DIary of a novice, shipped egg, broody hatch

[appps]

Since our hatch is over, thought I might as well use this to keep track of peep as SHE grows

So here she is again at almost 1 week old.

Here she is learning from mum that we are friends and its okay to eat out of our hands. Mum chirped and called her over to try some bird seed. It was of course too big for her to do anything more than throw it around but she happily sat in the hand to try. Unfortunatly mum kept photo bombing so this was was the best photo I got, but she does sit right on your hand which is pretty cool. Mum is a very good broody it turns out and is teaching her that we aren't the slightest bit scary.






And this is her learning to scratch for bugs.

 

[cwrite]

Such cute pics & so nice that Penny is still friendly to you while she has a chick!

 

[appps]

Such cute pics & so nice that Penny is still friendly to you while she has a chick!

Yes she has been so good. For the first couple of nights peep didnt want to go back to the nest where we can lock them safely up for the night. She let me pick him up and pop him into bed and then pick her up and pop her next to him with not a complaint. They have worked that out now thought and are back in bed ready now when we come to lock up

 

[maddogdodge]

So cute

What kind of setup have you got mum and chick in?

 

[appps]

So cute

What kind of setup have you got mum and chick in?

Our chookpen buts up to the kids old cubby house and we had enclosed the area underneath it years ago for bunnies. So that whole area you can see below is the broody pen.



We have just put up some temporary wire to also give them a bit of an area outside that so they are still with the other chooks too.


At night I lock the two of them in an old bathroom vanity with air holes drilled in it because I dont trust the fox proofness of the old bunny house.


I added that wire at the front you can see just above this typing because winry was also broody and went mental trying to get to peep. However today peep managed to squeeze through a gap in the gate and we found her on the outside surrounded by all the other chooks peeping her head off and penny on the other side of the gate going crazy because she couldnt get to her.
None of the others were trying to peck her at all, not even winry who was just standing over he watching her running round franticaly. So Im thinking I might just remove that so they can see in better.

 

[appps]

And here is peep a week older. Getting the little wing feathers now and her little legs are starting to get greyer.





Is she supposed to be that fat though?? We were a bit amazed at the size of her crop???

 

[maddogdodge]

Looks like you have a really great setup!!

She's so cute!

I have no idea about her size... perhaps she's just really enjoying her food?

 

[CB and CG]

She is gorgeous appps.
Yes Australorps eat A LOT appps but I think any breed of chicken will be eating constantly at that age. I wouldn't worry about it she looks perfectly normal to me.
However keep an eye on her when she is older. Australorps will nearly eat themselves to death if your not careful.

 

[appps]

She is gorgeous appps.
Yes Australorps eat A LOT appps but I think any breed of chicken will be eating constantly at that age. I wouldn't worry about it she looks perfectly normal to me.
However keep an eye on her when she is older. Australorps will nearly eat themselves to death if your not careful.

Oh really. I hadn't realised that. We always have food available during the day, hopefully we don't have to put her on Jenny Craig when she gets older lol

 

[appps]

Ignore, dreaded double post