Pipd's Peeps!

[ronott1]

They are growing into that awkward Juvenile look!

How fun!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

For sure, especially those Orp boys! Most of those Cochins went right past the awkward phase and straight into puffball, though! They're doing great outside, enjoying the space and fresh air, and having lots of cuddle puddle / sun baths when a good patch of sun finds its way through the trees in their area.




I spent some time with the itsy babies today and got them moved into the big brooder. It took them, oh, 20 minutes to make a mess of the place, but they're pretty happy with all the space to flap their wings and run around. This was their first moment in their new space, before the mess began:

Aaaand, after

Our little Legbar is not impressed. She's not impressed by much, though. I'm thinking of naming her Alifaire ( / some spelling of that name, I haven't decided and there's a million of them). Either that or Freebie, a simple reminder of the fact that she was, well, a freebie.

Making a mess My little Barred Rock bantams are starting to get their bars! No real indicators for sex yet, but they are only 2 weeks old.

I spent a ton of time with them to get some of my chick sexing project tests done, and just to socialize them and admire their cuteness. I love them when they're tiny like this, of course, but I also can't wait to see how these babies feather out and grow!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here are the two week pictures of the babies! I took them yesterday, so they're only one day late

Here are our Orpingtons! First, the unnamed darker Orp:

And, Isolde:

Barred Rock bantams, in band color order. Look at those little stripes!! It's been too long since I had barred babies!

Lastly, our little Legbar

As always, I have about a million more pictures of them from that session. Look at these absolute stinkers!

I swear, these babies are part duck. They are always playing in this waterer! I have a jar somewhere to put on top, but I haven't been able to locate it, unfortunately, so they use the pedestal in the middle to sit on and drink from instead.

They were upgraded to the baby trough when they moved to the big kid brooder.

...The Legbar is still not impressed.

Isolde. Look at this little beauty

Some close ups of the large fowl chickies

And that's all!

I'd like to get a set of weekly update pics of the older kids today with the good camera, but we've got a lot going on today so it may not end up happening. If not today, then tomorrow for sure! The Orp boys are 7 weeks old and Cochin bantams are 8 weeks old today, so I've begun weaning them onto the all flock pellets now. They don't seem to care about the different food sizes in their dish, so I guess it's going well already!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Do you keep all of your hatchlings?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I keep all of the pullets (though that's not really saying much with my luck, especially this year! ) and as many of the cockerels as I can, space being the deciding factor, as long as they're well behaved or, in some cases, genetically important for my flock. I will not tolerate human aggression in the males in my flock because my niece and nephew play outside around the chickens and I will not see them attacked by an aggressive rooster as long as I can help it.

I'm pretty meticulous about planning out chicks and hatches based on the space I have available, with the assumption that half will be females that I keep and therefore I need about that much coop space open beforehand. This year got away from me a little bit, of course, but I do still have the room thankfully, despite the prices of building supplies staying sky high and keeping me from expanding as I'd hoped to!

 

[ronott1]

Here are the two week pictures of the babies! I took them yesterday, so they're only one day late

Here are our Orpingtons! First, the unnamed darker Orp:

View attachment 2769555


And, Isolde:

View attachment 2769556


Barred Rock bantams, in band color order. Look at those little stripes!! It's been too long since I had barred babies!

View attachment 2769557View attachment 2769558View attachment 2769559View attachment 2769560View attachment 2769561View attachment 2769562


Lastly, our little Legbar

View attachment 2769571


As always, I have about a million more pictures of them from that session. Look at these absolute stinkers!

View attachment 2769573
View attachment 2769572


I swear, these babies are part duck. They are always playing in this waterer! I have a jar somewhere to put on top, but I haven't been able to locate it, unfortunately, so they use the pedestal in the middle to sit on and drink from instead.

View attachment 2769564View attachment 2769567


They were upgraded to the baby trough when they moved to the big kid brooder.

View attachment 2769569


...The Legbar is still not impressed.

View attachment 2769570


Isolde. Look at this little beauty

View attachment 2769566


Some close ups of the large fowl chickies

View attachment 2769563View attachment 2769565View attachment 2769568

And that's all!

I'd like to get a set of weekly update pics of the older kids today with the good camera, but we've got a lot going on today so it may not end up happening. If not today, then tomorrow for sure! The Orp boys are 7 weeks old and Cochin bantams are 8 weeks old today, so I've begun weaning them onto the all flock pellets now. They don't seem to care about the different food sizes in their dish, so I guess it's going well already!

They are doing great!

 

[ronott1]

I keep all of the pullets (though that's not really saying much with my luck, especially this year! ) and as many of the cockerels as I can, space being the deciding factor, as long as they're well behaved or, in some cases, genetically important for my flock. I will not tolerate human aggression in the males in my flock because my niece and nephew play outside around the chickens and I will not see them attacked by an aggressive rooster as long as I can help it.

I'm pretty meticulous about planning out chicks and hatches based on the space I have available, with the assumption that half will be females that I keep and therefore I need about that much coop space open beforehand. This year got away from me a little bit, of course, but I do still have the room thankfully, despite the prices of building supplies staying sky high and keeping me from expanding as I'd hoped to!

Feed costs too!

Building material costs are supposed to go down but we will see!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, but I don't worry too much about feed costs, personally. It's not much in the grand scheme and the entertainment and eggs they provide more than make up for that cost. My main concern with my flock size is making sure they have enough comfortable space for when there's snow on the ground late winter and they're all cooped up.


I've been keeping an eye on fence and lumber prices here since late spring and it has gone down by a little bit in that time, so here's hoping it keeps on that trajectory

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The kids have experienced their first light rain this morning and they don't seem too bad off for it. I did put up a simple shelter out of an old tarp, but it was much too scary to go under, so they stood out and got rained on. The Cochins look a bit soggy, but I think that's just because of the silkied feathering. Here are some of them feeling sorry for themselves. I gave them lots of cuddles and fluffed out their booties as much as I could to help them dry.

 

[ronott1]

The kids have experienced their first light rain this morning and they don't seem too bad off for it. I did put up a simple shelter out of an old tarp, but it was much too scary to go under, so they stood out and got rained on. The Cochins look a bit soggy, but I think that's just because of the silkied feathering. Here are some of them feeling sorry for themselves. I gave them lots of cuddles and fluffed out their booties as much as I could to help them dry.

View attachment 2770857

Too cute!