Lovin' my babies!

[tiny529]

Hi! I'm new to chickens, but I just got my first batch of 6 girlies (at least I hope that they are all girlies!) on Tuesday. So far, so good! They are only 4 days old, but I can already see little personalities emerging. My 6 are Bertha the Light Brahma, Lucy the Dominque, Susie the Sussex, Buffy the Buff Orpington, and Trixie and Dixie the Easter Eggers.

I was wondering... Does the pecking order show this early? Everyone seems to get along fine, but I'm definitely noticing some more dominant personalities. My Light Brahma is the peckiest, usually going specifically for my lighter Easter Egger's eyes, but she's the one who runs away first when my hand enters the corral. My Dominque is by far the sassiest and is the only one who never seems to run from anything new. She tries to climb up my arm whenever I put my hand in the corral. All of the others seem somewhere in between.

Another question... At what age should I start covering my corral? I'm using 24" single ply corrugated roll, doubled up for strength. I already had to remove the bucket portion of my chick feeder since my Dominque kept trying to jump inside and I didn't figure she'd be able to get out once she did!

 

[gritsar]

and congrats on your new chicks.

The pecking order starts from day one in the brooder together. By six weeks or so, they should have it all sorted out.

Every chick is different, but I always had escapees from the brooder around two weeks old; like these two brahma girls:

Those two girls are now 3+ years old. Back then they could fly up on that draft guard (about 2 ft. high). Nowadays they are so big I'm not sure they could jump 6 inches.

 

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

Congrats on the new chicks, Welcome to BYC

 

[tiny529]

Thanks! Okay, I'll get something to cover the top of the brooder this weekend, just in case.

I'd hate to have any escapees. The brooder is in the spare room, which is really the all-purpose "stuff" room. I'd have a heck of a time finding them in here!

I'm not entirely sure what to cover it with though. This sounds weird, but I was actually thinking of using masking tape to attach a layer of tulle (I have a big thing of it leftover from my wedding) to the outside of the cardboard and stretching it over the top, but I'm thinking that would only be strong enough for a week or two. I'd also have to make sure that the heat lamp wouldn't melt it, though I doubt that it would, just looking at the distance from the top of the corral to the bottom of the lamp. All of my book suggest hardware cloth, but wouldn't the chicks just bump it right off if it weren't firmly attached to the corral? I can't think of how to do that with this cardboard roll stuff.

 

[afj6710]

Congrats on the babies!

So . . . when are you going to share pics?

 

[Kitt]

Congrats on the new fuzzies. As Grit said they usually get it figured out soon. But mine are a little slow on the up take. 10 wks old and 2 of them are still working it out.

Welcome to the wonderful world of chickens!!!

 

[tiny529]

I actually did post pics in another thread.