Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I just got the call! The chicks are on the way!! e

They didn't have my Colored Dorkings and some of the Wheaten Marans didn't hatch, either, so they are giving me a refund on them and sent Dark Dorkings instead to fill out the order. I'm a little disappointed because the Colored Dorkings were what I was looking most forward to, but the Dark Dorkings sound pretty, too, and I am getting a refund, so I suppose I can't complain too much. If anyone wondered, the Dark Dorkings are described as having the same feather pattern as Dark Brahmas. Should be pretty!

Send lots of good thoughts for a safe shipment!! They should be here by Thursday! I'll keep y'all up to date!

Now, to slowly drive myself nuts by tweaking the brooder over and over again until they're here.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Finally!


It's too bad they don't have the colored dorkings but the dark ones do sound pretty

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Yay! Finally. You must be glad to finally get them.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Babies are here already and doing well so far!! I have to go to class now, but will get pictures of them as soon as I get home!

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Already? That was fast.

 

[itspebbl]

Exciting!! Can't wait for pics!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That was incredibly fast, wasn't it? I wasn't expecting them to come just yet, although we're supposed to have cold and snow here tomorrow, so I'm glad they are not out there during that!


We've sadly lost one of the Marans while I was away. It looked like it had been trampled under the EcoGlow. I'm teaching more and more of them to drink. Some of the Dorkings were looking shaky, but when I started them drinking, they perked right up. One of the Red Dorkings is not looking too great and I'm not sure I can pull him through, but I'm giving it my best shot. His leg doesn't seem to be working properly, so I've been moving him over to the waterer to drink and then back into the heat. The Dark Dorkings and the remaining Marans, both Black Copper and Wheaten, seem vigorous so far, and other than the ones I'm helping, the Red Dorkings are looking just as strong.

Just a few pictures, because I was busy trying to help some of them and kept setting the camera aside to do so. Here's one of the Dark Dorkings. They all look different, which I thought was kind of unusual, but they're really pretty already!

The pattern on the back of a Dark Dorking. I think this is the same one as the above picture, but I'm not totally sure.

Most of the Red Dorkings look like Welsummer chickies, but a couple look different. Here's one of the unusual Red Dorkings:

One of the regular Red Dorkings, fast asleep.

I didn't take any pictures of the remaining Black Copper Marans apparently, but here's a Wheaten Marans. These two are super jumpy when the camera flashes!

And lastly, the little Red Dorking who's struggling. :/ You can see his left leg isn't positioned right. He's been using his left wing to balance, but can't seem to walk at all. Poor baby! I'm doing what I can.

Editing to add, one of the Wheaten Marans passed away. It was being very noisy and I kept tucking it under the EcoGlow and going back to bed. Next time I got up, it was quiet, so I went and checked, and it was laying next to the EcoGlow, dead.

On the positive side, the little Red Dorking with the problem leg has started to hop over to the water on his own and has started eating on his own this morning.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Pictures of the babies today! So, I decided that it would be a bit too confusing to try and get pictures of all of them individually, so I got group pictures by breed. Here are the remaining Marans. The black ones are Black Coppers and the yellow one is the last Wheaten, who I am hoping beyond all hope is a girl since she's the last one left. :/

The Red Dorkings, minus the little guy with the leg issue:

And the Dark Dorkings. The little guy at the middle has a rose comb. He also has a little spot that they must have pecked during the trip or something, but it seems fine now and the others are leaving it alone.

A little outtake from their photo op. They apparently were not expecting the camera flash. All those little feet!

After getting those pictures, I used non-toxic permanent markers to mark them so that I could tell them apart. I most likely could tell most of them apart without marking them, especially the Marans and Dark Dorkings, but this way I'll be sure.

I had to find lighter patches on the Marans, so I had to mark their chests rather than their heads. Of course, no mark was needed for the Wheaten Marans. She kind of stands out as it is.

The Dark Dorkings were easiest. However, the 2 different greens were hard to tell apart, so I added another dot to the lighter green mark one's head so that I can tell it easier. Oh, and the orange stood out too much and was a lot more reddish than I expected, so I had to mark over it with another color to make it less conspicuous.

I quickly realized that just colors was not going to work very well on the Red Dorkings, so I also made shapes on their heads. The darkest one in the very back has a mark, too, but you can barely see it on her. Luckily, the others have clear markings, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Back in the brooder, as you can see, it didn't take them long to figure out how to scoop the feed out of their feeder with their beaks.

The brown chick in the above picture is the Red Dorking with the leg problem. You can see the others are already leaving him behind in size. :/ He's eating and drinking on his own, so here's hoping he can gain some strength and pull through. I may have to separate him to his own area to prevent the bigger chicks from trampling him, though. Poor little darling.

I was trying to get a good shot of his legs to determine what might be wrong. Both legs look the same, shape wise, so all I can really rule out is slipped tendon, as that apparently makes the leg look flatter on the back. (That's a bit of poo stuck to his bad leg there, not a sore as I had thought for a moment when I saw it.)

Poor little squirt.

 

[pattyhen]

such cute little fuzz balls. They are preicious I love them all. I am so glad they finally got there and I'm so sorry for your losses. I forgot to check your thread yesterday so I'm just now looking at their pics. It seems like with curled toes you cut out a little shoe of soft cardboard like a cereal box and tape their foot to it to hold their toes straight. I don't know if that will help the little one or not. I sure hope he gets well soon.

Thanks so much for sharing the pics with us.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

So exciting! Meant to reply to your post yesterday but I got flooded with some schoolwork. They're all so cute. I LOVE the picture of them startled from the flash haha. I love the tuxedo-looking Marans. Wishing you best of luck with some of the trickier chicks... Keep up posted.