New three-week-old chicks (with pics)

[EmeraldSkye]

Good afternoon!

I am the proud first-time mommy of four new chicks. My husband and I attended a "Backyard Chickens" workshop about two weeks ago and were given four 1-week old chicks to bring home.

The breeds are: (1) Cuckoo Marans, (1) Buff Cochins, and (2) Ameraucanas.





They all were hatched on September 25th (I'm told) so they are all three weeks old now. These pictures were taken yesterday.

The breeds are pretty much all I know about them. If anyone has anything more specific knowledge about each one (like, for instance, the two Ameraucanas look different from each other - what is their coloring called?) then please let me know. If anyone can tell the sex yet (mostly just kidding!) then let me know.

They are all supposed to be female but there's that 10% error rate that has me worried. The lady that runs the farm ordered 100 chicks, so of those 100, ten of them could be male. I hope all of these are female.

In about three weeks the chicks will move out to this coop and run:



We will make sure this Akita (and our other one) can't get to them. The run area is about 4.5' x 12'.

Here's inside the coop. (This picture has been borrowed from the builder's website. I'm too lazy to go out to take a new picture but ours looks just like this.)



It has a removable panel at the bottom to allow for the deep litter method.



Right now the chicks are upstairs in a spare bathroom bathtub with a red heat lamp, food, water, etc. They are quite happy and two of them are already fairly social with me (the Buff Cochins and the copper-headed Ameraucana).

I'm new at this and have been doing a lot of reading on this forum already. The forum will be a great resource as questions come up.

Oh, by the way, the Buff one is named "Bella", The copper-headed Ameraucana is named "Lucille", the one that looks like an owl or chipmunk has been named "Chipmunk" by my husband. Yesterday I started to call the Cuckoo Marans chick "Wild Thing" because she is the most wary and skittish.

 

[Veer67]

Glad to have you here with us, cute baby chicks! Lucille and Chipmunk though are most likely Easter Eggers, not Ameraucanas.

 

[EmeraldSkye]

Oh, I had no idea, that's just what the farm lady told me.

 

[BantamLover21]

You have a nice little flock. Your two "Ameraucanas" are actually Easter Eggers, which is a mixed breed of chicken that lays colored (blue, green, brown, pink, etc.) eggs and can have many different features. Most, though, have muffs and a beard, greenish colored legs, and pea combs. They can be almost any color, which is why your two EEs look different. The true Ameraucana is a purebred breed of chicken. Ameraucanas will always have bluish legs, pea combs, and muffs/beard, and will be one of the 8 recognized (by the American Poultry Association) color varieties. Most hatcheries/dealers mistakenly sell EEs as Ameraucanas, thinking that any chicken that lays a blue-green egg is an Ameraucana.

Your other chicks appear to be what they're supposed to be--1 Buff Cochin and 1 Cuckoo Marans. For now, they all appear to be pullets (young female chickens); however, it is too young to tell for sure. If you have any doubts about their gender, you can post photos of them in the What Breed or Gender Is This? section of the BYC forum when they get older.

 

[EmeraldSkye]

Thank you, I'll do that!

 

[EmeraldSkye]

I just made my avatar a picture of them from about a week ago (10/10/13). They are so cute.

 

[EmeraldSkye]

My husband and I have been working on an "Extend-a-Run". So far we've added about 12' (just over 3' wide') of daytime run space using these panels we built. They aren't predator-proof so we can only use them while we are home during the day and we have to close up the run at night so that the girls are safe. We have a couple more panels to build and then they can have the final 7' of space on that bed. We can also move these around since they are light and modular so that we can direct them to other parts of the garden or even the yard if desired.

Pictures:








And here are the girls today:



They will be 14 weeks old on Wednesday.

 

[gander007]

Good afternoon!

I am the proud first-time mommy of four new chicks. My husband and I attended a "Backyard Chickens" workshop about two weeks ago and were given four 1-week old chicks to bring home.

The breeds are: (1) Cuckoo Marans, (1) Buff Cochins, and (2) Ameraucanas.





They all were hatched on September 25th (I'm told) so they are all three weeks old now. These pictures were taken yesterday.

The breeds are pretty much all I know about them. If anyone has anything more specific knowledge about each one (like, for instance, the two Ameraucanas look different from each other - what is their coloring called?) then please let me know. If anyone can tell the sex yet (mostly just kidding!) then let me know.

They are all supposed to be female but there's that 10% error rate that has me worried. The lady that runs the farm ordered 100 chicks, so of those 100, ten of them could be male. I hope all of these are female.

In about three weeks the chicks will move out to this coop and run:



We will make sure this Akita (and our other one) can't get to them. The run area is about 4.5' x 12'.

Here's inside the coop. (This picture has been borrowed from the builder's website. I'm too lazy to go out to take a new picture but ours looks just like this.)



It has a removable panel at the bottom to allow for the deep litter method.



Right now the chicks are upstairs in a spare bathroom bathtub with a red heat lamp, food, water, etc. They are quite happy and two of them are already fairly social with me (the Buff Cochins and the copper-headed Ameraucana).

I'm new at this and have been doing a lot of reading on this forum already. The forum will be a great resource as questions come up.

Oh, by the way, the Buff one is named "Bella", The copper-headed Ameraucana is named "Lucille", the one that looks like an owl or chipmunk has been named "Chipmunk" by my husband. Yesterday I started to call the Cuckoo Marans chick "Wild Thing" because she is the most wary and skittish.

That is one nice looking coop

I am confused about photo #3 what breed of chicken is that

Your chicks are developing rather nicely

 

[EmeraldSkye]

Cute!! That's an official Akita Chicken!!