Progeny from heroic rooster

[sakerobot]

The new brooder was an instant hit, and the 9 cheeplets have spent the night there successfully.

Today the second batch is hatching, with two of the chicks (both yellow and from Tsunade) already out at 6 and 8 am.

The plan is to set them up in an adjacent brooder to the older ones in about a week, and after a few days or so after, we want to unite them. Any advice on this would be appreciated, as we don't want the younger chicks to be inadvertently injured by the older ones, but we'd prefer they become a single flock. Their age gap is exactly 9 days.

 

[NatJ]

The plan is to set them up in an adjacent brooder to the older ones in about a week, and after a few days or so after, we want to unite them. Any advice on this would be appreciated, as we don't want the younger chicks to be inadvertently injured by the older ones, but we'd prefer they become a single flock. Their age gap is exactly 9 days.

Chicks that young are pretty easy to combine. It's often as simple as sticking them in the same brooder with no integration required.

I would probably wait until the little ones are stable on their feet and good at running around (probably a few days, but not as long as a week.) Then I would put a few big chicks in with the little ones. Depending on how many younger chicks there are, maybe two or three of the big ones. I would want the little ones to outnumber the big ones in that group. A day or so later, the little ones will have had some practice watching out for bigger chicks that might be clumsy, and I would add a few more big ones. I would probably have all the big ones in with the little ones within about 3-4 days of starting that, at which point the little ones might be a week old or a little more than that.

If you want to put them in adjacent brooders, I would do that at any point after hatch. No need to wait a week, unless there is some reason that younger chicks need to be in a different place. Adjacent brooders will not cause any harm, they are just not really needed in most cases of combining chicks.

The older the chicks get, the more they care about pecking order. That is a point in favor of introducing the new ones as quickly as you safely can, rather than spending a long time trying to do it gradually like you would with adults or older chicks.

 

[sakerobot]

Chicks that young are pretty easy to combine. It's often as simple as sticking them in the same brooder with no integration required.

I would probably wait until the little ones are stable on their feet and good at running around (probably a few days, but not as long as a week.) Then I would put a few big chicks in with the little ones. Depending on how many younger chicks there are, maybe two or three of the big ones. I would want the little ones to outnumber the big ones in that group. A day or so later, the little ones will have had some practice watching out for bigger chicks that might be clumsy, and I would add a few more big ones. I would probably have all the big ones in with the little ones within about 3-4 days of starting that, at which point the little ones might be a week old or a little more than that.

If you want to put them in adjacent brooders, I would do that at any point after hatch. No need to wait a week, unless there is some reason that younger chicks need to be in a different place. Adjacent brooders will not cause any harm, they are just not really needed in most cases of combining chicks.

The older the chicks get, the more they care about pecking order. That is a point in favor of introducin the new ones as quickly as you safely can, rather than spending a long time trying to do it gradually like you would with adults or older chicks.

That sounds like a good plan and something we can do. I'm going to expand the 4x4 brooder by adding another 4x4 section (which will later be converted to a modular chicken tractor or second infirmary, etc) so that it can fit in all the 15 for a while. We're in zone 5B in New Hampshire and the upcoming outside temperatures are not looking too friendly.

All six of the eggs hatched successfully: four yellow fluffies and 2 BRs.

The very last BR to come out looks rather unique:

It hatched late, at 2:30 am on the 14h. The first one to hatch was at 8:30 am on the 13th, the first three were yellow (very similar hatching pattern to the first batch). This egg looked different from the other egg I had labeled as BR.

The older ones are doing fine in the basement, it's about 50F, their brooder is at about 70F with the heated plate for additional warmth. It's surprisingly tricky to get a good group picture, but here's a glorious wing stretch:

 

[sakerobot]

I should add that there's some room for error - egg 11 with the unique chicken might not necessarily have been from a BR. Sometimes BRs will sit on a nest for hours and deliver nothing, meanwhile another hen could have swiftly jumped in, laid an egg and jumped out in under 10 minutes that the trailcam timer was set to. Not very likely, but plausible.

 

[DIYGuy24]

Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed seeing your chicks and following along!

