My first chicks! Mixed breeds with weekly pic updates!!

[scratch'n'peck]

Oh boy, they are growing fast!. I especially like the pic of the chick sicking the beak right in the camera.

 

[Canadianislupus]

Oh boy, they are growing fast!. I especially like the pic of the chick sicking the beak right in the camera.

Thanks

That one is one of my favorites too. I even made it my laptop background and my facebook picture too haha.

 

[Canadianislupus]

Oh man, yesterday was crazy. It was nice and warm and would have been perfect for letting the chicks out to play in their outside run. but alas there where pears to be picked and floors to be cleaned

So instead I decided to leave them unsupervised in their indoor run while my SO and I where out picking. Needless to say I came back to find poop all over the floor and, of course, all over the bed

. Stupid mistake haha there will be no more unsupervised playtime in the house. Otherwise these little guys are doing great and getting pretty feisty. lots of fighting. No sign of blood yet but at the first sign the aggressor(s) will be separated permanently until processing time. More chick pics coming soon! Also going to start a new thread in a little bit to introduce my adult chickens and talk about my flock/chicken adventures. I will move updates about these guys over there when they are finally integrated.

 

[Canadianislupus]

Today was rainy, hailing, and cold so I decided to bring some outdoors in for the babies. They got dandelion, clover, burdock, catnip, dill tops, and babies breath that has gone to seed

.

 

[Canadianislupus]

So I was talking to the chicks today and suddenly realized how sexist I was being haha I was telling the little cockerels that they will have to fight hard to win my love because few if any of them will be staying. Whereas the little pullets I was telling how I was working hard to make friends with them and win their love

 

[scratch'n'peck]

So I was talking to the chicks today and suddenly realized how sexist I was being haha I was telling the little cockerels that they will have to fight hard to win my love because few if any of them will be staying. Whereas the little pullets I was telling how I was working hard to make friends with them and win their love

I suppose you are just being a realist when it comes to the little cockerels. Or you could be like me, and build a bachelor coop for them, LOL. The chicks that I raised from hatch, turned out to be 5 males and 7 females and the cockerels got along okay, but they were a little much for the pullets once they started to mature. Two Orpingtons and two Cochins went into the the bachelor coop. and never fought, although they are relatively mellow breeds.

Your feather legged, Brahma mixes might turn out to be mellow and accept the dominance of your established roo, Chester, without problem. Since you have more hens in the coop they might do fine with more than one rooster, if you have enough room.

 

[Canadianislupus]

That's pretty much what I'm going to do. Although I cannot build another coop/run until I get off my ***** and get a job to finance it myself. The BF has been kind enough to finance what he already has. I got stuck in the college trap of not knowing what I wanted to do yet feeling pressured to go, so now I have more than enough credits for a degree but they are all mostly 1st year courses

So essentially useless haha Now I've been a lazy bum for the last half a year, not totally unemployed but odd jobs and cherry sorting don't bring much income. I've finally decided on a short practical course that should result in what I hope to be the perfect career for me. One that allows me to stay home with my animals and away from dealing with too many people. So the clock is ticking! I've been eying up the huge old boat shed and daydreaming about the many ways I can convert it into my dream coop haha. So my plan for now is to integrate as soon as possible. Zeno will be gone before then as I know he would take advantage of the smaller and less dominant chicks. If and when any of them cause problems in the flock such as fighting with Chester or each other, or bullying/harming the ladies, they will be separated into a sectioned off (or bachelor pad lol) part of the coop at night and will be confined to the chick run during the day until they are full sized and sent off to freezer camp. I really hope the Brahma mixes get along with Chester as they are my favorite breed , luckily i think 2-3 out of the 4 of them are pullets. I will be able to keep at least a few cockerels provided they get along with Chester and are people friendly. It kind of depends on how may turn out to be pullets as well. I've been afraid to take an official tally yet because I can see a lot of big red combs in there

. The current coop is quite large and with a few modifications could comfortably hold a significant amount of birds, but the run is not huge(not tiny either) and free ranging is out of the question due to the high concentrations of predators in the area and directly on the property. Its a natural habitat farm. The amount of bear poop around is a little irritating but I love it nonetheless and don't mind making the minor life adjustments necessary to live with them. Plus I get awesome bonuses like seeing many types of wild birds, and hearing awesome sounds like barn owls hunting or 30+ coyotes having a howling party across the road haha. Anyways back to the topic of chickens. For any cockerels I am unable to keep that pass the tests of impressing the hens and getting along with people, I will attempt to find them suitable homes. I think they deserve at least that small chance. I wish I could keep them all but I am constantly reminded that I have too many pets and the chickens are supposed to be productive, at least to the point of paying for their own food hah

 

[Canadianislupus]

Okay so I bit the bullet and tried to get pics of each chick individually, specifically clear shots of faces and combs. For the most part it worked but I somehow missed one and some chicks need better pics. Next time,maybe even tomorrow, I will systematically take a pic of each one as it is moved back into the brooder.
Here they all are, sorry some aren't very clear. I will say what gender I think each one is but I would love to hear other more experienced opinions!


1.Cockerel

2.Pullet

3.Cockerel

4.cockerel

5.cockerel

6.cockerel

7.pullet

8.pullet

9.pullet

10.cockerel

11.pullet

12.cockerel

13.pullet

14.pullet

15.cockerel

16.cockerel

17.cockerel

18.cockerel

19.cockerel

20.pullet

21.pullet

22.pullet

23.pullet...though the comb does look kinda pink, I reeeeeaaally want this one to be a pullet.
23.??

So that's 11 pullets 12 cockerels and 1 mystery by my count. I don't have any experience with sexing though so we'll have to see. actually the ratio is looking much better than I thought it would be if I'm near correct. So many pretty ones that are most likely cockerels though sigh

 

[Canadianislupus]

Here are some pics from yesterday. They are officially 5 weeks old now. I took a proper pic of each ones comb as I put them back....alternating colours this time so I can tell them apart when I'm sorting through them this time hah. I will post them in a bit after I sort through them.

 

[calikid]

Awesome thread!