2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Woo Hoo. I was able to fix the run on my own and thet are back outside. They are beyond happy. I am going to set up an area in the house tomorrow for emergency situations or If due to weather the electric fence stops working. I will definitely be ready next time. I will most likely bring them back in over Christmas because I will be running around and won't be able to watch them like I normally do. I don't want to rush home from family because I'm worried about them, so this is how I will deal with it.

Believe it or not it was 50 today and tomortow the same, so I'm sure they are loving it. Tomorrow I will cut down more of the branches and work inside.

 

[emrya]

First egg for pullet #5! Whiting True Blue, just shy of 27 weeks.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Thank you for giving such a detailed explanation of your set up.
I feel like I can see it in my minds eye.
Well I think you have an excellent environment for them!
For some reason I thought your yard was small.
Sounds like everyone is actually getting used to each other and learning to stand up for themselves etc.
That’s wonderful!
It’ll get better.
You just have to realize they’re always going to have tiffs and squabbles.
Sometimes if you just stop and watch you’ll see it ends quickly.
It’s good that you want to interfere less.

Believe me I made lots of mistakes and since I had 5 cockerels I would get very frustrated and mad at them and all my running around and such just made the others afraid of me; not the cockerels either, the pullets became afraid of me.
This isn’t a comparison to you or your situation.
I’m just sharing what I learned.
I realized the pullets were afraid and I had made it so they didn’t trust me.

With my recent batch of chicks I did everything differently and many of them still let me pick them up.
It’s so interesting!
I’m watching and discovering who is highest in the pecking order with these 11 younger ones.
I’ve noticed that two of my Speckled Sussex (Sweetie & Elsie) seem to be pretty high as well as my smaller “runt” Partridge Rock, Lucy.
Lucy was so much smaller than the other PR, Paisley. But she has a much more confident personality than Paisley.

My remaining EE, Taka and one Silver Penciled Rock, Silver, are very independent and still sometimes hop onto the fence on the other side of our property. They kind of just do what they want.
My second SPR, Ivy, has a very interesting personality. She likes to follow me and see what I’m doing.
Actually they all do this at times but once they see I don’t have treats they go back to what they were doing.
But Ivy will stay and often follow me as I do chores.
I’ll pick her up for pets also.
The two SS, will often do the same.
They really come close, like right under my feet, to see what I’m doing.

The others (Sumi, Paisley & Poppy) tend to just keep to themselves and Charlotte is kind of quirky because sometimes she’s right up in there with everyone else and other times she hangs back.

My bantams are just sweet and adorable and Bootsie recently started laying cute little pinkish tan eggs!

Thank you for giving such a detailed explanation of your set up.
I feel like I can see it in my minds eye.
Well I think you have an excellent environment for them!
For some reason I thought your yard was small.
Sounds like everyone is actually getting used to each other and learning to stand up for themselves etc.
That’s wonderful!
It’ll get better.
You just have to realize they’re always going to have tiffs and squabbles.
Sometimes if you just stop and watch you’ll see it ends quickly.
It’s good that you want to interfere less.

Believe me I made lots of mistakes and since I had 5 cockerels I would get very frustrated and mad at them and all my running around and such just made the others afraid of me; not the cockerels either, the pullets became afraid of me.
This isn’t a comparison to you or your situation.
I’m just sharing what I learned.
I realized the pullets were afraid and I had made it so they didn’t trust me.

With my recent batch of chicks I did everything differently and many of them still let me pick them up.
It’s so interesting!
I’m watching and discovering who is highest in the pecking order with these 11 younger ones.
I’ve noticed that two of my Speckled Sussex (Sweetie & Elsie) seem to be pretty high as well as my smaller “runt” Partridge Rock, Lucy.
Lucy was so much smaller than the other PR, Paisley. But she has a much more confident personality than Paisley.

My remaining EE, Taka and one Silver Penciled Rock, Silver, are very independent and still sometimes hop onto the fence on the other side of our property. They kind of just do what they want.
My second SPR, Ivy, has a very interesting personality. She likes to follow me and see what I’m doing.
Actually they all do this at times but once they see I don’t have treats they go back to what they were doing.
But Ivy will stay and often follow me as I do chores.
I’ll pick her up for pets also.
The two SS, will often do the same.
They really come close, like right under my feet, to see what I’m doing.

The others (Sumi, Paisley & Poppy) tend to just keep to themselves and Charlotte is kind of quirky because sometimes she’s right up in there with everyone else and other times she hangs back.

