on lockdown, with no exhibitions, due to HPAI, so no shipping eggs for a while I'm afraid

Oh, that's a shame.

I checked the FB page for the local auction. They're still open for business twice a month. The boys will be rehomed once they start looking good or acting like jerky cockerels.

 

[fuzzi]

I put 6 eggs under Tamar tonight, woo!


When I went out to the coop to play Easter Bunny with Tamar I first looked inside the brooder area to check on LC...he wasn't there. I went over to where Martha was roosting to count chick heads...

...and saw LC below the roost.

I intervened, put him up on the roost with Momma...

...where she proceeded to tuck him under her wing!

 

[fuzzi]

Updates:

LC continues to roost below the main roost, and I place him up with the others every night.

Martha's looking a little harried.

But the Dominiques seem to be getting with the program.

Here Lydia is being adopted as a pseudo mom when Martha can't fit all the chicks under her anymore. Lydia was cool with it.

And as irritable and vocal a broody as Tamar has been, she's also been tolerant of Martha's chicks.

Who knows? The black chick might be her son.

My incubator is no longer doing auto-turning, have reset it and it still needs me to push the manual turn button.


CHICK UPDATE

Boy, boy

Boy?

Compare:

BOY!

LC

 

[MaryJanet]

Updates:

LC continues to roost below the main roost, and I place him up with the others every night.

Martha's looking a little harried.
View attachment 3824624
But the Dominiques seem to be getting with the program.
View attachment 3824626
Here Lydia is being adopted as a pseudo mom when Martha can't fit all the chicks under her anymore. Lydia was cool with it.

And as irritable and vocal a broody as Tamar has been, she's also been tolerant of Martha's chicks.
View attachment 3824631
Who knows? The black chick might be her son.

My incubator is no longer doing auto-turning, have reset it and it still needs me to push the manual turn button.


CHICK UPDATE
View attachment 3824638
Boy, boy

View attachment 3824641
View attachment 3824644
Boy?

Compare:
View attachment 3824656
View attachment 3824643
BOY!

View attachment 3824645
LC

What a pointless incubator.
After the hatch can you return it and get another?

 

[fuzzi]

What a pointless incubator.
After the hatch can you return it and get another?

It was a freebie, so I got my money's worth.

At least it's heating

 

[fuzzi]

Thoughts on Changes in the Flock Structure

1. Martha has chicks
2. Samuel is gone (no rooster)
3. Tamar is brooding

This evening I went out to check on the flock before bed as I usually do. LC was on the lower roost, and the three other Dominiques weren't on the main roost, either, but on the A-frame roost. Huh. I put the Doms on the main roost, then went around the coop and put LC on the main roost, next to the other chicks and Martha. Hannah, a Sussex, was roosting next to Martha and her chicks, and she started focusing on LC, then pecked him! LC jumped off the roost. I grabbed Hannah off the roost and put her down on the ground. I located LC, put him back up on the main roost but he kept trying to snuggle underneath his brother.

What is going on?

Then I realized that Rahab, boss hen, wasn't on the roost. I found her in one of the nesting boxes. Broody#3. Argh.

Hannah was always sweet on the roosters, first Joel, then Samuel. Rahab keeps Hannah in her place, so now that Samuel is gone and Rahab decided to go broody, there was a vacuum created in the flock, and Hannah, the low hen, is being mean.

In the future LC can roost wherever he wants to. Poor little guy, he's had it tough.

 

[fuzzi]

So, do I let Rahab have a chance to brood with the incubator eggs? That would be two hens with two sets of chicks, assuming they hatch...