 

[NatJ]

The very last BR to come out looks rather unique:

It will be interesting to see how that one looks as it grows up. I'm looking forward to pictures over the next weeks and months

I should add that there's some room for error - egg 11 with the unique chicken might not necessarily have been from a BR. Sometimes BRs will sit on a nest for hours and deliver nothing, meanwhile another hen could have swiftly jumped in, laid an egg and jumped out in under 10 minutes that the trailcam timer was set to. Not very likely, but plausible.

That's definitely a point to keep in mind.

I see a single comb and clean feet, so probably not from the Dark Brahma mother.

Single comb not rose, so not likely to be from a Wyandotte mother. But no guarantees on that, because Wyandottes sometimes do carry the not-rose comb gene. And there is some chance a Wyandotte-mix chick could have that color (given how dark some laced Wyandotte chicks look.)

I wouldn't expect quite that appearance from the Lavender Orpington or the Barred Rocks.

I'm pretty sure the Buff Orpington, Speckled Sussex, and Bielefelder hens have no chance of making a chick that color.

Maybe it will become more clear with time.

 

[sakerobot]

It will be interesting to see how that one looks as it grows up. I'm looking forward to pictures over the next weeks and months


That's definitely a point to keep in mind.

I see a single comb and clean feet, so probably not from the Dark Brahma mother.

Single comb not rose, so not likely to be from a Wyandotte mother. But no guarantees on that, because Wyandottes sometimes do carry the not-rose comb gene. And there is some chance a Wyandotte-mix chick could have that color (given how dark some laced Wyandotte chicks look.)

I wouldn't expect quite that appearance from the Lavender Orpington or the Barred Rocks.

I'm pretty sure the Buff Orpington, Speckled Sussex, and Bielefelder hens have no chance of making a chick that color.

Maybe it will become more clear with time.

By the process of elimination, it sounds like one of the SLWs may be the most likely mother? Another factor that could add to that theory is that the egg had "freckles" that were bigger than anything I can find in the kitchen's current 20 egg spindle, so it is probably not a common BR or Orpington egg (and I think Orpingtons are ruled out already).

Here are some recent pictures of them at 3 days old. I didn't focus as much on the yellow ones, but they have a similar variation to the earlier batch - some have dark spots on the head, at least one seems to be fully yellow so far, and one's starting to grow black barring wing feathers already.

One other thing we noticed on the odd chicklet - there doesn't seem to be any black marking on the beak as BRs tend to have.

I tried searching for Delaware x SLW crosses, but without luck so far.

 

[NatJ]

By the process of elimination, it sounds like one of the SLWs may be the most likely mother? Another factor that could add to that theory is that the egg had "freckles" that were bigger than anything I can find in the kitchen's current 20 egg spindle, so it is probably not a common BR or Orpington egg (and I think Orpingtons are ruled out already).

I am leaning that way, although I can't rule out Barred Rock or Lavender Orpington as the mother.

For the Wyandotte to be the mother, she would have to be carrying the gene for not-rose comb. That is actually pretty common in Wyandottes.

For the Barred Rock or Lavender Orpington to be the mother, the hen would have to be carrying something different for color genetics (different than what is usually expected for their color.) That would be less common, but definitely does happen sometimes.

I suspect it will become more obvious as the chick grows feathers.

One other thing we noticed on the odd chicklet - there doesn't seem to be any black marking on the beak as BRs tend to have.

Good point.

I tried searching for Delaware x SLW crosses, but without luck so far.

I don't see any either.

 

[sakerobot]

Just for some fun reference, we found some of these from April last year of when the young hens were smaller that show the potential mothers. They did have some black on their beaks, but it seems to look more like it was dipped in paint vs splotches in BRs. The gray bottom is similar to the mystery chicklet.

 

[sakerobot]

Slightly off schedule, but the two groups spent a night in adjacent brooders and we'll try uniting some tomorrow. Maybe all depending on how it goes, as they all go to sleep and eat at the same time already, I have a feeling they might not even notice that their numbers have increased. We'll remove the middle wall so they can access everything: