My first chicks! Mixed breeds with weekly pic updates!!

[Canadianislupus]

Awesome thread!

Thanks!

 

[Canadianislupus]

Been a busy couple days for me and as much as I love these little guys I'll be glad in a week when they go outside permanently. We will probably raise chicks in the house again, but never 24 at a time hahah such a crazy messy learning curve

Yesterday afternoon I had some help from my sisters BF, who loves chickens but doesn't own any, to set up a small run inside the adult chickens run. It took about 2 hours but it turned out pretty good I think. It takes up about 1/8 of the big run and is setup in a way that not even an adult could get out and only the most enterprising and strongest flyer could get in, and only then if they are smart enough to try and jump off the top of their rain shelter. So it will be a good bachelor run to separate out problem birds later on. I will try and get some pics tomorrow when I have access to the camera.

 

[Canadianislupus]

So far so good. The chicks are delighted to be allowed out on a proper regular schedule now. Saturday will be their last night sleeping inside, after that the dog crate brooder will be moved into the adults coop so that the chicks can get used to sleeping in the coop every night yet still keep them separate from the adults until they are large enough for it to be safe. If it wasn't fall I would have moved the brooder outside weeks ago, but any night now we could experience a frost so I wanted to be safe and give them extra time to make sure they all have full feathers. Its really interesting to watch the interactions between the chicks and adults through the wire. I feel like my chicken tv has become chicken tv inception haha I get to watch chickens watching chickens. Chester seems to be the most interested in them and I'm not sure if its a good thing or not. He walks along the fence near them making the tidbiting noise quite often. I'm not sure if he wants to feed the chicks something or if hes trying to feed the chicks to his ladies

. I am sure now that Chester will get along fine with any rooster that the ladies like and even submit to a more dominant roo as long as that roo doesn't hurt his ladies. I know this from the amount of time I spend watching these guys and his interactions with Zeno, who is still much smaller than him. Unless Zeno makes one of the ladies scream he won't do anything to retaliate, even to behavior that other more dominant roo's wouldn't tolerate. Zeno can steal food from the ladies and even dares to peck at Chester while Chester is mating one of the ladies. I would normally, from what I have read/heard, expect quite a violent reaction from the head roo if one of his subordinates challenged his mating behavior, especially if the lady was willing and not screaming for help. But silly Chester didn't react at all, not even an angry squawk, just calmly finished his job and went back to scratching around for snacks in the dirt. Such a goof that rooster, just makes me love him all the more

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[scratch'n'peck]

Chester sounds like a good roo. Zeno would probably be more of a problem than Chester with the younger chickens (But did I read that you were thinking of rehoming Zeno?) I bet Chester is tidbitting to say "welcome to the flock."

 

[Canadianislupus]

Chester sounds like a good roo. Zeno would probably be more of a problem than Chester with the younger chickens (But did I read that you were thinking of rehoming Zeno?) I bet Chester is tidbitting to say "welcome to the flock."

Oh jeez, sorry its taken me so long to respond. Its been a busy week. So far Chester is the best roo i could have hoped for. He's so sweet and always on alert for hawks/eagles. We have a lot here. There is even a resident pair of Red Tailed hawks that live by the city reservoir that is only a couple hundred feet away from the property. So far I think its only Chester's size and alertness that has kept them from trying anything. Yeah I think Zeno would be an issue as well. He is pretty low ranked and I wouldn't put it past him to bully any chicken he feels like he could dominate. I know I tend to go on really long rants haha but yeah Zeno will be re-homed before the flocks are merged. Either in a trade to a neighbor for one of his extra black Araucana cockerels, or to freezer camp if the neighbor doesn't want him.

 

[Canadianislupus]

Also very VERY sorry to anybody following this thread that I missed the week six update. I took a bunch of pics this evening and will post them as soon as I'm finished sorting them. Its been a lot of work these last two weeks moving them out to the little pen in the morning and back to the dog crate in the evening. Gross poopy work

. The old guinea pig/rabbit cage I was using to carry them back and forth, 12 at a time, finally snapped yesterday and I've been brainstorming all day to figure out a solution, both to getting covered in poop twice a day every day, and to the problem of moving them to the little run without the rabbit cage. Then the obvious hit me. There are 6 adults and 24 chicks. Why not chase the 6 into the little run and simply let the chicks loose into the big run! So now my plan is to wait until the hens finish laying, the latest they seem to lay is 1:30 ish, then herd the adults into the small run and let the chicks loose in the big run. They won't be too pleased on the days they have to wait but it will only be for a few weeks until they are big enough to merge flocks. Also this way the adults won't feel like they are loosing out too much and hopefully it will help with the merge if they see the little ones running around in what is usually their space.....I hope that rant made sense haha

 

[Canadianislupus]

Man I was really off my game today, sorry for the lack of focused pics

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[scratch'n'peck]

She has such pretty plumage.

 

[Canadianislupus]

She has such pretty plumage.

Agreed! She is my favorite colour wise. I'm crossing my fingers that her comb stays pale though. one by one, more and more that I had hoped would be female are developing bright pink little combs

. I knew what I was getting into though I suppose, and I wouldn't have gotten any chicks until spring if it weren't for these guys. Unfortunatley she is one of the more skittish ones and doesn't like being picked up or touched.

 

[Canadianislupus]

Here they are at 8 weeks. Sorry for the massive amount

I couldn't narrow it down any further.