Red Partridge Orpington informational hatch thread

[K0k0shka]

@Caitiemc88 do you have any more pictures of the cousins? Anything from when they were 2 weeks old or so? Yours are such a good case study because you know you have a male and a female, so looking back at their pictures would be helpful. I'm going to do that with mine - post lots of pictures so anybody else who finds the thread later on can see how they developed and at what point the differences started showing. Right now I'm getting worried that I might not have any girls at all So I'm curious to see what your girl's comb and wings looked like when she was a little younger.

 

[aart]

Good idea, I should take them out at some point. I have a dog crate I got for chicken purposes, I can use that. How long will they be okay outside without their heating pad? Only one chick has started feathering out on the back, the rest are still all fuzz but some feathers on the wings. It's in the 60s outside during the day.

If they have protection from the wind and maybe even some shade...a couple hours.
Let their behavior tell you if they are too cold.

 

[Caitiemc88]

@Caitiemc88 do you have any more pictures of the cousins? Anything from when they were 2 weeks old or so? Yours are such a good case study because you know you have a male and a female, so looking back at their pictures would be helpful. I'm going to do that with mine - post lots of pictures so anybody else who finds the thread later on can see how they developed and at what point the differences started showing. Right now I'm getting worried that I might not have any girls at all So I'm curious to see what your girl's comb and wings looked like when she was a little younger.

 

[K0k0shka]

This is very helpful, thanks! I have one that looks like your suspected female, two that look like the male, and three that I can't quite tell yet. I notice that your female is feathering out faster. Mine that looks like it might be female is also a lot more feathered out than the rest - the only one with any feathers on its back at all right now.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm so happy with how smoothly the integration of the broody and her chicks went. None of the other hens have bothered her or the chicks at all. They all eat together, rest together and hang out together like one big happy family

 

[K0k0shka]

It's been two and a half days since half the chicks got rehomed, and my other half are still upset Getting better, but they still cry a lot and cluster in that corner looking out. They never used to cry like that, any of them, before the split. They flock to me and calm down when I go to see them, and I visit them often, but I still have to work during the day so I can't just hang with them all day. And it's been raining a lot, and will continue raining for another couple of days, so it probably won't be until the weekend before I can distract them with a field trip out.

 

[K0k0shka]

This is what consistently makes them happy

 

[Auntiejessi3]

This is what consistently makes them happy

 

[K0k0shka]

Blinky has come a long way and has quickly become my favorite, though I'm trying hard to resist, because he also looks the most male of them all...

Here he is, after I helped him hatch and washed the papery membrane stuck all over him:

Here he is all dried up and fluffy. He was very wobbly and sleepy the first few days, and his left eye couldn't open all the way or stay open, and had a weird slant to it (his other eye and all the other chicks' eyes close horizontally, no slant):

And here he is now, two weeks old! His eye can open all the way and when open, looks almost normal, but he does close it a lot more often than the other, independently of the other, so it's still not quite right. He's the most curious and adventurous, and the most tame of them all. So he's hard to resist! But oh that comb... It's bigger than anybody else's, and is starting to get some color already! And the wing feathers barely have any patterning at all... My poor rescue baby, I'm gonna have to eat you some day!

 

[K0k0shka]

Blinky... Is going to break my heart so hard