Helllooo Team Broody!
Remember me? Tee Hee .. one week away from the thread and I have 5 pages of posts to catch up on . I luv Team Broody!
Liz, sorry to read that Jan is not laying yet.
TG and 16 paws, also sorry to read about your egg dramas.
Congratulations CC999. Beautiful bubbies and mum is very pretty also.
TG, what a relief that you heard back from your Silkie lady. When do you get your special new girl?
TGG, talk about boys behaving badly! Gees
I haven’t seen an egg for at least 2 weeks! Dusty is molting, Tina, Blondie and Tammy are too young and Cilla is still playing mumma.
Integration is going well except for Cilla picking on Tina a little but then Tina seems to manage to put herself in situations that she cannot get out of without being told off by Cilla. They have plenty of room but Tina is not as smart as Dusty and is not as accomplished at the ‘stay-out-of-the-broody-mumma’s-way’ routine. It doesn’t help that Tina carries on like someone is killing her if Cilla goes near.
Blondie and Tammy are just over 6 weeks old now and as adorable as ever. I am fairly positive that Tammy is a pullet, especially at 6 weeks; Blondie, without doubt! They are quite happy free ranging but stick close to Cilla. They have also progressed to roosting with her with a little help from me because some nights they seem to forget how to get up to the roost and just run around below it peeping at mumma who chatters encouragement for them to jump.
If I get time today, I will try and get some more pictures.
OK, I see a couple of people were keen to be bored by my humble opinion on the differences between the two hatches and how I somehow managed to get two very snuggly bubbies on the second hatch. So, here goes ….
As you know, same broody mumma both hatches. Cilla is very friendly, does not run away and is more than happy for me to pick her up.
With her first hatch, I tried to leave her in the Chateau coop and run with the others, hoping to avoid separating her and therefore bypassing integration down the track. Unfortunately Dusty wanted to lay in the same nest box as Cilla had the bubbies and fighting and pecking ensued. We rushed out and bought the Ranch into which we put Cilla and the bubbies.
Mistakes I think I made:
* Cilla had never had babies before and had also never seen the Ranch before, so moving her when the chicks were not even a day old made her nervous which reflected on the chicks.
* The Ranch, while very safe, does not have a lot of ‘look outside’ qualities and basically the only time Cilla and the chicks saw much was when I cleaned and fed them.
* They did get to come outside for a supervised free range, but because I did not have a special area for them, there was a lot of herding and chasing to get them back in again or general herding to keep them out of trouble. Also, because Dusty was not used to them, she would join in, semi-attacking and making matters worse.
* The Ranch had to be moved a couple of times also. Once because I had it in the wrong spot (too much sun and too hot) and secondly when I attached it to the opposite end of the run from the Chateau at integration.
* When the time came for integration, Dusty had not seen a lot of the chicks and was not used to them so I still had to split them up but then Cilla wanted to roost and cut the cord, leaving the chicks to their own devices when integration happened. So not only did they have Dusty to contend with, their mumma was also not particularly interested in protecting them either.
What I think I did right this time:
* Cilla got to stay in the Chateau alone with the bubbies from Day 1 and everyone could see each other through the small dividing wire door to the run which I closed.
* The Chateau has a small wired run so the chicks could see all the comings and goings in the garden, including me walking past numerous times a day, Dusty and Tina free ranging, wild birds fighting over the seed I leave out for them etc.
* I also added a temporary fence, creating a small free range area for them when they got a little bigger. The fence has now gone back in the shed.
* This time integration has happened while Cilla is still being protective, so the little munchkins run around with no fear.
* No upheavals, no moving, no stress.
The lessons learnt from the first hatch meant that I did not have to herd and catch them to get them back in and I could spend many hours just sitting with them, letting them come to me. Not having to herd them means that whenever I am with them, I am either feeding them, just spending time with them or walking past on my way somewhere else; they are not scared of me at all and when I do sit on the lawn to watch them, they run over and jump on my legs.
Cilla is way more relaxed also and I think this has helped no end.
I have read that you should start picking the chicks up from Day 1 so that they are used to you doing that, but I disagree slightly. Just my opinion, but I think you should spend as much time as you can just with them and let them get used to you in their own time rather than force them.
I guess to sum it up, I hope Tammy and Blondie are thinking here comes Mum who is either going to feed us, sit and chat to us or let us sleep on her nice warm foot as opposed to here comes that lady who is going to pick us up or round us up!
Anyway, as I said, just my experience which I hope helps.
