Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Super tired, but I wanted to get these posted. Just the individual pics for now. I'll post the rest of them in the morning. There were a lot of good ones! Unfortunately the individual pics are... not so good. Primarily because the little squirts wouldn't cooperate, so most of them are laying in my hand and the rest of them I had to hold in place! But also because the sun was shining yesterday and a lot of color got washed out. Darn! Oh, well.

Anyway, the Silkied babies at 3(-ish) weeks old. Here is Mr. Blue Band:

Mr. Pink Band:

And Miss White Band:

And the rest of the beepers at 2 weeks old. My Dorking girls, Myrna (who really was laying in my hand--sweet baby, but not great for pictures! )

And Nikita:

And my little Mottled Cochin beeper babies! In alphabetical order of their band colors.

Blue:

Green:

Orange:

Purple:

White:

Yellow:

More pictures in the morning. I'm just exhausted. Long day of supervising my girls. Boy do they set off at the drop of a hat! But everyone is safe and sound tonight, so... Worth it.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here we go! The rest of the pics from the babies' first trip outside on Monday! As is typical, they took their first look out into the big wide world... And said, "Nope."

After some, err, 'gentle encouragement,' they decided to investigate this strange new place. As you can see, some of them were also in a hurry to get back into the box after their gentle encouragement.

Finally, I got them all out of the box and set it up. They had no choice but to start getting used to this strange, green stuff between their toes.

...And then the sun hit them. Babies' first sun bath!

Pink band did a slow melt in the sun.

Their moving box suddenly required a thorough inspection. Hmm, are we sure this is rated for this many beepers?

Oooh, the faces!

Nikita decided she needed more space than this pen (which, I might add, is about 3 times the size of their brooder at the time!) provided. She was actually pacing at the fence looking for a way through!

That ended when Fancy (the blurry hen in the background, here) decided to check out the new recruits. Those Silkied babies were quite concerned!

A small group (including Nikita) deiced to check out another corner of the pen, where the grass hadn't been mowed so it's super long.

...And then it turned into Fort Chickie.

Getting comfortable in their little hideaway.

Their camouflage is impeccable... But completely 'peckable'.

Orange band baby made sure this was an exclusive clubhouse--chickies only!

Sitting around in the grass gets kinda boring, though, so out they came to explore some more.

'Big Kids'--the Dorkings are almost exactly the same size as the Silkied Cochins now, maybe just a bit bigger. White band (in the back, here) is smaller than her brothers, so she makes the Dorks look quite large by comparison.

Little lawnmowers.

Myrna, posing pretty. I was surprised to get this shot, because I had the camera zoomed in too far, but it turned out pretty well, I think!

Nikita posed perfectly, of course. I wish she hadn't been in the shadows, though!

And this was my sign that it was time to head inside. A great big pile of sleepy Mottled Cochin beepers.

I think that's all of them. Not much happening since their trip outside, other than I expanded their brooder this morning so they have about twice the space they had before. They were hopping around all over the place with their wings a-buzzing! I think they're happy.


EDIT: Oops, I did miss one. Miss White band on my lap, being a sweetie. Isn't she lovely? I can't wait to see how her coloration turns out!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hey, all! Sorry for dropping off the planet for a bit there! I had all the intentions of getting pictures of the peepers this weekend, and then my sister pulled some stupid stuff and, well, I'm still upset about it all but I did get pictures today. The Silkied babes are about 4 weeks old (plus a couple days), and the rest of them are 3 weeks old. My, the weeks are flying by! I wish I could say they've been going out regularly, but boy has the weather been lousy! I'm not sure we've had a day without rain since the middle of last week! Needless to say, it's pretty yucky outside as a result.

Anyway, the gist of it is that I took pictures of the kids inside in their brooder. I'll just get right to it--here are the Silkied kids:

Mr. Blue Band. He's way too sweet--if his older brothers were any indication, that mean's he's bound to be a real jerk!

Mr. Pink Band. A bit aloof, this one. Likely a good thing for his future personality judging again by his older brothers.

And Miss White Band. She is the sweetest little lady in the brooder, second only to those little Dorking gals. I've decided to name her Roxanne, Roxy for short.

And the rest of the beeper squad! Here are my precious, sweet, darling little Dorkings!

Miss Myrna. What a little lady! All prim and proper! She only recently discovered lap time, but she comes over whenever I sit by the brooder and lets me stroke her feathers or pick her up without much of a fuss. She and Nikita are distinguished by their chest feathers. Myrna's are white, and as you will see, Nikita's are orange.