My bantams are just sweet and adorable and Bootsie recently started laying cute little pinkish tan eggs!

I too enjoy watching them work out the pecking order. It's never alarmed me because they never even get close to injuring each other. Mainly just run or fly full speed at someone else, come screeching to a halt right in front of them, raise yourself to your full height, and see what happens, lol. There are mainly 3 of them still working it out. Pearl, Jade, and Diamond. Amber (Polish) has never really been much involved in it. Nobody seems to challenge her and she challenges nobody. Maybe she feels above it all, lol. I still think Pearl is going to end up on top, but who knows? Laying time will probably change the whole thing. They still share treats amicably.
I trimmed Amber's feathers around her eyes with my daughter's help the other day. She walked smack into one of my lawn ornaments before that, poor thing. Now she should see better.
@ChooksNQuilts Pippin and Winter look so cute!!
@llombardo Your set up looks great! i bet they were sooo happy to get out and run around again! Good job on getting so much done already.
@emrya Those are some nice looking eggs! Can't wait for mine to start laying. 17 weeks on Tuesday, I may have quite a wait yet, or maybe not.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Thank you for giving such a detailed explanation of your set up.
I feel like I can see it in my minds eye.
Well I think you have an excellent environment for them!
For some reason I thought your yard was small.
Sounds like everyone is actually getting used to each other and learning to stand up for themselves etc.
That’s wonderful!
It’ll get better.
You just have to realize they’re always going to have tiffs and squabbles.
Sometimes if you just stop and watch you’ll see it ends quickly.
It’s good that you want to interfere less.

Believe me I made lots of mistakes and since I had 5 cockerels I would get very frustrated and mad at them and all my running around and such just made the others afraid of me; not the cockerels either, the pullets became afraid of me.
This isn’t a comparison to you or your situation.
I’m just sharing what I learned.
I realized the pullets were afraid and I had made it so they didn’t trust me.

With my recent batch of chicks I did everything differently and many of them still let me pick them up.
It’s so interesting!
I’m watching and discovering who is highest in the pecking order with these 11 younger ones.
I’ve noticed that two of my Speckled Sussex (Sweetie & Elsie) seem to be pretty high as well as my smaller “runt” Partridge Rock, Lucy.
Lucy was so much smaller than the other PR, Paisley. But she has a much more confident personality than Paisley.

My remaining EE, Taka and one Silver Penciled Rock, Silver, are very independent and still sometimes hop onto the fence on the other side of our property. They kind of just do what they want.
My second SPR, Ivy, has a very interesting personality. She likes to follow me and see what I’m doing.
Actually they all do this at times but once they see I don’t have treats they go back to what they were doing.
But Ivy will stay and often follow me as I do chores.
I’ll pick her up for pets also.
The two SS, will often do the same.
They really come close, like right under my feet, to see what I’m doing.

The others (Sumi, Paisley & Poppy) tend to just keep to themselves and Charlotte is kind of quirky because sometimes she’s right up in there with everyone else and other times she hangs back.

My bantams are just sweet and adorable and Bootsie recently started laying cute little pinkish tan eggs!

Thank you for the encouragement, I always worried I'm doing something wrong and they are fighting because of me failing them, however reading your last few replies, I realise I have made things worse and prolonged the situation. I too have caused my duck hens to be frightened of and my boys are only now starting to trust me again however they are still very wary of me and I am so sad I've lost their trust. My boys used to eat out of my hand without thinking anything of it, they used to come over to where I'm sitting and nuzzle at my clothing searching for any tidbits, they barely come near me now. I've never hit them, hurt them nor ever harmed them and I never would but when they went for the chickens in my panic having been told so many horror stories and warned to watch out etc, I'd yell and stamp my feet clap my hands to scare them away from the chickens and sometimes I'd shove them away. Today I realised the chickens beak is sharp and way more of a threat to a duck than a ducks beak is to a chicken, ducks are renowned for being bullies and I agree to an extent, they certainly act as though they think they own everything and act as though the chickens have no right to be there, but having taken the back stand I have been able to watch and see a lot clearer and I now realise that the ducks have a turn at being shoved out by the chickens, Lilah thinks nothing of giving them a sharp peck when she wants them out of the way and it must hurt b'cos they always move. The ducks instigate a whole lot more than the chickens do but the chickens handle it and apart from Roo, who's scared of just about everything, the chickens are not scared of the ducks.
I bet its lovely to be able to pet yours, albeit only some of them. I'd love to be able to pet mine but none of them like to be, my three layers are very easy to pick up but they don't like to be and will moan. I only pick them up if I have to b'cos I know they don't like to be, but on the occasions I do have to pick them up (usually when someone is refusing to go to bed even though every one else is)I'll sneak in the odd snuggle and stroke - their feathers are so soft and silky but no where near as soft as the ducks feathers, oh my their feathers are the softest I have ever known. There is rarely any cause to pick the ducks, and my ducks don't like to be handled or touched, but often when I'm digging for worms I'll sneak in the odd stroke or two lol.

