My 5 month old Minorca rooster has had his left eye shut for two days now. The bottom lid seems to be swollen when compared to his other eye, but there is no obvious signs of damage or infection. He can open it, but only does so briefly then shuts it again. There does not appear to be any...
kjxoxo1 -- My black bird is definitely not an Australorp! We know that for certain at this point. =) We're almost certain he's a White Faced Black Spanish or a Minorca. His white earlobes are getting bigger everyday.
Soooo... our mystery chick is 10 weeks old today, and yesterday we heard crowing. Pretty decent crows, too! My husband went to let them out this morning and was greeted with four crows out of Mystery Chick.
Is it officially a rooster, now? Or do pullets sometimes exhibit crowing attempts at...
Really? A "she"??? I'll be so excited if you're right. We have two Buff Orp roos already for sure! And I am not looking forward to giving any away... they are all such happy, good birds right now. But if Blackie is a she, our flock might be okay with two roos.
Our exotic frequently chest...
Here's a recent pic of my bonus chick. Any guesses? At this point we are still leaning toward a White Faced Black Spanish or maybe a Minorca. He's a bit bossy, but seems to be good to the girls. And if we find out that "he" is a "she", we'll be shocked.
cafarmgirl--I think they are feeling a bit crowded or bored in the coop. At five weeks they are not big enough to let loose all day for free-ranging, and that is our plan for them. So an hour or so per day is what they get for now. We can't build a temporary run for them as it would be a waste...
We are using a red brooder lamp.
Last night as we sat in the coop, we noticed that their heads are getting a little large for the in-line red feeder trays from TSC, so we decided to see what would happen if we took off the lid and it was a feeding frenzy. I'm actually wondering if the pecking...
It stinks that we're both having the same problem... now if only someone had an answer.
< . . . Jeopardy theme music . . . >
wilbilt -- We did find that moving our chicks out to the coop with a brooder lamp at night was sufficient for warmth. They seemed to relish the extra playing space...
We have 5 week old Buff Orpingtons and they did not have any variance in their wing feathers when they came in. They were a smooth light tan color. I'm guessing they are not Orpingtons.
My chicks are barely 5 weeks old and for the last two weeks one of my Wyandottes has had all her little tail pin-feathers plucked out. We isolated her, cleaned her up, put on Blue Kote and let her heal for a few days. When we tried to reintegrate her, they started pecking her again. We isolated...
We have been keeping the chicks on the porch brooder for the past five nights... they are doing wonderfully! I can finally have my bathroom back.
We have also had them out to range a bit during the day as it has been in the high 60's here. They love it!
Thanks again for the advice!
Thank you for the responses!
Kittycook--I love the idea of taking them out during the day and bringing them in at night. That would definitely help keep the mess down and give them some room to stretch out! We may take that route until the night time temps come up a bit.