Kita! What a stinker, and an absolute love! She loves her cuddles, and is definitely the lap hog of the brooder! If my lap is full, she'll just hop to my shoulder! It's tough getting pictures of her, because she's so active--and she's always shooting me looks like this!

Now, the mottled Cochins. My guesses for their sexes so far are included.

Blue Band mottled. Possible pullet? I go back and forth on her. She's kind of skitterish, but does approach sometimes.

Green band mottled. Possible cockerel with as much color as he has in his face... This is the reason I go back and forth on Blue band mottled; they're pretty similar in development. I didn't notice that this picture was out of focus until I was cropping them this evening, much too late to get a better pic. I'll try again tomorrow.

Orange band mottled. Definite cockerel. This one's the crower. He's also making a strong case for his future at Freezer Camp. This little snot is already showing aggression toward me. Pecking my hand when I reach in the brooder, trying to chest bump with me, and he even dropped a wing at me the other day! He has hardly any feathers. Reminds me a lot of Umru as a chick--and y'all might recall Umru was the biggest jerk on two legs!

Purple band. Also a definite cockerel. His temper is better than Orange band, but he does peck at me as well. Little brat! You can see he also likes to be in my lap. So, he's a kiss-up as well.

White band mottled. Possible pullet. She's like Blue band in skitterishness, though a bit more shy of me than Blue band.

Yellow band. Likely pullet. She is so spunky! But, unfortunately, she's the shyest of the lot of them. She peeps in alarm if my hand is anywhere near her, whether I'm moving or not. Oh, well.

A hand full of other pictures. Here is what I get whenever I sit down by the brooder. The line is already forming for lap time! Nikita's leading the pack, of course!

Roxy, looking up at me. I got a TON of pictures like this when I was trying to get her to pose for her above picture!

Ain't she sweet?

Here's Kita cuddling, too. Oh, the face!!

White band Mottled baby stretching it out. It's amazing to me how few feathers most of these babies have, considering that most of them had staggered wing pins indicating that they were fast feathering!

A super serious little Yellow band peeper. This was mere seconds before she went flying!

And lastly, a close up of Myrna.

In other news, Mrs. Hummingbird is still sitting away! She seems more and more used to me, though she does flit off still if I get too close. She should have hatchlings in about a week, assuming she had just started sitting when I first noticed her and posted about it here. Can't wait to see!!


And I think that's it. Ugh, look at the time! Good night, all!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Pictures of the babies today at 4 and 5-ish weeks old! It's been so unbearably hot that I was only able to get a few of their individual pictures outside--once the sun was past the trees, it was just too much! So, here are the 5 weekers:

Blue band:

Pink band:

Little miss Roxanne:

My 4-week-old Dorkings.

Myrna:

And Nikita. Little squirt is the hardest to get a picture of, so this is all I got!

And the 4-week-old Mottled Cochin munchkins:

Blue band, who was also a squirt about pictures. I would have tried again, but I ran out of memory space.

Green band and her freckles Actually in focus this week!

Orange band, the brat

Purple band, laying on the cute

White band (her band is getting stained or something--this is definitely White and not Yellow!)

And Yellow band!

Pictures from their time outside. They're still a bit confused about what constitutes a DUST bath...

Mottled Cochin beepers! I can't believe how slowly they're feathering in!

Myrna And a pile of Cochins

Kita having a sun bath

And Mr. Pink band, too, although he's not as fabulous as Kita.

Roxy I so wish this picture was in focus!

They were really enjoying the sun out there. I was not, however!

Green band and her freckles.

Back inside on the good ol' EcoGlow.

Last one for now. Mr. Purple Band. He is HUGE compared to the other Mottled Cochins!

In other news, Mrs. Hummingbird has two hatchlings as of this morning! I'm excited to watch them grow--from a distance, of course!

And just one week left before my summer class begins. So... Yay?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hey, y'all! Tons going on lately, so I've been super busy. I wanted to check in with pics of the babies since it's been a couple weeks now, plus some of the Marans kiddos. I'm going to go quick here, mostly because it's almost coop time for the girls, so here are the Marans:


Un, who remains tailless.

Lovely Vivi

Sassy Josephine:

Quatre, the big ol' butthead. Notice he's giving me a threatening pose here. That's all he does anymore. He was the sweetest chick, though, so I guess I should have expected that.

