Hello everyone. It’s been awhile since I was online. These past few months have been Interesting at my place. The coronavirus isolation was easy for me since I have PTSD and prefer to stay home with my girls. I picked up several new customers for eggs. Then one of my girls died suddenly. Olive was a 7 month EE/BCM. I performed a necropsy and her abdomen was full of clotted blood. The source appeared to be a tear in her liver. I have no idea how she was injured.
My other birds were reacting to the loss so egg production dropped. Then one of my customers told me about some chicks that were in desperate need of a home. I have a setup such that I could take 2 sets of birds and isolate them away from my main hens so I adopted 6 chicks. A set of four 5 week old chicks from a family that bought chicks at the start of the shelter in place order and have come to realize that they are not “chicken people”. The second set of birds were described as 5 week old blue splash Phoenix (male and female).
Well.... The Phoenix pair are actually 15 week old OEB. The cockerel already had saddle feathers and crowed the second day at my place. My birds are egg producers so ornamental birds won’t fit. I have 4 dark Brahmas so the contrast in size wold make integration a bit of a challenge. I kept them in isolation and then found them a good home when they had a clean bill of health.
The other 4 chicks were under weight but otherwise disease free. They are thriving and have doubled their weight over the past month. I moved them to the outside brooder so they can start to integrate into the flock. That was last week. At the same time my broody hens 5 eggs hatched. Chicken match is real. My little flock of 9 has gone down to 8, then up to 14, then down to 12 and now is 17. Out of all the additions there are only 2 cockerels in the 4 chicks I rescued. I don’t count the pair of birds I found a new home. I have identified 2 Speckled Sussex (1 pullet and 1 cockerel). The third chick is a Cochin pullet.
Now I need input as to the breed of one mystery chick. I know the previous owner bought them from an online hatchery so it should be a recognized breed but I’m stumped. At first I was leaning towards another Cochin but the legs are bare. Maybe a black leghorn cockerel, but this chick has a pea comb, rumpless, grey legs and feet. So anyone recognize this black chick? I put all four chicks in this thread in case I have things wrong.
im useless in IDing, although i could pick out the cochin!!
Ive been helping babysit my neighbors grandkids since they came to visit for the summer so my days are full of giggling toddlers
I tried to start a new hobby gardening but only the watermelon survived after the dogs started digging up everything haha hope everyone is doing well and surviving through the heat!
