INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, not to serial post, but I wanted to check in with some pictures of my kids! First of all, the Marans I hatched back in March. Y'all aren't even going to recognize them! Here are their baby pictures:

And them now.

I ended up with an even 50-50 split on boys and girls--what are the odds! Of course, the girls are already named and everything. I'm not likely to keep any of the boys unless there's a truly exceptional personality in the mix. Actually, I'm learning at this point that I kept too many boys last year. It would have been fine to keep that many, but two in my rooster flock have decided they won't get along with the other three, AND they won't get along with each other, so I'm up to five separate pens for roosters instead of the planned three. UGH! I'm going to have to thin them out some, although it won't amount to very much because I want to keep at least a Mottled Cochin cockerel to cross with the Silkieds next year, so... Hopefully I can at least lower my pen count by one for the winter. That's the hardest time to try and juggle so many birds!

Anyway, the babies! I let my Silkieds and my Mottleds (and the two Dorks) mingle the other day. The Silkieds soon found themselves outnumbered by this myriad of miniatures! Hard to believe what a difference 8 days makes!!

But, not to worry. They weren't put off for long. Little Blue band Silkied actually was being a bit aggressive with the little ones, so they are only together with supervision for now. The Mottled babies should be big enough to hold their own before too much longer.

Oh, one last picture because it's just too cute! This face!!

 

[Indyshent]

As of this morning, RK in Bloomington has:

$2.39 pullets
Silver Leghorn, Dominique, Cuckoo Marans, ISA browns

$5.99 OE pullets

50 cent special pullets!
BA, BSL, RIR, SLW, BO, BR, and WL

50 cent BBS Australorps. Lots of splash. Straight run.

$11.99 white Chinese and African goslings! Super sweet, healthy goslings!

$2.00 assorted bantams. Many colors and breeds. Saw lots of D'Uccles.

****None of these birds seemed terribly old. Most were between day olds and week olds. I'm not sure about the goslings, but they weren't terribly big. I think they're bargain priced because the store might just be trying to get out of chicks for the year or maybe just trying to move out inventory to make room for new stuff.

 

[Faraday40]

As of this morning, RK in Bloomington has:

$2.39 pullets
Silver Leghorn, Dominique, Cuckoo Marans, ISA browns

$5.99 OE pullets

50 cent special pullets!
BA, BSL, RIR, SLW, BO, BR, and WL

50 cent BBS Australorps. Lots of splash. Straight run.

$11.99 white Chinese and African goslings! Super sweet, healthy goslings!

$2.00 assorted bantams. Many colors and breeds. Saw lots of D'Uccles.

****None of these birds seemed terribly old. Most were between day olds and week olds. I'm not sure about the goslings, but they weren't terribly big. I think they're bargain priced because the store might just be trying to get out of chicks for the year or maybe just trying to move out inventory to make room for new stuff.

WOW!!!! That's pretty cool!

The farm stores here only sell chicks in April. They get 2 main shipments and they're only common breeds like leghorns, RIR, BSL, etc. I once saw meatbirds & a different time saw turkeys, but never geese & bantams. Something like a Dom is considered a special order & would never be seen in the clearance bin. (Of course I've also never seen a clearance bin.....) The chick pens were removed from our store by end of April.

 

[Faraday40]

Had another interesting hatch. I got laced orps, blue orps, lav orps, & black orps.

Last night just before bed I saw egg rise up & then back down. I didn't see a pip, so I flipped the egg & noticed that the chick was zipping - completely upside down. I laid the egg on its side & in minutes an adorable lav orp was crawling out. I guess it proves that minimum helping is best. However, I'm still glad I noticed the moving egg. It was standing upright in an egg carton & who knows if it could have hatched working against gravity in addition to being malpositioned.


Last night around 8pm:

Noon today:

5pm today:

I removed most chicks from the brooder around lunch & put them in a plastic tub brooder with the turkeys. The turkeys loved it (and were finally not afraid of chicks). For the past 2 days I had the turkeys with Smudge & chicks and the poor poults looked stressed. I didn't see them eat, so I decided to try out these younger chicks.

