fuzzi's Chicken Journal

[lightm]

Yes the mosquitos were TERRIBLE! I wasn't able to work on my pavement even with pants and long sleeve shirts yesterday afternoon.

So you will spray this on yourself?

 

[fuzzi]

Yes the mosquitos were TERRIBLE! I wasn't able to work on my pavement even with pants and long sleeve shirts yesterday afternoon.

So you will spray this on yourself?

I may give it a try, spray it around the coops. It sticks to foliage to deter mosquitoes.

 

[fuzzi]

From yesterday:

 

[fuzzi]

Good night, sweet chicks...

 

[1muttsfan]

Ha they are such little monkeys

 

[Shadrach]

Thankfully mum standing out in torrential rain protecting the chicks doesn't last for long. It used to worry me when I saw it.
I limited the number of eggs a hen could sit on after watching a particular hen trying to cover eight chicks in a storm. It just wasn't possible and some chicks were getting wet. Not that much of a problem in Catalonia because the sun shone and even winter days tended to be warm.
In the UK when it's cold that could be fatal for a chick if it can't get right up against mum under her wing.

I'll leave up to six eggs under a hen these days. I allow for two non hatchers and hope for four hatchings. In the past I could pretty much count on one of the four, if four hatched, to get predated, usually because it couldn't keep up the mum and the stronger chicks. Some just don't learn to follow mum closely.
The work involved in trying to find food for four or even three hungry chicks is phenomenal. All the free range hens I've known work most of the day whether one supplies feed or not. Some mums discourage their chicks from eating the supplied feed. I've had it scratched out of my hand by mum before she would let the chicks anywhere near the feed. Being able to feed ones offspring by foraging, which also teaches the chicks about foraging, is wired into the mothers it seem.

 

[fuzzi]

Guesses, for fun:

Pink - girl
Yellow - girl
Orange - girl
Blue - boy!
Green - boy?
Purple - boy

View attachment 4165108
View attachment 4165110

Update

Orange is a boy.

Purple is a boy

Blue and Green are looking like boys.

Yellow and Pink still look like girls to me.

 

[fuzzi]

I just removed from under Rahab the two faux eggs and one that someone must have laid today, exchanging two live ones from the incubator. Rahab gave me a light peck on my hand.

 

[fuzzi]

Sat in the second coop for a spell, taking pictures, talking to chicks. They're not as skittish around me.

Naomi is doing a wonderful job...

Abigail

Esther
(after stuffing herself with the chicks' mash)

Silas may not be "standard", but he's gorgeous!

 

[fuzzi]

I moved "C" egg and "D" egg from the incubator to Rahab this evening, was lightly pecked. She's now sitting on "A", "B", and the two I added tonight. Four eggs remain in the incubator. Day 13.