2018 Newbie Chat!

[CannedMonster]

I’m having a ball with my babies!
So fun!
Charlotte (BA), Sweetie (SS) and Elsie (SS) are especially friendly.
They will come up to my feet several times a day and ask me to pick them up for cuddles
Lucy (PR) and Ivy (SPR) are a bit less friendly but still seem to enjoy being held sometimes.
Skye (EE) is completely unafraid of being picked up or held but doesn’t seek me out like the others.
The other 6 chicks don’t really want human interaction but they aren’t flighty or excessively scared of me.

My little boy Australorp has been standing up for himself with the bantams and also makes sure the other chicks make way for him lol.
I’ve decided to call him Oliver- Ollie for short.

Today Angus bred my Cochin bantam pullet Pippin
She actually squatted for him.
It’s concerning because he could hurt her.
I need to get everyone moved to their permanent coops but my husband has had to take care of some family issues in northern Idaho and may be gone for several days.
I may just move the bantams to the prefab soon anyway and, of course, the babies will be in the walk-in with the older LF birds.
I wanted to wait until DH was able to remove the high roosts from the coop because the birds are pooping in the oyster shell and grit bins while roosting.
One plus is that the babies were exploring the walk-in coop today.
Some of them had gone all the way to the top!

And unfortunately 2 Coopers Hawks were flying through my yard this morning trying to catch those stupid little sparrows that come and eat the chickens food and drink their water.
They did it right in front of me!
One of them flew right by me so close I could feel the breeze from it’s wings.
It was 6 inches from me!
I stayed out in the yard all day pruning, weeding and watering to keep an eye on things.
The hawks left right after appearing, thank God.

 

[Geranium]

My chicks are in the mail! I can't wait for them to arrive. I'll be sure to post adorable photos once they're here.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I’m having a ball with my babies!
So fun!
Charlotte (BA), Sweetie (SS) and Elsie (SS) are especially friendly.
They will come up to my feet several times a day and ask me to pick them up for cuddles
Lucy (PR) and Ivy (SPR) are a bit less friendly but still seem to enjoy being held sometimes.
Skye (EE) is completely unafraid of being picked up or held but doesn’t seek me out like the others.
The other 6 chicks don’t really want human interaction but they aren’t flighty or excessively scared of me.

My little boy Australorp has been standing up for himself with the bantams and also makes sure the other chicks make way for him lol.
I’ve decided to call him Oliver- Ollie for short.

Today Angus bred my Cochin bantam pullet Pippin
She actually squatted for him.
It’s concerning because he could hurt her.
I need to get everyone moved to their permanent coops but my husband has had to take care of some family issues in northern Idaho and may be gone for several days.
I may just move the bantams to the prefab soon anyway and, of course, the babies will be in the walk-in with the older LF birds.
I wanted to wait until DH was able to remove the high roosts from the coop because the birds are pooping in the oyster shell and grit bins while roosting.
One plus is that the babies were exploring the walk-in coop today.
Some of them had gone all the way to the top!

And unfortunately 2 Coopers Hawks were flying through my yard this morning trying to catch those stupid little sparrows that come and eat the chickens food and drink their water.
They did it right in front of me!
One of them flew right by me so close I could feel the breeze from it’s wings.
It was 6 inches from me!
I stayed out in the yard all day pruning, weeding and watering to keep an eye on things.
The hawks left right after appearing, thank God.

I am always so worried about the birds of prey we get here, my biggest worry is about the sparrowhawks here because they hide and are hard to spot and seem to come out of nowhere when they strike. In March this year our local newspaper did a story celebrating the return of peregrine falcon which disappeared from our area several years ago and people are like - isn't it wonderful and I'm like, oh no! More predators to worry about. There are a lot of pigeons around my garden, I know I'm probably awful for this but I hope the birds of prey are satisfied enough by them so will not be interested in my birds. Pedro chases pigeons and other birds off when they fly into the garden like sparrows, blackbirds so they no frequent or eat in our garden and I'm hoping that will be enough not to attract birds of prey [Pedro tried a few times to chase out Lilah but Lilah chases back and now Pedro is scared of her and keeps out of her way]
We have them all free ranging together, the female ducks often have a go at Lilah as they do Jellybean so I'm guessing they see them both lower in the pecking order, they still regard Pedro as higher then them even though Lilah doesn't. So far the ducks are scared of Roo when (s)he runs/flutters, and is quite funny to watch when Roo is trying to join them foraging, they run so Roo runs following them and they think Roo is chasing them. I used and still use your stick method, didn't interfere with Lilah/ducks nor do Lilah/Pedro because I believe in the pecking order and none of our birds are aggressive, they may push or shove using their beaks and has been the occasional nip but no one has bitten nor anything alarming so I'm leaving them to adjust their order but when it comes to Roo its a different matter and your stick method is brilliant, especially as my duck hens are very sneaky, they will casually walk past, ring around then they pounce from the back (quite clever really) and they catch Lilah almost every time although she is beginning to learn their tactics, but as soon as the had for Roo, out comes the stick and as soon as they see it they run off, so I'm so thankful you shared this method with me.
Btw have you set Silkie up with his own flock yet - if so hows it going?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

My chicks are in the mail! I can't wait for them to arrive. I'll be sure to post adorable photos once they're here.

So excited for you! What breed/breeds have you chosen? Looking forward to seeing your pics when you post them. :0)

 

[Geranium]

@Anna Ranieri I'm getting 3 Australorps, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Blue Orpington, 2 Easter Eggers, and 1 Austra White.

 

[RustyBucketFarmGirl]

Pullet 2/10 started laying yesterday. My whit leghorn started my group off at 17 and yesterday i got this beautiful little green egg from our lakeshore egger! So exciting!

 

[Happychickmomma]

Hi everyone, I’m a newbie too! We currently have 10, six day old chicks. 2 RIR, 2 Ameracaunas, 2 Barred Rocks, 1 Delaware and 1 SLW. I’m in love ! So, this morning I mixed up some chick grit in with their starter mash. Gave them some mashed up boiled egg yolk and they were not interested. They chow down on their starter mash and was hoping to give them some treats, but they didn’t know what to do with it . I guess I will keep trying. Here are a few pics of my littles and our coop in progress. We still need to finish adding the hardwired mesh, ladder to get in the hen house, roosting bars and the metal roof.

 

[Happychickmomma]

What is everyone using as a brooder setup? After my first batch of chicks I’m doing things different this time. Just curious what you guys are using/doing?

Here is our brooder box.

 

[Happychickmomma]

I have a plastic bin with a hardware cloth cover over it. View attachment 1252216
I'm also using the MHP method.
Since I live in Wisconsin, there will probably be a bit of a lag time where they will be too big for this but not big enough for coop 24/7. So, I used the cover of the baby brooder as a wall for teenage chicken holding cell
View attachment 1252218
Both of those were just made with scraps from my coop build (except the plastic bin itself)

Great idea for when my littles are a bit bigger!

 

[Geranium]

They're here! Everyone looks happy and healthy!