Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[christine9]

Hyzenthlay, do you still have baby pics of your wellie? Welsummers can be sexed at hatch. Mine had me worried for a while too.

 

[hyzenthlay]

Thanks for asking, Christine. I was actually just digging up a few of those when you wrote, and posting the same question over on the Welsummer thread to see if I get any additional input before I have to decide this chick's fate. I thought there was a pretty well defined V and eyeliner, but maybe not? Here are the best I found of this little one as a day old:

 

[StewedMammal]

This picture is a little old, but 2 years ago I bought some golden buffs and black australorps from meyer, and I could not have been happier with my birds. They layed very large eggs almost daily. I got a golden buff rooster by accident as well and he has been one of the best roosters I've had. He is a great protector and is great around his girls and chicks. Here is a picture of them (some of the golden buffs are from a different hatchery, but the rooster and the australorps are from meyers.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ok, not a full weekly birthday picture update here, but a few choice photos from today. As I mentioned, the babies are three weeks old this week. I don't think there's much doubt about it, but this Welsummer chick (formerly Hazel) below is a roo, right? If not, I'd think it must be the most masculine pullet ever. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] And a group shot, where you can catch a glimpse of Narcissa (BO) and Nigella (BA), with the BLRW in the far background. And here's she who has not yet been named, the BRLW. I think these shots pretty accurately capture her color. Sooo, what do we think? Will she be dark blue, or black? The breast and hackle feathers seem pretty black, but some of the wingtips and tail feathers are dark gray.

And finally, a few pics of my 8 week old ladies--not the best shots, but the best I could get on a cloudy day in their makeshift run, which consists of a puppy pen covered by a waterproof drop cloth, with that PVC pipe standing in the middle for a tent pole (it gives them a little more headroom, but more importantly keeps the rain from pooling in the middle of the cloth "roof"). They only stay in there during the day, and come back to the basement at night--I'm concerned about predators, especially with them still being pint sized I'd imagine even the neighbor's cats could do some real damage. We really need to get the coop expansion finished--hopefully this weekend, if the weather and kids cooperate. Violet the Dorking is really gentle and calm and pretty, with such long, fluffy feathers--this pic doesn't do her justice. Petunia the CM came over to check out the camera--she's cautious but curious and still fairly approachable. Delphine the Ameraucana wouldn't come close, so this is the best I could get of her. She is by far the smallest of the 8 weekers, about pigeon sized. At this rate I'm worried she'll never grow big enough not to fit through the bars of our yard fence. She is very pretty, with a good beard growing in.

The welsummer is without a doubt a roo the way hes feathering. As for the blrw looks like my glw i got a roo of blrw and he looks blue.

 

[Briggadane]

Hyzenthlay, I agree on roo. His comb is even pink. Most females combs are still flesh colored at that age. And I've got to agree as well to the pullet being a gold laced. Nothing at all like my BLRW that is only a few weeks younger, and from Meyers as well.

 

[hyzenthlay]

Thanks, guys. Ok, it's 100% votes for roo so far on the Wellie. I thought so, of course, but was hoping maybe someone would tell me I was wrong... If anyone wants a cute little Wellie roo, let me know.... He's probably destined for Craigslist shortly, as sad as that makes me.

On the BLRW, I'd be surprised if Meyer actually gave me the wrong breed altogether--don't they keep them separate? I've been looking at GLW chick pics, and most of those seem noticeably blacker than my chick. That's one of the few reasons I'm holding out hope she'll be blue, although I don't have a strong prediction on it either way. I do think my chick's "red" is probably going to be a bit brassy, though.

StewedMammal, pretty flock!!

 

[Finnie]

@Pandapaws23 I'm so sorry to hear about your flock. Did you move a long way? Did something happen, or just stress get them? It is really just rotten. I'm glad you at least still have some.


@StewedMammal I like your flock too- what a pretty rooster!


@hyzenthlay What a pity that your wellie roo missed the vent sex as well as the autosex. Maybe when they vent sex, they concentrate on that, and don't take visual characteristics into account. Or, maybe they looked at the eyeliner on the chick and decided they didn't need to vent sex. In your baby pics, I actually would have thought it was a pullet. But I have also heard on a different thread about autosexing, that someone claimed Welsummers are not a true autosexing breed. And that some lines are easier to tell than others. I wonder if Meyer has issues with sexing their Wellies.

As for your BLRW, I would hold off judgment. These are just her first set of feathers, and I noticed with mine, she turned out way different in the "end" than her first feathers indicated. (I don't think she is quite at the end yet.) I think yours is showing blue tendencies, compared to how mine looked.

I need to get a current photo of Blossom, because now that she is getting closer to maturity, her ground color is a beautiful mix of red and gold shades. It makes her look like leaded stained glass, with different colors showing through the different "panes". When she turned out blue instead of black, I had thought I might sell her, since I was really hoping for a red chicken with black outlines. I might try again for that next year. But now that she has this stained glass thing going on, I think she's beautiful. Since chicken math has me at the very top of my limit, I kind of keep an idea of which one(s) would be the first to go if I have to downsize a little. Fortunately for my favorites, I have a cockerel and a hen with egg laying problems that are lowest in seniority, which gives some buffer to the rest.

