Meet the Nuts

[EmmaRainboe]

Welcome to BYC! So glad you decided to join us!

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

I currently have 2 free ranging urban chickens, a bossy 4 and a half year old Redstar named Rosalie who after 6 months of henpecking has come to eventually tollerate her buddy, a 3 year old Blackstar named Esmerelda. Against all odds, Esmerelda has gone broody and has been sitting on 4 black/blue/splash Ameraucana hatching eggs for almost 18 days.

Good morning, best of luck with the broody hatch!

Thanks. A little nervous. I locked her up in the roost/nesting area on day 18 with food and water and grit and a dust bath and she hasn't pooped since and her comb looks pale, but they're due tomorrow, so, hopefully all goes well.

 

[drumstick diva]

Sending good hatching vibes your way, hope they help

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Hello and welcome! Good luck with your hatch. Be sure to posts pictures of the chicks. I am hoping to find some blue/black/splash Ameraucana hatching eggs in the spring.

http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/docs/breedersdirectory_state.pdf Looks like there's quite a few breeders in TN. I got mine from someone on this list in my state.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Good luck with the hatch. What's the plan for the cockerels from the hatch?

My friend has a farm and plans to take any roosters we end up with.

 

[drumstick diva]

Great to have a friend like yours, so no worries about getting too many boys.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Welcome to the community!

How fun! Is this your first time? Do you have a plan for when they hatch?

Wishing you the best of luck!

Yes. We started off with two 7 mo old hens; someone had gotten chicks and raised them just about to the point of lay and decided they didn't want them anymore. I was afraid to add more since they were healthy and figured I'd wait til they got broody and get them eggs or chicks, but they were production breeds and never went broody. At about 1 1/2 years ago, Isabelle, our mystery breed white hen that laid massively huge brown eggs (2.9-3.4 oz regularly), got trapped in a 2 ft snow drift and was mortally wounded by a bird of prey. Rosalie was on her own for while after that. I was going to get some chicks raised by a local broody mama and simultaneously hand raised, but then I found out they'd had Merecks in their flock, so I didn't. We got Esmerelda as a 2 year old last fall to keep Rosalie company during the winter. We were going to do chicks this spring, but decided against it. We didn't expect Esmerelda to go broody, but we're happy she did. I'm a little nervous because she is super skittish and flighty around humans, except when she's in the nestbox. She's super sweet and gentle and will eat out of your hand though. Right now we have this style coop (with optional storm panels) and I've locked the ramp up and put a temporary egg box below for Rosalie starting day 18. I think after the chicks are born, I'll likely move Mama and babies down below, but I didn't want to move her before the hatch was completed. I'm not sure if I'll move them after a couple days or wait longer, but they don't get much sunlight up top, and they don't have access to earth. If I switch them out, I'll add an outdoor ramp or something so Rosalie can go lay her eggs every day and roost at night. Given how Rosalie bullied Esmerelda for so long, I'm worried how she'll react to the chicks. The two of them get along fine now, just not sure how the integration will go. She doesn't have a motherly bone in her body. If they're down below, she'll be at the same level as them but unable to reach them every day and I can gauge better. I'm hoping we'll get to keep at least one, preferably more of the chicks, but we're not allowed roosters, so, if they start crowing, they'll be moving to my friend's farm.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Great to have a friend like yours, so no worries about getting too many boys.

Nope, though I'd rather not as we'd like to keep them!

 

[DobieLover]

Yes. We started off with two 7 mo old hens; someone had gotten chicks and raised them just about to the point of lay and decided they didn't want them anymore. I was afraid to add more since they were healthy and figured I'd wait til they got broody and get them eggs or chicks, but they were production breeds and never went broody. At about 1 1/2 years ago, Isabelle, our mystery breed white hen that laid massively huge brown eggs (2.9-3.4 oz regularly), got trapped in a 2 ft snow drift and was mortally wounded by a bird of prey. Rosalie was on her own for while after that. I was going to get some chicks raised by a local broody mama and simultaneously hand raised, but then I found out they'd had Merecks in their flock, so I didn't. We got Esmerelda as a 2 year old last fall to keep Rosalie company during the winter. We were going to do chicks this spring, but decided against it. We didn't expect Esmerelda to go broody, but we're happy she did. I'm a little nervous because she is super skittish and flighty around humans, except when she's in the nestbox. She's super sweet and gentle and will eat out of your hand though. Right now we have this style coop (with optional storm panels) and I've locked the ramp up and put a temporary egg box below for Rosalie starting day 18. I think after the chicks are born, I'll likely move Mama and babies down below, but I didn't want to move her before the hatch was completed. I'm not sure if I'll move them after a couple days or wait longer, but they don't get much sunlight up top, and they don't have access to earth. If I switch them out, I'll add an outdoor ramp or something so Rosalie can go lay her eggs every day and roost at night. Given how Rosalie bullied Esmerelda for so long, I'm worried how she'll react to the chicks. The two of them get along fine now, just not sure how the integration will go. She doesn't have a motherly bone in her body. If they're down below, she'll be at the same level as them but unable to reach them every day and I can gauge better. I'm hoping we'll get to keep at least one, preferably more of the chicks, but we're not allowed roosters, so, if they start crowing, they'll be moving to my friend's farm.

You need a much bigger coop to keep any more than the 2 you have. That is very small. You want to have 4 sq feet of floor space, 1 foot of roost space and shoot for 1 sq foot of permanently open ventilation per bird in the coop.
Esmerelda should protect the chicks just fine. If she and Rosalie had bonded before she went broody, I would allow them to stay together as a flock.
You will need to switch their feed over right now to either chick starter or Flock Raiser crumbles and put out a little dish of oyster shell for Rosalie.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

You need a much bigger coop to keep any more than the 2 you have. That is very small. You want to have 4 sq feet of floor space, 1 foot of roost space and shoot for 1 sq foot of permanently open ventilation per bird in the coop.
Esmerelda should protect the chicks just fine. If she and Rosalie had bonded before she went broody, I would allow them to stay together as a flock.
You will need to switch their feed over right now to either chick starter or Flock Raiser crumbles and put out a little dish of oyster shell for Rosalie.

Thanks for your concern. No, I don't. The previous owners easily had 5-7 chickens in it with no problems, including some large breeds like Brahmas. Like them, we free range them all day, so they spend very little time in the coop except for laying and sleeping. It's got about 25 sq ft of ventilated space on the bottom (that can be walled in with clear panels in the winter) and maybe a little more than half that up top with two nest boxes and two roosting bars inside. The bottom of the roost (and nest) area is wire for ventillation and there are 4 vent holes at the top of the roost area, though we usually put nesting pads in the nest boxes. When it's snowy, they pretty much just stay on the roosts and don't even come downstairs except to eat and drink, but when it's a big storm, they just sleep all day. We live in a place that the snow doesn't last more than 1-2 days before it melts, so they're never cooped up for long. I think one of the eggs is not likely to hatch, and we may get some roosters that will be rehomed as well.