2018 Newbie Chat!

[No More Empty Nest]

My Diamond is such a good little cockerel, at least I'm 99.9% sure he's a cockerel, lol. When his girls go up in the coop, he stays out for a time to make sure nothing is going to bother them, then goes up with them. He's always first at the door when I come in. And today when I had Amber in a towel to trim her head feathers, he hopped up on my leg to keep an eye on her. He's not aggressive, never complains when I pick him up and jumps up to say hi all the time. He does like to jump up on my stool when I bring it in to sit with them. I shoo him off to make sure he knows I'm still the top bird, lol. I hope his crows are infrequent and quiet so I can keep him. I'm in the city, no roos allowed. I also hope he keeps his nice demeanor, he'll only be 7 weeks tomorrow so he's got a ways to go.
On the other hand, they are still pecking at Amber's head feathers. I found a spot of blood on her head today, the first time there's been blood. It was kind of hidden under the top feathers. She's my lone Polish and had I known it's not good to have a lone Polish in with other chickens, I wouldn't have ordered 2 surprise bantams along with the 3 EEs. The rooster booster anti feather picking stuff works for about 1-2 days. I can't keep putting it on her, it's a wet lotion and soon the temperatures will be well below freezing. It'll freeze before drying. I trimmed the feathers around her eyes because her eyes were quite hidden. Maybe that will help her see them coming and she can fight back. I'm seriously contemplating trying to find her a home with other Polish. If I rehome her and then Diamond has to go too, I'll only have 3 left.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

My chicks will be 4 weeks tomorrow. They're feathering out nicely, with only a little chick fluff left! How long will they keep these juvenile feathers before getting their adult feathers? All three of my Black Australorps have white tips on their wings.

Its usually between 8 to 12 weeks, I'm thinking it depends on breeds because my two RIR hybrids had their adult feathers by a little over 8 weeks but my Buff Orp who is 8 weeks old still has a lot of her downy feathers left.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

My chicks will be 4 weeks tomorrow. They're feathering out nicely, with only a little chick fluff left! How long will they keep these juvenile feathers before getting their adult feathers? All three of my Black Australorps have white tips on their wings.

I believe they have a molt around 3 months. I was concerned about my mottled cochin not being mottled so I googled 6 week mottled cochin and clicked on images. They all looked just like him.

EDIT: I was typing while you were answering, Anna, lol

 

[CannedMonster]

Its usually between 8 to 12 weeks, I'm thinking it depends on breeds because my two RIR hybrids had their adult feathers by a little over 8 weeks but my Buff Orp who is 8 weeks old still has a lot of her downy feathers left.

That’s because Roo has been inside so much.
Becoming acclimated to the outside temperatures helps them feather out faster.

 

[CannedMonster]

My chicks will be 4 weeks tomorrow. They're feathering out nicely, with only a little chick fluff left! How long will they keep these juvenile feathers before getting their adult feathers? All three of my Black Australorps have white tips on their wings.

My Australorps and the rest of the teenagers are 3 months now and have slowly been molting their juvenile feathers for a few weeks now.
Mine also have the white spot on the end of some wing feathers.
I’ve been seeing shed wing feathers all over the coop and yard for weeks now as well as other feathers.
It’s interesting because this molt happens subtly and you can’t really tell they’re molting except that there’re feathers everywhere!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

My Diamond is such a good little cockerel, at least I'm 99.9% sure he's a cockerel, lol. When his girls go up in the coop, he stays out for a time to make sure nothing is going to bother them, then goes up with them. He's always first at the door when I come in. And today when I had Amber in a towel to trim her head feathers, he hopped up on my leg to keep an eye on her. He's not aggressive, never complains when I pick him up and jumps up to say hi all the time. He does like to jump up on my stool when I bring it in to sit with them. I shoo him off to make sure he knows I'm still the top bird, lol. I hope his crows are infrequent and quiet so I can keep him. I'm in the city, no roos allowed. I also hope he keeps his nice demeanor, he'll only be 7 weeks tomorrow so he's got a ways to go.
On the other hand, they are still pecking at Amber's head feathers. I found a spot of blood on her head today, the first time there's been blood. It was kind of hidden under the top feathers. She's my lone Polish and had I known it's not good to have a lone Polish in with other chickens, I wouldn't have ordered 2 surprise bantams along with the 3 EEs. The rooster booster anti feather picking stuff works for about 1-2 days. I can't keep putting it on her, it's a wet lotion and soon the temperatures will be well below freezing. It'll freeze before drying. I trimmed the feathers around her eyes because her eyes were quite hidden. Maybe that will help her see them coming and she can fight back. I'm seriously contemplating trying to find her a home with other Polish. If I rehome her and then Diamond has to go too, I'll only have 3 left.

