Pipd's Peeps!

[ronott1]

Small updates today. Little EHAL peep-peep has been in the brooder with the silkied Cochins for 24 hours now and is doing fabulously and so happy to have someone to cuddle with! Here they are having their breakfast this morning. Notice how the big kids are eating out of the tiny dish for little peep-peep, and little peep-peep is eating out of the big feeder. Silly babies!

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So, I may have forgotten to take the silkied Cochins' 2-week pictures yesterday... But that may have been a happy accident anyway, because most of the silkied Cochins hatched on a Thursday, and little peep-peep hatched on a Saturday, so if I take all of their pictures on today, that's close enough for a weekly picture for both groups.

Unfortunately, I remembered yesterday that the cross of a Silkie male and a non-Silkie, non-gray-legged female (as in, what little peep-peep is) is actually a sexlinked cross where the females inherit gray skin / legs from their father and the males don't, which means... Little peep-peep is a male. But, oh, well. He's still a little cutie, and I'm hopeful that he'll be a good flock rooster like his dad and granddad.



And the last bit of stuff happening around here is that... It's snowing!! We're predicted to get 4-5 inches if I remember correctly. The girls are NOT happy!

Often times the boys are the sweetest as chicks!

 

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Yup, and the NEEDIEST! Green band baby (who I'm reasonably sure is male already) is always begging for my attention, hopping up on me, trying to fly out of the brooder to me, calling for me if I leave... UGH!

Real quick, here are the weekly pictures. One week for the EHAL baby and two for the silkied Cochins. Or, well, close enough. I didn't realize quite how many of the pictures I took were out of focus... But it didn't help that they weren't very cooperative. Mostly because they wanted to be next to me, not in front of the camera. Anyway, I think I got mostly good shots of all of them.

EHAL peep-peep:

Green band baby, the worst culprit for wanting to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. He's sleepy-looking in his picture because I had my hand on him until he was standing still and pulled it away real quick to snap this shot.

Purple band baby:

April Fool's baby:

Recessive white baby. She (well, actually, I'm pretty sure he's a he, too) blended into the white background pretty badly, so I tried to put a black background up instead. It, err, kind of worked?

(This was before the black background )

And a bit of an outtake because green band baby blinked, but little peep-peep's face was too cute not to share

 

[ronott1]

Yup, and the NEEDIEST! Green band baby (who I'm reasonably sure is male already) is always begging for my attention, hopping up on me, trying to fly out of the brooder to me, calling for me if I leave... UGH!

Real quick, here are the weekly pictures. One week for the EHAL baby and two for the silkied Cochins. Or, well, close enough. I didn't realize quite how many of the pictures I took were out of focus... But it didn't help that they weren't very cooperative. Mostly because they wanted to be next to me, not in front of the camera. Anyway, I think I got mostly good shots of all of them.

EHAL peep-peep:

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Green band baby, the worst culprit for wanting to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. He's sleepy-looking in his picture because I had my hand on him until he was standing still and pulled it away real quick to snap this shot.

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Purple band baby:

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April Fool's baby:

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Recessive white baby. She (well, actually, I'm pretty sure he's a he, too) blended into the white background pretty badly, so I tried to put a black background up instead. It, err, kind of worked?

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(This was before the black background )
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And a bit of an outtake because green band baby blinked, but little peep-peep's face was too cute not to share

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The are so cute!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hello! Apologies for not updating on the babies on Friday! Not sure if I want to talk about it much, but I've been distracted with Elda, who doesn't seem well... but it's hard to say why. Long-time followers will probably be aware that Elly basically became my everything when I lost my beloved Frou-Frou almost five years ago. The thought of her not being around anymore is, well, a tough pill to swallow. She seems to be having some heart related issues, but it may also be respiratory, or possibly both... Unfortunately, she doesn't have much in the way of symptoms to differentiate from. Anyway, I'm treating her for what I can, the respiratory side, and keeping my fingers crossed. For the time being, she's not declining, and she's still very much my sweet Elly-welly as she's always been, so I'm optimistic that I at least have a bit more time with her before I have to say goodbye.


As for the chicks, I wanted to stop by with pictures of them. It's late for their weeklies, but I guess we can call these their 2-and-a-half and 3-and-a-half week pictures, right? It was very difficult to get good shots of them because they also finally had their first trip outside yesterday, when I took these pictures, and they were having a blast! Unfortunately, based on the forecast, it may be a while before they get their second trip outside, but it was a nice, warm, sunny day and they took to the great outdoors like seasoned chickens. Err... not like how that sounds, though.

Anyway, pictures! Unlike most of my batches of babies, they didn't freeze in place when I opened their transport box. Instead, they looked around, a bit shyly but also with curiosity.

