Illinois...

[Tortoise]

My best guess is you have 2 boys and 2 girls (2&4). The second picture is really fuzzy though. And i always seem to guess wrong with the laced ones.

Your guess is 2 and 4 girls?
Thanks for taking a guess at it.
We are hoping for 1, 2, 3, being girls. Even though they are my chicks, my son loves the one in the first pick and trying to claim it as his if it's a hen. My fave are 2 and 3. Fingers crossed.
Btw these are @Faraday40 chicks.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

So today has been a mixed emotional day for me. I nearly lost my only spitzie roo Jake in a coyote attack at 9 this morning. I cant say if he put himself between the coyote and his girls or not, I only saw him being attacked while I was on hold trying to get a doctor appointment for my dad. I flew out the back sliding glass door and charged the coyote in my stocking feet and a cell phone. I chased him over an acre towards the creek. The poor lady on the other end had no idea what was going on. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to find jake who had scrambled in the other direction not knowing how bad he was hurt. There were feathers EVERYWHERE. My 14 yr. DS took the rifle and tried to track down the coyote. I went to work and on the way, jake showed up so it was a big relief. DH said he was missing his tail feathers but seemed ok. I got home and I indeed have a completely tailess bird. He looks like an araucana. I wanted to do a thorough check after he went to bed later.

So off i went with 15 eggs to Faradays house so she could incubate them in the reliable coolerbator. We picked out some laces ones and seramas to put in with mine. I took home a laced one and a funny shaped silkie one to try in my little inky which im going to set some silkie/seramas and spitzies. I put the laced one on the dryer nestled in some folded pants and went to use the restroom. While I was gone, my fat cat snuck in and played with the egg. Egg splattered EVERYWHERE. I can't win.

I got Jakie after dark and did a thorough inspection. He is hurt way worse than originally thought. He has a few puncture wounds, and a whole 2x2 section of skin peeled back under his left wing. Just like my hens when the roos are to.....enthusiastic. Normally I would keep the injured chicken in the garage, but that leaves his girls completely unprotected. I dont think he would do well on lockdown in there either. (@Farady40 can we say crow?) So he (and I) got bluekoted and neosporined and placed back in with his girls. I will probably worry about him for days as he's a favorite and the only roo we have.

So just a blah kind of day. At least i enjoyed my time with Faraday. I got to hold the micro chicken again!

 

[Tortoise]

Wow, that is a tuff day. So sorry. Glad there was at least some highlights. Hope your roo recovers and quickly.

 

[Faraday40]

Sure hope the female luck runs true with at least two of mine.
Some pics from today.
View attachment 1778210 View attachment 1778211 View attachment 1778212 View attachment 1778213

This is just my attempt at playing the "guess the gender game." I could be completely wrong, so don't make any plans based on my guesses. I just feel that predictions don't count unless you share them.

It's also hard to say this young, but from the pics #2 may be male-ish. Legs look a little thicker, head is roundish, & standing sort of alert (in this pic & the other you sent). Looks to be a "leader" of the flock which could mean a male.

When young, most chicks look female ..... until they don't. If you look closely at the orps' combs, a male's may rise just slightly above the chick fluff on the head, but a female's comb will be below that level.

Male (Mr Wonderful) on left
Female (Crystal) on right

Of course I only know which was which AFTER growing them out. Hindsight is much clearer.



Here was my male at 4 weeks - This is when I was able to guess his gender.

Females at 4 weeks

At 6 weeks I was pretty sure about their genders.
Mr Wonderful's comb wasn't very big, but the red color told me he was male. Also his tall male stance, stubby tale, and thicker legs. When picking him up, he just felt more solid / muscular.

The females still had no comb growth or color. They also had a more rounded body stance, bit more feather growth, felt more bony, and sometimes have smaller feet.

 

[chickendreams24]

So today has been a mixed emotional day for me. I nearly lost my only spitzie roo Jake in a coyote attack at 9 this morning. I cant say if he put himself between the coyote and his girls or not, I only saw him being attacked while I was on hold trying to get a doctor appointment for my dad. I flew out the back sliding glass door and charged the coyote in my stocking feet and a cell phone. I chased him over an acre towards the creek. The poor lady on the other end had no idea what was going on. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to find jake who had scrambled in the other direction not knowing how bad he was hurt. There were feathers EVERYWHERE. My 14 yr. DS took the rifle and tried to track down the coyote. I went to work and on the way, jake showed up so it was a big relief. DH said he was missing his tail feathers but seemed ok. I got home and I indeed have a completely tailess bird. He looks like an araucana. I wanted to do a thorough check after he went to bed later.

So off i went with 15 eggs to Faradays house so she could incubate them in the reliable coolerbator. We picked out some laces ones and seramas to put in with mine. I took home a laced one and a funny shaped silkie one to try in my little inky which im going to set some silkie/seramas and spitzies. I put the laced one on the dryer nestled in some folded pants and went to use the restroom. While I was gone, my fat cat snuck in and played with the egg. Egg splattered EVERYWHERE. I can't win.

I got Jakie after dark and did a thorough inspection. He is hurt way worse than originally thought. He has a few puncture wounds, and a whole 2x2 section of skin peeled back under his left wing. Just like my hens when the roos are to.....enthusiastic. Normally I would keep the injured chicken in the garage, but that leaves his girls completely unprotected. I dont think he would do well on lockdown in there either. (@Farady40 can we say crow?) So he (and I) got bluekoted and neosporined and placed back in with his girls. I will probably worry about him for days as he's a favorite and the only roo we have.

So just a blah kind of day. At least i enjoyed my time with Faraday. I got to hold the micro chicken again!

