Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[cwrite]

So, here's my little girl with her red face. The red on her ear now looks like a litte flap.

She's pinking up nicely potato chip. We look forward to seeing your first egg pics in a few weeks - hopefully. Heritage pure breeds tend to hold out a bit longer than ISA Browns or leghorns.

 

[User395221]

She's pinking up nicely potato chip.

So it's normal then, nothing wrong with her? phew....

She's not purebred, she's a cross-breed.

 

[Teila]

Hey there potato chip .. put me down as a vote for normal; your little girl just looks like she is turning into a little lady to me.

cwrite if I can, there is some method to the way the garden is set up and a few reasons I believe the girls have not turned it into a moonscape.

* They are all bantams.
* Half the flock have feathered feet and I have found that they cause less damage than the non feathered half.
* They only free range for 3-4 hours a day during the week but all day on the weekends.
* I have 3 specific, shaded areas that belong to the girls and are pretty much plantless. These get turned over every day with the garden fork so the girls like digging and bathing in them as they are loose and dry.
* Pavers and paths are strategically placed so that there is not any other largish areas that they can get a good foothold and destroy en masse.
* 95% of the plants are potted which not only saves water, it also stops the girls digging them up. They quite happily dig in the shade and earth around the pots and occasionally jump up to steal a bit of plant in the pots but the plants have more of chance being that little bit higher.

One of the chicken specific areas:

 

[User395221]

Hey there potato chip .. put me down as a vote for normal; your little girl just looks like she is turning into a little lady to me.

Thanks. I'm a bit disappointed she won't stay a "baby"" for longer. I like having my little girls and my big girls, soon they'll all just be big girls.

Quote:
I wish my girls had got that memo...

 

[Fancychooklady]

I wish my girls had got that memo... 

Yep, she looks like a healthy young lady , coming of age.

 

[User395221]

Thanks, I thought when it started looking like a flap that it wasn't bug bites, but it's nice to have reassurance. I wonder what "dangly bits" she'll get, seeing as she's cross-bred. I feel a bit sorry for my black girl, the white one is so bossy. She snatches her food off her. She's a right little madam, that one.

 

[sjturner79]

So, here's my little girl with her red face. The red on her ear now looks like a litte flap.

A picture tells a thousand words. The flaps on the sides are her earlobes. The little ones forming under the chin are wattles. Defintly normal growing up. I didn't realize you had got your birds as older birds. Yes you need to keep isolated for a few weeks when the first arrive, then have them near each other with a fence or cage between for a few days before they are put in together

 

[appps]

Well checked on Carl and crop is no better this morning. Think I'm going to have to go to plan B and seperate her in a seperate cage not on the ground so I can be 100% sure she isn't eating dirt like last time this happened. Trouble is the pigeons are in the one I used before. Going to be a bit trickier this time.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Well checked on Carl and crop is no better this morning. Think I'm going to have to go to plan B and seperate her in a seperate cage not on the ground so I can be 100% sure she isn't eating dirt like last time this happened. Trouble is the pigeons are in the one I used before. Going to be a bit trickier this time.

Oh that's a little worrying. The dirt eating is more an attempt to dislodge the blockage.
If you don't already, I would add bowls of shell grit to the coop to help with digestion.

 

[User395221]

Well checked on Carl and crop is no better this morning.

Come on Carl, we're worrying about you....

I didn't realize you had got your birds as older birds.

Yes, both lots. The Australorps I had a few years ago, and my isa browns that I have now. My new little girls are the only "chicken children" I've ever had. Aside from what I'm learning now, I am completely ignorant about how chicks hatch and how chickens develop. Apart from what I've learnt about my adult chooks since I first got chooks, I'm completely ignorant about chickens. I'm a "townie" and keeping chooks went out of favour when I was a little kid. That's why the forum is so important to me, to learn the things I'm completely clueless about.