AndyAmbiguous
Chirping
- Apr 23, 2020
- 40
- 52
- 66
Hi Everyone! I just had 10 silver grey dorkings delivered today. 4 days old, from a local backyard breeder here in Eastern Ontario. I'm so excited (and nervous!) I haven't had chickens since I was a very small child. This is technically my first flock!
One of the chicks arrived with splay leg, and things are a bit touch and go with her. I taped her legs closer together with some washi tape and she pecks at it nonstop. I have found her on her back several times now and helped her up. She's much slower than the other chicks in terms of waking and feeding, but she did eat a whole lot once I placed her on the food. I also made sure she drank some sugar water. I hope she makes it through the night but we are emotionally preparing ourselves in case she doesn't.
The rest of the chicks seem like they're doing wonderfully. It's hard not to sit and stare at them endlessly, lol. I find the SG dorking breed to be very interesting - I hadn't even heard about it before I saw an ad from someone in my town as I was looking for chicks on kijiji. And even 4 days in I can already see which ones are likely to be roos. 3 out of the 10 don't even have a stripe on their head at all, and the rest have a solid V outlined in black. I think I lucked out if I only got 3! We aren't technically allowed chickens in my county even though this house has a coop and fenced run built into the side of the garage and there clearly have been chickens kept here before (we're on 3/4 acres too, plenty of space!) so I'm hoping nobody minds, especially these days. I'm hoping fresh eggs and compost will dissuade any lookie loos.
I'm hoping to keep these chickens permaculture style - food scrap composting, deep litter, maybe even tractor them in good weather in areas I want to kill the lawn. I have wheat anaphylaxis so I can't do commercial feed for them whatsoever, but I have cobbled together what I think is a pretty good starter feed and will incorporate some more natural forage type foods as they age. Eventually I'm hoping to feed them as much as I can on food scraps and forage. So far they LOVE the wood chip bedding in the brooder. I think it's much more interesting for them than pine shavings. Several times now I've seen one pick up a small stick and play keep away. And they love to dig! I'm very excited about that!
Any advice about the splay leg is welcome. I'd also love to hear from anyone doing permaculture with chickens or anyone with SG dorkings! I know it's a fairly rare breed.
Thanks!!
One of the chicks arrived with splay leg, and things are a bit touch and go with her. I taped her legs closer together with some washi tape and she pecks at it nonstop. I have found her on her back several times now and helped her up. She's much slower than the other chicks in terms of waking and feeding, but she did eat a whole lot once I placed her on the food. I also made sure she drank some sugar water. I hope she makes it through the night but we are emotionally preparing ourselves in case she doesn't.
The rest of the chicks seem like they're doing wonderfully. It's hard not to sit and stare at them endlessly, lol. I find the SG dorking breed to be very interesting - I hadn't even heard about it before I saw an ad from someone in my town as I was looking for chicks on kijiji. And even 4 days in I can already see which ones are likely to be roos. 3 out of the 10 don't even have a stripe on their head at all, and the rest have a solid V outlined in black. I think I lucked out if I only got 3! We aren't technically allowed chickens in my county even though this house has a coop and fenced run built into the side of the garage and there clearly have been chickens kept here before (we're on 3/4 acres too, plenty of space!) so I'm hoping nobody minds, especially these days. I'm hoping fresh eggs and compost will dissuade any lookie loos.
I'm hoping to keep these chickens permaculture style - food scrap composting, deep litter, maybe even tractor them in good weather in areas I want to kill the lawn. I have wheat anaphylaxis so I can't do commercial feed for them whatsoever, but I have cobbled together what I think is a pretty good starter feed and will incorporate some more natural forage type foods as they age. Eventually I'm hoping to feed them as much as I can on food scraps and forage. So far they LOVE the wood chip bedding in the brooder. I think it's much more interesting for them than pine shavings. Several times now I've seen one pick up a small stick and play keep away. And they love to dig! I'm very excited about that!
Any advice about the splay leg is welcome. I'd also love to hear from anyone doing permaculture with chickens or anyone with SG dorkings! I know it's a fairly rare breed.
Thanks!!
Hope you find your little one doing much better this morning. And Welcome to BYC!
