Red Partridge Orpington informational hatch thread

[BigBlueHen53]

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:

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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):

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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!

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When you posted pics of all of them, what I noticed was that three of them had thicker, heavier legs, and I thought, those are probably males. Those turned out to be the ones you identified as males also, either because of their combs or their wings.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

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

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You can't have roos, or just don't want them? Maybe he'll turn out to be a she

 

[K0k0shka]

You can't have roos, or just don't want them? Maybe he'll turn out to be a she

Both. Can’t have them because of neighbors, but I don’t want roosters anyway because I have young kids and I need them to be safe around the chickens. I’m still hoping for Blinky, but so far everything about him says boy...

 

[K0k0shka]

Meeting the cat She’s been super nice in not trying to eat them. I’ve seen what she does to mice though, so I never walk away with the brooder door open.

Spilling out of my hand to get a better look:

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Meeting the cat She’s been super nice in not trying to eat them. I’ve seen what she does to mice though, so I never walk away with the brooder door open.

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Spilling out of my hand to get a better look:
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Rubber-necking

 

[K0k0shka]

Rubber-necking

Totally

 

[K0k0shka]

The babies got a new toy to distract themselves with! An impulse buy at the feed store. Took them about a day to get used to it, but now they love it.

Today was the first day without heartbreaking cries. I'm impressed - it took them 5 days to start to get over the loss of their friends!

We're planning a field trip to the yard for Sunday.

 

[aart]

Glad they have calmed.
That basket screams 'toe catcher' tho.

 

[K0k0shka]

Glad they have calmed.
That basket screams 'toe catcher' tho.

Oh! Good point. I’ll keep it in mind. So far they seem to put their feet down flat on it with the toes going across the surface.

 

[aart]

Oh! Good point. I’ll keep it in mind. So far they seem to put their feet down flat on it with the toes going across the surface.

At least the brooder is in the house, so you'll hear if there's an 'incident'.
Also it'll get packed with poop that will be very hard to clean out.
Sorry to be a debidowner, my 'trouble tracker' has been triggered.