November 2016 Hatch-a-long!!

[Faraday40]

I noticed today that from the twelve 3 week old chicks, the six being raised inside are a good 2x larger than their six hatch mates being raised by their momma, and have 3x the feathers. Does anyone know why that might be? I have a chick feeder of chick starter outside for all the chicks, which they do eat, and they also eat the flock feed that their momma breaks up for them, and whatever else. The inside chicks only get the chick starter.





Only 5 are in the picture, but they are all the same size.

Interesting! I noticed in the summer (when I had broodies) that their chicks seemed to eat less. The broody chicks were being taught how to run, scratch, roost, avoid mean hens, & obey mama, while the human raised chicks only learned how to eat & drink. Definitely in the 1st week, the human raised chicks looked bigger & stronger. Yet the broody raised chicks seemed to mature faster in "chicken knowledge." We sold those particular human raised chicks, but I know what you mean.

I kept a couple pullets from March (human raised) & 2 from July (broody raised). The human-raised pullets are still lower in pecking order (even though they're older) than the 2 broody-raised pullets. The broody happened to be at the top of the pecking order, so her chicks were given a lot of prestige. At 8 weeks, they still slept on the top roost right next to mama & the roo. (We call them our millennials because they never moved out) Now they sleep on the 1st or 2nd roost, but the March pullets sleep on the 3rd roost or the other set of roosts which doesn't have a window. ( where the "losers" must sleep ).

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Yes the silkie egg

Unfortunately It was not fertile but she did lay the two days after I set that one so I added in the other two. One of those other two are developing. I'm going to save her eggs the rest of this week, whatever she happens to lay and set them for the new years hatch a long. Hopefully a couple hatch.

 

[NysiaAnera]

Interesting!  I noticed in the summer (when I had broodies) that their chicks seemed to eat less.  The broody chicks were being taught how to run, scratch, roost, avoid mean hens, & obey mama, while the human raised chicks only learned how to eat & drink.  Definitely in the 1st week, the human raised chicks looked bigger & stronger.  Yet the broody raised chicks seemed to mature faster in "chicken knowledge."  We sold those particular human raised chicks, but I know what you mean.

I kept a couple pullets from March (human raised) & 2 from July (broody raised).  The human-raised pullets are still lower in pecking order (even though they're older) than the 2 broody-raised pullets.  The broody happened to be at the top of the pecking order, so her chicks were given a lot of prestige.  At 8 weeks, they still slept on the top roost right next to mama & the roo. (We call them our [COLOR=696969]millennials[/COLOR] because they never moved out) Now they sleep on the 1st or 2nd roost, but the March pullets sleep on the 3rd roost or the other set of roosts which doesn't have a window. ( where the "losers" must sleep ).  

Millennials... I about died laughing!! We have some of those as well, their momma (a Buff Orpington, and our top hen) took care of them for 3.5 months! However, when she left them, they got a hard dose of reality, and got knocked down clear off the roosts. We would have to go out every night and chase them from the nest boxes. We ended up culling the 2 cockerels yesterday, because there was just too much contention and too much hassle every night. Anyway, they were raised outside in our garden after they hatched, and after a few weeks, momma would take them far all over the property, clear across the field to forage. She did a good job teaching them.

The rest have all been hatched in the past couple months by broody mommas. Since they were all raised outside, and 1-5 weeks apart, I never really noticed huge differences in their development. I do find it interesting that the Orpingtons and Australorps take their babies out of the run within 2 days, but the Brahmas keep theirs in the run for the first couple weeks. Maybe that also makes a difference? This is the first time I have had to rescue rejected chicks, so these things are kind of staring me in the face at the moment. I am sure you are right about the inside chicks eating more. I worry about how I am going to get these ones integrated, and especially about how I am going to get them adjusted to the freezing outside temperatures.

 

[Faraday40]

@NysiaAnera
Adding young chickens to the flock is never easy. Only recently did I have broodies, so I always had to do the "look but don't peck" approach. Basically, the chicks I was hoping to integrate would move into the coop/run inside a separate cage. (Looks like you already have that. I had a mama heating pad set up that did very well helping the chicks feather out quickly.) When the days were nice, they got to go to the chicken tractor for grass time & returned to their coop cage at night. We trained them to walk back & forth. When chicks were between 7-10 weeks old & seemed confident enough, I still let them use the tractor & night cage - but began leaving the doors open. They enjoyed some freedom, but still had a safe spot to return for food/water. Because of previous experiences with broodies & adding chicks, my flock is not as pecky about young newcomers.

