Illinois...

[Molpet]

The current hatch is going well. pics later.

The brooder got emptied (last chicks were sold) & cleaned out yesterday at noon. I slid a couple chicks under Cookie (our super broody). By 3pm I moved her & the chicks out of the coop nest box and into the big brooder. I continued to slip more chicks under her as they hatched & fluffed up. By 10pm she had a doz hidden under her fluff and was happily clucking to them. Two more hatched overnight & another pip this morning. They'll be added later today.

Meanwhile someone's coming today to pick out 4 chicks. She missed out on the last batch, so I'm letting her pick 1st today. So far lavs & blk/lav splits. Two of the 14 "might" be incomplete gold laced, but I won't know until a couple feathers come in.

I love it when things work out & I can share my love of orps with others.

you have such beautiful babies
Dinner is strutting his stuff and 3 of the hens let him mate.
Although they don't fall for his tidbiting since he never has anything..I gave him a big grub thinking he would call the hens over, nope he gobbled that up as soon as it hit the ground
Are you sure he is not part dog? he follows me around, stays with me better than my dog..he came right in the basement door with me and looked around until a hen started singing
I have 2 broody hens, I gave them 4 and 5 turkey eggs. I'll give them a couple of Dinners girls eggs later to make sure they get to hatch something. The turkey eggs look fertile but it's the first year so I will see. besides I think having chicks with the poults would be a good thing. If moma can't speak turkey at least the poults can see what the chicks do
of course the first one went broody in the rollaway nest box. So i took the rod out so it is no longer a rollaway ... then a day later the other crammed in there and went broody too... Put the first one in a dog crate when she came out for a break.
Another one, in a different coop, went broody in the igloo dog house out in the poultry yard. No way to keep coons out of that one and when I moved her she decided not to be broody. She had 3 dog houses to chose from and she picked the only one not in a coop..Guess i need to build a little broody house and put it out there instead.
Tonight, In a 3rd coop, one seems to be spending the night in a nest box, hopefully she will stick with it. I have turkey eggs for her too. Unless you have room in a incubator. They are 28 days... I know you said you were doing school bators in April.
All four are first time broodies and this is the earliest i have had broodies.

I am real tired of fall/winter hatches. The thanksgiving boys dressed out at 3 to 5 1/2 lbs... usually they are 5-8 lbs.. only had 1 before that was 3lbs, had 3 that weight that this time.
I may not have to use the incubator... yeah right I am sure I will at least do one batch

 

[Faraday40]

you have such beautiful babies
Dinner is strutting his stuff and 3 of the hens let him mate.
Although they don't fall for his tidbiting since he never has anything..I gave him a big grub thinking he would call the hens over, nope he gobbled that up as soon as it hit the ground
Are you sure he is not part dog? he follows me around, stays with me better than my dog..he came right in the basement door with me and looked around until a hen started singing
I have 2 broody hens, I gave them 4 and 5 turkey eggs. I'll give them a couple of Dinners girls eggs later to make sure they get to hatch something. The turkey eggs look fertile but it's the first year so I will see. besides I think having chicks with the poults would be a good thing. If moma can't speak turkey at least the poults can see what the chicks do
of course the first one went broody in the rollaway nest box. So i took the rod out so it is no longer a rollaway ... then a day later the other crammed in there and went broody too... Put the first one in a dog crate when she came out for a break.
Another one, in a different coop, went broody in the igloo dog house out in the poultry yard. No way to keep coons out of that one and when I moved her she decided not to be broody. She had 3 dog houses to chose from and she picked the only one not in a coop..Guess i need to build a little broody house and put it out there instead.
Tonight, In a 3rd coop, one seems to be spending the night in a nest box, hopefully she will stick with it. I have turkey eggs for her too. Unless you have room in a incubator. They are 28 days... I know you said you were doing school bators in April.
All four are first time broodies and this is the earliest i have had broodies.

I am real tired of fall/winter hatches. The thanksgiving boys dressed out at 3 to 5 1/2 lbs... usually they are 5-8 lbs.. only had 1 before that was 3lbs, had 3 that weight that this time.
I may not have to use the incubator... yeah right I am sure I will at least do one batch

Thank you for the update.

I'm so glad you're enjoying Dinner. Now you can see why the kids didn't want me to process him. Every time we carried him to the garage at night, he'd stick out his neck & rest it across an arm or shoulder. (His way of giving a hug.)

Nope, he never learned how to save treats for the hens. What you described is his typical adolescent behavior we saw here. I'm sure he'll learn - eventually. He's not very bright, but there's not an aggressive bone in his body. He followed us around too but mainly to find out if we had treats. (Orps LOVE food and his hope springs eternal.)

