Growing my little flock

[fuzzi]

Sad turn of events...I lost the chick that I had hoped was just dehydrated. It had much more serious issues than that lurking under the surface, including a herniated cervical air sac that was getting gradually worse and interferring with its crop. I was able to drain about 3ml of air from the growing lump near the back of its neck, but the syringe also picked up close to 1ml of fluid interspersed with the air...so its respiratory system was failing in a broader way by the time I realied what was going on and intervened. Unfortunately that procedure only bought it a couple hours of relief and improved breathing before things went downhill again. Although I can't know for sure whether it was a congenital problem or due to injury in transit, I feel like an injury is more likely.

That's actually the first chick I've lost before reaching a year old if I don't count a couple of incubation quitters that never fully developed. The other five chicks seem just fine so far. Having only ordered 4, still having 5, and knowing that chick losses are just one of those things that happens that one has to be ready for, I feel like I shouldn't be in the dumps about it...but still kind off feels like a crummy start with this batch between the broody fail and then losing one.

"Failed to thrive".

I had a dozen eggs shipped to me last year. Seven hatched, one died on day 3. It happens.

 

[DonyaQuick]

"Failed to thrive".

I had a dozen eggs shipped to me last year. Seven hatched, one died on day 3. It happens.

Yeah...it was going to happen at some point. I promised my husband not to let it put me off mail order pullets since the remaining five are doing great and we were planning to get in line later this year for some exhibition-type BO pullets for next spring.

Meanwhile...the silly factor is definitely on the rise with a couple of these little fluffs. I hope this doesn't mean cockerel vibes x2 lol.

 

[fuzzi]

I put 8 eggs in the incubator 3 weeks ago. Rahab went broody about 2 weeks ago, so I moved 4 underneath her about a week ago.

She won't let me check for #4!

In the incubator I have 2 hatched chicks, and one that's pipped. I'll move the 2 over to Rahab after dark.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I put 8 eggs in the incubator 3 weeks ago. Rahab went broody about 2 weeks ago, so I moved 4 underneath her about a week ago.
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She won't let me check for #4!

In the incubator I have 2 hatched chicks, and one that's pipped. I'll move the 2 over to Rahab after dark.
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I badly need a rent-a-Rahab right now! Instead I've got Sasquatch and Coco doing some kind of bad-broody-club thing that's stopping Sasquatch from fully un-broodying. I'm legit having trouble managing the brooder temperatures for my poor Ameraucanas in the dingy weather my area is getting. Almost wishing I'd let my Scruffy girl brood again. She's like your Rahab I think, wants to take chicks any time she gets the broody bug for any length of time. I'll probably only trust her with mail order chicks in the future. She wanted to brood again for me a couple weeks ago, but I didn't let her since she'd already done a batch and done a big molt afterwards, and I didn't want her possibly doing two broody molts and then a fall one.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I hope these two (Goober and Little Fuzzy) will appreciate what I just bought for them...they're going to be getting a brand new, bigger, and certainly over-priced prefab delivered next month. They have been in a coop that is too small for some time; I let them out a lot to compensate for that, but I won't be able to do that when the snow inevitably gets too deep for them to walk in it! The plan was originally to build them something new in Aug/Sept, but my husband is building a garage right now that is high priority and taking more time than expected, and I'm dealing with some tendon issues in my right hand that make any kind of extensive power tool use difficult. So...I just forked out for a bigger prefab. It'll require some assembly but I can manage some usage of a drill to do that, just not the amount required to build big things from scratch. I had been hoping to not need to do that again and also to eventually just replace both of my existing two prefabs with larger, sturdier things, but such is life. Perhaps a monetary lesson that I should have gotten on builing them something as soon as it was clear that they'd be staying as a pair and while my hand was still good.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, the frat house is getting...interesting LOL. There are five birds in there right now. There should be 4 on one side and 1 on the other side...that being Mr Squeak, who has no off button if his brother sets him going.