Here's a video we made about it. At the time it was made, we had some hungry predators camping in the yard, so this bunch used the day tractor much longer than the night time coop cage.

 

[theceltichorse]

I'm brand new to chickens. My two incubator hatched babies are a week old today. They now make a HUGE raucous when I go to bed and shut off all the lights. I literally had to go back downstairs tonight and softly talk to them until they quieted down and went under the heat plate. Now they are as quiet as mice! My roommate probably hates me... LOL Boy, am I totally in love with these two!

 

[Faraday40]

I'm brand new to chickens. My two incubator hatched babies are a week old today. They now make a HUGE raucous when I go to bed and shut off all the lights. I literally had to go back downstairs tonight and softly talk to them until they quieted down and went under the heat plate. Now they are as quiet as mice! My roommate probably hates me... LOL Boy, am I totally in love with these two!

Yes, I remember doing that too. It's so hard to hear that panicked chick cry, which is so different from their normal happy peeping. Most people don't hear the difference but once you own chicks, you know.

We rehomed most of the quail & all the chicks last weekend. We kept 3 brown quail





Although we cannot tell the gender, I'm pretty sure that the last one is male. (It's DD's fav & she's my most accurate chick sexer. She only falls in love with the rooster chicks.) She marked it with food coloring to make sure HERS stays. By next week, we'll know the gender.

We kept the tiny failure to thrive chick & 2 other white quail. You can see how it's feathers are coming in slower as well as it's smaller size. Still not sure what it's outcome will be, but it's at least developing now.

Like chickens, quail chicks like to sleep on their sides. They are so relaxed, they look dead- until you put your hand in & they POP up.

 

[DancingWthDucks]

@NysiaAnera Adding young chickens to the flock is never easy. Only recently did I have broodies, so I always had to do the "look but don't peck" approach. Basically, the chicks I was hoping to integrate would move into the coop/run inside a separate cage. (Looks like you already have that. I had a mama heating pad set up that did very well helping the chicks feather out quickly.) When the days were nice, they got to go to the chicken tractor for grass time & returned to their coop cage at night. We trained them to walk back & forth. When chicks were between 7-10 weeks old & seemed confident enough, I still let them use the tractor & night cage - but began leaving the doors open. They enjoyed some freedom, but still had a safe spot to return for food/water. Because of previous experiences with broodies & adding chicks, my flock is not as [COLOR=696969]pecky[/COLOR] about young newcomers. Here's a video we made about it. At the time it was made, we had some hungry predators camping in the yard, so this bunch used the day tractor much longer than the night time coop cage.

Wow this is adorable. I love how they run flapping their wings around!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

That video was super cute! I couldn't help but smile

 

[Lilmissesmom]

@NysiaAnera Adding young chickens to the flock is never easy. Only recently did I have broodies, so I always had to do the "look but don't peck" approach. Basically, the chicks I was hoping to integrate would move into the coop/run inside a separate cage. (Looks like you already have that. I had a mama heating pad set up that did very well helping the chicks feather out quickly.) When the days were nice, they got to go to the chicken tractor for grass time & returned to their coop cage at night. We trained them to walk back & forth. When chicks were between 7-10 weeks old & seemed confident enough, I still let them use the tractor & night cage - but began leaving the doors open. They enjoyed some freedom, but still had a safe spot to return for food/water. Because of previous experiences with broodies & adding chicks, my flock is not as [COLOR=696969]pecky[/COLOR] about young newcomers. Here's a video we made about it. At the time it was made, we had some hungry predators camping in the yard, so this bunch used the day tractor much longer than the night time coop cage.

That is the cutest video. Thank you for sharing it

 

[Faraday40]

Thank you. Our DD enjoys working with animals, so last year she trained a few chickens for part of her 4H project. She made this video to show the detailed steps.

We taught several chickens to do misc. pet tricks. They really enjoy the mental stimulation & it makes for a better relationship.