 

[llombardo]

So I just locked them up. I always count them to make sure. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 chicken and one rabbit. I was like oh man. Yes the rabbits are still here, they are not attempting to leave, they seem to like the chickens and the chickens like them. I had to undo everything to get the rabbit out of the coop. Only one chicken came out with the rabbit so that wasn't to bad. The rabbit did not want to come out. It was hanging out with Prince.

Can wild rabbits pass along disease? What about the poop? I found the poop spots and cleaned up as much as possible. They must have ate the rest of the flock block because that is gone.

On a pecking order note. It seems that the two older ones have chilled out since they have been in the house and seperated. It was different out there tonite. There was no pecking when they went in, which is not the norm. When I put them back out I put the 4 younger ones out first and let them have an hour by themselves. They were running, flying and did their dust bath. I feel bad for Duke, he was calling and talking to them as I was taking them away. I can not wait to build the new coop so he can be near them. I may put the bigger area together and just put him in it until it's needed for them. I built a roost, I was building two but I ended up doing one. It actually came out pretty cool. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

The baby’s butt is sticking out underneath Pippin

View attachment 1616442

Baby Winter is 2 weeks old and jumped up on the side of the hutch all by herself!
That’s a huge jump for a little chick.
View attachment 1616443
Peekaboo!
View attachment 1616444
View attachment 1616445

Winter has wing feathers now and is starting to get some tail feathers too.
I think she’s going to look a lot like her Mama, Emily.
View attachment 1616446

Wow, great photos! Both are such beauties and real cute. Winter seems to be growing fast, what colours do you think she'll be? Am I right in thinking that yellow baby feathers mean white and/or light colours and dark baby feathers means reds and dark colours?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

View attachment 1617068 First egg for pullet #5! Whiting True Blue, just shy of 27 weeks.

Gorgeous colours

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Woo Hoo. I was able to fix the run on my own and thet are back outside. They are beyond happy. I am going to set up an area in the house tomorrow for emergency situations or If due to weather the electric fence stops working. I will definitely be ready next time. I will most likely bring them back in over Christmas because I will be running around and won't be able to watch them like I normally do. I don't want to rush home from family because I'm worried about them, so this is how I will deal with it.

Believe it or not it was 50 today and tomortow the same, so I'm sure they are loving it. Tomorrow I will cut down more of the branches and work inside.

View attachment 1616977 View attachment 1616978 View attachment 1616981 View attachment 1616982 View attachment 1616984

ohhh well done you! You've done a grand job and in so little time too, impressive - I'm really pleased for you

 

[PNW_Peepers]

So I just locked them up. I always count them to make sure. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 chicken and one rabbit. I was like oh man. Yes the rabbits are still here, they are not attempting to leave, they seem to like the chickens and the chickens like them. I had to undo everything to get the rabbit out of the coop. Only one chicken came out with the rabbit so that wasn't to bad. The rabbit did not want to come out. It was hanging out with Prince.

Can wild rabbits pass along disease? What about the poop? I found the poop spots and cleaned up as much as possible. They must have ate the rest of the flock block because that is gone.

On a pecking order note. It seems that the two older ones have chilled out since they have been in the house and seperated. It was different out there tonite. There was no pecking when they went in, which is not the norm. When I put them back out I put the 4 younger ones out first and let them have an hour by themselves. They were running, flying and did their dust bath. I feel bad for Duke, he was calling and talking to them as I was taking them away. I can not wait to build the new coop so he can be near them. I may put the bigger area together and just put him in it until it's needed for them. I built a roost, I was building two but I ended up doing one. It actually came out pretty cool. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

Wild rabbits carry both worms and lice...

 

[llombardo]

Wild rabbits carry both worms and lice...

Well ain't that just wonderful....

Merry Christmas to me..lol