Now, Squeak is separated from the otehrs by a barrier that I have believed to be, shall we say, semi-permiable. I have seen a lot of evidence up til now that it provides a psychological my-side-your-side for him and Tengu, but that they don't always stay on their sides. For example, a few times I have found shed (not pulled) feathers of the wrong color in places where it's quite unlikely to be unless someone went exploring. Sometimes Squeak also seems to eat an awful lot of food in a day...just things adding up that were a lil sus.

But, I now have proof of the permiability and the fact that the big boys actually don't care about it. Smoke and Speedy, the youngest, are both smart cookies. I came out to this a couple days back. Two goofy buddies Tengu and Kang greeting me on the way in as usual...

...and then WHAT IS THIS MR SQUEAK

Squeak is fine with them, and they seem to prefer it over there. However, Squeaks coop is pretty small. For obvious reasons - it was meant as an emergency Squeak hut, not a new flock house. Speedy is unfotunately at that phase where he has bedtime freakouts if he sleeps in an enclosed space of any sort (not the first young bird I've had go through that and need to be shoved in the coop multiple times each night). I'm sure he'll grow out of it, but tonight he managed to whack-bonk-slap poor tired grumpy Squeak in one of his episodes and got booted out. It was probably the gentlest booting-out I have ever seen, and also kind of comical watching Squeak do a big grumble and stomp back to his little sleeping spot, but it did mean I had to put those two youngsters back to bed with Tengu and Kang, so that the Speedster can have his freakouts in a larger space. I bet I find them back on Squeak's side tomorrow afternoon though.

 

[DonyaQuick]

So I thought I had 5 roosters/cockerels in the bachelor pen, but actually I have 4 of those and then this one weird striped wading bird creature. Assuming Speedy grows into his legs and feet, he is going to be MASSIVE. And if not, then he's going to be trending towards the modern game build. Time will tell lol.

Meanwhile, the new Goober hut has arrived. Giving it a coat of paint first. I am rubbish with a paint sprayer...having to wait a long time between coats because of that. The wood was actually sprisingly nice for a prefab, kind of a shame to make it all white like this, but it only had a light stain which is not enough to protect it against the absurd seasonal wetness of this region. The only thing that was a bit disappointing so far is that the HWC is a lighter gauge than the norm, so the windows on the night time area will need thicker gauge put over them for safety. I don't think there will be any major issue leaving the daytime-only run area as the lighter gauge material.

I am also going to put this thing up on a base of 2x4 PT boards. That will both get it up off the soil and get the walk-in door up a bit higher for snow time.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I let the boys out for a photo shoot a few days back.

Mr Squeak loves the camera. He will just twirl, flap, prance about, and strike a dramatic pose all day.

Liu Kang is difficult to get goot photos of because he's a dance maniac, but he is a pretty boy when he's in focus! Getting some nice green on his tail. Ignoring his lack of spurs, he really does not look his age to me, which is only 3 weeks older than his younger brothers.

The aforementioned brothers who are showing no signs of exiting the awkward phase any time soon.

Aaaaand...Tengu's fluffy butt. Dude is definitely not as big a fan of the camera as his brother when he's out lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

In this warm summer weather I've been taking the Ameraucana babies out each day. With all of my past chicks' first outings, I put the tractor within view of but not fully inside main flock's enclosure. These chicks are so wiggly I didn't trust that for a minute lol. They need an enclosure within an enclosure. That way if one digs under or escapes during transfer (which one DID this morning and went on a grand run about...), there is another level of containment and it can't just zap off into the forest never to be seen again.

Meanwhile...DANGIT SPEEDY STOP TRYING TO TIP THE POOP BUCKET WHY IS THIS A DAILY THING NOW

 

[Slw]

I’ve only been keeping chickens for about a year and a half; earlier this year I decided to get a rooster for my hens to have a more complete experience and to turn chicken keeping into a larger project by hatching my own chicks to maintain a larger group. These are current my adults minus my broody. I've hatched eggs from Dingus and Buddy so far.

