Just Clucking Around

[apgreen79]

OK Finally got the Pictures loaded...
Just for effect I'm going to post each breeds journey up till now. The chicks are now 16 days old and I swear they're doubling in size every day or so.
On with the show though. I've promised pictures for way too long so here they are.

Starting with our lovely Anconas
Day 4 Arrival Day



Day 5


Day 6


Day 8


Day 9

Day 9 One with the runt and a normal size chick.


Day 11


Day 11 Wing Feathers


Day 14


Day 14 Wing Feathers


Day 14 Tail Feathers


Day 16


Days 16 With the runt


Everyone seem to be growing well. But they still do not like picture day.

 

[apgreen79]

And Now The Buff Orpingtons


4 Days

5 Days

6 Days


9 Days


10 Days Wing Feathers


10 Days Tail Feathers


10 Days


12 Days


12 Days Wing Feathers


14 Days


14 Days Wing Feathers


14 Day Tail Feathers


16 Days

 

[apgreen79]

Last but definately not least my free rare chick.
Not sure of the breed but we suspect it's a Barred Rock.

4 Days


5 Days


6 Days


9 Days


10 days


12 Days


16 Days

 

[pogmobum]

Following, great story!

 

[aart]

Great progress pics, thanks for posting!

I am trying to take progress pics of mine each week....wondering why I see lots of chicks and adult pics but few in between....well at 2-3-4 weeks they get much less cooperative in 'posing'...lol

 

[rc4u]

try cut open burlap bags ..they work GREAT and so easy to take out shake off and sweep and there cleaned and put em back in jeff

 

[apgreen79]

Okay somewhere during the last few weeks I'v done two things:
A) I lost a day my chicks are actually 18 days old today. Not sure how that happened but it seems like I lose days a lot.
B) I think I figured out how to tell the cockrels from the pullets.

Most of the stuff I've found online for sexy chicks is for day old chicks. The day my babies arrived before I dipped their beaks in the water I did a quick sex check. However, I used not one but two methods.
Method 1
Be aware this is a Old Wives Tale not scientific:
I first held the chick by the scruff.
If the chick dangles it's feet then it's a pullet.
If the chick pulls it's feet up to it's body it's a cockerel.

After I performed method 1, I then would perform method 2 just to test method 1 to see how accurate it was.

Method 2
The Feather Method
Here I just spread out a wing
If it's solid fluff across then it's a male
If you see long and short feathering across then it's a female.

In my case everything matched up.
I was supposed to have
12 Pullet Buff Orpingtons
2 Cockerel Buff Orpingtons (1 was a free extra the hatchery threw in)
11 Pullet Anconas
1 Cockerel Ancona
1 Free Rare Chick
According to my Old Wives Tales theories I had exactly what I ordered. Woohoo!

Now over the last few weeks I have lost my cockerels. I had no way to visually see the difference.

As I was standing over my brooder today I stared in looking intently at all my chicks. And kept asking myself "what's different between the males and females?"
And then I saw two of my Buff Orpingtons standing next to each other, but one looked different. One had shorter wings than the other. So I started comparing all the chicks. That's when I noticed that only two of my 14 Buff Orpingtons had shorter wings than the other 12. Ding! Ding! Ding! I'm thinking that those two chicks with the short wings are my cockerels.
I then was wondering how to identify the cockerel in my Anconas. I have only been able to find one difference in the Anconas though. The runt..... so now I'm wondering if my runt could posibly be my Ancona cockerel.

Here is a picture of the Buff Orpingtons. Notice the difference in the wings..




I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to tag the chicks that I suspect are cockerels. Continue to monitor the differences and see if they actually turn out to be cockerels.
This should be very interesting.

Here are a few other photos of all the chicks in their brooder

Arrival Day

 

[pogmobum]

Wow if this works out it could be really usefull hope your right, lol im still laughing at the "sexy chick" typo at the beginning of your comment

 

[aart]

Okay somewhere during the last few weeks I'v done two things:
A) I lost a day my chicks are actually 18 days old today. Not sure how that happened but it seems like I lose days a lot.
B) I think I figured out how to tell the cockrels from the pullets.

Most of the stuff I've found online for sexy chicks is for day old chicks. The day my babies arrived before I dipped their beaks in the water I did a quick sex check. However, I used not one but two methods.
Method 1
Be aware this is a Old Wives Tale not scientific:
I first held the chick by the scruff.
If the chick dangles it's feet then it's a pullet.
If the chick pulls it's feet up to it's body it's a cockerel.

After I performed method 1, I then would perform method 2 just to test method 1 to see how accurate it was.

Method 2
The Feather Method
Here I just spread out a wing
If it's solid fluff across then it's a male
If you see long and short feathering across then it's a female.

In my case everything matched up.
I was supposed to have
12 Pullet Buff Orpingtons
2 Cockerel Buff Orpingtons (1 was a free extra the hatchery threw in)
11 Pullet Anconas
1 Cockerel Ancona
1 Free Rare Chick
According to my Old Wives Tales theories I had exactly what I ordered. Woohoo!

Now over the last few weeks I have lost my cockerels. I had no way to visually see the difference.

As I was standing over my brooder today I stared in looking intently at all my chicks. And kept asking myself "what's different between the males and females?"
And then I saw two of my Buff Orpingtons standing next to each other, but one looked different. One had shorter wings than the other. So I started comparing all the chicks. That's when I noticed that only two of my 14 Buff Orpingtons had shorter wings than the other 12. Ding! Ding! Ding! I'm thinking that those two chicks with the short wings are my cockerels.
I then was wondering how to identify the cockerel in my Anconas. I have only been able to find one difference in the Anconas though. The runt..... so now I'm wondering if my runt could posibly be my Ancona cockerel.

I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to tag the chicks that I suspect are cockerels. Continue to monitor the differences and see if they actually turn out to be cockerels.
This should be very interesting.

Methods 1 and 2 balderdash!

Your observations on a whole slew of same breed of chicks, that is plausible and good logic.

I used some real skinny zipties to mark a few chicks, works pretty good, but you have to change them out every week before they get too tight to cut off.
I use a very small set of wire cutters to trim and cut off the old ones....it's easier if you have someone to help hold the chicks while you swap out the ties.

 

[ceceuu]

Thank you for your posting, very fun to read and see the pictures. We just got our first chicks March 8. Got one Barred Rock and also a Cuckoo Maran. The Barred Rock has greenish tinted legs now, which she is supposed to have. I notice your baby still has pink legs. The Silver Cuckoo Maran and Barred Rock look similar as adults; the Maran has the pink skin though, I believe. It is so hard to tell what chickens are when they are babies! My other chicks are two Buff Orpingtons, one Light Brahma, one Easter Egger Americauna, one Gold Star, one Gold Laced Wyandotte. The Gold Star is the tamest and the most bold. She will climb up my arm and perch on my shoulder when I put my hand in the brooder.. The others will settle into my hand and take a little ride up, but never attempt to climb out of the brooder . The friendliest are the Brahma, Americauna, Orpingtons. The calmest is the Brahma. The most suspicious of me is the Barred Rock but she is coming around. She just seems to be really intelligent and wants to check things out before committing. I am enjoying all of them - it is interesting to see how unique each one of them is. Glad you are having fun too.