Pipd's Peeps!

[ronott1]

So, after some heavy digging into the genes involved in their background yesterday, and looking them over very closely last night at roost time, I've finally determined that Amaretto, Armada, and Gluttony are, in fact, pullets!! Their behavior this morning when I reintroduced them to their sister, Peanut Butter, and the OEGB babies confirms it. Rather than 3 girls out of 10, I've actually ended up with 6 out of 10 from that hatch!! Much better! Here they are reuniting with Peanut Butter this morning:

Now I've got to decide if I should list them under straight run (since I didn't know their sex until yesterday) or sexed (since I thought they were cockerels when I actually did the tests) on my chick sexing experiment page

It is so hard to tell with silkie chickens!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It is!! These babies are actually mixes that should have been sexable at hatch (well, and looking back at their baby pictures they actually were but I didn't notice), but definitely difficult to read nonetheless!

I do have more pictures of them and the others from yesterday that I neglected to post--I'll get on that ASAP.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

This was sort of an impromptu photo op so they're between weeks, and these are cell phone pics so not my best work, but here's a bunch of babies being adorable as always. ❤

Armada and Amaretto, the twins

Armada being very curious

Feldon

Gluttony

Havok about to free-fall from this root

Havok being a sweetie

Louis (he's been fighting other birds through the fence and got his comb dinged up )

Peanut Butter, just moments after pooping in the waterer

She's so ashamed

PB and Armada (I think... they're hard to tell apart without the leg bands visible ) having a staring contest, I guess?

PB

Rosey and Buzz. Since I took the three pullets to be with the other girls, I put these two together so poor Rosey wouldn't be all alone. This is a really bad pic, but the two of them wouldn't stand still.

Rosey

Troll and Louis being goofy on the other side of the fence

Sweet li'l Sumi ❤

Aaaand Troll trying to look sweet Little squirt!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Nothing much going on here lately with the birds. Please instead enjoy this adorable picture of my kitty, Keiko, demanding belly rubs.

 

[ronott1]

Nothing much going on here lately with the birds. Please instead enjoy this adorable picture of my kitty, Keiko, demanding belly rubs.

View attachment 2314276

They do need attention sometimes!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Haha, yup! Keiko's pretty needy, too, and I adore her so she gets lots of attention. ❤ Maybe even more than the chickens some days!!

 

[ronott1]

Haha, yup! Keiko's pretty needy, too, and I adore her so she gets lots of attention. ❤ Maybe even more than the chickens some days!!

We have one that brings her wand toy to us to play with her!

She is too smart

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Just to keep this thread updated, we're down some roosters today because it was finally processing day. I sent Dante, Toli, Rufus, Jasper, and Ben. UGH, this is always so hard! Dante and Toli eased my mind on my decision with them by both being excessively aggressive toward me when I was rounding them up to go. Toli flared up and tried to flog my hands, believe it or not, and he bit my arm while I was carrying him, leaving a nice nickel-sized bruise. Dante meanwhile tried to bite me the whole way from his pen to the car, though fortunately I was carrying him in such a way that he couldn't.

Ben was particularly tough. I didn't have any reason to send him, but... At the same time he was bound to live out his life stuck in his solo coop because he just wouldn't get along with his father or brother well enough to be in the main flock, so I felt it was best that he go.

And Rufus had been on the list for a bit after showing signs of aggression toward me, beating up on Roscoe, and then once Roscoe was gone beating up on Russell, but he was so curious and personable on the drive up (his cage was the closest to my seat and he kept looking around at things as we drove and talking away) that I was feeling a bit wishy-washy about him, too. I have too soft of a heart sometimes! In the end, they all were processed and are now resting in the fridge.

I haven't been feeling well the past couple days and so I guess I'm extra emotional about this because of that. Having a tough time of it... I'm going to sit back and relax for a bit and try to take my mind off of it.

 

[ronott1]

Just to keep this thread updated, we're down some roosters today because it was finally processing day. I sent Dante, Toli, Rufus, Jasper, and Ben. UGH, this is always so hard! Dante and Toli eased my mind on my decision with them by both being excessively aggressive toward me when I was rounding them up to go. Toli flared up and tried to flog my hands, believe it or not, and he bit my arm while I was carrying him, leaving a nice nickel-sized bruise. Dante meanwhile tried to bite me the whole way from his pen to the car, though fortunately I was carrying him in such a way that he couldn't.

Ben was particularly tough. I didn't have any reason to send him, but... At the same time he was bound to live out his life stuck in his solo coop because he just wouldn't get along with his father or brother well enough to be in the main flock, so I felt it was best that he go.

And Rufus had been on the list for a bit after showing signs of aggression toward me, beating up on Roscoe, and then once Roscoe was gone beating up on Russell, but he was so curious and personable on the drive up (his cage was the closest to my seat and he kept looking around at things as we drove and talking away) that I was feeling a bit wishy-washy about him, too. I have too soft of a heart sometimes! In the end, they all were processed and are now resting in the fridge.

I haven't been feeling well the past couple days and so I guess I'm extra emotional about this because of that. Having a tough time of it... I'm going to sit back and relax for a bit and try to take my mind off of it.

It is hard!

You usually notice more peace and quiet with the extras gone though

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, I wouldn't say it's gotten any quieter here (that was only 5 boys out of the 18 I had at the time--now I 'only' have 13 crowers ), but it definitely is more peaceful! Particularly without Dante and Rufus, both of whom tended to bully their coopmates and, in the case of Dante, tried to come at me any chance he had. It's nice being able to walk into that pen and not have to worry about turning my back to its occupants now.

I do feel bad for Murphy, though, because he lost his buddy, Darwin, a while back to Dante's bullying, and now Dante is gone, too, so he's got that big coop all to himself. I'll have to keep an eye on him this winter, unless I can convince him to flock up with someone else so he's got a buddy in the cold. He has been just a fence apart from Buzz and Rosey for a long time now, so maybe he'd play nice with them. We'll have to see! They're both pretty small, especially next to Murph, so I'll have to be careful and keep a close eye on things if I do try them out as a group.

I'm not feeling much better today, physically, but I do feel better about processing day now, at least. Guess I just needed to stop thinking about it for a bit. Now I'm just looking forward to having some chicken soup this week!