Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[Leeuhhh]

This is an evil, evil thread that is making me want to order chickens that I do not need. LOL.

 

[christine9]

I'm having a hard time keeping up, but I love everyone's chick pics!!!

 

[nicdu]

Meyer Monday birthdays! So I'm a couple days late in posting....

Anyway, the girls are 8 days old in these pics, and doing great. They are all growing like weeds--it seems like they are twice as big and strong as they were last week when we got them--and getting along fine, eating well, etc. The marans chick looked like she was getting pasty butt a couple times, but I got her cleaned up and I think she should be ok. We are trying to keep them socialized, and they are all still a little flighty, but they calm down quickly when we hold them, fall asleep on our arms, etc., so I think it's going fine.

Crazy week last week, so still haven't settled on names--that will come soon.

Here is our blue ameraucana girl:





The silver gray dorking (I do think she's the calmest of the bunch):



And the cuckoo marans (she really likes to snuggle up to the ameraucana):





Here are a few of their glamor shots on the window sill, hanging out as a group:













And we've taken a few field trips outside, although not as many as I would like, since they can still waltz right through the bars of our little pen (it's one of those foldable wire animal runs that we used to use for our bunnies), so they need to be watched very closely. They TWICE managed to walk right out under the noses of our two big dogs, and I was terrified they'd become chicken nugget snacks in about half a second, but the dogs didn't touch them. Our dogs are uber-wonderful with our adult chickens, but they have a strong prey drive for squirrels, wild rabbits, etc., so I was worried, but apparently the dogs realized these little ladies were off limits. I'm hoping by next week or so they will be big enough to stay inside the pen, and then they can have a little more outdoor time without putting me in a constant state of panic.

We have birthday twin chicks! Very cute! Do you handle them everyday? I want to, but they hate me. And I don't want to scar them for life. Does anyone know if they just get used to it, and to press on with handling them even though they are clearly not fans? Or is there another strategy I should try? I want at least a few cuddle chickens!

 

[DevilsDenHen]

So i got this one in a bunch of random chicks from Meyer.
Any Ideas on what she may be??
Partridge Cochin perhaps? there is feathering on the legs but not as much as i would of thought would be on a cochin.

 

[popsicle]

So i got this one in a bunch of random chicks from Meyer.
Any Ideas on what she may be??
Partridge Cochin perhaps? there is feathering on the legs but not as much as i would of thought would be on a cochin.

I'd guess Marans--maybe Blue Copper. I've had Black Copper Marans chicks that started out fairly partridgy.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Speckled Sussex are sold out again

They had them on the day I wanted for a while then became I think fully available a couple days ago but are now sold out, males only

Should have ordered them a few days ago but still trying to convince my mom to do it. :/

I kind of want to wait since clearly the availability changes a lot but I don't want another breed to sell out

 

[keesmom]

I can take a few pictures of them, if you want. A few seem like they are coloring in good, but a few look like they have way too much Salmon, so we'll see how it goes, once they fully mature.

Hatchery Faverolles often have too much black. I have 2 from Meyer in the kids' pet flock. Small (half the size of my breeder birds) and on the darker side, but they do have the typical Faverolles personality.

 

[Finnie]

Did you know that Meyer chick birthdays for this week are on Tuesday instead of Monday? So they could have the holiday off.

Here is Ella, my two week old Partridge Plymouth Rock with her new little flock. I got the Cream Legbar chick on Wednesday night from a breeder, and then yesterday I went to Agrarian to see what random chicks they had this week, since they have been trying unsuccessfully to get me a new Sicilian Buttercup. They've also been trying to get me a Buff Laced Polish with no luck. I guess I will just have something on my wish list for next year. I think this group of chicks had better be it for this year. I already had to sell off 5 of my older hens to make room for all of the chicks I've been raising.

But after two weeks of trying, I figured I better get something else for Ella before she gets too big to add new chicks.


They had a couple breeds I wasn't interested in, and then they also had a bin with only Buckeyes and Easter Eggers. My flock is turning out to be very high in the red and white departments, and sadly lacking in the yellow department since I sold my Buff Orpingtons. So I wanted to try to get paler EEs that might have a chance to turn out Buff or Wheaten. The little yellow chick seems like it might turn out white, but I am hoping it will have some yellow around its head, since it seems to have more golden down in that area. Her wings are white so far that I can see.





