2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Had another five egg day today. Found one of them on the floor though. My Ameraucana just can’t get the nesting boxes down. I’m glad I added curtains and changed the dimensions of my boxes! Three of my girls will lay next to each other in one box with no problems!View attachment 1423599
I named my baby goats! Starting from left to right: Dorothy, Rose, & Blanche. My golden girls. My husband and I built their house and enclosure. We just built a covered feeding area too that I’m inside painting today. Building my coop sure made this project a breeze.

I just named my 4 chicks--Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia

 

[llombardo]

Well tbe two roosters are crowing and they are not quiet about it. When the crow in unison it sounds kind of cool. I had made the decision to get rid of them but the rescue isn't raking in any roosters until the 23rd. In the meantime I keep observing and the leghorn is a darn good rooster(the other one is not bad either). I really do not want to give them up.So I resorted to a no crow collar. I can't get it right but I kerp trying. The leghorn works tirelessly to remove it and actual wins. Then he looks right at me and crows

 

[PNW_Peepers]

I’ve been expanding my herb garden this year and with all the excess herbs, I started making my own nesting box herbs. Now my coop reeks of mint and lavender .
DH is extremely protective of the two young pullets we have. They turned 11 weeks today, I was going to try an introduction last night but he refused. Claiming they are just too small, he thinks Wally will kill them trying to mate. DH may not let me intermingle them until every older girl has started laying.
Update on everyone else? How are things going?

 

[llombardo]

It feels like forever ago they were babies but the got big so fast

These two still favor each other...reverse roles. The duck protected the chicken back then, now he protects her

 

[CannedMonster]

It feels like forever ago they were babies but the got big so fast

These two still favor each other...reverse roles. The duck protected the chicken back then, now he protects her

View attachment 1431351 View attachment 1431352

That is too sweet
Why can’t you keep your roos?
Do you live in a neighborhood?

 

[CannedMonster]

I’ve been expanding my herb garden this year and with all the excess herbs, I started making my own nesting box herbs. Now my coop reeks of mint and lavender .
DH is extremely protective of the two young pullets we have. They turned 11 weeks today, I was going to try an introduction last night but he refused. Claiming they are just too small, he thinks Wally will kill them trying to mate. DH may not let me intermingle them until every older girl has started laying.
Update on everyone else? How are things going?

Wow you must’ve gotten your 2 the same week I got my 8.
Mine are 11 weeks too.
The size difference between the girls and boys is surprising.
It depends on how mature Wally is and how good his instincts are.
A good roo will understand the difference between a pullet and a hen that’s at POL (point of lay) and won’t mate them until their combs redden.

They’re all molting!!
I have feathers all over my yard
I’m getting some gorgeous colors though!
Emily now has beautiful red/brown along with the black &white.
After conferring with my friend that I got Pippin & Merry from, we both feel pretty sure Emily is a NN Easter Egger!
Or would that make her an Olive Egger?
She even has a little bit of muff on her cheeks and under her chin and green legs.
I’m excited to see what color eggs she’ll lay

I’m really growing quite fond of Conan.
He has turned into a good leader so far and he really seems to like me.
He does a call that makes all the littles run over to him and I’ve seen him tidbitting a few times as well as doing alarm calls.
He loves to sit on my lap.

He’s trying to figure out my shoe lol.
He’s getting some really nice gold colored saddle feathers as well!

Frodo seems to think the girls are his. And he’s been feeling his oats trying to mate with them.
They have no idea what he’s doing
Here he is with Agatha.
She’s very bold and will investigate new things almost immediately.
She even went toe to toe with Red!
But Red made sure Agatha knew who’s really in charge.

Frodo again

Angus:
Check out those blue legs!
He’s lowest on the pecking order of the boys...even Frodo dominates him.
But he’s a sweet boy and gorgeous...a bit of a sensitive soul I think
He’s also getting gold saddle feathers.

Loki is getting sort of cream saddle feathers. They don’t seem to be the same shade of white as the rest of him.
He’s 2nd in command but I named him well because he seems to be a bit of a jolly mischievous goof lol.
He also walks funny. He’s always had a bit of a different gait than the others and it’s almost kind of stiff like his knees don’t work normally.

Silkie is my little buddy!
She loves earwigs and they like to hide in the hinges of our coop.
In the morning Silkie paces by the run doors waiting for me to come out and pick her up so she can get her earwigs!
I hold her up by the hinges and she snaps them up!

And of course our newest additions- Pippin & Merry.
Pip has been accepted but is lowest on the pecking order.
She’s still chased occasionally but it’s not bad.

Here she is on the outside roost with Emily and our newest, Merry.

I almost renamed Merry ...Cricket!
She’s always singing and trilling and she sounds like a cricket.
None of my other birds do that.
I’m working on getting Merry to bond more with the group and stay with them when they’re in the yard.
They do chase and peck her but she’s still really new so that’s to be expected.
I keep a close eye on her and step in if it’s needed but she’s pretty fast.

So my friend told me that she thinks I can fit 18 adult large fowl birds in my coop as long as they’re just sleeping in it.
She also said that I could probably keep all 3 of my boys (especially since they grew up together) and have 5 hens for each rooster.
She said her roosters only have about 5 or 6 hens and it works fine.
I think I will try it but if there’s problems I’ll have to rehome or cull some trouble makers.
I’ll also have a little flock of 7 bantams in the prefab coop.
That’s a total of 25 birds
And I still need to order 12 pullets!
Even if I ordered them now, it’ll be November or December before they are mature enough to put with the boys.
I may have to create a bachelor coop for them for a while.
What to do, what to do...

 

[llombardo]

That is too sweet
Why can’t you keep your roos?
Do you live in a neighborhood?

I do,but it's not city limits. There are other roosters in the area and now they all talk to each other all day. I'm a corner lot so I am only concerned with my one neighbor. The collar seems to be working. I made the collars until I can get the actual collar

 

[PNW_Peepers]

@ChooksNQuilts yes I’m pretty sure I got my two pullets just a few days before or after you got yours!
Wally at this point mates everyone more than once a day! He’s good at it so none of my girls are getting injured in the process. He’s just more forceful than I think DH likes. I’ll probably wait it out another week or two before I feel they are big enough to hold their own.
Love your babies! Frodo is such a little stud! I know the only way to guarantee a olive Egger is to breed a very dark egg laying breed (copper maran, Welsummer) with a blue egg layer (Ameraucana, Aracana, cream legbar)

 

[llombardo]

The original gang...

 

[BBZZZZTT]

Good morning!

I love front-on pictures of chickens. They always look so angry, though Elsa looks less so than the others.

Belle was checking on the nest boxes today, though I don't think she's close to laying anyway. She is the smallest of the EEs and still has a very pale pea comb, especially compared with Kida. I have some ceramic eggs and lavender in them so she was probably just wondering if anything was edible in there.

I'm still not certain about the pecking order. Kida always picks on Elsa, and Moana seems fairly weary of her as well. Belle and Nala are always bumping chests but seem kind of evenly matched. Despite Elsa being leagues beneath Kida, she still runs up to bump chests with the others, but no one seems to take her seriously.

So maybe, Kida on top, followed by Nala and Belle bidding for second, then welsummers with Elsa on the bottom?