2018 Newbie Chat!

[PNW_Peepers]

Had to bathe our first chicken!
I found poor Jacarunda covered in poop this morning. Looks like she spent the night underneath the roost instead of on top of it. When I say covered I mean she was soaking wet. DH and I managed to shampoo her with dog shampoo and lightly rinse her off. I’ve heard it’s hard to dry a chicken but guys this was another level. It took 40 min to dry her off. But she’s happy and as good as new.
On another note our first 10 week old made her way up the ranks last night. She’s hanging with the big girls now, and was the first to leave the coop this morning. Little crossbeak Bonsai(Hei Hei) is now working her way to the top. I couldn’t be more proud of our only disabled bird.

 

[CannedMonster]

Everyone went outside today!
It’s been about 70 degrees and sunny the last couple of days.
3.5 weeks old and we’re getting some really cool colors in the NN chicks now!

Chick #1 has a beautiful pattern emerging with white, brown and black. I hope it’s a pullet!

Chick #2 is coming in orange and black and I’m pretty sure this one is a girl.

Chicks #3 & 4 are my pretty little black NN Emily and my Silkie renamed Sparrow.

Chick #5 is the yellow one with the brown center chipmunk stripe with black stripes on either side. It’s feathering in brown and black barred. I’m pretty sure this is a cockerel due to its behavior and the comb is larger.

Chick #6 is black and white barred. It really liked sunbathing in the food dish

Chick # 7 is also very likely a cockerel. He’s the top in the pecking order and the largest chick with the largest comb. He’s very bold and aggressive. He’s a beautiful rich brown/black color.

And last but never least is chick #8, my mottled Frizzle Cochin. It’s feathering slower than the others. This one has the most “hang back” sort of personality. It does chest bump the other chicks and holds its own even though most are bigger. It’s adorable watching the two bantams bump each other.

Here’s some pics of the littles enjoying sunbathing and dustbathing in the sun. Some of them even tried dustbathing in the grass lol. Too cute!
They look like they’re doing yoga poses when they sunbathe.

I was wondering today if NNs can get sunburned?

 

[RidgeCreekFarm]

@PNW_Peepers
So glad you got her clean!

One of our Brahmas got her little foot feathers mashed, loaded, and smeared with a cecal dropping and pine chip mixture day before yesterday. She was really freaked out by it- running around, pecking her foot, and cheeping her head off. I had to run a trickle of warm water over her foot to get that mess to finally loosen up, but thankfully it wasn't all over her like yours!

(Of course she had to escape the terry cloth before she was 100% clean and run her poopy little foot up my shirt and onto my shoulder, which was kind of sweet, but still !!)

Thankfully no new issues since then, except for the fact that the little feathered piggies managed to empty 2 quart jar feeders in less than 24 hours yesterday! Looks like they will need an upgrade soon !

Blessings!

 

[BBZZZZTT]

Elsa at 3 weeks,

And Elsa at 9 weeks! Still enjoys a good lap nap

 

[CannedMonster]

Elsa at 3 weeks,
View attachment 1350673

And Elsa at 9 weeks! Still enjoys a good lap nap
View attachment 1350675

Adorable! What a pretty little chick.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Welcome to everyone new! My oft weather-postponed coop took a big step forward today. While snow was still in evidence on the ground, it was almost 60 degrees today. BBZZZZTT spent the whole day working on my coop, bless her heart! Meanwhile the chicks are getting so big! Unfortunately we have a Cooper's Hawk making frequent appearances in the back yard. I think he knows what we're building. I've named him Mr. Cooper and told him there will be no chicken dinners for him!

 

[PNW_Peepers]

I hope you all are having a wonderful time with your chicks! The weather here in the PNW has been hot, my two four week old chicks Myrtle and Mulberry have been outside enjoying the nice weather along with me. They throw a fit when they have to go in

 

[ash_en_em]

Hey guys! Here's an update on my flock of three!
Norris is such a sweet boy (so far). He cares for and watches over the girls, and it's funny because one of my ladies actually puts him in his place from time to time. Been letting them free range in the yard during the afternoon, and that's going very well. They're always in their coop/run an hour or two before sunset, and they come running when I call for them (they know treats are coming ). Here's a picture of them enjoying this drizzly day in the yard. Norris's signature Austrlorp feathers are really starting to pop, and Amelia and Solo's are there just not as bold.

 

[Cbarr00]

Update: We harvested our 3 CornishX Sunday at about 6 weeks old. The heat is getting pretty high and the bigger ones were panting a lot already. Our biggest, Plop, couldn't even stand on one leg to scratch her head anymore. They would come flying our of their coop in the morning and land on their chest. We read a lot would have heart attacks after 6 weeks so thought it was time. We named them Plop, Flop, and Judy. Sunday night we sat out with the rest of our flock and they were just going at each other. Taking Plop, Flop, and Judy out really threw off the pecking order. They were the biggest and usually were unchallenged. All they had to do was stand up when one of the others ran at them and they would turn and go the other way. Oh I miss them but I don't think the Texas heat would've been kind to them.

Now we have a flock of 10. We've finally named them all but it's so many I won't bother you with them all.

Here's the whole crew minus Lil Red. Guess shes too good for photos.

Here's Patsy and Big Red trying to see who's higher up. I'm now wondering if Patsy may be a roo...

 

[wifeyschlegel]

Hello all! We just got 4 chicks last Saturday, our first time raising chickens. We're getting a bit of a late start due to just moving into this house 2 weeks ago, so now we're racing to build a coop before they outgrow the dog crate brooder. We let our 4 kids choose which chicks they wanted so we ended up with 2 Laced Wyandottes, 1 Buff Orpington and 1 Barred Rock. Their names are Ninja, Rosie, T-rex and Dottie.