Oh no I'm so very sorry to hear about the attack. Keep your son on alert that coyote will be back.

Photos of Jake's injuries?

I hope tomorrow looks better and brighter. Ill keep Jake in my thoughts and prayers. Sounds to me like he was doing his job as a good rooster.


Our turkey hatch is done and the chicks are due tomorrow.

We had some trouble with the turkey hatch including the little one we had to cull.

We unfortunately lost two poults from yesterday. We were having problems with too much fluid left in the eggs and we had 8 eggs not hatch. Seeming drowned in the shell. In fact the best poult we had pop out was the one three days early before I upped the humidity the entire way. That's not to say we hadn't had some others pop out easily too. Out of 20 turkey eggs I'm disappointed. There is one other poult that's having problems but seems to be slowly improving. The chick came out and hasn't gotten it's feet under it yet. It can now hold it's head up which is an improvement.

We also have our first chick out. From a legbar egg. A white chick?! Could it be? Could it be a frost legbar? I would love to know if my legbars carry white since I lost my beautiful HeiHei. Time will tell if it is a mix or a pure legbar. I have known all along that they could potentially be carriers of the white but have never known. Two of the hens in the group this year we hatched last year. I assumed they were from my cream hen but maybe they were from HeiHei.

Pictures tomorrow hopefully. I need some help identifying colors. I'm so living these poults. Oh and Tumble is getting better too but still pretty unsteady. Getting bumped just sends him/her tumbling.

@Faraday40 I sent you a pm

 

[Faraday40]

@homeschoolin momma
Poor Jake! He's such a good (But vocal) rooster. It's hard when chickens are so good at hiding their injuries. I really hope he heals quickly. Definitely set all the Spitzie eggs you can!

So he (and I) got bluekoted and neosporined and placed back in with his girls.

Don't be too hard on your kitty. Those eggs were extras that would have been made into omelets anyway. But, I did enjoy going through all the eggs with you and selecting which ones to incubate.

After you left, I put 2 of Jewel's eggs in the bantam coop under MaiMai (our beautiful but not very bright silkie). We went out for the night and when I returned BOTH eggs were under this very determined, little hen:


MaiMai went back to trying to hatch her jar lid.

 

[Molpet]

So today has been a mixed emotional day for me. I nearly lost my only spitzie roo Jake in a coyote attack at 9 this morning. I cant say if he put himself between the coyote and his girls or not, I only saw him being attacked while I was on hold trying to get a doctor appointment for my dad. I flew out the back sliding glass door and charged the coyote in my stocking feet and a cell phone. I chased him over an acre towards the creek. The poor lady on the other end had no idea what was going on. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to find jake who had scrambled in the other direction not knowing how bad he was hurt. There were feathers EVERYWHERE. My 14 yr. DS took the rifle and tried to track down the coyote. I went to work and on the way, jake showed up so it was a big relief. DH said he was missing his tail feathers but seemed ok. I got home and I indeed have a completely tailess bird. He looks like an araucana. I wanted to do a thorough check after he went to bed later.

So off i went with 15 eggs to Faradays house so she could incubate them in the reliable coolerbator. We picked out some laces ones and seramas to put in with mine. I took home a laced one and a funny shaped silkie one to try in my little inky which im going to set some silkie/seramas and spitzies. I put the laced one on the dryer nestled in some folded pants and went to use the restroom. While I was gone, my fat cat snuck in and played with the egg. Egg splattered EVERYWHERE. I can't win.

I got Jakie after dark and did a thorough inspection. He is hurt way worse than originally thought. He has a few puncture wounds, and a whole 2x2 section of skin peeled back under his left wing. Just like my hens when the roos are to.....enthusiastic. Normally I would keep the injured chicken in the garage, but that leaves his girls completely unprotected. I dont think he would do well on lockdown in there either. (@Farady40 can we say crow?) So he (and I) got bluekoted and neosporined and placed back in with his girls. I will probably worry about him for days as he's a favorite and the only roo we have.

So just a blah kind of day. At least i enjoyed my time with Faraday. I got to hold the micro chicken again!

So sorry the coyotes have found your chickens. Prayers he recovers quickly

Every time I use blue kote I get it everywhere and maybe some on the bird

 

[chickendreams24]

So sorry the coyotes have found your chickens. Prayers he recovers quickly

Every time I use blue kote I get it everywhere and maybe some on the bird

LoL I fully expect blue kote to be my something blue on my wedding day. LoL

I just hope I don't have to use it before then. Maybe I can get away with it not getting all over me.

 

[Faraday40]

LoL I fully expect blue kote to be my something blue on my wedding day. LoL

I just hope I don't have to use it before then. Maybe I can get away with it not getting all over me.

That's easy. Have your DH2B do it. He can be your "something blue."

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Photos of Jake's injuries

They arent the best photos, especially since i had already blue koted him last night.

This one shows the only portion of a tail feather that was left. Every single feather is gone as well as a good portion of butt fluff. (And of course its cold tonight!) Even some of his pretty pointy saddle feathers are gone.

Here if you could lift some of the wet feathers up you could see the damage better, but i only had so many hands.....you can see the fatty yellow edge in the bottom of the pic.

He's one tough bird. He has let me bring him in and play doctor with not much fuss. I swear this year i need to invest in stock in the neosporin department.

The coyote came back again while i was at work. It was trying to chase a female and my son saw it and took a shot at it but missed. All birds were fine and my son tracked it off property. Its one lone female, (he thinks) no other pack members we can see or hear. I just want it gone. Until i get the second pasture fenced, i have no true way to protect them.