2018 Newbie Chat!

[Anna Ranieri]

I really like the contrast of colours in Angus's feathers, hes a real beauty - Silkie looks like a cuddly toy, are his feathers as soft as they look? He's such a cutie. The black Cochin's feathers look like velvet, I really like when birds feathers shine like that especially on black coloured birds. I know what you mean about not working out, before we got our two Khaki ducklings we tried at two Cherry Valleys they were more like wild birds and terrified our flock, they fought a lot with each other too and the main one was a real bully, so we took them back to the seller/breeder.
I know people with poultry, the seller I got the Cherry Valleys from is a good friend of mine - which is why I was able to give them back - I do get advice from him and he has helped me a lot. He's been breeding/selling chickens for over 15 years, and branched out to duck breeding/selling more recently, he is a large scale breeder so sells a lot to farms and big organisations - he sells meat birds and egg layers mostly - I know a couple of farm hands who I can get advice from and I have a distant neighbour who has chickens - he lost his first flock to foxes about nine years ago, he lives right next to the woods they live in, his current flock are 8 years old which I think is really good for chickens, I got a little advice from him too - trouble is I find people who breed/sell for a living tend to see things differently to people like myself whose birds are purely pets and tend to have a different approach to raising chickens than I do, plus I find people here are often too flippant about things for my liking and never seem to want to learn or do more than the minimum. My late nana kept chickens and pigs and at one stage had a cow and a donkey. My dad still remembers quite a bit and I have gotten advice from him too. I chose to join the BYC not only because of the wealth of knowledge but because of the level of care I have found amongst the BYC
uses - such as yourself - is at a much higher level than here in the UK or anywhere else for that matter (which is why I joined this BYC and not the UK BYC). I too don't understand why people get animals then neglect or mistreat them but sometimes I think it is because they are an easy target and can't fight back. I love my flock, not in the way humans love humans but in the way a human can love a pet, I want the very best for them which is why I ask so much on here and not so much else where - I want to give the best I can, so I ask the best people to ask, of which you are one and I really appreciate all the help and advice I get. You have a lovely flock - well cared for too and it shows.

I don't know what time it is there but I just heard my drake call and realise its almost 7am here - I've had so much fun talking to you all, I didn't realise the time flying by Lol, well, I'd better get their breakfast ready. Thank you for the lovely chats

 

[CannedMonster]

It was never a concern of mine until the injury. Mine have been notorious for flying into/onto things that they shouldn’t (once they flew into a window and shattered it) though! Now I have ladders and extra roosts everywhere! I’ve removed anything that can cause possible injury as well, I’d say my roosts vary from 3ft - 8ft! My Ameraucana never perch or fly onto things they shouldn’t. Only the Barred Rocks seem to do it! Love your little silkie! Squee and your NN cockerel is turning out to be quite the stud!

Aww thanks!
I’m sad I can’t convince Silkie to let me pick him up anymore but I’m glad he’s happy and healthy.
Angus is the one I’ve always liked!
He has gorgeous colors and a good personality.
I’m excited to see little NN chicks eventually!

We’re going to put another cross beam going from one of the windows to the middle rafters in the coop.
That way the bantams can get up there without having to run the gauntlet of LF birds that peck them.
I’m very disappointed that my NN girls are acting kinda mean too now.
I had asked my friend and even posted a thread about whether birds can learn to be bullies from other birds.
My friend said yes and that I better send the Wyandottes to her before they influence my chicks too much.
I’m only keeping them until the chicks are old enough to integrate and Agatha & Emily get closer to laying so that Angus has more females.
Now that I’ve seen Angus breed Agatha I know that he’ll still have 3 girls even after the Wyandottes are gone.
And he’ll have 11 more once the chicks reach POL.

So you said your two girls aren’t broody anymore? Yay!
Are you going to let them raise chicks sometimes?

 

[CannedMonster]

I don't know what time it is there but I just heard my drake call and realise its almost 7am here - I've had so much fun talking to you all, I didn't realise the time flying by Lol, well, I'd better get their breakfast ready. Thank you for the lovely chats

Lovely talking with you Anna!
It’s about midnight here in Idaho.
Have a great breakfast.

 

[CannedMonster]

I put my chicks in the coop without heat tonight.
They’ve gone without heat already because it’s been hot and the overnight lows were in the upper 60s.
Tonight it going to be 58 though.
They’re 4-5 weeks old.
They have a lot of feathers now.
Hopefully they’ll be okay.

