Hatching with 2 broodies

[Pooman]

Jess is very interested in the little ones, having a good sniff here. She has stopped licking her lips now which is good....

 

[Pooman]

The Poussin 2 nighs ago when they decided that the bottle brush was the best place to sleep. We had done a shuffle and Dotty and her two chicks were in their old home, and they dont like going back to where they were hatched. Had to get a seat to stand on to get them out and lock them up. Chooks are funny

 

[Pooman]

The Poussin in their old home.... The new coop i built a while back. Small door in back (right side) big door in front (left side of photo). These guys are about 7 weeks here and doing great despite having to raise themselves after mother death disaster x2 and surrogate father death x1 oooo that was a sad time

 

[Pooman]

Mavis with her 4 little ones just out of the broody coop. Growing strong.

Wilma the Dark Barred Rock panting away in 44oC (110oF)

Dotty and the 2 DBR chicks, growing very slowly. Dotty is not a good mum.... The brooder chicks are about to over take them, even though they are 3 weeks behind. Mavis clutch which are almost a week older are streaks ahead.

The Mega egg... From Wilma, not a double yolker, just a randomly huge egg

 

[Teila]

G'Day Pooman

Great Pics! Thoroughly enjoyed looking at them.
It is so good to see the little orphans are doing OK; they did have a rough start.

 

[lizgarf]

Hi Everyone!
BYC decided to stop notifying me on posts, for some reasons, so I'm just catching up now.
Nice pictures, Pooman. Love the one with Jess and the chicks! So cute!!

MM, I make a homemade dogfood with our eggs, with grains and legumes and veggies in the crock pot. Basically, I cook a few cups of dried peas and/or lentils for a bit, then add some brown rice and millet or other grains, then some potatoes, sweet potatoes, then some carrots and greens if I have extra, and at the very end, I add some eggs, and then some olive and flaxseed oil as it's cooling. It sounds more complicated than it is. I have a really big crockpot, and the total work time is about half an hour and I freeze half of it and it lasts a couple weeks. I usually give my dog half that and half kibble. I never have too many eggs - I bake a lot and I'm vegetarian, so they're my main protein. Plus, I give them away or trade them, and even once sold a dozen for $20!

So, I have a cockerel problem I need help with. At 14 weeks, Desi still isn't crowing, and he's not aggressive, but he's started a very annoying behavior: He won't go back inside the coop with the ladies when they go back. I usually open the door from the run to the backyard in the afternoon, and then after a couple hours, the hens let me know they want to go back to the coop. They don't use the run, but make me open the gate and walk them back to the coop. In the past few days, Desi has gone with them, but refused to go inside the coop until it's almost dark. He won't let me handle him and basically just milks the time outside until he decides its time to go in. Or maybe it's a conspiracy to get me to throw scratch inside the coop for 40 minutes - a trick he learned from Marsha (who goes straight inside, now). This means that I can't plan to leave to go anywhere between, say, 3 and 5, because I'm worried I won't be able to get him back in the coop, and I don't want to leave him outside. Any ideas? Just risk it and make him wait for me to return? I'm still trying to keep it on the downlow that I have a rooster, so I don't want to leave him too visible or have him discover his voice. I could not let any of them in the backyard, but that seems unfair.

Otherwise, integration is going great. Rousseau is a hormonal, egg-laying machine - 4 days in a row this warm January week! Frida is still a loyal mama - not a helicopter mom, but still attentive and apparently not going back to laying any time soon!

A couple new pics:
Desi, from a few days ago, getting his saddle feathers and an attitude:


The chicks at 14 weeks - what a difference a chromosome makes!


Lucy and Frida - demonstrating their healthy daughter-mother relationship:


The Brady girls (fence-hopping no more):

 

[MistyMountain]

Hey everyone!

Pooman, love the pics! Wish my Lilly would stop licking her lips like Jess! Too cute!

Liz, I might need to look into that! We should have enough to go around. The boys have taken interest in cooking with me as well, so I am sure I can find some good cookie and cake recipes to use those eggs up on. I don't know if I will ever get to the point of really selling the eggs, mostly just if they want to make a donation, awesome. If not, well, I would rather not have them go bad!

About your Desi Roo, that really seems like typical Rooish behavior, at least what I have observed here. First one out of the coop, last one in the coop. Willie makes sure all the girls are in a settled before he goes inside. I feel your pain though, if anyone could see me trying to get my flock in the coop before dusk… I would be making money on AFV. I have to run around flapping my arms and pretty much make a fool out of myself. I think the flock goes back into the coop because they feel bad for me, not because I am scaring them. What's worse is when I get some in and have to catch the others. A game of one bird goes in two birds come out goes on. Frustrating.

Beautiful pictures though! Happy chickens!!

Teila, I never thought about crushing the eggs shell and all. Makes sense, no waste!

More fun up on the mountain. 3 white eggs yesterday morning and this morning I found a frozen yellow rubber egg under the roost. I don't know if white rubber eggs turn yellow when they freeze or if I have an EE starting up. I got that egg out of there because the chickens were taking too much interest in it and when I looked up into the nest box what do I find? A blue egg! YESSSSSSS!

 

[lizgarf]

Congrats on the blue egg, MM!! It's so much fun to start seeing the variety! How old are your hens again?
I really hope to see a blue egg soon. I'm starting to get a little concerned with the Bradies' slow re-start. It's possible they're not completely over their molt, but except for the occasional extra down feather or slight changes I'm noticing, they really look like they should be done, and they certainly seem settled in!

You might find some fun ways to trade or give away eggs. Is there a local restaurant or bakery you like that would be interested in the eggs? Maybe they'd give you a discount or pay you something in return if you have too many for your family to use. I also use egg shells as soil amendment. My dog loves her special food, by the way.

 

[Pooman]

Hey Liz

The poussin have been hard to get into their coop the last few days. I used a plastic rake which helped give extra extension to my arms and to shoo them in there last night. It freaked them a little , but not greatly, i didnt have to get too close. They went in there lol

So have been away driving the last day and a half, the little chicks have grown so much.... So so much, they have officially over taken Dotty's ones and catching the next lot lol. They are packing the food away, heaps and heaps... But they have quite large crops... Really quite a bump. The largest is quite firm... A little concerned, but not greatly. So I have taken food away overnight and I'll check in the morning (its middle of night here, my sleeping is out of whack...). They have been on fermented chick starter, dry chick starter (both unlimited) some greens chopped finely and some bugs. I out out a bowl of grit for them, the finer stuff out of the bag when I gave them some bugs a few days ago.... But it's all gone... All, they wouldn't need so much, so hoping that hasn't caused a problem.

I'll check in the morning and probabily just go back to the fermented feed only.

I am beginning to think that brooder is a good start to life, at least a fast one.

 

[lizgarf]

Thanks for the tips.
I have always found it pretty easy to get the hens back into the coop by just throwing some scratch in there. They really love scratch and only get it a couple times a day (as opposed to their pellets, which are out all day), so it is a big incentive for them. Marsha was a little tricky when she first got here, but she's on board now, and otherwise Desi has been the only one to not go with the program, and that just started this week. If he keeps up with this routine, I'm just not going to let them in the backyard when I have to leave before sunset. The run will have to suffice!