The major software roll out at work happened Monday morning and last week was full on but things have calmed down now and hopefully I will be able to check in more often and not spend a week away from my online friends
Remember me? Tee Hee .. one week away from the thread and I have 5 pages of posts to catch up on . I luv Team Broody!
Liz, sorry to read that Jan is not laying yet.
TG and 16 paws, also sorry to read about your egg dramas.
Congratulations CC999. Beautiful bubbies and mum is very pretty also.
TG, what a relief that you heard back from your Silkie lady. When do you get your special new girl?
TGG, talk about boys behaving badly! Gees
I haven’t seen an egg for at least 2 weeks! Dusty is molting, Tina, Blondie and Tammy are too young and Cilla is still playing mumma.
Integration is going well except for Cilla picking on Tina a little but then Tina seems to manage to put herself in situations that she cannot get out of without being told off by Cilla. They have plenty of room but Tina is not as smart as Dusty and is not as accomplished at the ‘stay-out-of-the-broody-mumma’s-way’ routine. It doesn’t help that Tina carries on like someone is killing her if Cilla goes near.
Blondie and Tammy are just over 6 weeks old now and as adorable as ever. I am fairly positive that Tammy is a pullet, especially at 6 weeks; Blondie, without doubt! They are quite happy free ranging but stick close to Cilla. They have also progressed to roosting with her with a little help from me because some nights they seem to forget how to get up to the roost and just run around below it peeping at mumma who chatters encouragement for them to jump.
If I get time today, I will try and get some more pictures.
OK, I see a couple of people were keen to be bored by my humble opinion on the differences between the two hatches and how I somehow managed to get two very snuggly bubbies on the second hatch. So, here goes ….
As you know, same broody mumma both hatches. Cilla is very friendly, does not run away and is more than happy for me to pick her up.
With her first hatch, I tried to leave her in the Chateau coop and run with the others, hoping to avoid separating her and therefore bypassing integration down the track. Unfortunately Dusty wanted to lay in the same nest box as Cilla had the bubbies and fighting and pecking ensued. We rushed out and bought the Ranch into which we put Cilla and the bubbies.
Mistakes I think I made:
* Cilla had never had babies before and had also never seen the Ranch before, so moving her when the chicks were not even a day old made her nervous which reflected on the chicks.
* The Ranch, while very safe, does not have a lot of ‘look outside’ qualities and basically the only time Cilla and the chicks saw much was when I cleaned and fed them.
* They did get to come outside for a supervised free range, but because I did not have a special area for them, there was a lot of herding and chasing to get them back in again or general herding to keep them out of trouble. Also, because Dusty was not used to them, she would join in, semi-attacking and making matters worse.
* The Ranch had to be moved a couple of times also. Once because I had it in the wrong spot (too much sun and too hot) and secondly when I attached it to the opposite end of the run from the Chateau at integration.
* When the time came for integration, Dusty had not seen a lot of the chicks and was not used to them so I still had to split them up but then Cilla wanted to roost and cut the cord, leaving the chicks to their own devices when integration happened. So not only did they have Dusty to contend with, their mumma was also not particularly interested in protecting them either.
What I think I did right this time:
* Cilla got to stay in the Chateau alone with the bubbies from Day 1 and everyone could see each other through the small dividing wire door to the run which I closed.
* The Chateau has a small wired run so the chicks could see all the comings and goings in the garden, including me walking past numerous times a day, Dusty and Tina free ranging, wild birds fighting over the seed I leave out for them etc.
* I also added a temporary fence, creating a small free range area for them when they got a little bigger. The fence has now gone back in the shed.
* This time integration has happened while Cilla is still being protective, so the little munchkins run around with no fear.
* No upheavals, no moving, no stress.
The lessons learnt from the first hatch meant that I did not have to herd and catch them to get them back in and I could spend many hours just sitting with them, letting them come to me. Not having to herd them means that whenever I am with them, I am either feeding them, just spending time with them or walking past on my way somewhere else; they are not scared of me at all and when I do sit on the lawn to watch them, they run over and jump on my legs.
Cilla is way more relaxed also and I think this has helped no end.
I have read that you should start picking the chicks up from Day 1 so that they are used to you doing that, but I disagree slightly. Just my opinion, but I think you should spend as much time as you can just with them and let them get used to you in their own time rather than force them.
I guess to sum it up, I hope Tammy and Blondie are thinking here comes Mum who is either going to feed us, sit and chat to us or let us sleep on her nice warm foot as opposed to here comes that lady who is going to pick us up or round us up!
Anyway, as I said, just my experience which I hope helps.
The major software roll out at work happened Monday morning and last week was full on but things have calmed down now and hopefully I will be able to check in more often and not spend a week away from my online friends