Like most other baby batches, however, they didn't leave the box on their own. Here they are after some gentle encouragement, AKA me lifting them out of the box.

Recessive white baby is all about those dust baths, but for some reason couldn't bathe outside unless jammed under someone's belly. Modesty, perhaps? EHAL peep-peep only tolerated this briefly.

Eventually, they all returned to the box to peck-peck-peck at, well, nothing? Green band baby stood watch.

Peep-peep in the grass Such a photogenic baby.

They also had a brief frolic in the dandelions while they were out.

*Sniff-sniff* Ahhh...

Anyway, those were all the pictures I got that weren't either way too dark or had RW baby glowing because of it being way too bright... So here are our 'weekly' pictures. The Cochin babies are about 3.5 weeks in these pics, while EHAL peep-peep is about 2.5 weeks old.

Green band, slightly out of focus

Peep-peep

Purple band ❤

RW, fresh out of his grass dust bath

And red band

 

[ronott1]

Hello! Apologies for not updating on the babies on Friday! Not sure if I want to talk about it much, but I've been distracted with Elda, who doesn't seem well... but it's hard to say why. Long-time followers will probably be aware that Elly basically became my everything when I lost my beloved Frou-Frou almost five years ago. The thought of her not being around anymore is, well, a tough pill to swallow. She seems to be having some heart related issues, but it may also be respiratory, or possibly both... Unfortunately, she doesn't have much in the way of symptoms to differentiate from. Anyway, I'm treating her for what I can, the respiratory side, and keeping my fingers crossed. For the time being, she's not declining, and she's still very much my sweet Elly-welly as she's always been, so I'm optimistic that I at least have a bit more time with her before I have to say goodbye.


As for the chicks, I wanted to stop by with pictures of them. It's late for their weeklies, but I guess we can call these their 2-and-a-half and 3-and-a-half week pictures, right? It was very difficult to get good shots of them because they also finally had their first trip outside yesterday, when I took these pictures, and they were having a blast! Unfortunately, based on the forecast, it may be a while before they get their second trip outside, but it was a nice, warm, sunny day and they took to the great outdoors like seasoned chickens. Err... not like how that sounds, though.

Anyway, pictures! Unlike most of my batches of babies, they didn't freeze in place when I opened their transport box. Instead, they looked around, a bit shyly but also with curiosity.

View attachment 2112885

Like most other baby batches, however, they didn't leave the box on their own. Here they are after some gentle encouragement, AKA me lifting them out of the box.

View attachment 2112886

Recessive white baby is all about those dust baths, but for some reason couldn't bathe outside unless jammed under someone's belly. Modesty, perhaps? EHAL peep-peep only tolerated this briefly.

View attachment 2112887

Eventually, they all returned to the box to peck-peck-peck at, well, nothing? Green band baby stood watch.

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Peep-peep in the grass Such a photogenic baby.

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They also had a brief frolic in the dandelions while they were out.

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*Sniff-sniff* Ahhh...

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Anyway, those were all the pictures I got that weren't either way too dark or had RW baby glowing because of it being way too bright... So here are our 'weekly' pictures. The Cochin babies are about 3.5 weeks in these pics, while EHAL peep-peep is about 2.5 weeks old.

Green band, slightly out of focus

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Peep-peep

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Purple band ❤

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RW, fresh out of his grass dust bath

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And red band

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The Babies are very cute!

The saddest thing about raising chickens is that they are not super long lived!

 

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Indeed, it is.

 

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Well, it's been a whirlwind of a weekend. I did take the babies' weekly pictures on Friday, the correct time for their weekly pictures, but then things happened and cropping and posting them got put on the back burner until just now. I'm going to run through a few things from the past few days just to have them recorded here, as it's nice to have a time frame for things when looking back, and then get those pictures posted.

First of all... we lost Mako. This was a tough one, y'all. So, she'd not been herself for a few days, very lethargic and puffed, though still doing normal chicken things otherwise. I'd discovered that she'd lost a lot of weight and I was preparing myself to help her on her way out. A few days ago, she found her way out into the driveway when my sister was backing out to go pick up supper and, well, you can probably see where this is going. She passed on her own minutes afterward, before we could even do anything to help her along. She was about 9 years old.

Next, we may have another weasel issue. This one is a tiny, tiny, unbelievably tiny Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis) that hasn't attacked my birds (yet?), but sure has them spooked! Seriously, I thought it was a skinny chipmunk at first, it's so small! Anyway, I'm not sure I trust it out there with my teeny-tiny OEGBs, so I'm keeping an eye out on the birds and devising a trap.


On the lighter side of things, Elly's responding to treatment a lot better than I anticipated! She's not out of the woods yet, but seems so much better already! And she's sick and tired of being in her hospital pen!

