Hyperactive Chick = Potential Roo?

[thecatumbrella]

My experience is limited to raising 14 chicks, and all my girls have certainly been playful and spunky. With us and each other. But this new chick takes the cake. "She" is a 1 week-old frizzle mottled pekin bantam and OH MY GOSH... she came out of the shipping box guns blazing.

Run! Jump! Fall on my back and kick my legs! Jump again, undeterred! Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, FLY AT HUMAN HANDS! Run under the heat plate, THEN FLY BACK OUT! (repeat literally 30 times). Eat food, beak out food! Eat poop, eat bedding, eat poop fresh from my friend's butt!

The second you reach your hand in to do anything, she flies out from the heat plate. It could be 3am in the pitch dark. Now I know what you're thinking: "Cat Umbrella, my chicks are just like this. Doesn't mean anything." You sure about that? I have 3 older mottled pekin chicks, and while one of them is quite the spitfire, I don't think she holds a candle to this one. But the others aren't frizzled. Maybe this chick's brain is frizzled. I don't know. Aaaand to be fair, her brooder mates are two Silkies. One of which has a bum leg. So she could look super active in comparison.

I hear BYC peeps talk about rooster vibes in the brooder, so give me the dirt! Is my sexed female giving dude energy?

Here she is with her tag team partner, Goose, who desperately tries to keep up with her.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I don’t know anything about frizzles but I have definitely had chickens and chicks that act like they need to meditate for a couple hours a day before they should be allowed to make any decisions. They are usually the flightier breeds like Leghorns. Can’t say I recall getting roostery vibes from a day old chick or even older roosters acting particularly over-stimulated but I’ve never had a rooster from a breed known to be flighty like that. So it’s possible

 

[The Moonshiner]

Chick sounds a tad crazy to me.
Crazy = female trait

 

[thecatumbrella]

Chick sounds a tad crazy to me.
Crazy = female trait

Oh, you.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Chick sounds a tad crazy to me.
Crazy = Leghorn trait

There. Fixed it for you

 

[The Moonshiner]

There. Fixed it for you

 

[Ridgerunner]

One week is way too early to rehome that chick or do anything dramatic. Way too early to be sure.

Can behaviors give you a clue? Definitely. But that is just a clue, nothing definitive. That yellow chick looks like she is not going to take any crap from anybody. Would you want to meet that yellow chick in a dark alley?

But I am getting male vibes for the black one. The legs are a bit thicker, so a bit of a clue. But what I'm really seeing is the posture. The black's upright posture is pure male. The yellow's bent over posture is more typical of a female.

Out of curiosity how do you get your bantams sexed? Most hatcheries don't try to sex bantams but a shipper like MyPetChicken will. Vent sexing is not always perfect.

 

[thecatumbrella]

One week is way too early to rehome that chick or do anything dramatic. Way too early to be sure.

Can behaviors give you a clue? Definitely. But that is just a clue, nothing definitive. That yellow chick looks like she is not going to take any crap from anybody. Would you want to meet that yellow chick in a dark alley?

But I am getting male vibes for the black one. The legs are a bit thicker, so a bit of a clue. But what I'm really seeing is the posture. The black's upright posture is pure male. The yellow's bent over posture is more typical of a female.

Out of curiosity how do you get your bantams sexed? Most hatcheries don't try to sex bantams but a shipper like MyPetChicken will. Vent sexing is not always perfect.

Definitely not rehoming (at least not until there's an issue). Sorry if I gave that impression!

You know, it's interesting that you pegged the black one (Goose). She actually emulates a lot of the behaviors of the yellow one (Billy, who the post is about), so once in a while I'll ask them if there's two sneaky boys in the brooder!

They were sexed from Meyer Hatchery, which I'm almost positive is the source for MyPetChicken. I can't imagine vent sexing is very accurate for bantams. It's like trying to look in a pin hole!