New chick mama to 3 little B.O.'s

3BuffsMama

Hatching
May 16, 2015
3
0
7
VA
Hi all! So, I'm completely new to everything chickens and chicken cites online. I have three 5 week old Buff Orpington chicks (all girls), named Marigold, Matilda, & Buttercup. We are currently keeping them in their extra-large brooder indoors & taking them outside to play every day. Before I got them, if anyone had told me I'd come to love chickens like I love our other pets & would even consider them a part of the family, well, I'd have called them crazy. But now, I ADORE my girls!
They are all SO sweet & super affectionate. They love to be held and handled and insist on riding around on my arms & shoulders. They love to be pet, scratched gently, & talked to. And they are hilarious to watch! They even play w/ toys! We bought some little parakeet toys for them & hung them from long strings in their brooder & they play all the time. We even "made" some chick toys, like by cutting up some colorful bendy straws into three segmonts-they go crazy for them! They pick them up & throw them & chase each other w/ them.
I have a ton of questions, but feel like I've already written probably too much, so I will save them for later. :)
 
Great introduction! :) I'm fairly new to chickens also. I'm with you and never would have though I would love chickens. They are great fun and getting eggs everyday is fun for the whole family. Welcome and we love pictures :D
 
Hello!
400

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family. :frow
You have to love that chick TV! I spent hours just watching mine! The sound like bundles of joy! Good luck with them!
 
Buff orps are beautiful, sociable and docile- very popular for good reason. Your girls sound like a delight to have around. I would love to see them playing with their straws. .Chicks also like exploring wooden blocks, tree branches to use as roosts, and even color balls to push around. You can make a tunnel for them out of a box with opening at two ends, and they will check that out too.

Take lots of photos because they grow up so fast. Welcome to Backyard chickens.
 
Welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


When our last bunch of chicks were small, they enjoyed running through a tunnel made of large plastic pipe and pecking at an old CD that hung from their brooder lid. @NickyKnack is right, chicken tv is the best show around. I think a lot of people (including myself) have been surprised at how much they come to care about their birds...chickens make great pets!

It's nice to have you here and if you have questions, feel free to ask.
 
welcome-byc.gif
Glad to have another chicken mom join us.

Love your intro and feel eggxactly like you about my "children/pets". Most people you meet will really not understand how you can actually love a chicken. I do feel sorry for "those people" who really don't know what fun they are missing.

Enjoy your great adventure.
 
Hi. I'm also new to this chicken thing. I got 3 hens in the fall n love them like my children. 2 of the 3 r broody one being super broody so I got 6 fertile eggs from a friend. I put the eggs in the nest area 16 days ago n it looks like I'm gonna be a grandpa after candling one of the eggs yest n reading alot. I'm so nervous r have so many questions about what to do after they hatch. Thank god for BYC. Welcome n I'm looking forward to hearing all about yours.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for all the kind replies and welcomes! I'm going to try posting some pics of them from when we first got them @ 3 days old & some more recent ones, too.
And yes, most of my friends & family (the ones who don't keep chickens) think I'm crazy. My mom even made the comment, "Erica, they're JUST chickens." To her credit, I do talk about them quite often, but considering she loves birds almost as much as I do & still has a pet parrot, I really thought she'd know better than that. Of course it became my goal to show her how my girls are so much better than "just chickens" & so she now receives daily photos & videos of them proving her wrong. You're welcome mom! O:)
And thanks for the ideas about the tunnels & other toys! My 3 (human) kids built a "chick playground" for them, including a little ramp leading to the top of what we call "the chick cave" (a small upside down cardboard box w/ a doorway cut out), a swing (2 old shoelaces tied to a stick in the middle), a couple of sticks for roosting, & old toilet paper & paper towel rolls. They LOVE it all, except they haven't really gotten the hang of the swing. And they usually sit on the paper towel roll instead of the sticks.
Now, I'm going to stop blabbering on & on & actually ask a couple of questions. At what age do chicks/chickens typically become interested in eating meal worms/dried meal worms, instead of just playing w/ them or looking @ the worms & then back @ me like, "um, do you actually expect me to eat that mom?" And no matter how I've given it
to them, or what I've mixed into it, I cannot get them to eat yogurt. Any suggestions?
And one last question (for now): While my girls all have different personalities, they look almost exactly the same. Right now I can tell them apart fairly quickly based on how many head feathers/fluff each one has, but once they are fully feathered that won't be possible. I'd like a way to be able to them apart physically- any suggestions??
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom