people with house chickens

[Didymus]

Thanks! Your chickens are so gorgeous and you have them so "posed". It looks professional. Such an array of feathers and colors !

 

[PBGGG]

Finn visited Tractor Supply today. He was a little scared in the car, but as soon as we pulled in to the parking lot, he was very sweet and interested in everyone! He got a lot of compliments and smiles.

 

[subhanalah]

That's amazing! What a cute leash!

 

[PBGGG]

Whenever I put it on him, he freaks out and runs around so I had to hold him. Tractor Supply said that all pets had to be leashed, so he just had to deal with it.

 

[subhanalah]

I'm sure if you take him places more often not only will he get used to it, but he'll start to enjoy it.

 

[realsis]

This is penny one of my three house birds. She is getting her outside play time in this picture. Guess what she started squatting for me two days ago!! This means eggs are very close! I'm so excied!! Just wanted to share.

 

[realsis]

these are my three house chickens getting their outside play time. How long do you usually give your house chickens their outside time for? My girls will let me know they want back inside the house by gathering by the door of their run usually after about two or three hours of play. They see inside as their home and let me know when they had enough out side. How about yours?

 

[PhantomChikkinz]

Hey everyone!

As you all probably know, I have no time for... Well, anything lately. Still working too much, but I needed to do this. Here's some cute baby chicken pictures!

For the folks who are new to this thread, I have a gorgeous smooth Sizzle hen named Polka Dot, and an equally gorgeous silver partridge Silkie rooster named Phantom. They made sweet chicken love, and since I've never seen the product of these two specific types of bird, I figured I'd share with you all...

First off, I will say that I'm far from a pro at anything chicken related. This is the first time I've even had a hen that lays eggs, and my second time trying to hatch anything. Some of you will probably recall that lovable little ball of fluff named Sterling. He's even more ridiculously fluffy now. I'll get a current pic of him up here soon.

Anyway, the following is the result of the two aforementioned birds breeding. These are 100% house chickens! Conceived, incubated, and hatched indoors! Mama has 4 toes, Daddy (obviously) has 5. We had 9 eggs in total, and basically, did an extremely random multi-staggered hatch. I literally shoved them in the incubator as they came out of Polka Dot, so they hatched over the course of about 2 1/2 weeks. One egg I had identified as a quitter somewhere around day 10. However, since I know nothing, I kept it through the whole process in hopes I was mistaken. I wasn't. The other 8 hatched wonderfully.

I used two incubators; a Farm Innovators Model 4200 with fan and auto turner as the main incubator, and a Little Giant Model 9200 Still Air Incubator as the lockdown/hatcher. For those of you who haven't figured this out already, get one with a fan!!! Still air incubators are the most unstable pieces of crap out there! Before anyone starts on this, yes I ran it for 2 or 3 days straight before putting anything in it. Running it for nearly a month required several adjustments per day to keep the temperature where it needed to be, and it caused many sleepless nights, thanks to me worrying about my awful incubator cooking my babies in the shell. The Farm Innovators Model 4200, however, was rock solid. I have no complaints whatsoever with this product. It's an awesome value, it's easy to clean, and it works.

Again... ALWAYS GET AN INCUBATOR WITH A FAN!!!!!!

If there's any other advice I can give, it's this: Don't rely on the thermometer built into your incubator. No matter how good you think it is, spending a few bucks on a high quality unit with a probe is well worth it, and the best thing I ever did. IKEA sells a digital meat thermometer with a probe on a nice long cord that is braided metal and really thin. I think it cost about $4. I zip tied the probe to the egg turner and routed the cord around the moving parts and out the indent where the egg turner power cord exits. Worked perfectly.

Anyway, back to chickens! For those of you who forgot what the parents look like...
Here's Daddy (don't be confused - he likes to sit on eggs sometimes also):

And here's Mama:

Baby #1 (2/20):

Hatched a day early, and has 5 toes. Has the weirdest feathers I've seen on a chick. Not quite Silkie, not quite smooth.. We may have a genuine Sizzle here, even though that's nearly impossible. Oh, also... He is COMPLETELY black. Beak, skin, eyes, feathers, legs, feet, nails. He's a total ninja.

Baby #2 (2/23):

5 toes, and probably the most Silkie-ish baby of the bunch. Has Mama's color scheme, and a smallish crest. Incredibly adorable and growing fast!

Baby #3 (2/24):

5 toes, and a stripey zebra face! Huge crest on this little one, I'm very interested to see what this one will grow up to be. As you can see, there's a combination of Silkie AND smooth feathers on the same bird. Check out those pretty wings!

Baby #4 (2/26):

Four toes! Big fuzzy crest, and smooth feathers peeking out on the wings! Completely white face, which is really interesting.

Baby #5 (2/28):

This stupidly cute little puff ball is almost perfectly spherical. 4 toes, orange beak, orange feet, and extremely chill. In other words, like nothing else in the litter. This one is definitely one of our favorites! No crest to speak of, and so far, feathers look Silkie-ish. Very small amount of feet feathers compared to the others.

Baby #6 (3/2):

Back to 5 toes! This little one is more Silkie... I think.. Fuzzy and has some of daddy's rusty color on his face and wings (from the Silver Partridge, no doubt). Strange colored beak as well, kind of horn colored I guess you could say.

Baby #7 (3/3):

Check out the amazing feather development on this little 5 toed monster! Looks a lot like baby #3 in the feather department (smooth and Silkie), horn colored beak, and a big fluffy crest!

Baby #8 (3/4):

Another perfectly spherical ball of fluffy cuteness, except this one has 5 toes! Like the other one, no crest! Definitely has Silkie feathers happening over here, and amazing markings. You can't tell from this picture, but she has a perfect black Mohawk dead center on the top of her head! She makes everyone squeal with cuteness!

Okay, that's all I can type for now.. I'm exhausted.

I hope you all enjoyed my little documentation of chicken breeding, and I'm not ignoring anyone! I miss you all! Even if I'm not posting, I still lurk when I can

 

[Sandywitch]

They're all adorable!!!!

 

[jordan8]

what if your chicken lays an egg....in these diapers ? surely it would get covered in feces ? lol

Jordan