Spring 2017 first timers post!

[elizabethu42]

They don't start laying eggs until they are around 20 weeks old

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I have been so busy with these babies! It has been so much fun so far. We are at our ending total of 23 chickies. 20 are standard size and 3 are bantam. I have a pretty certain confirmation that at least 3 of our chickies are girls. It seems as though we got lucky with the Salmon Faverolles and all 3 look like hens. One of our Speckled Sussex looks to be a roo. Oddly enough, "he" is the most standoffish of the bunch. Very wary and very alert, always checking new things out first as if he was the scoutmaster! Our flock breaks down like this:

3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes are 6 weeks and 2 days
3 Salmon Faverolles, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Welsummers and 4 Easter Eggers are all 5 weeks and 2 days

This group is all happily running the coop and run. All 17 put themselves in the coop and up on the roosts last night without any guidance from me.

3 Black Australorps and 3 White Silkies all are 1 week and 2 days. They are all happily living in the brooder. Seems as though they figured out bedtime all on their own by the sounds and actions of the bigger girls. When I go in the coop at night, they are all cozy in their MHP and not making a peep.

Below is a picture sampling of life here at the "little coop on Salt Creek"

 

[Chickywolf]

I found one of those gravity feed water bottles at TSC. It works good and they took to it well and doesn't get as much stuff in the water. It only needs filling once a day when they're really tiny babies and 2 or 3 times as the age. It only holds 1 quart. I think if you find a nipple waterer you would have to show each one of them where the water comes out and then they would probably get it.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I found one of those gravity feed water bottles at TSC. It works good and they took to it well and doesn't get as much stuff in the water. It only needs filling once a day when they're really tiny babies and 2 or 3 times as the age. It only holds 1 quart. I think if you find a nipple waterer you would have to show each one of them where the water comes out and then they would probably get it.

We made a nipple watering system and some baby sized nipple waterers out of sunbutter (a nut butter) containers. They all work great. All 23 of our chickies ages 1 week, 2days through 6 weeks 2 days know how to use them. Basically I showed how it worked to one or two and then the others all catch on by watching the girls who "get it". Our youngest group was actually the fastest group to catch on. I noticed all 6 of them using it at 1 week of age.

 

[elizabethu42]

I have been so busy with these babies! It has been so much fun so far. We are at our ending total of 23 chickies. 20 are standard size and 3 are bantam. I have a pretty certain confirmation that at least 3 of our chickies are girls. It seems as though we got lucky with the Salmon Faverolles and all 3 look like hens. One of our Speckled Sussex looks to be a roo. Oddly enough, "he" is the most standoffish of the bunch. Very wary and very alert, always checking new things out first as if he was the scoutmaster! Our flock breaks down like this:

3 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes are 6 weeks and 2 days
3 Salmon Faverolles, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Welsummers and 4 Easter Eggers are all 5 weeks and 2 days

This group is all happily running the coop and run. All 17 put themselves in the coop and up on the roosts last night without any guidance from me.

3 Black Australorps and 3 White Silkies all are 1 week and 2 days. They are all happily living in the brooder. Seems as though they figured out bedtime all on their own by the sounds and actions of the bigger girls. When I go in the coop at night, they are all cozy in their MHP and not making a peep.

Below is a picture sampling of life here at the "little coop on Salt Creek"

I love pic number 2!! Those fuzz butts

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I love pic number 2!! Those fuzz butts

Funny, but not so funny at the time about those little fuzz butts: Day one of them home, one of the Silkies was pulling all 3 of the Black Australorps around then brooder by their toes! What!!!

A little Nutridrench and a good nights sleep and the little Australorps were able to hold their own. I also had to "mama hen peck" at her back about a zillion times, but she finally got the message. Next day... all is calm, no toe eating. Day 3... I go into the coop and hear loud peeping that won't stop, I look in and that silly girl had her own foot in her mouth and screaming about it!

All seems good now though, all toes are intact and she doesn't seem to have any other weird obsessions.

 

[naturegeek168]

Made my recycled nipple waterers tonight. The smaller one is for the brooder and the larger for the coop/run.

22 days and counting!

 

[Silence]

I feel you on the water thing. The only nipples I've found for sale at the stores around here say "for adult birds only" ... but does everyone feel like 1-2 week old chicks can use them?

Which one is Ethel/Eddie?

I went out and bought a pack of four screw in water tip things (my youngest daughter hates the word nipple, lol) Then I bought a small plastic drink bottle, drilled the 3/8 inch holes and screwed them in per the pkg directions...working like a dream. They seem to all get it, thankfully. Ethel/Eddie is the RIR in the middle of the picture, no tail feathers there but finally a couple have appeared, still iffy about her/him. Guess we wait until the four week mark, right?

 

[Chickywolf]

We made a nipple watering system and some baby sized nipple waterers out of sunbutter (a nut butter) containers. They all work great. All 23 of our chickies ages 1 week, 2days through 6 weeks 2 days know how to use them. Basically I showed how it worked to one or two and then the others all catch on by watching the girls who "get it". Our youngest group was actually the fastest group to catch on. I noticed all 6 of them using it at 1 week of age.

I would love to see a pic of these water bottles. What a great idea! I've been thinking of going to a nipple watering system for all my chickens but haven't decided if I'm going to try making them myself or buy already made ones.

That makes sense that they would learn from the first ones to catch on. Just like people. Sorta like what we're doing here, lol!

 

[bajabirdbrain]

Ok, here are a couple of pictures of one of our nipple water containers. I bought the bottle at Wal Mart and a 4 pack of nipples at our local feed store. Easy to follow directions, just drill a couple of holes and install the nipples. I added a little silicone around the nipples just in case. &nbsp and a piece of wire around neck to hang it with. We put it in the brooder box along with a "normal" water container and when we moved the chicks to the coop we moved both out there as well. We replaced the nipple water jug with a 5 gal bucket with nipples that we bought at the feed store. We put the little nipple water jug out in the run so the kids have water out there as well.

Note, we have hung a strawberry and a brussel sprout on strings from one of their outside perches but they have showed zero interest in them??

Hope this helps. BB