2018 Newbie Chat!

[Anna Ranieri]

Omg all 4 hatched!!

The first two are dry now.
The other two are still wet but starting to dry.
Bootsie only has the one black chick under her.
The other 3 are under Itsy, my Japanese.
The two new chicks also are black but I can’t see if they’re NN because I keep getting the crap pecked out of me

I’ll leave them alone for a while.

Congratulations, this is great news! Can't wait to see pics

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Is it really necessary to feed grower? Or can I just keep them on starter and switch to layer? Btw I use the scratch and peck organic starter.

I'm no expert but I missed out grower feed with a couple of my birds and they were late developing, a professional breeder friend of mine told me there is always a risk of consequences when missing out the grower feed stage, also advised me to put them on growers straight away, which I did and their development sped up noticeably.

 

[CannedMonster]

So I thought I had 1 NN chipmunk type chick and 3 black chicks.

Well I got fooled cuz there’s actually 2 NN chipmunk type chicks that look identical!

And there’s two black chicks.

Oh my goodness these babies are so adorable.
One black chick is very fluffy.
Bootsie pecks the crap out of me when I go in there.
Itsy just puffs up and goes tik tik tik...

I took the nest box out because it really isn’t needed and it was too small for both of them.
I was afraid a chick might get stepped on or smothered.

Itsy is behaving strangely.
She was pushing her head under Bootsie like she thinks she’s a chick.
I kept trying to put the chicks underneath her but she just wanted to growl at me and puff herself.
It’s like she hasn’t realized the eggs hatched yet.
I finally got the chicks to go under.
They are still pretty unsteady and don’t seem to have a strong instinct to get under mom yet.
I remember someone on BYC saying that they have no fear for the first few days.
I really appreciate the rain we’ve been having but I also wish it would stop because I cannot have these babies out in it.
I have food and water in the tiny coop for them and a clean bed of shavings and there’s enough room for now but it’s fairly dark in there.
I don’t want them in the dark all the time.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Thanks for all the great grit feeding ideas!
It was 70 degrees out today, so beautiful! I let the girls out for a looong time twice today. It was so funny, I've never been outside with them when they are actually laying. Diamond had already laid her egg, but the EEs were all calling to each other and running in and out of the coop and nest boxes. I was there when both Jade and Opal laid their eggs. Pearl would sit on the roost signing the egg song very loudly in encouragement. I think she was...egging them on. You may all groan at any time. Pearl laid last but after I had to leave. Diamond was quiet and only talked to me. I think she was saying, get on with it already! Lay your eggs so I can have some peace and quiet!
I soaked Diamond's fluffy behind in warm water today. She has so much fluff the poop has been sticking to it. Poops are bigger since she started laying. Vent looked good, everything checked out ok. I think she just has a LOT of fluff, the silly little cochin.
@ChooksNQuilts congrats on the babies!!! Can't wait to see pictures!

 

[llombardo]

Thanks for all the great grit feeding ideas!
It was 70 degrees out today, so beautiful! I let the girls out for a looong time twice today. It was so funny, I've never been outside with them when they are actually laying. Diamond had already laid her egg, but the EEs were all calling to each other and running in and out of the coop and nest boxes. I was there when both Jade and Opal laid their eggs. Pearl would sit on the roost signing the egg song very loudly in encouragement. I think she was...egging them on. You may all groan at any time. Pearl laid last but after I had to leave. Diamond was quiet and only talked to me. I think she was saying, get on with it already! Lay your eggs so I can have some peace and quiet!
I soaked Diamond's fluffy behind in warm water today. She has so much fluff the poop has been sticking to it. Poops are bigger since she started laying. Vent looked good, everything checked out ok. I think she just has a LOT of fluff, the silly little cochin.
@ChooksNQuilts congrats on the babies!!! Can't wait to see pictures!

I flew home today to get them outside for a little bit. Gorgeous day. On Wednesday its going to be 35. The weather is still crazy.

 

[Geranium]

I found metal pet rodent feeders at Tractor Supply that attach to the wire on my coop, and have one for grit and one for oyster shells. They've been working well.

My ladies are laying machines! There are 8 of them, and we get 6-8 eggs a day. Pretty common to get 8. Such good girls.

 

[CannedMonster]

We’re getting so much rain right now I don’t know how the ground can absorb anymore.
It’s so hard to get anything done.
Poor Pippin has constantly muddy feathers on her feet.
I had her, Cleo and Cricket go into the big coop tonight.
Since Angus has been gone I was able to get Sumi (my only Australorp pullet) and Poppy (SS) to join Oliver’s group in the new coop.
That just leaves Red, Agatha, Emily, Charlotte (JG), Sweetie (SS), Minnie and Mitzi in the big coop.
It’s so empty looking in there so I thought it would be best to get Pip, Cricket and Cleo used to going in there again.
They’ve been roosting in the covered prefab run for quite some time.
Cricket really seems to like roosting outside.
They’re protected in there but I still feel like the big coop is better.
I wish I had switched to bantam roosters a long time ago.
Then it wouldn’t have mattered where they roosted and their feathers would’ve stayed nice.

Soon I’ll integrate the 7 LF babies over there.

The broodys and chicks seem okay.
I never see the chicks cuz they’re always covered.
The broodys were eating and pooping so that’s good.

 

[llombardo]

I tried putting Dorothy back in with the others and Prince kind of grabbed her kind of hard and I took her back out. Right now I got the 5 together and it seems fine. I just don't want to put only two with Duke doen the line here. The bigger three(2 girls and Prince) are definitely a tight group and I don't think they are letting anyone new in there. My dilemma is that I don't want the two younger ones that are remaining in the older group to forget Dorothy and Blanche and then I have problems there putting them back together. I'm still not sure about a boy with the babies. The one Iwas thinking a boy may not be a boy. The comb was more pronounced early on, but not by much and now they all seem to be about the same. If there is no boy in there I could put Duke with all of them but then I have Little One that I do not want to be picked on, over mated or pecked.

 

[llombardo]

Oh boy did Dorothy and Blanche make a mess. I dust resize how much water those two were knocking over. I cleaned the bedding and oh my God did it smell nasty. I fixed their butts and put a water bottle in which I should have done to begin with. They all love water bottles, but don't use the nipple waterer--go figure.

The babies seemed to have grown over night. I can not believe how big they are for 6 weeks. I feel they should stay small for at least 6 months--they grow way to fast. I'm going to have to start trimming some polish feathers soon.

Little one is growing and she is even foraging, so hopefully she keeps going.

 

[CannedMonster]

I finally was able to get some pics of the 4 babies with the broodys.

Look at the Naked Neck on this one lol.
It has a tiny bow tie on its neck.

This pic has all four:

One of the black chicks came from Taka’s green egg. It’s likely that Oliver is the father. I don’t think I ever saw Angus breed Taka. In fact, he seemed to dislike her and would peck and chase her. She lays fantastic large, thick shelled eggs though.

Somebody’s peeking