Natural breeding thread

[fluffycrow]

Success!

Mum brought them down today, with a little help from me (the only help I’ve given throughout this process). Mum isn’t looking great, the brooding process was tiring, and she got a bit beat up from the other hens, though she stood her ground. Being a first timer didn’t help, I’m sure.

As I’m typing this, introductions are taking place. 5 hens so far, one of which is one of the seniors.

She has managed to do something I never thought id see; having chicks in the main, free range group. For that reason, she deserves a name, and I have the perfect one for her. Celebrian, as is the name of Galadriel’s daughter in Tolkien’s world. She’s been a fantastic mum so far, and I hope it only gets better from here

 

[Skyeknight]

The chicks of my broody silkie hen hatched a week ago. It was a staggered hatch so there were some difficulties, but all 6 fertile eggs hatched healthy chicks. The silkie is a first time mom and none in my flock have witnessed broodiness or chicks in their adult life.

Sadly the black chick died today, I assume (s)he has been trampled by the mom. It was the oldest and most active chick out of all of them. Potentially it could have been the heat but none of them displayed any signs of heat stress.

The remaining 5 are 1 unknown, 1 rooster and 3 pullets. Except for the unknown one, which is the silkies own biological daughter, they are sexlinked in 2 ways. Males have barring and lack fibromelanosis, while females lack barring and are fibromelanistic. One of the supposed pullets seems to have a faint head spot but is fibromelanistic, guess I will see if the fibro fades and she developes barred feathers or not.

This "coop" is in the chicken run so they can interact with the rest of the flock. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty hot so I will build a mini run for them to go outside.