Hello! and welcome to the OEGB thread.

[sodabottlebantams]

yea im curious as to see what the young ones that ive hatched off of them will turn out to be colored like. they are a few weeks old now.

 

[BantamBabesFarm]

My little OEGB chicks are eating like mad!!! O.O

They are only two weeks (give or take a day, I got them from the TSC)! Is this normal!? I give them a big bowl full of food and in a few hours its GONE!

 

[BantamBabesFarm]

Would anyone be willing to show or tell about their chicken areas? Runs and coops etc? How do you keep tiny birds? Ive heard of people keeping them off the ground in cages rather then on the ground. Is there any benifit to that?

 

[fowlsessed]

that's how I keep my two pairs (in cages up of the ground) the only advantages I know of is that it keeps them up out of the wet earth and away from potential diseases, because they are usually in a confined area so it just gets full of droppings and then the droppings get wet and then... it's just not healthy for them that way. one advantage though is that you don't need to use bedding as the droppings fall through the wire floor to the ground below so maintenance goes down that way, even though you usually have to clip their beaks and toe nails every once in a while.

 

[Cjarvis]

I use 6'x12ft A-frames, I'm sure there are Pics somewhere in this thread. They are directly on the ground. The pens are rotated in a clockwise direction once a week. This keeps them on clean fresh ground with access to grass and weeds. Easily maintained. I have found if kept in small pens off the ground the bodies are softer, and feather condition will suffer. For good show condiotion use a pen that is 3x2x 3 high with a roost pole at 2ft and limit visible access to neghboring pens. The birds will move between ground and roost more frequently to see thier neighbor. This tightens wing carriage and firms the body.

 

[BantamBabesFarm]

Hey all

It's week two for my little ones and they are looking great! I examined them all again like I do every week. Last week I noticed at their 1 week old mark that male chick #1, the biggest in the bunch had what looked like a crooked toe and was blackish in color. I assumed it was just something that he had since hatching and kept an eye on it. Its since taken off his toe nail compleatly and it looks normal now, a normal toe, straight and everything but no nail. Strange.

Also female #1 has a yellow / gold face mask where as everyone else has silvery/white color that blends into their body color... why is this?
Does this mean out of 6 chicks, she is going to be another color? Or she just has a golden face?

Here are the pics. #1 is the silvery blended in coloring like all the rest. #2 is the golden face. Its more noticeable in person... but I think you can see it here.

 

[Diamante]

My dad called me thinking he had rescued some serama and wanted me to check them out(my dad is not a chicken person lol just has layers and sees my bantams). So we went and I instantly thought 2 of the 3 chicks where OEGB. Im pretty sure one is a bb red and the other is possibly and silver duckwing. The third chick he had was a mille fleur d'uccle. I brought them home sunday and they are slowly getting used to being handled. The story was the owners before my dad had bought them as Easter chicks for there 2 and 3 yr old kids. I was told they had 5 when my dad and his wife heard about the chicks but 1 had been squeezed to death and im not sure about the other. My step mom also said they were only feeding them oats and no chicken feed at all. She said the poor things ate like crazy when they were fed chick starter.
I know the legs are a whitish color, im not sure what the leg color should be but is that correct? I was wanting more oegb since I lost my roo over winter. I liked the bb red color for a few years now and the duckwings are also very pretty. I also wanted more d'uccle so it worked out great for me, lol.
Opinions?
Lisa

 

[BantamBabesFarm]

Looks like 1 BBR (Black breasted red) 1 SDW (Silver Duckwing) and 1 MF D'uccle!

 

[somadlyinlove]

Not sure but the first could be a OEG crele pullet

 

[Ivywoods]

I use 6'x12ft A-frames, I'm sure there are Pics somewhere in this thread. They are directly on the ground. The pens are rotated in a clockwise direction once a week. This keeps them on clean fresh ground with access to grass and weeds. Easily maintained. I have found if kept in small pens off the ground the bodies are softer, and feather condition will suffer. For good show condiotion use a pen that is 3x2x 3 high with a roost pole at 2ft and limit visible access to neghboring pens. The birds will move between ground and roost more frequently to see thier neighbor. This tightens wing carriage and firms the body.

Keeping mine all on the ground isn't an option right now, but what you say here certainly makes sense. I am wondering what you think of this idea. I recently purchased some stacking cages for some of my birds. Each pen is 30" x 42" and 33" high. Since they are built from 1" welded wire, I was going to line each cage with some sort of smooth material to protect feathers from the wire. They have linoleum covered wood floors. If I used some sort of material that the birds couldn't see through, then put the roosts up at 2 feet as you suggest, and make the lining such that they could see their neighbors when they were up on the roost, do you think this would accomplish some of the conditioning you speak of?

I'm in the process of trying to figure out just how I want to set up each pen, so I appreciate your input. I have an auto water system I ordered from GQF that I am going to use. I recently installed this in some of my LF breeder pens and I love it. Still haven't figured out what I want to use for feeders. It drives me crazy when they waste food, and my SDOE's are the MESSIEST eaters! My BBReds have much better table manners.