Help hatching chicks

[peafowl_Lover]

Yeah I was expecting roos I have nine ladies outside, so the roos should have lots of hens but I will sell some roos if there is too many

 

[peafowl_Lover]

Also, I have a peahen living with my hens will the roos treat her like a hen?
l Wouldn't like the roosters to mount her. And I wouldn't like to separate her from the hens as I have no other peafowl

 

[Debbie292d]

Eating small amounts of shavings will not hurt them.

It's a good idea to provide them with some chick-sized grit, to help grind up what they do eat, but small pieces of shavings will go through them safely even without grinding.

I see you posted a photo of the whole brooder-- much bigger than I had realized. Good! That gives them room to run and play, and room for you to put things like the shavings and perches (which I see you also have.)

This isn't a good picture of it, but I use an old suet box filled with about 2 inches of garden dirt, a sprinkle of DE, a sprinkle of wood ash (we have a wood-burning furnace) and a sprinkle of leftover Chinchilla dust. In other words, a modge podge of stuff lol. I cut part of one side down so little ones can get in and out easier. They dust bathe in it plus scratch around and appear to eat some of it. I figure they're getting their cocci resistance up with this too. So far, so good!

 

[peafowl_Lover]

My rir x light sussex chick now has black white and red feathers any guesses now?

 

[NatJ]

My rir x light sussex chick now has black white and red feathers any guesses now?

I'll guess that it's playing games with us! (Not really, but it sure feels that way.)

Seriously, I'd like to see updated pictures before I try to guess any more about it.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

 

[peafowl_Lover]

This is the chick "Snowball" I thought she was a white leghorn but she'll probably be red. Wups!!!

 

[NatJ]

This is the chick "Snowball" I thought she was a white leghorn but she'll probably be red. Wups!!!

This is the same puzzling chick, right?

So I think the sequence of events goes like this:

--the father was a Rhode Island Red and the mother was a Light Sussex
(that produces sexlinked chicks, with gold daughters and silver sons)

--the chick hatched with a reddish color of down
(which means female, when those are the parents)

--the chick then grew black & white feathers
(which should mean male)

--the chick now shows black & white at the tips of the feathers, and red/brown in other parts of the feathers
(which I think means we are back to calling the chick female)

At this point I think the chick is female, and has been female all along. The white bits in the feathers must be an oddity that may (or may not) disappear as she grows older and molts a few times. But she's definitely been a confusing chick!

 

[peafowl_Lover]

Thanks for that. I'm moving them to a bigger brooder on Saturday. One if the chicks just sits under the heat plate not really moving and was closing its eyes the vet gave us medicine for it and it stopped closing its eyes when we gave it to it, what should I do?

 

[peafowl_Lover]

Also the chick holds its wings low