Ever had a winter broody?

[TaraBellaBirds]

Tres, an Orpington/EE? mix


Cinco and Seis. They live in a separate brooder because neither of the broodies would take care of them. They'd hatched out much later than the other four, hence the complications.


Dos, my favorite of the six chicks She's most likely a production red/EasterEgger mix. Her daddy was Gryffindor, our EE roo.




Uno, a bantam cochin. She's looking pretty muddy today.


Quatro, an EE mix. Most likely a rooster, unfortunately.


The chicks are nearly as big as the broody! (Except for Uno, who is still proportionate.)

I am fascinated by the "mutts"

My assorted flock is much like yours, in fact I plan to breed some like your Tres and Dos! Let me know what color of eggs they lay!

 

[Indigosands]

Nice looking babies! My "mutts" are much better layers than my pure hens most of the time.

 

[Math]

PrairieChickens, those baby chickens are wow, beautiful. They feathered so fast and grew fast. I hope some of mine hatch.

 

[PrairieChickens]

TaraBella, I'll try to remember to hit you up when Dos starts laying to let you know what we end up getting. She hatched from a nice medium-brown egg, so it should be interesting!

LadyofMcCamley: I too was surprised by how willing the youngin's were to venture out into the snow and cold. They are less wimpy about the snow and ice than a lot of the grownups! Our alpha rooster Mars actually huddles up against the side of the brooder to mooch off the babies' heat, and some of the girls won't come out of the coop if it doesn't get above freezing.

Given the choice, I'll raise as many chicks under a broody as I possibly can. They're absolutely thriving.

 

[texgardengal]

Beautiful babies!! The little ones that hatched out late...I hope they do OK... they seem to be. Hopefully they will all be one big happy family very soon. The chicks are fine on the ice/snow. That's funny the "kids" do better than the adults. lol We had a bad cold snap her in Texas and had ice in the ground for almost a week straight. I dont think my adults came out of the coop the whole week. lol That was the week mine hatched. They are a little over two weeks old now. Mom has been doing great. It's my first "hatch" I had no idea what to expect. It's great to watch her give them more and more independence....She hops up on the roost or high places and watches them fend for themselves a bit with the others...They seem to be doing great with the roosters and eat right along side them. The Momma hen is a little overly protective only with the other hen in the group. She makes her keep her distance!!
These taken a few days ago.

 

[PrairieChickens]

We have a black bantam cochin roo that I think is Uno's father, and I've seen him in with the two broodies, showing the kids how to forage. It's been really sweet to see.

The two chicks that are in the brooder to themselves seem quite content with each other's company and my occasional visits. It's a shame they couldn't be integrated with the others, but they seem to be doing just fine. Time will tell how readily they assimilate with the rest of the flock when they're old enough.

Anna, the original broody, has completely lost interest in brooding the chicks, possibly because O'Brien was so eager and willing to take over the task. I rarely see her with the chicks anymore, and yesterday, she laid an egg, so I guess she's done! lol The chicks don't seem to mind--O'Brien has been very attentive.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

TaraBella, I'll try to remember to hit you up when Dos starts laying to let you know what we end up getting. She hatched from a nice medium-brown egg, so it should be interesting!

LadyofMcCamley: I too was surprised by how willing the youngin's were to venture out into the snow and cold. They are less wimpy about the snow and ice than a lot of the grownups! Our alpha rooster Mars actually huddles up against the side of the brooder to mooch off the babies' heat, and some of the girls won't come out of the coop if it doesn't get above freezing.

Given the choice, I'll raise as many chicks under a broody as I possibly can. They're absolutely thriving.

So your Roo is the EE! I would totally be interested to know if the color egg gene can easily be passed by the roo!!!! I would breed Dancer (EE roo) to all of my Girls....though I doubt my head roo would appreciate that much!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

So your Roo is the EE!  I would totally be interested to know if the color egg gene can easily be passed by the roo!!!!  I would breed Dancer (EE roo) to all of my Girls....though I doubt my head roo would appreciate that much!

It depends if your EE roo has the blue gene....which is closely tied to the pea comb on the genetic code...so if he has a pea comb it is far more likely than not depending on how far back the true Ameraucana or Araucana blood was.

If he does have the blue gene and is bred to non-blue hen, there is the probability that 50% will be colored egg layers (blue if hen is white, green if hen is brown layer) and 50% they will lay brown.

It's more complicated than that but that is how it generally works as
explained to me when I was pondering this.

Lady of McCamley

 

[PrairieChickens]

Quote: Yeah, it was an odd situation where I had no idea who the mother was, but I knew as soon as the chick hatched who the daddy was! When Dos popped out of the shell, she was like a slightly-redder version of what Gryff looked like as a baby, but since I hadn't seen who laid the egg, I knew only that it was one of my many, many brown egg layers.

As for the roos, it's been pretty surprising how content Gryffindor and Mars have been to share the role of top roo. I've only seen them fight once, and Gryff started it. Mars put a pretty quick stop to it, and once Gryff backed down, everything was peaceful again. As evidenced by the disproportionate number of EE-spawned chicks in this batch, Mars clearly has no problem with Gryff mating the hens. We're pretty happy with how it worked out, since of all the roosters we've had, Gryff is the only one we ever got on purpose, with the specific intention of breeding him from the start.

 

[zippy722]

My chicks that hatched out on Nov 9ish are getting so big, but they are still crowding under and around their momma. That was 7 weeks ago yesterday. When she raised chicks in June, she started laying again 5 weeks later and the chicks were more independent. Is it the cold I presume causing a longer stay with her? They are all feathered out so I expected them to be on their own now. Any thoughts on how much longer they'll stay with her? They are fully integrated with my other hens which does make life easier right now.