My Flock Story -- 2023

[3KillerBs]

Note on Saran -- he has one curled foot. I'm going to check it again this evening and if it hasn't straightened up I'll give him a tape shoe.

I've banded him to be sure which one he is so that I don't breed him forward.

(Saying "him" generically, in hope that he is male and I don't have to decide whether to cull a pulletor sell her with disclosure).

 

[3KillerBs]

Note on Saran -- he has one curled foot. I'm going to check it again this evening and if it hasn't straightened up I'll give him a tape shoe.

I've banded him to be sure which one he is so that I don't breed him forward.

(Saying "him" generically, in hope that he is male and I don't have to decide whether to cull a pulletor sell her with disclosure).

His foot has uncurled and looks perfect now.

No chick shoe required.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't have photos because I had a strenuous day at work, but I opened the chick doors in the integration pen this morning before I left and when I went out after dinner I found about 1/3 of the January hatch roaming around the coop, drinking from the big birds' waterer and eating from their feeder.

 

[3KillerBs]

Seti, on if the October cockerels is, apparently, brighter than the average chicken.

He does unauthorized free-ranging, probably to get away from Rameses, but doesn't go back over the fence to get in at night.

He won't let me catch him to put him back over, but after 3 days of this he's waiting by the people door for me to open it so he can walk in.

 

[3KillerBs]

From the March 14 hatch, slightly under 2 weeks and I can tell that some of these are boys.

There are 11 of them and I'm not sure that these photos include one of each, but you can see some of the boy-combs on a couple of them already.

I have 3 blacks, one of which is a definite boy and 2 of which have an awful LOT of white on them.

2 blues, one of which has a great deal of white on it.

3 splash, two of which are likely boys.

2 dominant white, I *think* one boy and one girl.

1 definite OE cross, Saran the shrink-wrapped chick, who is also black.

 

[3KillerBs]

6 chicks from the January hatch have moved to their new home.

Also the cull group with Sethos, one of the black cockerels. The guy already has Australorps, loves them, and wants to breed them.

 

[3KillerBs]

The March chicks are in the integration pen as of Monday morning.

The ones with the extra white are still oddly marked as their feathers have come in. I banded them with bright yellow so I can continue to track this.

The female dominant white has turned out to be a potentially pretty paint, with much more dramatic markings than the male.

Some of them had fewer feathers than I wish they had, but I had to get them out of the brooder so I could put the Easter hatch in. I mistimed this batch -- should have had 5 weeks between instead of 4, but I got sick and was late setting them.

 

[fuzzi]

Next, 8 Blues and Blacks. I *think* it's 4 of each, but one of them is either one of my extra-dark blues or a black in disguise. Sitting next to the definite black chicks it looks blue to my eyes but I wouldn't rule out the possibility that it's actually black.


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One of the blacks is the half-Marans chick -- the one with the pink band as a known female.

Another of the blacks is super-black -- almost no white at all. Wondering if that might be the other half-CW chick.

The one(s) with one black foot and one pink, are they the mixed breeds?

 

[3KillerBs]

The one(s) with one black foot and one pink, are they the mixed breeds?

I'm not sure which photos you were referring to?

A lot of the Australorp chicks have black down the outside of the leg and white on the inside when they're young.

 

[fuzzi]

I'm not sure which photos you were referring to?

A lot of the Australorp chicks have black down the outside of the leg and white on the inside when they're young.

This one:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/attachments/img_20230202_105823486-jpg.3393485/