Mavis the attention hog

Six the runt:

Honestly, I don't remember when I last posted about these guys. So if I haven't said so already, the boys have been separated out from the flock due to Quatre's buttheadedness.

Oh, yeah, here's a quick shot to show the size difference between Vivi and Mavis. Viv is smaller than the other two pullets, and Mavis is maybe a hint bigger than Josephine, so the largest of the group. Mavey also lost her tail feathers for some reason, except for the one that's still hanging on here.

Here are the baby beepers now! These pics were taken on the 4th, so the Silkied Cochins are about 7-and-a-half weeks old, and the rest of them about 6-and-a-half weeks old. Y'all, I think I may have defied all odds and actually gotten quite a few pullets. Currently... knock on wood... it looks like of the 11 babies, there are only 4 cockerels!

Anyway, here are the Silkied Cochin babes:

Mr. Blue Band:

Mr. Pink Band:

And darling little Roxanne:

The Dorks! I just adore these gals.

Kita, the spunky one:

Myrna, the lady:

And the Mottled Cochins. Currently, it looks like only Orange band and Purple band are boys. And here I was thinking I'd only get one pullet, maybe two!

Blue band:

Green band:

Mr. Orange band:

Mr. Purple band:

White band:

And Yellow Band. She's the one I've been pretty sure was a pullet for a while, and she sort of named herself Ida.

Some extra pics real quick! This one makes me giggle--little Green Band has an eyebrow on one side of her face

Here's Kita and Orange band perched together. Ain't they sweet?

Kita working the sweetie face

Purple band bein' super serious

And finally, Roxy being adorable What a doll!

So... I guess I need to come up with some more names! Will have to do that later--time to go get the beeper babies inside for the night! They're going outside all day to transition to moving outside in the next week or two!


Oh, and one last tidbit before I go. The hummingbird babies fledged today! I happened to be out there to witness it! I felt like I was watching my own babies transition to the big girl flock! SIGH!

ANYWAY, I really need to go get the beepers in for the night--see y'all later!

 

[Leahs Mom]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo
What kind of bands are you using?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They actually have no bands on right now because they outgrew them, but when they were little I used Rainbow Loom bands to distinguish them. They last about 2 weeks doubled over on their legs (a little bit longer on bantams than large fowl) and I had them on their wings for another few weeks.





P.S. Is the reply box broken for anyone else? I'm getting the feeling it might have to do with the number of pictures on the page. Thinking I might have to start uploading them to an album or something and linking them here instead. This is what I'm seeing on pages that have a lot of pictures:

 

[Leahs Mom]

BYC was having issues a couple days ago so it may just be a server issue.

I asked because I thought I saw something on the wings so I wondered what you had found for that.

I found these fantastic bands for young chicks. I have the same bands as you do too, but found that they kept falling off and I'd lose track of who's who with a large group like I have now.

Below is a link for the ones I use now. They work really well. I just cut them off with a tiny scissors when they're ready for a larger size. I start new hatch with size 7, then they graduate to size 9 (which is the largest they make of these. LOVE these things. Wish they had adult sizes too).

You first get the kit that has the applicator, then you can just purchase extras of each color if you need more. You roll the band onto the applicator, put their toes into the applicator and slip the band right onto the leg. I have an applicator for the 7 and 9.


https://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/...elastic-rings-starter-kit-size-7mm-20-of-each

https://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/...elastic-rings-starter-kit-size-9mm-20-of-each

https://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/Default.aspx?A=ProductSearch&ID=/searchresults.html

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Wow, those do look nice! Thanks for the recommendation! Might have to look into those the next time I plan to have chicks. That will probably have to wait until next year, as I'm more and more convinced that I got almost twice as many pullets in this last batch as I was expecting! I still have to come up with more names!

As of this weekend, the babies will be 8 weeks old at the youngest. That means official move out day is upon us. I haven't decided if that will be tomorrow night or Sunday night (or even tonight, as that will give me a few days to make sure they're set before my next class...). They seem too small and fragile still to move out, my precious li'l beeper babies.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The babies are spending their first night... outside. How will they ever survive without their good morning cuddles first thing in the morning?!

On a more serious note, I did take pictures of them today, but haven't cropped them or anything yet, so I'll post them tomorrow. I also kind of don't want any more pictures on this page because it's super overloaded with pictures as is, so this post should take us over to the next page by the time the pics are ready to be posted.