2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Good morning!

View attachment 1432954

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?

I have not really saw mine peck at each other. One of them picked on Duke when he was little little but nothing after that. That will change when the 4 other ones go out there.

When Duke attempts to grab one of the girls, he gets feathers and Prince takes the feathers off him. You can see it bothers Prince if anything(grass or feathers) are hanging from their mouths. He removes it immediately. Should have named him Mr Clean..

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Have to brag a bit on my Wally bird! He’s the best rooster we could have asked for. Had a big party at our place with tons of young kids, all of them were able to go into the run and hand feed the birds. Wally didn’t mind at all, he’s completely aware of what is a threat to his girls now! He’s been tidbiting, breaking up fights, & even keeping the babies safe from our older girls when we let them explore! He makes sure ALL of his girls are fed and happy, before he even attempts to fill his belly! Plus he’s got mating down to a T, every girl gets mated at least twice a day. He’s gorgeous at that so all of our future babies are guaranteed to have stellar genes!

 

[CannedMonster]

@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)

I think what I meant in my earlier post was green eggs and not necessarily olive eggs.
But even if she lays brown that’s fine too.

I decided that for my 12 pullets I’m ordering 3 of four different breeds- Speckled Sussex, Partridge Rocks, EE (there’s a possibility I could get actual Ameracauna’s but I like how colorful the EE can be) and for my last 3 I’m trying to decide between Black Sex Links or
Australorps.
What do you all think?

 

[PNW_Peepers]

I love my australorps! Oddly enough even though sex links were created for egg production the Australorp holds the title for most eggs laid in one year! One of my australorps is only 18 weeks and I think she’s almost to the point of lay (squating when I stand over her)! Heritage breeds live longer lives versus the hybrid as well! Most sexlinks lay all their eggs in the first two years of life. How fun getting more babies though!!!

 

[CannedMonster]

Good morning!

View attachment 1432954

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?

Ooh I have some front view pics I think.
This is Angus taking a selfie

Agatha

This is from almost a year ago.
My bantam Dark Brahma roo, Hector.
He liked to watch us from the sliding glass door

I put ceramic eggs is all of my nests so they knew they could lay in any of them.
They still play musical nests though lol.

The pecking order can change sometimes even after it’s been established for a while.
My older four were raised together and when they were about 2 or 3 months old their order went:
#1- Red
#2- Coco
#3- Pepper
#4- Penelope

Penelope was the last to leave the broody who raised them.

Now, at 10 months old, Penelope is #2 and a bit of a bully to Coco and Pepper who’s last.
Red has never behaved in a way that was bullying to me.
She established her dominance early on and never chases the others from food or anything else.
She’s just faster at snatching up treats.
Pepper has tried to bully my little bunch.
I’ve decided I’m not a fan of Wyandottes and will probably be rehoming them along with Hector.

 

[CannedMonster]

View attachment 1433989 Have to brag a bit on my Wally bird! He’s the best rooster we could have asked for. Had a big party at our place with tons of young kids, all of them were able to go into the run and hand feed the birds. Wally didn’t mind at all, he’s completely aware of what is a threat to his girls now! He’s been tidbiting, breaking up fights, & even keeping the babies safe from our older girls when we let them explore! He makes sure ALL of his girls are fed and happy, before he even attempts to fill his belly! Plus he’s got mating down to a T, every girl gets mated at least twice a day. He’s gorgeous at that so all of our future babies are guaranteed to have stellar genes!

Wally is wonderful and gorgeous!
He’s a gem for sure!
I can only hope Conan, Loki, Angus & Frodo are as good with their girls.
How old is Wally?
When did he start crowing and trying to mate them?
Was he raised with your girls or did you have older hens?

Frodo has matured much faster than my big boys.
He crowed early and has been chasing and trying to mate Agatha & Emily for a week or two now.
I’m thinking of putting all four boys in their own coop and run so the girls don’t get stressed.

I’ve heard that black is a dominant color so your chicks from Wally might all be black.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

So I have three “sets” of chickens
First was born: 12/18/17
Second was born 2/5/18
Third: 4/4/18

Wally was born in the second group. So he’s now almost 19 weeks! He started crowing between week 10-12! Conveniently when we moved him into our garage for feather picking. He stayed there maybe five days and started mating them the day we put him back in the coop!
I’m completely okay with all black chickens. Even the pullets have this purple green sheen to them that is so pretty!
Putting only boys in one coop would spell disaster for the weakest ones! They get so territorial after a certain age, seems like a tough decision either way though! I’m sure Frodo will be an amazing rooster in the future. It took Wally a bit to get his mating down, all the ladies didn't want anything to do with him at first.

 

[CannedMonster]

So I have three “sets” of chickens
First was born: 12/18/17
Second was born 2/5/18
Third: 4/4/18

Wally was born in the second group. So he’s now almost 19 weeks! He started crowing between week 10-12! Conveniently when we moved him into our garage for feather picking. He stayed there maybe five days and started mating them the day we put him back in the coop!
I’m completely okay with all black chickens. Even the pullets have this purple green sheen to them that is so pretty!
Putting only boys in one coop would spell disaster for the weakest ones! They get so territorial after a certain age, seems like a tough decision either way though! I’m sure Frodo will be an amazing rooster in the future. It took Wally a bit to get his mating down, all the ladies didn't want anything to do with him at first.

Well my boys are already in one coop and outnumber the two girls.
It’s odd but Frodo doesn’t try to mate the bantams.
Only my NN girls. He seems to really like Agatha lol.

I could put him in a coop with the 3 other bantams instead of the NN boys.
I was going to do that anyway once the pullets are near laying.
But the two Cochin pullets are younger than Silkie by several weeks.
I also need to get more pullets and the longer I wait the longer it’ll take them to catch up to my cockerels.
I don’t have enough girls to go around right now.

 

[BBZZZZTT]

Heard the egg song from inside the coop. Ran out in the rain to check, just in case. >_>
No eggs, someone's just practicing.
I may be getting a liiiiittle antsy. XD

 

[CannedMonster]

Guys I ordered more chicks!!
I know I have to get more females especially if I'm keeping all the boys.
I was looking at Meyer Hatchery's website and I saw they had a few Silver Penciled Rocks available!
I was excited because this breed had been sold out for months. They only have them for one hatch date!
Unfortunately they only allow you to order ONE!
They consider them "rare"...
So I ordered the 1 but because the other breeds I wanted weren't available on the same dates I had to split my order.
On July 9th, I have 1 SPR (silver penciled rock), 2 BA (black australorp), & 3 PR (partridge rocks) coming.
On July 16th, I have 1 BA, 2 EE & 3 SS.
So I will have to introduce the chicks as they will be a week apart in age. But I've read about it here on BYC and people have been successful at it.

Oh I SO hope they all arrive alive and healthy!!