In the meantime, I put some eggs under Trouble & also slipped chicks under her to give the illusion that she hatched all of them. Then I just moved her & the chicks to the turkey brooder. At first is was great (pics above). Trouble was a happy mama of 16 chicks & 2 poults. Then after about 20 min, the turkeys moved around and for some reason began to cry...... which made Trouble notice they're different & attack. That caused panic screaming. They settled immediately with some cuddles, but I decided that since Smudge doesn't attack them, they'll sleep with her tonight.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Had another interesting hatch. I got laced orps, blue orps, lav orps, & black orps.

Last night just before bed I saw egg rise up & then back down. I didn't see a pip, so I flipped the egg & noticed that the chick was zipping - completely upside down. I laid the egg on its side & in minutes an adorable lav orp was crawling out. I guess it proves that minimum helping is best. However, I'm still glad I noticed the moving egg. It was standing upright in an egg carton & who knows if it could have hatched working against gravity in addition to being malpositioned.


Last night around 8pm:

Noon today:

5pm today:

I removed most chicks from the brooder around lunch & put them in a plastic tub brooder with the turkeys. The turkeys loved it (and were finally not afraid of chicks). For the past 2 days I had the turkeys with Smudge & chicks and the poor poults looked stressed. I didn't see them eat, so I decided to try out these younger chicks.

In the meantime, I put some eggs under Trouble & also slipped chicks under her to give the illusion that she hatched all of them. Then I just moved her & the chicks to the turkey brooder. At first is was great (pics above). Trouble was a happy mama of 16 chicks & 2 poults. Then after about 20 min, the turkeys moved around and for some reason began to cry...... which made Trouble notice they're different & attack. That caused panic screaming. They settled immediately with some cuddles, but I decided that since Smudge doesn't attack them, they'll sleep with her tonight.

She probably was freaked out by their big heads.
Seriously, these are very cute pics!
Was Trouble broody? Or is she jsut that good of momma?

 

[Faraday40]

She probably was freaked out by their big heads.
Seriously, these are very cute pics!
Was Trouble broody? Or is she jsut that good of momma?

Trouble was already broody, so I decided to put her to use. She was only broody for 1.5 weeks, so that's why I made sure she felt 2 eggs hatch under her - to help with the transition from sitting to mothering. I slid 4 more chicks under her so she thought she hatched a bunch. Chickens can't count, so the 6 chicks turned in 16 when I moved her to the brooder. Trouble is small, so it's just easier to put her into the brooder. There's heat for the overflow chicks so her main goal is to teach & comfort them. The chicks will be sold, so she'll stay in the brooder with them until the number goes down to a manageable size.

Another lav orp hatched a few min ago. She/he can join the brooder tomorrow. The last egg looks like a quitter, so I'm calling it done at 17. I expected about 12 chicks.

 

[JanetMarie]

I have to disagree about chickens not being able to count. I've seen it by experience that they can count, and then later read it in an article in a chicken magazine that they can.

 

[Faraday40]

I have to disagree about chickens not being able to count. I've seen it by experience that they can count, and then later read it in an article in a chicken magazine that they can.

I know if they have 3-6 chicks & one is missing, they can tell the difference right away. However when I have a brooder full, she's unable to count & keep track of all the chicks. I don't think she can tell the difference between 19 or 20, but yes, chickens can see the difference between 3 chicks & 10 chicks. That's why she goes in the brooder to keep all of them safe. I'm not sure where the line is, but if given a choice, hens will choose a dish with more treats than one with less treats. ....but my dogs just seem to eat what's closest. LOL

 

[JanetMarie]

I know they can count to three, probably a little more, but no not 19 or 20.

 

[kanina]

Sorry I've not been around much this year.

I am looking to rehome my three EEs. Two hens and a roo. If anyone is interested, message me. Also looking for some fun eggs to hatch or suggestions on putting Muscovy eggs under her. I have four broodys and lost the eggs in transition to a new house because three quit sitting and the fourth was sitting on the fakes. We moved her over to a different nest, but they might have been uncovered too long. If her eggs don't hatch this weekend I'm going to toss them, we're at 4.5 weeks.