Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Woke up to three more peeps, and one messy incubator! The last egg has pipped so it should hatch today.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Last baby is out

Also wanted to share this--this week, I got the lumber around and we built a second pen on the Cochin coop so I can split the birds into their proper breeding groups.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A peeper parade! Here are the newbies!

And some individual shots, too! I didn't take an individual shot of the last to hatch because she's still quite sleepy and not fluffed up fully yet, so I'll have to do that tomorrow. This is roughly hatch order, but I slept through some of their hatches so I'm not 100% sure on the ordering after the second baby here:

And a catch up with the one-week-olds, in hatch order:

Plus the two-week-olds:

Getting 12 unruly peepers to cooperate for pictures today was pretty rough! Not sure how I did it last year with 15 of them!! And I've got more on the way!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

When you brood all of these staggered hatches, do you put them in the same brooder?

All of my "littles" are in an integration area. They are doing well, but I'm going to have to figure out something soon for the cockerels.
There is one crele who I noticed chasing around a barred rock just this morning. He is only 10 weeks. I thought I'd have a little more time before needing to separate.
Also, I thought Lemon would be so gentle with the newbies - so let her in while the others were out in the yard. She immediately seeks out one of the creles (not sure if it's the same one), but they are attached to each other and won't let go. And, they aren't being nice.
Yesterday Cheddar (the rooster) got in with the littles and although there were pokes and prods, for the most part he did better than Lemon.
My black australorps have done the best - they just give a hard peck when one of the littles get too close to their food. It reminds me of how JellyBean behaved with every other bird. I haven't let ZuZu in with them yet. She's the one that gave Cheddar a hard time and she is always chasing Lemon away from food. Speaking of Zuz and JB, now that JB is gone, Zuz has her beard back. Lol. JB would groom and peck the EEs beards - so they were almost clean shaven. For some reason, she didn't like for those ladies to have beards.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

When you brood all of these staggered hatches, do you put them in the same brooder?

They're mostly together. The ones that hatched yesterday and Friday are split off only because that side of the brooder would have run out of room with that many babies in there, but I think if that wasn't the case that they would have been fine together. In the past when I've had staggered hatches, I found that they're perfectly fine with younger chicks joining them in the brooder until about 4 weeks of age and then they start getting territorial. That was with OEGBs who definitely mature early, though, so I wasn't sure if the same would go for the Cochins or not, which is why I set up the brooder in such a way that I could slowly integrate chicks together if I needed to do it that way.

All of my "littles" are in an integration area. They are doing well, but I'm going to have to figure out something soon for the cockerels.
There is one crele who I noticed chasing around a barred rock just this morning. He is only 10 weeks. I thought I'd have a little more time before needing to separate.
Also, I thought Lemon would be so gentle with the newbies - so let her in while the others were out in the yard. She immediately seeks out one of the creles (not sure if it's the same one), but they are attached to each other and won't let go. And, they aren't being nice.
Yesterday Cheddar (the rooster) got in with the littles and although there were pokes and prods, for the most part he did better than Lemon.
My black australorps have done the best - they just give a hard peck when one of the littles get too close to their food. It reminds me of how JellyBean behaved with every other bird. I haven't let ZuZu in with them yet. She's the one that gave Cheddar a hard time and she is always chasing Lemon away from food.

Roosters tend to be gentler with juveniles than hens are in my experience, so that makes sense with Cheddar and Lemon. Sounds like things are going okay with integration, though!

As far as the cockerels chasing already, as I mentioned above, OEGBs mature very fast, so that's not overly surprising either. What you can do is move the aggressors over with your adult hens and they should start to learn some manners from the hens putting them in their place. Just make sure they have places to escape like perches to fly to or boards to hide behind, and keep an eye out for anyone being too aggressive with them!

Did you decide on whether you're going to keep a bachelor group or try to rehome the extra boys?

Speaking of Zuz and JB, now that JB is gone, Zuz has her beard back. Lol. JB would groom and peck the EEs beards - so they were almost clean shaven. For some reason, she didn't like for those ladies to have beards.

Beard envy I've had a few hens like that!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Roosters tend to be gentler with juveniles than hens are in my experience, so that makes sense with Cheddar and Lemon. Sounds like things are going okay with integration, though!

As far as the cockerels chasing already, as I mentioned above, OEGBs mature very fast, so that's not overly surprising either. What you can do is move the aggressors over with your adult hens and they should start to learn some manners from the hens putting them in their place. Just make sure they have places to escape like perches to fly to or boards to hide behind, and keep an eye out for anyone being too aggressive with them!

Did you decide on whether you're going to keep a bachelor group or try to rehome the extra boys?

Oh, that's good to know. I've got some time off this week, so I will open things up, they have lots of areas to escape to. Plus, I will have more time to observe and intervene if needed. The littles love to be out of their confined space. Of course it seems all chickens just want more space.

I keep going back and forth on keeping the boys. I am attempting to rehome some of them, but also have a few I'd like to keep. So, if I don't find homes, there will be a bachelor pad.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They sure do! Even when my chicken yard was 5000 square feet, my birds were always chomping at the bit to get out to free-range.

I understand going back and forth on it. I do that every year with the extra cockerels I hatch. Just remember that if it becomes too difficult or stressful for you in any way, there is no reason to feel guilty for rehoming any or all of them. Especially if one or more than one is causing an issue. I have Dean and Levi listed out there, for example, because they're causing issues in their group and it's giving me unneeded stress. Trust me, the relief when a problem bird leaves eases any guilt you may feel for rehoming them in the interim.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Sadly, I've got to post yet another loss, Harley. Her minor injuries from fighting a larger hen mentioned a few pages back apparently weren't so minor, as one abscessed in her throat and suffocated her. Such a sassy sweet girl she was, and an important hen for my breeding flock. Definitely hurts to lose her.

Seems like I have long stretches where everyone is fine, and then all of the sudden I have a bunch of unrelated losses coincide at once like this. I've especially been distracted this past week between chicks hatching and the pen build, so that injury abscessing could not have happened at a worse time. I'm going to set aside some time to just sit out there and observe my birds next time the weather is decent, just to make sure there wasn't anything else I've missed.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Sorry to hear that. I didnt even know that was possible. But, I guess when it comes to chickens, anything is possible.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, I'd file that under a freak accident type of death. I doubt that I'll ever see something like that happen again. Both tragic that it happened, and fortunate that it likely won't ever again. Looking at my birds, I think I've decided on a plan B for that group as far as breeding goes, so hopefully losing her won't set me back very much in that respect at least.