I'm also very happy that Corabeth looks like a pullet again, so I hope to still get my olive eggs.

Autumnhearth, I just remembered something you said a while back about your girls being 18 weeks old and starting to pink up. My older group of chicks is about the same age, and I am seeing the pink coming in big time. I have read that one sign of maturity is that the pullet will squat for you, like she would for a rooster, so I've been trying to see if any of them will let me pet them. Of course, it's just Aggie and Peppermint who will allow that, and they have been that way all along.

I have noticed though, that Beaker has been having a little more success in his attempts to mate some of them, so that must mean they are getting close.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

@Pandapaws23
  I'm so sorry to hear about your flock.  Did you  move a long way?  Did something happen, or just stress get them?  It is really just rotten.   I'm glad you at least still have some.


@StewedMammal
  I like your flock too- what a pretty rooster!


@hyzenthlay
  What a pity that your wellie roo missed the vent sex as well as the autosex.  Maybe when they vent sex, they concentrate on that, and don't take visual characteristics into account.  Or, maybe they looked at the eyeliner on the chick and decided they didn't need to vent sex.  In your baby pics, I actually would have thought it was a pullet.  But I have also heard on a different thread about autosexing, that someone claimed Welsummers are not a true autosexing breed.  And that some lines are easier to tell than others.  I wonder if Meyer has issues with sexing their Wellies.

As for your BLRW, I would hold off judgment.  These are just her first set of feathers, and I noticed with mine, she turned out way different in the "end" than her first feathers indicated. (I don't think she is quite at the end yet.)  I think yours is showing blue tendencies, compared to how mine looked. 

I need to get a current photo of Blossom, because now that she is getting closer to maturity, her ground color is a beautiful mix of red and gold shades.  It makes her look like leaded stained glass, with different colors showing through the different "panes".  When she turned out blue instead of black, I had thought I might sell her, since I was really hoping for a red chicken with black outlines.  I might try again for that next year.  But now that she has this stained glass thing going on, I think she's beautiful.  Since chicken math has me at the very top of my limit, I kind of keep an idea of which one(s) would be the first to go if I have to downsize a little.  Fortunately for my favorites, I have a cockerel and a hen with egg laying problems that are lowest in seniority, which gives some buffer to the rest.

I'm also very happy that Corabeth looks like a pullet again, so I hope to still get my olive eggs. 

Autumnhearth, I just remembered something you said a while back about your girls being 18 weeks old and starting to pink up.  My older group of chicks is about the same age, and I am seeing the pink coming in big time.  I have read that one sign of maturity is that the pullet will squat for you, like she would for a rooster, so I've been trying to see if any of them will let me pet them.  Of course, it's just Aggie and Peppermint who will allow that, and they have been that way all along.

I have noticed though, that Beaker has been having a little more success in his attempts to mate some of them, so that must mean they are getting close.

I moved two hours in the rain and cold. The tarp i had on them ripped.

 

[Finnie]

I moved two hours in the rain and cold. The tarp i had on them ripped.

Aw man, I'm so sorry about that. I always feel sorry for people moving in the rain. Even way worse when you have animals, too.

 

[Finnie]

I almost forgot I had pictures on my camera from yesterday. Kind of birthday pics, since the youngest group turned 7 weeks yesterday. I wanted to put some pine shavings in their run, and it was easier to do it if I let them out, so it was their first time meeting the older chickens without wire between them.


I basically waited until the end of the day, so that I could have a short amount of time to supervise them until they gravitated back to their sleeping areas.

There was a certain amount of pecking, as to be expected, but nothing major.

The babies were SO happy to be able to run, jump, fly and stretch their wings. Couldn't get my camera turned back on in time to catch it, except for this one shot of Gingersnap on bottom right.


The older pullets keeping a close eye on the newcomers.



Here is Biscuit and Leia.



Ella and Poppyseed



Weetabix. She is turning out so gold, and with speckles. The speckles keep disappearing though, so I think in the end she will have just enough to keep her from being entirely gold.

Triscuit and Gingersnap seem to have eluded the camera. I'm starting to have concerns about Triscuit's comb being a tad pinker than any of the others. Of the two golden colored EEs though, I'm glad it's Triscuit who is questionable and not Weetabix.

But it's not too bad yet and there is time to wait and see if Triscuit is a roo or not.


Here they are back safe and sound, and I was losing the light too much to get any other good photos.


Oh, and it was safe to let them out because my two older turkeys had been in turkey jail for the last two days. They have been seriously attacking some of the older hens, and I'm pretty sure in their mood, they would pick on the chicks too. But this morning when I let all the older chickens loose, the turkeys ignored them, so today they get to be out of jail. Fingers crossed that they are rehabilitated. I even saw the worst offender sitting side by side on the saw horse with the previous object of his wrath, and I couldn't believe it!

I will probably wait until the weekend before letting the babies out again.