 

[llombardo]

Wow! How do you get your birds feathers to shine like that - the almost glisten! All your birds have that shine to them, even your ducks.- Great name choices, I like the name Rain, wouldn't have thought to use that as a name but it really suits. They are real beauties as are all your birds and is a pleasure seeing your pictures of them. I really hope things get easier for you real soon, you deserve a break.
My hens are RIR Hybrids, my 16 week old resembles yours but mine has a lot of black markings along her back and tail, my younger hen (approx 13/14wks) is an off white with tints of red and has the same black marking as my elder hen, they were hatched from the same flock so might be related but that flock has two RIR cockerels and too many hens to be able to count so not possible to tell. I've tried putting pictures on BYC before but for some reason they won't load, other wise I'd show you a pic. We are new to poultry raising. We took my grandson to a local farm park where one of the gimmicks is to hold a baby chick - the farm hand did a talk whilst the little kiddies held the chicks - my grandson wasn't much interested he was more interested in playing on the bails of hay we were sitting on, so not to disturb the talk my daughter held the chick and that was it, she couldn't let her go so we bought her and a duckling, we were told they were anything from 3 to 5 wks old so I only have an approx age. That night the little duckling died, we later found out it had a malformed beak and hadn't been eating/drinking properly so would have died where ever it was. None of the birds were sexed so my daughter just chose names she likes and we decided they'd keep those names regardless of gender. Not wanting our little chick (Pedro) to be alone we went the next day and bought another duckling (Napoleon) again 3/5 wks old, then we realised they needed same breed friends so my daughter went back and bought another chick (Jellybean) and another duckling (Jughead) both 1 to 3 wks old - it didn't take us long to realise we have two drakes because I'd read about the whispering sound of a drake and both did it, then when we saw the first sign of a green feather we knew for sure - they both are Indian Runners x Mallard could be relate as hatched from the same flock. Realising they are males we recently added the two Khaki females Midnight who is about 8wks and Aroura who is about 7wks - we are hoping the drakes and ducks will pair, if they do we will get two more chicken hens, if not we will get two more duck hens as we can only manage 8 birds in our garden. I adore them.

Rain got her name because when she was little she was the first to do everything and I said she is going to reign the roost..the khakis are Lucy and Ricky and the 4 younger girls are Dorothy, Rose, Sofia and Blanche

I have a Midnite to, but he isn't a chicken

 

[LittleMoss]

I've hatched in an incubator once before and now we're hatching under a broody for the first time. I think they should hatch next Sunday and I wanted to ask about food. When we used an incubator, we fed chick crumb - is that the same with a broody - or does the hen regurgitate food and feed it to the chicks? If you feed chick crumb, does that mean the hen has to eat chick crumb too, or do you give her pellets? If so, do you have to put those where the chicks can't get them?
The broody is in a little coop of her own, with a run. There is sawdust in the coop, but the ground in the run is rather mucky. Should I put sawdust in the run before the chicks hatch?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Rain got her name because when she was little she was the first to do everything and I said she is going to reign the roost..the khakis are Lucy and Ricky and the 4 younger girls are Dorothy, Rose, Sofia and Blanche

I have a Midnite to, but he isn't a chicken
View attachment 1502363

Awww how lovely - he is very handsome and you even have his coat shining too! Is he an Alsatian (otherwise known as German Shepard) and how is he with your chickens and ducks? You said in a previous thread that you have a lot of animals, do you have any other animals?

 

[ketojenn]

I put my chicks in the coop without heat tonight.
They’ve gone without heat already because it’s been hot and the overnight lows were in the upper 60s.
Tonight it going to be 58 though.
They’re 4-5 weeks old.
They have a lot of feathers now.
Hopefully they’ll be okay.

They'll be fine. I recently took away heat at a week due to the high daytime temps we've been getting, they all did just fine. With previous batches I took away the heat at 2 and 3 weeks with no issues.

 

[ketojenn]

Seems I can't get enough chicks
I've just started incubation on this bunch.

I did not intend to hatch anything this late in the year, but due to the high temperature in California, these got delayed a couple months. So here we go, ready or not.

There are marans, cream legbar, and lavender orpingtons.

 

[llombardo]

Awww how lovely - he is very handsome and you even have his coat shining too! Is he an Alsatian (otherwise known as German Shepard) and how is he with your chickens and ducks? You said in a previous thread that you have a lot of animals, do you have any other animals?

He is a german shepherd. None of the dogs have access to the chickens and they don't bother the run. He doesn't like when they mate, he thinks they are being hurt.

I have dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, chickens and ducks.

All the dogs