Hello! This is my first time posting here after lurking for advice while the chicks were younger. I have two adult hens (red star and ISA brown) in my backyard that I got as pullets, but after one of my hens decided to have a brief egg-eating stint (solved by the mustard-in-eggshell trick, thanks everyone for that!), it made me realize how 2 chickens isn't enough to meet my egg needs if one of them stops laying. After looking into it, I decided to get a chick from a local feed store who gets their chicks from a reputable farm not too far away. Just one chick.
So that's how I ended up with three new chicks! they're five weeks old now and I'm getting ready to put them outside once summer is in full swing. Only one problem, since I live in a city, I cannot have any roosters because of backyard breeding laws and noise ordinances.
This is Sesame, she's a black sex link and my only guaranteed hen. I got her with the idea to use her as a standard for hen behavior and appearance, but it hasn't been very helpful since she's a completely different breed than the other two LOL. She's got an attitude and packs a mean peck, but I'm very attached to her as she was the weakest of the three during the first 2 weeks. She scared me half to death several times!
This is Peach, my buff orpington! I love orps, they're just the cutest chickens ever. All my chickens are very cute but I think peach is gonna be so damn fluffy I'll die of happiness. she's already twice the size of the other chicks. I'm almost certain she's a hen, her comb and wattle are the smallest of the three and her tail is blunt and fluffy. She's my flightiest chick, but also the most food motivated.
And then there's the suspicious rooster... Blueberry, my lavender orpington.
I'm going to continue referring to her as a "she" until proven otherwise for the sake of my sanity, but I'm almost certain I paid double the price of the other two for a fancy rooster. I was so happy to find out that the store had lavender orps, and I called twice the day I went to pick them up to make sure they still had some in stock. I didn't care that she was so expensive, I think lavenders are just the most beautiful morph of orpingtons (followed closely by jubilees). She's also my friendliest chick, she doesn't mind being picked up and she never pecks me unless she's eating from my hand. I will be so upset if she crows, and I'm praying she never does.
My dilemma is that Peach and Blueberry, despite both being orpingtons, look completely different. Peach is very obviously a pullet, and if I just had the two of them I'd already give up on blueberry turning out to be one as well. However, Sesame as a sex link looks and acts more like Blueberry than Peach, which leads me to think that maybe Peach is an outlier and Blueberry is a pullet after all? So here I am, turning to the chicken experts. Did I really pay double for a rooster, or am I achieving my wildest dreams of owning a lavender orpington?
PS: Can I turn off the heat lamp at this age yet? I've seen conflicting information, my house is 70-65 temp controlled. With the lamp turned on, the brooder is 79 degrees and I cant lower it any further anymore. Seems too hot with the lamp and too cold without, any advice?
So that's how I ended up with three new chicks! they're five weeks old now and I'm getting ready to put them outside once summer is in full swing. Only one problem, since I live in a city, I cannot have any roosters because of backyard breeding laws and noise ordinances.
This is Sesame, she's a black sex link and my only guaranteed hen. I got her with the idea to use her as a standard for hen behavior and appearance, but it hasn't been very helpful since she's a completely different breed than the other two LOL. She's got an attitude and packs a mean peck, but I'm very attached to her as she was the weakest of the three during the first 2 weeks. She scared me half to death several times!
This is Peach, my buff orpington! I love orps, they're just the cutest chickens ever. All my chickens are very cute but I think peach is gonna be so damn fluffy I'll die of happiness. she's already twice the size of the other chicks. I'm almost certain she's a hen, her comb and wattle are the smallest of the three and her tail is blunt and fluffy. She's my flightiest chick, but also the most food motivated.
And then there's the suspicious rooster... Blueberry, my lavender orpington.
I'm going to continue referring to her as a "she" until proven otherwise for the sake of my sanity, but I'm almost certain I paid double the price of the other two for a fancy rooster. I was so happy to find out that the store had lavender orps, and I called twice the day I went to pick them up to make sure they still had some in stock. I didn't care that she was so expensive, I think lavenders are just the most beautiful morph of orpingtons (followed closely by jubilees). She's also my friendliest chick, she doesn't mind being picked up and she never pecks me unless she's eating from my hand. I will be so upset if she crows, and I'm praying she never does.
My dilemma is that Peach and Blueberry, despite both being orpingtons, look completely different. Peach is very obviously a pullet, and if I just had the two of them I'd already give up on blueberry turning out to be one as well. However, Sesame as a sex link looks and acts more like Blueberry than Peach, which leads me to think that maybe Peach is an outlier and Blueberry is a pullet after all? So here I am, turning to the chicken experts. Did I really pay double for a rooster, or am I achieving my wildest dreams of owning a lavender orpington?
PS: Can I turn off the heat lamp at this age yet? I've seen conflicting information, my house is 70-65 temp controlled. With the lamp turned on, the brooder is 79 degrees and I cant lower it any further anymore. Seems too hot with the lamp and too cold without, any advice?