Diamond is one of the most beautiful looking chicks I've ever seen and from reading your accounts of him, he has a wonderful and gentle personality I hope with all my heart you get to keep him From my experience, authorities only get to find out if someone reports on you having a Rooster, I'm just wondering if possible, if would be worth having a word with your neighbours and those closest who are most likely to hear him, see how they'd feel about the situation, you never know you might have neighbours who don't mind?
I don't have any experience in the subject of feather picking but I came across a very interesting article which suggested chicken feeding toys - For example, I've seen some chicken toy balls which we are planning to get for our girls just as a fun factor for them. The food (treats are recommended) is put inside the ball which has holes in it for the chickens to be able to peck the food out but obviously being a ball it rolls around so they'd have to work at getting the treats out, has many good reviews - just a thought. Also I hope you don't mind but I found this article very informative too so thought you might want to give it a read.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/chicken-feather-loss-cannibalism-causes/

 

[CannedMonster]

My Diamond is such a good little cockerel, at least I'm 99.9% sure he's a cockerel, lol. When his girls go up in the coop, he stays out for a time to make sure nothing is going to bother them, then goes up with them. He's always first at the door when I come in. And today when I had Amber in a towel to trim her head feathers, he hopped up on my leg to keep an eye on her. He's not aggressive, never complains when I pick him up and jumps up to say hi all the time. He does like to jump up on my stool when I bring it in to sit with them. I shoo him off to make sure he knows I'm still the top bird, lol. I hope his crows are infrequent and quiet so I can keep him. I'm in the city, no roos allowed. I also hope he keeps his nice demeanor, he'll only be 7 weeks tomorrow so he's got a ways to go.
On the other hand, they are still pecking at Amber's head feathers. I found a spot of blood on her head today, the first time there's been blood. It was kind of hidden under the top feathers. She's my lone Polish and had I known it's not good to have a lone Polish in with other chickens, I wouldn't have ordered 2 surprise bantams along with the 3 EEs. The rooster booster anti feather picking stuff works for about 1-2 days. I can't keep putting it on her, it's a wet lotion and soon the temperatures will be well below freezing. It'll freeze before drying. I trimmed the feathers around her eyes because her eyes were quite hidden. Maybe that will help her see them coming and she can fight back. I'm seriously contemplating trying to find her a home with other Polish. If I rehome her and then Diamond has to go too, I'll only have 3 left.

Would you post a current photo of Diamond?
I believe you said it’s a Cochin?
At seven weeks it should be obvious if it’s a cockerel but I wanted to see for myself.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

That’s because Roo has been inside so much.
Becoming acclimated to the outside temperatures helps them feather out faster.

Usually I would agree with you but Roo wasn't inside for as long as my hybrids were, my hybrids lived indoors from hatching right up until they were 10 and 11 weeks old - Roo on the other hand was outside from hatching to two weeks old - (we got her aged two weeks old) and we had her indoors for a little over four weeks. I don't know if you remember but I put her to sleep out on the 28th Sept but only lasted a couple of nights then brought her back in for two but put her straight back out on your advice and she's been out ever since. There still is often squabbling going on and Jellybean and Pedro chasing her first thing every morning as I am letting them out but no one is getting hurt and they have calmed down a lot. Just this evening one of the duck hens (Aurora) having finished her own bedtime snack tried to steal Roo's but Roo didn't let her, she kept shoving Aurora away until Aurora gave up - and Aurora is 3 if not 4 times the size of Roo!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

My Australorps and the rest of the teenagers are 3 months now and have slowly been molting their juvenile feathers for a few weeks now.
Mine also have the white spot on the end of some wing feathers.
I’ve been seeing shed wing feathers all over the coop and yard for weeks now as well as other feathers.
It’s interesting because this molt happens subtly and you can’t really tell they’re molting except that there’re feathers everywhere!

Lol, Reminded me of when Pedro lost hers, we only had her, Jellybean and the two drakes at the time and at first I was worried that the ducks or even Jellybean was pulling them out but one day she was asleep on my lap, when she woke and got off, I had a lap full of feathers, so I knew then it was only molting. Jellybeans flight feathers have never grown properly, she has only 3 or 4 on each wing, - sh looks a bit of a misfit over all, she has two feathers between two of her talons on one foot and she has a bent talon on the other foot, but none seems to bother her and she is happy and healthy.
I noticed yesterday that Roo's under feathers on her wings have turned pure white, I keep meaning to ask my breeder friend if Roo is a mix, as I've never seen a pure bred Buff with white in it and I've never seen a pure bred white Buff with Buff colour in it either - would be so cool if she has mixed colours Imo

 

[No More Empty Nest]

That’s because Roo has been inside so much.
Becoming acclimated to the outside temperatures helps them feather out faster.

When the temps went down to the 40s at night, it seemed like Diamond had new feathers every day, and they grew fast.