New to Back Yard Chickens and already better off!

[TwoCrows]

Thanks for your reply Mary,
I hope I'm typing this in the right spot. I'll keep my eye on her. She's so small she's not even a whole chicken nugget, she's a chicken mcnibble...I think we just found her name. I try to get some photos in here. My teens just informed me that it needs the biggest name of the flock, so 'Grand Chancellor Chicken McNibblesworth the First' it is! It had to be, since the other silkie, the second smallest was already named 'The Vicious Chicken of Bristol'.



Hello and thank you,
I added a vitamin B complex to the probiotics and electrolytes in their water and the little silkie has much more energy today. The other chicks do too though. It's pretty funny. They zip from one end to the other like little lightening bolts. I also added vinegar to the water and food grade diatomaceous earth to their food just in case the little one has a worm, though I don't know where it could fit one, it's sooo small. I'm ordering the nutri-flush today so she can get more of the fat soluble vitamins as well.

Thanks for the update, I am glad she is doing better!!

 

[alpacapoo]

Hello everyone,
I am in my third year of turning our urban backyard of lawn, gravel, and cement yard into a new type of ecosystem, and a first year chicken owner. My family has loved the changes so much, we are looking to expand our horizons to bigger back yard living, maybe a farm. So much to learn first. We started with 2 buff orpington chicks (one an accidental rooster, which is not allowed in urban settings), and 2 black australorps (one of which got heat induced seizures/spasms if we left the brooder at 90-95 degrees F, even at three days of age). The rooster became EXTREMELY dedicated to breeding at 4 months, which the hens did NOT appreciate. He was rough, he was loud, and he was rude (eating before the hens, eating all their food, and being exceptionally grouchy even with plenty of space, food, and free range oportunities). We had just entered the pandemic quarantine period, so we spoiled him and kept our girls out of his zone for as long as possible, but he was not going to work in an urban backyard with so few girls. With no options to hire anyone to help us, we watched some youtube videos, took every precaution to avoid stress and pain, and well...he was delicious and his feathers amazing!
Our new batch of chicks (gold laced Wyandottes, Speckled Sussex, Easter Eggers, and Silkies) are super happy with the brooder at 80 degrees and a square bottle of warm water. We are keeping them separate from our three 7 month old girls for now, but let them hear each other in hopes that their blending into one coop later will be without too many issues or stressors.
I've been reading many of the wonderful articles and issues forums (started when Sparrow, the chick with seizures needed help), and have decided to join after reading about the many chicks from My Pet Chicken that seem to have genetic dwarfism. One of our silkies is not growing like the others. Her sister is already twice her size. She is still a blue-grey cotton ball on legs with some wing feathers coming in. She needs heat and sleep more often than the others so I've started to separate her twice a day with her sister and a couple of others for company to make sure she isn't using all her energy to keep up and eat. She is healthy with no digestive issues, feathers are clean, she runs and tugs with the others for little bouts of time, but she is seriously small. I've just added a B-complex to the water along with probiotics and hydrating minerals, but the others are outgrowing her so fast I will have to adjust the height of their food and water to keep it clean. Any suggestions would be wonderful. Maybe a vitamin complex? If it is a protein absorption problem, would pineapple help due to its bromelain enzyme content? Can chickens eat pineapple??
Very happy you folks are out there!
-Sophia

This is our 'before' picture with no garden or chickens from three years ago.

Our yard a year ago.
The rest of the pictures (below) are this year. We are in southern NM, so the heat is intense in the afternoons. We are adding more run with more shade on the South side of the coop, you can see a bit of the framing. On the North side we will be putting in kiwi berries and passion fruit trellises and a tunnel to help next year. I have a feeling it won't be cooler next year so...

Our son is 6 feet tall...these sunflowers offered so much shade with a very low need for water, and lots of seeds for the chickens, us, and the wild birds, and then mulch for the yard.

Mr. Rudester (Formerly known as Tipsy) at 4 months old.

Sparrow on the left was the one with seizures in her first weeks, Gerti in the middle is the boss, and Topsy (Tipsy's sister) is independent, loves to sit on the top of everything, and believes she should be boss of me. Here she is at my back door wondering why I'm not plucking grape leaves and carrot greens for her to eat.

Here is Nugget with some of her sisters at one and a half weeks old. She has wing feathers started, but by comparison, she is about the same size as her first day here. The speckled sussex are in the front, being the bravest and most curious of this bunch. the Easter Eggers and Wyandottes are in the back. They are the ones to offer the most comfort to Nugget when she peeps.
That about sums up our fowl family.