 

[Faraday40]

Here are the pics of the useless chicks. Just turned 3 weeks old.

Seramas: I think the white one is silkied. It's much smaller than the gold one. The gold has personality +. It flies up to the edge of the tote as soon as the lid is removed. It's a very good flier and loves to perch on top of the kids' heads. It's much larger than the other serama & OEG.

None of the bantams have much comb development. Anyone know when the bantam males' combs turn pink or grow? Does feather growth or size mean anything? The eggs varied in size, so did the chicks. Does anyone see any early male signs in these pics?

OEGs (DS really likes these.) I'm pretty sure the smaller one is female. Her lines are crisp, comb is super tiny, body is petite, and wings grew in very quickly. The grey one I have no idea, but DS calls it HIS.

 

[Faraday40]

More chick pics....

We kept the kids "useless bantams" and 1 English orp. I think this orp came from my Buff Colombian Orp x either the lav or laced roo. She hatched about 48 hrs after the rest of the LF orps, so we put her in the bantam bin. Since she has a serama twin, we kept the two together. The poor girl has problems trying to keep up with the little ones but they're all the same age. I can see her being they're body guard.

Here's the silkied serama

random silkie chick (I think they're all going to be buff.)

 

[Faraday40]

Last night I got a pic from a friend who took my extra laced orp. Here's the little guy last summer. He didn't look like much but had decent size & shape. I preferred the lacing of my "Mr Wonderful", so I sold this extra one.
2wks

3.5 - 4 wks

10 wks

And here's the pic I just received:

Aside from the minor frostbite from the very harsh winter, this boy is stunning! It goes to show that you really can't judge how the laced birds are going to look as adults when they're chicks. I'll be swapping some of his flock's fertile laced orp eggs and can't wait to see what hatches.


I also can't wait to see how the ones I sold last week will turn out....
I really hope the buyers keep in touch & send pics.

 

[Justso]

Here are the pics of the useless chicks. Just turned 3 weeks old.

Seramas: I think the white one is silkied. It's much smaller than the gold one. The gold has personality +. It flies up to the edge of the tote as soon as the lid is removed. It's a very good flier and loves to perch on top of the kids' heads. It's much larger than the other serama & OEG.

None of the bantams have much comb development. Anyone know when the bantam males' combs turn pink or grow? Does feather growth or size mean anything? The eggs varied in size, so did the chicks. Does anyone see any early male signs in these pics?

OEGs (DS really likes these.) I'm pretty sure the smaller one is female. Her lines are crisp, comb is super tiny, body is petite, and wings grew in very quickly. The grey one I have no idea, but DS calls it HIS.

Very nice! Wish I hadn't lost my OEG's last year. Can you refresh me, where did you get the eggs?

 

[Faraday40]

Very nice! Wish I hadn't lost my OEG's last year. Can you refresh me, where did you get the eggs?

I got the serama & OEG from a BYC friend. (shipped eggs)
I got the silkie eggs from a woman I met via CL. (far north almost WI)

There's another family only a few blocks away that has silkies but theirs haven't started laying yet. I think she got them early Sept or late Aug, so any day now. DD really wanted some bantam eggs for her Bday, so I reached out to expand my chicken contacts. If you want any contact info, just shoot me an email.

 

[janetdieter]

Hi All! So glad I found you! Thank you Justso for directing me here!

I'm a newbie in the far west Chicago suburbs. I received (6) "4-9 week old" pullets the last week of February from McMurray. I think they were pretty close to 4 weeks old but you guys can probably tell me better...

So on April 1st I lost one of them. Today they would be close to 11 weeks old if they were 4 weeks old when I received them.

So today I received a "started pullet" who could be 15 - 22 weeks old from McMurry. I'm sure you guys can tell me approx how old she is...

That's a terrible picture!!! So I have her next to but separate from the others with her own shelter, food and water. I will probably bring her in the house at night since the run addition is not as critter proof as the main coop, and since winter will not go away!!

So what I am wondering is since my existing flock are all young, and obviously younger than the new hen, will it be easier to integrate her into the flock? Or will that not matter?

 

[Molpet]

Welcome to the IL thread

it should be easier... the 11 wk olds will have home field advantage but they are much younger... you are doing it right.. let them see each other for a few days and then supervised free range and see how they do together.

 

[janetdieter]

Welcome to the IL thread

it should be easier... the 11 wk olds will have home field advantage but they are much younger... you are doing it right.. let them see each other for a few days and then supervised free range and see how they do together.

Thank you Molpet!