BYC Café

[Shadrach]

Knocks second chicks managed the ramp tonight. This makes roost time a lot calmer.
Having a mother hen trying to get her chicks in the coop at the same time everyone else is trying to roost and eat supper is a bit of a nightmare. Mum attacks any hens that get to close to the chicks, the roosters try to break up the fight and the chicks run around cheeping like crazy. It is quite interesting though watching the other hens adjust their routine to avoid the irate mum. Donk for example who would normally be last in once I've encouraged her out of the magnolia tree just slips into the coop looking a bit furtive and the senior hen goes first routine goes by the board. Myth, the hen that Knock has kicked off with twice now walk around the back of the coop and makes a bit of a dash for the ramp. Knock is building a bit of a reputation.
What is particularly interesting for me is these events help to illustrate just what a disaster the staggered hatch is. There is almost 34 hours difference in hatch time between the two chicks. I intervene at 48 hours usually.
If Knock and her chicks were even more feral than they are and lived in the trees, or a farm outbuilding the chances of chick two surviving would be almost nil.
It seems from the years I've been watching mums get their chicks to safety at night that the hen has two choices when faced with such a mixed ability chicks. She can roost in relative safety with those chicks that have manged to follow her, or she can leave the chicks that have roosted and return to the ground to cover and try to protect the chicks on the ground. With Knock it was quite apparent that she was prepared to leave the younger and weaker chick on the ground. Knock would call to the chick but had already settled with the elder chick in the coop. Under full free range conditions I would be interested with Knock to see what happens should a threat approach the chick on the ground. Would she return to the ground to protect the chick? Now given I shut them in at night, this option isn't open to Knock. Does she know this I wonder.
Blue Spot when she hatched one a few years ago did leave the coop and return to the ground past dusk and sat and covered the chicks leaving two in the coop. This was a few years ago and I wasn't quite as adept at chick catching and attack mode mother avoiding as I am now. What happened, is I had tried to catch Blue Spots chicks to early and naturally my attempts had panicked the chicks enough to make distress calls to Blue Spot. Tiny though Blue Spots was, she was very fast and fight experienced. If you have one hand trying to hold a chick, which necessitates being bent over, and your face is easily within reach of a chickens attack, you do not want Blue Spot trying to kill you.
It was while dealing with this I discovered that as long as I kept my hand slow and made steady movements, I could slide my hand under Blue Spot as she sat with the chicks under her. It seemed then as I removed each chick from under her that as long as the was movements underneath her she seemed to think that it was chicks. The last one is the most difficult. Of course the chicks are cheeping madly inn the coop. This okay as long as the mum on the ground can feel movement under her. When the last chick is moved it's a rather different story.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Good afternoon, all. Pretty nice outside right now and only supposed to be high 80's today. Not bad weather for changing wheel line. Got posts set and roof sheathed and ordering tin today. Lots to do still, but moving along pretty darn quickly. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

 

[igorsMistress]

Frankie the bat dog.

 

[Shadrach]

I

Good afternoon, all. Pretty nice outside right now and only supposed to be high 80's today. Not bad weather for changing wheel line. Got posts set and roof sheathed and ordering tin today. Lots to do still, but moving along pretty darn quickly. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

t got quite pleasant here in the early evening. It had tried to rain earlier and the temperature had dropped to the 70's.

 

[007Sean]

58'???!!! THAT is a catastrophic flood.

Yep, the Guadalupe river looked like the Mississippi river.

 

[007Sean]

I cant like any of these lost photos posts ... & 58 FEET of water??? Holy crap! How does that much water ever recede?

After several days!

 

[007Sean]

Afternoon Cafe

Just waking up, got to go check on my birds before leaving for work. There's a fresh pot of coffee, if anyone's interested.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

I

t got quite pleasant here in the early evening. It had tried to rain earlier and the temperature had dropped to the 70's.

70's sounds good. Nice break from what you've had, I imagine.

On the subject of staggered hatches...The brahma that hatched a single chick last year and then another single this year, raised her first chick on the floor of the barn and is doing the same now. A week after her chick was born, I asked her to take on another (seemingly abandoned) chick and she obliged. They are now around two and three weeks old and doing just fine. Is the problem with staggered hatches only in roosting, that you've found?

 

[Shadrach]

70's sounds good. Nice break from what you've had, I imagine.

On the subject of staggered hatches...The brahma that hatched a single chick last year and then another single this year, raised her first chick on the floor of the barn and is doing the same now. A week after her chick was born, I asked her to take on another (seemingly abandoned) chick and she obliged. They are now around two and three weeks old and doing just fine. Is the problem with staggered hatches only in roosting, that you've found?

A guy from the chicken club here has a broody in an outhouse, not super secure but better than completely out in the open. She's not quite on the floor. She's on top of a bale of straw.
I think the hens risk assessment may be different in such circumstances.
I've found a few problems with heavily staggered hatches here. The ideal for jungle fowl is reported to be 18 hours. Mums desert the nests with whatever chicks can follow. A few are like that here. There have been a few occasions where mum has just left chicks partially hatched, alive, but not mobile.
Ideally the chicks should have been hatched in a time frame to minimize the situation where one chick has the theoretical advantage of those few extra hours of living. They learn a lot it seems in 12 hours. There is also the business of chicks in the egg communicating with each other and mother. I've read that this has to do with hatch coordination. It makes sense.
Here, the earlier chicks are fastest to whatever the hen finds them to eat. This puts the later chicks at a feeding disadvantage. In larger clutches I've had to put some effort into ensuring that the smaller and less agile chicks get enough to eat. Without my interference I've has a clutch of 7 reduce to 4 within a couple of days. Often the later chicks are still trying to eat when the group moves off. Mum won't always go back for them.
The mums and chicks here are semi free range. They can be out and about with their chicks on after 24 hours from last hatch. The terrain isn't easy here, lots of slopes, thick brush in many places and a lot of changes in ground height. The elder chicks can flap and jump better than the younger ones so if mum jumps up a step or over a rock the elders have an advantage.
Hens and chicks early hierarchy in early stages (take introducing a new hen to a flock) seems to be dependent on weight more than anything else. The heavier hens and chicks take a higher position. This does change ime as the younger and lighter hens gain confidence. I've found it interesting that due to being the heaviest they are not challenged much. The hens/chicks in the lower order fight more. Often it's one of the lighter but more fight experienced hens/chicks that either get special friendship from the boss or become the senior hen themselves.

 

[Shadrach]

A case in point.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/immediate-crisis-abandoned-egg-please-help.1328733/