Also, Sybil has come back into lay finally, which means... more OEGB babies! I'll be collecting as many eggs as possible over the next week or two to set hopefully around the middle of the month.


Now, weekly pictures! I started taking these pictures while they were outside, but it was late afternoon, and the sun soon dipped below the trees, at which point the babies became quite vocal about how chilly it got. As a result, part of the weeklies are from once we moved back inside. Little EHAL Peep-peep turned 3 weeks old and the feather dusters (err, silkied Cochins ) are 4 weeks old.

Peep-peep--look at that little crest!

Green band baby (who is no longer banded because his feet are getting too big already )

Purple band baby:

April Fools' / red band baby:

Recessive white baby:

A few extra pictures. Red band baby caught a huge moth and a tiny game of keep-away ensued. Here she is confused about her prey:

That's red band baby in the back while green band realized how far away the two of them had run in their little game.

Red and purple looking cute

And, back in the brooder, red band being super serious!

Four weeks and I'm still not sure what to say on these little fluffballs, male or female, other than green band who's definitely a fella. I *think* that the recessive white is a cockerel, and purple and red band babies are girls, but then I see them at other angles and start questioning that. Oh, well. No name ideas are jumping out at me just yet.

Anyway, I'm wiped out, so I'm headed to bed. Good night, y'all!

 

[ronott1]

It has been very eventful!

I am sorry you lost her but the others seem to be doing great

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hello! Checking in after another absence! Nothing much going on here (well... maybe a bit... I'll put that at the end) just waiting on the weather to stink less so that we can work on some things like getting babies outside. Elly is doing remarkably well, and the babies are growing like weeds and turning so round. I mostly wanted to check in with their pictures, both today's and last week's. Whoops! Anyway, last week, when they were 5 weeks (except EHAL peep-peep, who's a week younger), the weather was nice and they were outside. They've been outside twice since, and otherwise it's been nothing but RAIN. So their 6-week pictures are in the brooder, which is getting to be kind of cramped at this point, but the section of the coop I usually used for transitioning babies to the outside has three OEGB boys in it because their coop is delayed by weather. It's a whole thing.


So, long story short, how about some pictures? First, their 5-week pictures (4-week for the EHAL peep-peep) from a week ago:

Green band baby:

Purple band baby:

Red band baby:

Recessive white baby:

EHAL peep-peep:

And some extras from that day:

Peep-peep keeping watch while the feather-duster squad pecked at something

I swear, this little dude is so photogenic!

Green band baby? Not so much.

Purple band baby's pretty green baby eyes

She was getting so round at this point--you should see her now!

Red band baby worrying about something (with a bit of a photobomb by green band baby)

RW baby and purple band baby

RW baby has such sweet expressions ❤

Now, TODAY's pictures! Again, they're 6 weeks old today with the exception of the EHAL peep-peep, who's 5 weeks old.

Green band baby. So, pretty safe to say he's a boy at this point.

Purple band baby who is SO ROUND! I'm pretty sure she's a pullet.

Red band baby, who loves sitting on my lap. I go back and forth on her still. Sometimes, I'm sure she's a pullet, and other times I start questioning that. So, not sure here.

Recessive white baby. I thought she was a cockerel in my last post, but I go back and forth on her, too, now, so again not sure. However, I did name her this week and it works male or female, so. She started out a little, yellowish chick and turned into a white puffball, which reminded me so much of a dandelion that that's what I've been calling her: Dandelion. Dandy for short. ❤

EHAL peep-peep, still so photogenic Yeah, I've known he's a fella for a while, but boy that comb sure erases any doubt!

A few extras from today as well. First, I took close-ups of everyone's face today. However, red and green band babies were out of focus, come to find out. So, I tried. Anyway, face close-ups:

Green band:

Purple band baby. Those eyes!

Red band baby being a derp

Dandy and her sweet face

Mr. Photogenic with his new moehawk

And the rest of the pics. Ugh, this handsome little squirt! His one extra toe is kind of vaguely visible here:

Purple band baby, shortly before takeoff

Peep-peep on his favorite perch. Doesn't he look so innocent?

Okay, and that's it for the kiddos! Last thing worth mentioning is... I set 10 eggs today!! 6 OEGB eggs and 4 eggs from Abra with Winter, so EHAL Peep-peep would be their older brother. Can't wait until it's time to candle them!

Gosh, I hope that's it... Good night, all!

 

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And, surprise, surprise! If there was any doubt on green band being a boy, he decided it was time to quash that this morning with his very first crows! Goodness, I just love baby crows when I'm trying to sleep. Sorry for the terrible lighting; it was early and the curtains were still closed.