Since she has no beard or muff, the lady in the store was positive she must be one of the Buckeyes and not an Easter Egger. But I don't think there's any way that's possible. The Buckeyes were so much more rusy colored, and they had dashes on their heads. I think this one is just a beardless EE. I suppose she could also be a random chick that accidentally got put into the order. Anyway, it's kind of fun that she is going to be a surprise.

The other one will also be interesting to see how she turns out. She was a lot lighter and less chipmunky than the other EEs. And she has longer down than any of my other chicks have had. I almost wanted to call her Fluffy, but I'm sure that would get vetoed by the rest of my family!



So I'm not quite sure yet what the Easter Eggers will be called, but for my legbar, I was wanting to continue with the princess characters I have going for my other Legbars (Westley, Princess Buttercup and Princess Peach). Then it hit me- how could I have forgotten the most cult-followed movie(s) of ALL TIME!!!

Introducing Princess Leia!



So here's more photos. I was impressed with how tame Ella is, even though I kind of stopped snuggling her after Highness died. So I have decided to step up her cuddles again, along with the new babies. Someone asked about whether they should push the handling even though the chick freaks out. I would say yes, handle them as much as you can. It can only help, whereas the hands-off approach will not help at all. It's better to get them as much accustomed to handling as you can manage, even if it doesn't make them snugglers. At least they will be more familiar with their main caretaker.









Oops. I was only supposed to get one random chick when I went to the store!

 

[hyzenthlay]

Finnie, your new chicks are so cute! Congratulations on the new babies, and I can't wait to see how they all turn out! That's especially true for the EEs, since the mystery is fun, and yours certainly look different than any I've ever gotten. The one does seem to have a lot of yellow around her head, and I love the spots and fluffiness of the other one! Your CCL looks really proud and sassy, too, in that one picture where she's the star--very cute. Do all your CCLs pretty much look the same when they're grown, or is there noticeable variation? Thanks for the comments on my chick pics, too! I also love the expression on the ameraucana--I keep thinking she looks a lot like a baby penguin.

Nicdu, it's neat to have chicks the same age--maybe some of ours are siblings! I saw you got a blue ameraucana, too, right? I have been handling the chicks pretty much every day, and encouraging the kids to do so as well (mostly my 6 year old daughter, since the boys are younger). I definitely think that more handling is better than less--they pretty much all hate it at first, but they seem to settle down quickly. One thing we're doing with these guys that we never did before is trying to hold them for a long time while we're sitting still--after just a minute, they relax, and they often perch on our arms or climb up on our chests and doze off. With our chicks in the past, we would hold them for a few minutes, but mostly interacted with them in a more active way, and they never really got comfortable with us holding them. The hard part is just finding time to sit still, given how tight our schedules generally are. In terms of actual handling, ours seem happiest when you keep them close but allow them a little freedom--that is, we don't try too much to stop them from flapping their little wings and squawking, or try to make them stay in your hand or in one spot. We just let them get the flaps out of their system, settle down, walk around on our arms, legs, etc., and find a spot where they are comfortable to perch. This seems to be working better than our socializing efforts in the past (so far!!).

I used to have a Meyers Faverolles, and I don't think she had too much black, but her overall color was darker than it should have been, almost a mahogany rather than a salmon. Her eggs were also almost indistinguishable in color from my SLW. She was very outgoing and friendly, though.

 

[Finnie]

Finnie, your new chicks are so cute! Congratulations on the new babies, and I can't wait to see how they all turn out! That's especially true for the EEs, since the mystery is fun, and yours certainly look different than any I've ever gotten. The one does seem to have a lot of yellow around her head, and I love the spots and fluffiness of the other one! Your CCL looks really proud and sassy, too, in that one picture where she's the star--very cute. Do all your CCLs pretty much look the same when they're grown, or is there noticeable variation? Thanks for the comments on my chick pics, too! I also love the expression on the ameraucana--I keep thinking she looks a lot like a baby penguin.

Thanks, hyzenthlay!

I only have the two older (8 weeks old) CCL pullets besides Leia, but from just those two, I can say that the one that had lighter down and stripes as a chick now has a lighter cream color to her, and the one that was darker as a chick has a more gold color to her. I was thinking about posting about this on the legbar thread and seeing what they say about the two. I tried to pick an in between shade with Leia, but to me she looks similar to my dark chick.