MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

Your wild weather has made it further north.

Was there any injury or damage at your house?

 

[MaryJanet]

I've been packing a lot into life recently and need to slow down a little. Helping my brother move house coincided with several social commitments and the usual round of professional commitments. I'm tired.

But this evening Katie will be weighed. Fingers crossed for some weight gain.

The last few days she and Edie rejoined their friends, mainly because I was worried about them being too cold by themselves in the big coop. Ivy likes nothing more than chasing them away from food. Edie is good at ignoring her but Katie always flees the scene, so I'm worried about her weight. Hopefully she's gained some. If not, they'll have to be separated again.

 

[Shadrach]

What issues have you found with large chicks and small moms? In my youth this happened every year with no issues at all.

Would you have noticed in your youth? There are things I saw when on my uncles farm as a youth that I didn't understand until much later in life when I had seen other chickens doing similar.

There are also things that fall into the likely best outcome class.
Hens own eggs to hatch, breeds of a similar look to the existing, similar size, family concieved and hatched etc etc. It's not that other combinations never work, it's that the best out come class tends to work more often with fewer problem.

A lot depends on how many chicks the mum hatches. The bantams in Catalonia for example hatched some Marans/bantam crosses. The chicks grew like they were on steroids and when it rained or the chicks were cold the mum was unable to adequately shelter all the chicks in a hatch of six. The bigger the chick generally, the more food it needs. Again with a large a large hatch the hens had trouble feeding them.
I have no idea to which keeping circumstances these cautions might apply to. It may be fine with confined hens because they don't tend to forage and when they do the runs have usually been stripped bare so they really only need to show the chicks how to eat from the feeders.
I've got identity and size problems in my current charges and that's largely because little thought was given to how the rescues and Ex Battery hens would fit in with the chickens that were already there.

 

[BY Bob]

Plenty of driving rain but no thunder or lightening.

Glad everyone is ok.

 

[LozzyR]

Was there any injury or damage at your house?

Not at our house, but there were some massive branches and debris all over the bike paths.

 

[fuentemoon]

Here we had booming thunder and really intense lightening, but no rain.

 

[MaryJanet]

I love it when the cat's head hits my leg with an almost audible thunk. It signifies a lot of trust.

 

[BY Bob]

I love it when the cat's head hits my leg with an almost audible thunk. It signifies a lot of trust.

Davis is a head butt cat too. Very trusting.

 

[MaryJanet]

Davis is a head butt cat too. Very trusting.

Blossom does it when she's falling asleep. She lets her head fall down.

 

[BY Bob]

Blossom does it when she's falling asleep. She lets her head fall down.

Davis does it like a rabbit does. He comes up and head butts me when he wants to be petted.