My Flock (Wyandottes)

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Long John Silver

White Spot and a cheeky, fluffy Ameraucana chick

This photo is a good comparison of the male (left) and female (right) auto sexing black chicks

 

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The chicks from the farm store are most likely to be Easter Eggers sold as Ameraucanas but we were looking forward to having some of them either way.
I always have a backup brooder ready but our glw hens have an excellent track record as broody mothers. At age 5 or 6 she is not laying as often, but older hens are invaluable for their experience.

Having chicks where the other chickens can hear or see them sometimes makes some other hen start thinking broody thoughts. Here is our year-old Little Black Hen trying out a cupboard shelf to see if it's a good place to raise a clutch (it's not).

 

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5 day old barnyard mix alongside the EE, I'd put them at a couple of days older based on their feathers?

The feed store chicks have an array of vaccinations while ours don't, they're all on feed medicated for coccidiosis. While I do it this way I recommend everyone educate themselves and use the methods they find most suitable for them when mixing hatchery stock into your flock. We've done it this way before without any problems and it seems to be going well this time to, everyone is acting happy and healthy.

I'm glad the ages are so close and that we could get the EE with mom and siblings early on.

 

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The new chicks are a week old, so allow me to officially introduce each of them and their names :

& broody hen White Spot

 

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Checking in with the main flock and Arwen, who is our current top hen.

She always has a calm and unimpressed look in her eye, but she and our other silver hen spend a lot of time in the company of Long John now that he's matured and are always on one side of him on the perch at night.

The other silver is the oldest of our flock, Stripe, who is now 7 years old. She is not top hen but always near the top of the pecking order and is always inquisitive and unbothered. Both still lay the occasional nice, brown egg.

In the background here are Scarface and the Wellsummers. Scarface does not wear her beak down as well as the others since her injury despite her comb healing almost entirely. She's due for another file and trimming session, which she also hates. I suspect her beak is sensitive due to nerve damage. She is lower in the pecking order but an adept forager and the most likely of the flock to scam you for treats.

 

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The chicks are growing well and feathering more and more each day.

The Little Black Hen is trying to brood on an old washing machine so I've put her back in the coop each night. Hopefully this is just 1-year old first time broody silliness and she will do a better job next time if/when she goes broody again. I prefer not to let hens younger than 2 to sit a clutch if I can prevent them from it.

Here is a fairly recent picture of LBH with her father Long John directly behind her. I find it interesting how remarkably similar they look in this photo.