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Roosters are supposed to be dinosaurs, but Ziggy is more like a moody version of Barney the purple dinosaur. He’s a group hug kind of guy that occasionally gets bent out of shape if I set the feeder in the wrong spot, but even then he just tugs my pants. He's a very sweet boy.

Buddy is my smartest chicken and is a hefty girl even though it's not obvious from the photo. She’s probably a little on the chunky side because she uses her smarts to eat more junk food than the others, but she also has a lot more muscle than my other hens. She lays medium sized pinkish to light brown eggs with white speckles. She is a lap chicken that likes to be pampered.

And Dingus, aka The Dingus Baby, aka Big Ol’ Baby Dingus...she wails and cries if she doesn’t get to shove her face in my armpit each morning. It started when she was a chick. None of my others do this. Dingus lays light brown to nearly white eggs that usually have brown speckles.

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Another odd thing about Dingus: I believe she is far-sighted in one eye and extremely far-sighted in the other. She has almost no up-close depth perception, which was obvious from when she was just a couple weeks old and couldn't figure out how to jump out of the brooder with the others. She's still rubbish at jumping and will snap at bugs that are 2ft too far away, but she can also spot a predator in tall grass clear across a good-sized field. If she sounds off, I know to just trust it and go in the direction she's looking, because there will be something out there even though I can't see it until I'm halfway there. So, her weird eyesight issue has turned out to be half disability and half superpower. I was on the fence about whether to hatch her eggs because of the vision issue but she gets along just fine and seems like a hardy bird otherwise. Doesn't seem like either of her offspring have inherited her far-sightedness.

I wanted to hatch some from Chungus too, but her eggs were all duds unfortunately, so for now I just have 4 chicks, 2 each from Buddy and Dingus.

And they were hatched by my little Dimple here. Please forgive the state of the room; I had everyone set up in my home office for the first couple weeks and the chicks got into pretty much everything.

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Dimple is my bantam size hen who grew weird little bricks for spurs tried to be the rooster more than once before I got a real one. She probably will never have fertile eggs of her own because she doesn’t squat. Instead, she does the Dimple Dance where she furiously drums her feet and scoots about with hunched up shoulders. Being broody is probably the most normal hen thing she’s ever done. As soon as they were able to leave the nest she started bringing them over to take naps on me, so now I have super-friendly chicks. They are all around 3 weeks old now.

As for the individual chicks, Dingus’s vision issue doesn't seem to have been passed along to her children but a certain something else apparently was. Two days out of the egg and it started. How on earth is there a shove-head-in-armpit gene?

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Buddy made what looks to be a barred chick and another that is white with some random black feathers coming in. I’m actually excited that it looks like I have a cockerel with the white one; I think it could be a very pretty bird. The white buddy baby is the only one so far making suspect it's a cockerel - comb coming faster and in red at the base instead of skin tone and wattles coming in early and on the redder side.

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And this is Dingus’s other chick. It took me a few days to realize what was up with it's face, but I think this poor little one actually broke its jaw during hatching. It got stuck after pipping and I wonder if that's why. It could also have been from being bopped around because it was last out with its beak protruding from the egg for some time. It had its foot right up by its beak through the hole, and I had to assist by tearing the membrane a bit so it could push the shell apart the rest of the way with its foot, which it did on its own. On its beak, it initially had had a big dent that swelled up at first, and it wanted to sleep in my hand a lot more than the others for the first few days. The injured area turned dark red first and then purple, but it now looks to have healed and the discoloration is gone. It’s a strong eater and catching back up in size to the others. I know this type of injury in a chick can lead to scissor beak but I’m not seeing any sign of curvature so far. I hope it does ok even if it has a bit of a snarly face.

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Now I'm in the process of trying to figure out names for these little fluffs. It will be fun to see how their colors turn out as they grow.