Pipd's Peeps!

[ronott1]

So, the babies had their first taste of the great outdoors today! Normally, I'd take them out for their first trip on their two-weekiversary, which is tomorrow, but it's supposed to be cold and rainy then, so today it was!

As happens on every first trip outside, they absolutely refused to leave the safety of the box at first.

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...So, I gave them a little encouragement. Baby Y popped out first. This is the face of terror!

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Once they were all out (and I removed the box so they couldn't just run back in), they needed a bit of reassurance that everything was okay.

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You know the saying, the grass is always greener?

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They stuck close by me and would run under my legs whenever anything scared them. (Sorry for my foot, but Baby B was too irresistible not to share )

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Starting to get more comfortable

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Baby P somehow found a worm in the DRY dirt we were on. That was one scary worm!

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Babies P and (Y, I think?) keeping watch on the scary worm:

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They spent a lot of time in the shade I was casting.

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Cuties! (I used the potato chip box to bring them out. )

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A few of the big girls stopped by to stare at horror at these strange little creatures. Elly stopped by first and just gave me this fatigued look like, "You did this again?"

Then Vivi stopped by and started to make this almost broody-hen-like grumble, like she wasn't sure about this...

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Rooska just froze and stared like she was questioning her very existence.

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A few others also came by to stare, but no one reacted quite like Vira, who saw them and then FLEW away from them, cackling the whole way like she'd been attacked! Crazy hen!!

Anyway, after about 45 minutes, the wind picked up a bit and some of the babies were shivering, so I took them back in. All in all, a pretty fun first trip outside, though next time I'll look for somewhere grassier for them to play.


Oh, one last picture because I thought it was hilarious, even though it's blurry and washed out. The babies found a seed case or something and were having a bit of a football match over it. NOOOOM!! Little dinosaurs!

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[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Update on the eggs, it's day 10, so I double checked the ones I thought were questionable on day 7. The four clears are still clear, and the blood ring is still a blood ring. But the one that seemed kinda 'sloshy' and was not moving is now moving around on its own, so I guess it's good! Must've been napping. So, three potential Easter-egger babies in the incubator!

Since this batch is looking to have such a poor hatch rate overall (though hopefully those three do make it to hatch ), I went ahead and ordered some Easter-eggers from Meyer Hatchery for the Monday following their due date. Two sexed large fowl pullets and two straight run bantams. It's a gamble on the bantams, but I did have some luck with straight run bantams from Meyer last year, and I figured it was worth it for the possibility of an adorable li'l bantam EE hen.

 

[ronott1]

Update on the eggs, it's day 10, so I double checked the ones I thought were questionable on day 7. The four clears are still clear, and the blood ring is still a blood ring. But the one that seemed kinda 'sloshy' and was not moving is now moving around on its own, so I guess it's good! Must've been napping. So, three potential Easter-egger babies in the incubator!

Since this batch is looking to have such a poor hatch rate overall (though hopefully those three do make it to hatch ), I went ahead and ordered some Easter-eggers from Meyer Hatchery for the Monday following their due date. Two sexed large fowl pullets and two straight run bantams. It's a gamble on the bantams, but I did have some luck with straight run bantams from Meyer last year, and I figured it was worth it for the possibility of an adorable li'l bantam EE hen.

I hope the three hatch for you!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I hope the three hatch for you!

Thanks!







The babies are 2 weeks old today, so here are their 2-week pictures! I went ahead and got close ups of combs as well, like I did with the Marans last year. In hatch order, Baby P is first:

Little squirt was the hardest to get the comb pic of.

Baby B, looking disgruntled

Baby G, such a sweetie

Baby Y, who was terrified.

And Baby R, who was the hardest to get pictures of because she wanted to come over to me rather than pose.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks!







The babies are 2 weeks old today, so here are their 2-week pictures! I went ahead and got close ups of combs as well, like I did with the Marans last year. In hatch order, Baby P is first:

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Little squirt was the hardest to get the comb pic of.

