Meet Eleanor!

[GSDBESTK9]

Adorable!

 

[JesikaD01]

Thanks! We think so too!

 

[JesikaD01]

A little cutey. I have only named a couple of mine. Some I can't tell apart from the rest.

So true! I figure we will eventually name them all as soon as we can tell them apart!

 

[JesikaD01]

Eleanor is adorable! What breed is she?

I have Lucy and Ethel, both Red Stars. They look to be about the same age as Eleanor, but they are a reddish yellow with faint stripes on their backs. I'm totally new at chickens as well. It's just so much fun!

She is one of 5 americanous 2 of them are brownish and 3 are grey little balls of fluff

 

[JesikaD01]

At 11 weeks our girls still huddle together to sleep, that is quite normal. When they are cold they will pile not huddle. Chickens are very social and like to be near their friends, so huddling is as much a security thing as it is to get warm.

you described it perfectly! They were piling but are now huddleing

 

[andycowboy]

So far we've named only 2:

​

This is Maggie, the only Buckeye we have. We started with 3, but I put them outside too soon, and two succumbed to an unexpected thunderstorm/cold front - so she's easy to tell apart from the others. She has been named because we almost lost her, and my wife (Meg) nursed her the second night she was inside...hence, Maggie. She seems to be doing well - it's been 3 weeks since she was almost lost!

​

The one on front (I think) is Lucy - she's a RIR with a bit of an attitude - my apparent alpha hen from the 10-week-olds. Let's see...red "hair", attitude - Lucy! Problem is that all 3 RIRs look the same - I only know who she is because she's always the first to approach me when I enter the coop - and the first to check my hand for food!

Our 6 older girls - 10 weeks - seem to huddle together at night, away from the heat lamp hanging in the henhouse. I have one still in there because the temps at night have been in the low 60s, and the other 7 girls are coming up on 5 weeks old - they all get together at night closer to the lamp. A couple of my Ameracaunas have frequently teamed up with the big girls for comfort. During the day, when they're chillin', they're kinda spread out all over!

Hope you have as much fun with this as I'm having! I did this several years ago when I lived in NM, and they're now a wonderful hobby...they also make me feel like I'm accomplishing something in my later years! I'm a chemo patient, and it makes me feel better, even on my questionable days, to go out and just watch them interact. I'm having so much fun, I'm planning another coop and thinking about raising a couple of different breeds - hatching and all!

No eggs yet, but the RIRs and NHRs should start laying sometime near the end of June. I also have 3 Ameracaunas and 3 Barred Rocks - there should be plenty of eggs this Fall!

Oh -

- I've learned a lot and received a lot of very useful advice by reading these threads!

 

[JesikaD01]

So far we've named only 2:

​

This is Maggie, the only Buckeye we have. We started with 3, but I put them outside too soon, and two succumbed to an unexpected thunderstorm/cold front - so she's easy to tell apart from the others. She has been named because we almost lost her, and my wife (Meg) nursed her the second night she was inside...hence, Maggie. She seems to be doing well - it's been 3 weeks since she was almost lost!

​

The one on front (I think) is Lucy - she's a RIR with a bit of an attitude - my apparent alpha hen from the 10-week-olds. Let's see...red "hair", attitude - Lucy! Problem is that all 3 RIRs look the same - I only know who she is because she's always the first to approach me when I enter the coop - and the first to check my hand for food!

Our 6 older girls - 10 weeks - seem to huddle together at night, away from the heat lamp hanging in the henhouse. I have one still in there because the temps at night have been in the low 60s, and the other 7 girls are coming up on 5 weeks old - they all get together at night closer to the lamp. A couple of my Ameracaunas have frequently teamed up with the big girls for comfort. During the day, when they're chillin', they're kinda spread out all over!

Hope you have as much fun with this as I'm having! I did this several years ago when I lived in NM, and they're now a wonderful hobby...they also make me feel like I'm accomplishing something in my later years! I'm a chemo patient, and it makes me feel better, even on my questionable days, to go out and just watch them interact. I'm having so much fun, I'm planning another coop and thinking about raising a couple of different breeds - hatching and all!

No eggs yet, but the RIRs and NHRs should start laying sometime near the end of June. I also have 3 Ameracaunas and 3 Barred Rocks - there should be plenty of eggs this Fall!

Oh -

- I've learned a lot and received a lot of very useful advice by reading these threads!

Thanks for the awesome pics (I am so sorry abou the 2 you lost!) we are 2 days in and loosing some are my biggest fear because the kids are already so attached to all of them! They come home from school and beg to play with them!!

 

[JesikaD01]

Eleanor meets Grammie!
She already thinks everyone wants to feed her and likes to sit on our shoulder

 

[Ourfamilyflock]

So far we've named only 2:

​

This is Maggie, the only Buckeye we have. We started with 3, but I put them outside too soon, and two succumbed to an unexpected thunderstorm/cold front - so she's easy to tell apart from the others. She has been named because we almost lost her, and my wife (Meg) nursed her the second night she was inside...hence, Maggie. She seems to be doing well - it's been 3 weeks since she was almost lost!

​

The one on front (I think) is Lucy - she's a RIR with a bit of an attitude - my apparent alpha hen from the 10-week-olds. Let's see...red "hair", attitude - Lucy! Problem is that all 3 RIRs look the same - I only know who she is because she's always the first to approach me when I enter the coop - and the first to check my hand for food!

Our 6 older girls - 10 weeks - seem to huddle together at night, away from the heat lamp hanging in the henhouse. I have one still in there because the temps at night have been in the low 60s, and the other 7 girls are coming up on 5 weeks old - they all get together at night closer to the lamp. A couple of my Ameracaunas have frequently teamed up with the big girls for comfort. During the day, when they're chillin', they're kinda spread out all over!

Hope you have as much fun with this as I'm having! I did this several years ago when I lived in NM, and they're now a wonderful hobby...they also make me feel like I'm accomplishing something in my later years! I'm a chemo patient, and it makes me feel better, even on my questionable days, to go out and just watch them interact. I'm having so much fun, I'm planning another coop and thinking about raising a couple of different breeds - hatching and all!

No eggs yet, but the RIRs and NHRs should start laying sometime near the end of June. I also have 3 Ameracaunas and 3 Barred Rocks - there should be plenty of eggs this Fall!

Oh -

- I've learned a lot and received a lot of very useful advice by reading these threads!

Those RIR's are 10 weeks? They look much younger. Our 10 week old RIR's are fully feathered, have combs and wattles coming in, and pretty much look like a smaller version of their adult selves. Our RIR's looked like yours at about 5 or 6 weeks. Or do I have the ages confuses? Sorry just curious. New to chickens so wondering if ours matured faster, or if yours are maturing slower.

 

[andycowboy]

You know, Jim, you might be right. Went back and did some checking - I put them in the coop on April 30th - they were supposedly 3 or 4 weeks old then, if I remember correctly - I'll check with the feed store today when I pick up a bag of feed. That would make them about 6 or 7 weeks old! My math got out of whack somewhere...darn - that means no eggs until the end of July, probably! Oh, well.

While checking back, I found that I picked up the babies - who were 2-3 days old - on May 4th, so they're about 3 1/2 weeks old - for some reason I'm rushing their ages! Need to keep better track if I'm going to breed any!

Thanks for pointing that out! That's part of why I enjoy BYC and these threads - always learning something new!