I'm going on an adventure!

[Bigdumogre]

I've re-named the two Queens "Victoria" and "Elizabeth." It's only logical .

EDIT: In another thread: Breed/Color/Gender Guesses? , we'd pretty much verified that the two "bantams" are actually Cinnamon Queen pullets. TSC strikes again!

Seems like TSC has so many mishaps. 7 of my chicks are from them and now I'm wondering what they really are lol. Guess I'll see when they are bigger and are indeed females.

 

[Folly's place]

Our ten pullets from TSC this May have only developed into two cockerels, a success from a farm store in my experience.
And we might keep one of them, depending.
Cute as the OEGBs are, they don't work out here either.
Mary

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I’m beginning to think that we should be grateful that any chick purchased from TSC is in fact a chicken, and not a goose or pigeon or maybe an octopus.

 

[Folly's place]

At another farm store, years ago, five 'pullets' developed into four cockerels and one pullet. Our worst episode ever, by far. From a different hatchery, no doubt offering stores the best price per chick.
And often I do see poults and/ or keets mixed with chicks, possibly confusing some people (including store staff?) who knows. At least ducklings and goslings look a lot different!
Mary

 

[Bigdumogre]

I’m beginning to think that we should be grateful that any chick purchased from TSC is in fact a chicken, and not a goose or pigeon or maybe an octopus.

I think one of mine might actually be a octopus now you say it

 

[RoseHawke]

It's only a mercy that the 6 Cream Legbar pullet chicks I bought from them actually turned out to be 6 Cream Legbar pullet chicks!

 

[RoseHawke]

Pippin is feathering out slowly. I thought he had a bit of poo stuck to his rear, but it was only a new black feather coming in among all the white baby fuzz. Come to find out that slow feathering in a young bird is not necessarily a sign of health or lack of same. I ran across this interesting post on the sub-reddit r/chickens this morning:

Should we be concerned?

For those who might not want to click through:

Looks normal. This is not parasite damage or rooster damage. Its a difference in their genes. Feathering rate in chicks is mainly controlled by the sex‑linked K / k⁺ locus:

• K = slow‑feathering allele
• k⁺ = fast‑feathering allele

The 7 chicks mostly carry at least one copy of K (slow‑feathering), while the other 17 are probably k⁺k⁺ (fast‑feathering). Slow‑feathering birds take longer to feather out when their young. For example in my flock, the fast feathering girls have their juvenile feathers all done by 4-6 weeks of age while the slow feathering boys takes up to 10-12 weeks. This gene does not effect feather growth after maturity, so you won't see a delayed feathering for their future molts

Best picture I can get of him this morning, they don't like scary phone camera things pointed at them. I'm going to try to take him out and get a "proper" portrait photo of him before too long. The difference between him and Helena is striking. I'm pretty sure that even at this age, around 6-weeks, Helena's tail should be more rounded and not so upright. She's still a pretty little thing though.

 

[RoseHawke]

I had noticed something on big girl Skye's beak some days back, but didn't examine it closer at the time. I thought it might be a seed stuck between her comb and beak although I could not think how such a thing might happen.

She was last out of the coop this morning, so I caught her up to examine it more closely. Turns out it's a growth known as a "keratin horn" or to give it its scientific name, conical hyperkeratosis cutaneous horn. Some of these can be cancerous, but as long as it doesn't bother her, I'm not going to bother her either, just keep an eye on it.

The alternative is surgery, and I really don't want to go there.

EDIT: My Maine Coons used to get something similar on their paw pads and I'd just trim them off when I trimmed claws if they got too large. Not sure if that would be advisable with a chicken though.

 

[RoseHawke]

Today's project was getting some more ventilation into the big girls' coop. It's decently well ventilated for daytime when the door is open, but we shut the door at night as although I'm reasonably sure the run is mammalian predator proof, I'm not altogether certain it's reptile (snake) proof. Daytime temps have been in the 90's with a heat index either side of 100°F(38°C). Nighttime temps have been muggy mid 70's (quite often the humidity in the mornings is in the 90+ percentage range.)

So, I cut the middle out of the access door and installed hardware cloth over the opening. I'll use the cutout to make a wintertime cover for the opening.

Please excuse the stain job. My husband did that, not up to my standards, but on the plus side, I didn't have to do it . The hardest part (besides doing plunge cuts with a circular saw. Some day I'll have a track saw,) was finding screws of the right length so that the points wouldn't be coming out the back. That's actually the reason for the un-stained trim bits, because the other thing I detest besides plunge cuts, is trying to saw the points off screws that are too long.

 

[RoseHawke]

You know, I'd wondered why the outside of the water bucket kept getting dirty. I'd unconsciously identified it as splash-back from rain - except that we haven't had any rain to speak of for a week now and anyway the run is covered.

I've been putting a frozen juice bottle of water in their bucket two or three times a day, which of course produces condensation on the outside. While the water in the cups stays at least cool, the condensation is probably colder, and everybody seems to enjoy pecking at the droplets. Ivy in particular is dedicated to condensation water. Ignore my husband, this is how he "talks" to chickens .