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Baby B, looking disgruntled

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Baby G, such a sweetie

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Baby Y, who was terrified.

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And Baby R, who was the hardest to get pictures of because she wanted to come over to me rather than pose.

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The are so cute!

 

[drumstick diva]

How do you get such great photos of them?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

How do you get such great photos of them?

Mostly with a LOT of patience. They're squirmy little stinkers! But also because I have a fairly nice (if aged) camera for stills like that.







I was sitting with the little stinkers this morning because they were peeping for me, and I just happened to notice that Baby R has the characteristic salmon chest feathers of a duckwing pullet coming in!! Confirmation of what I've suspected about her for a long time, that she's definitely a girl! (They're also visible in her picture above, now that I know they're there. )

Unfortunately, none of the others seem to have those feathers, particularly Baby P, whose chest feathers are coming in pure white... Which has me more and more suspicious that I do, indeed, only have one pullet out of the lot of them. Darn! I'll give it more time, of course, but that's more than a little bit disappointing if it does turn out to be true.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

After comparing all the chicks to one another, I believe I do actually have two pullets. Baby G's chest is not as richly salmon-colored as Baby R's, but the color does appear to be there. If it does turn out to be true, then that would mean that these guys were auto-sexable by their 'eyeliner' thickness; Babies R and G definitely have darker, thicker eyeliner than Babies B and Y. Either that or it's coincidental, which is a distinct possibility considering the sample size here, but it sure would be handy!

That doesn't help on Khakis like Baby P, but I'm 100% sure that he's a boy as of today, regardless. Suddenly, his comb has doubled in size (not saying much because it was small to begin with, but still much bigger than yesterday) and has some color showing up. Oh, well.

My dad was speculating why the sex ratio on my hatched chicks seems to lean so much toward males, but as I pointed out to him, it's actually been as close to 50-50 as can be on the odd numbered hatches (2 females and 3 males in batches of five, or 1 female and 2 males in the one batch of three), and was exactly 50-50 on the even-numbered Marans hatch. I just always seem to have an odd number hatch. Oh, well. I'm pleased as long as I get more than one pullet after all that work!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

One of the babies (I suspect Baby P, but didn't actually catch him in the act) was crowing this morning. They're one day shy of 3 weeks old, so whoever it was, he's not a record breaker for age (that still goes to the Cochin bantams at, what was it, 3 or 4 days old?). Still, pretty early start to it! At first, I wasn't sure if I was actually hearing that characteristic peeping crow or not, because Winston kept clucking in alarm whenever it happened. Apparently it's scary when one of your sons grows up. Anyway, finally, he did it a couple times without scaring his father. As soon as they saw me, though, the group was more focused on me than on anything else, so I never confirmed who it was.


I keep going back and forth on Baby G, whether she's really a pullet or not. Those feathers on her chest do resemble her sister's... But that comb is screaming BOY to me. I guess Fawn makes it harder to tell if it's really salmon coming in on the chest or not. I'm gonna go nuts waiting, and they aren't even 3 weeks old yet!!

 

[ronott1]

One of the babies (I suspect Baby P, but didn't actually catch him in the act) was crowing this morning. They're one day shy of 3 weeks old, so whoever it was, he's not a record breaker for age (that still goes to the Cochin bantams at, what was it, 3 or 4 days old?). Still, pretty early start to it! At first, I wasn't sure if I was actually hearing that characteristic peeping crow or not, because Winston kept clucking in alarm whenever it happened. Apparently it's scary when one of your sons grows up. Anyway, finally, he did it a couple times without scaring his father. As soon as they saw me, though, the group was more focused on me than on anything else, so I never confirmed who it was.


I keep going back and forth on Baby G, whether she's really a pullet or not. Those feathers on her chest do resemble her sister's... But that comb is screaming BOY to me. I guess Fawn makes it harder to tell if it's really salmon coming in on the chest or not. I'm gonna go nuts waiting, and they aren't even 3 weeks old yet!!

So funny!

Happy chooks had one crowing just after hatch.