Katie's Coop

[Emily_loveschickens]

how are they doing?

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

And More Babies

Now we were just waiting for the rest of the babies to hatch. May 9, we found another baby peeking her head out from under mama. This time a yellow one, but not one of Josie's eggs, so I believe this one came from our Delaware - Olaf. And the morning of May 10 we found a fourth baby, this time a pretty gray one from Josie's eggs.

The first baby hatched was not very interested in all this waiting around and started putting mama through her paces early on. At first he stayed in the crate for the most part but running around her. After about a day he was through with that and started running around the outside of the crate. After the 4th egg hatched Josie went outside the crate with the her 4 babies and left the remaining four behind. Unfortunately, I could hear one of those eggs peeping, and it was Josie's egg. View attachment 2667036View attachment 2667038

Omg! That little yellow head peaking out. Look at those little precious babies

 

[BleuSaphir]

Cuteness!

 

[katiefloy]

how are they doing?

They are doing great. I sent 4 of the 6 to live with a friend in Pennsylvania (3 of them may be roos). The 2 we kept look like round butterballs (hopefully both hens). Mom pushed them away at about 5 weeks. The rest of the flock accepts them, but they pretty much stick together. The picture of all 6 was taken a couple weeks ago before we took the 4 to PA.

Princess' chick (black one in the set if 3) and the 2 I got to keep with him/her started flying out of their playpen so I have moved them into a sectioned off area of the coop.

 

[Emily_loveschickens]

They are doing great. I sent 4 of the 6 to live with a friend in Pennsylvania (3 of them may be roos). The 2 we kept look like round butterballs (hopefully both hens). Mom pushed them away at about 5 weeks. The rest of the flock accepts them, but they pretty much stick together. The picture of all 6 was taken a couple weeks ago before we took the 4 to PA.

Princess' chick (black one in the set if 3) and the 2 I got to keep with him/her started flying out of their playpen so I have moved them into a sectioned off area of the coop. View attachment 2739605View attachment 2739637View attachment 2739638View attachment 2739639View attachment 2739640

They are so pretty

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Lockdown and Babies

I am not sure if anyone did the math, but Josie started sitting on her eggs on 4/18. So her babies were due to hatch on 5/9 which this year was Mother's Day. How perfect! Josie continued to be a perfect mama for her eggs.

Josie was nesting in a box that was a foot or so off the ground, which obviously won't work when the babies hatch, so I ended up setting up a small run inside the big run with a crate for mama and babies to move to after they hatched (I had heard that some mama's will stop brooding if you move them). This limited the run space for the rest of the group, but since they are mostly free ranging right now, I wasn't too worried.

One of the ladies on the facebook group mentioned that I should keep an eye out prior to 21 days since some breeds hatch early. Sure enough we had 2 over achievers who both hatched on 5/8 and looked like twins (except one has feathered legs and one has clean legs). I was worried the babies might fall out of the nesting box, so I moved the babies, the remaining eggs, and mom into the crate and moved them to the small run area I had set up for them. Josie settled back down on her eggs and babies like nothing had changed. In the meantime I cleaned out the nesting box and the rest of the girls were pleased to have their favorite spot back.

Question on genetics, if anyone happens to know: My first thought was that the two overachievers were both from my cochin hen. However, both my cochin and the rooster have feathered legs. Could the clean legged baby come from that pairing?View attachment 2666960View attachment 2666961View attachment 2666962

I love this pic so much