TeaChick's Chicks

[Mr MKK FARMS]

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[TeaChick]

I haven't been on here for so long (my own thread, can you even believe it)!!!
I'm going to go back over the thread and try to bring the thread up to date by seasons. I'll include what happened (chicks bought/hatched, chickens died, feeding, housing, etc.)
For now, I hope everyone's doing well! Take care of yourselves and each other.

 

[TeaChick]

Okay, so, it's been a long time again. It seems to work out better that way, really, b/c it allows me to do whatever and figure out why whatever has happened has happened and to be better able to explain it all to whomever might read this now and/or in the future. =)

So, to bring everyone up to date:

Nugget is doing very well. The eggs I set:

Goldie's and Caramel's hatched. They both hatched out wild-striped and they're both cockerels. At least Nugget has a flock and I'll process them for dinner before they start trying to mate. Caramel's chick hatched out a little redder and Goldie's hatched out a little yellower.

Here are pics:


The one in front is Nugget. The other two are the cockerels that hatched out in December.

 

[TeaChick]

Also in December, I forgot to close up the pallet coop (I was not feeling well and my youngest was keeping me up a lot, I was forgetting a lot of things at that time). Anyway, a fox got in and ate/stole Goldie and Brownie, so I set another hatch. Only one of those hatched, it was from one of Goldie's eggs. It's a light red barred chick, so I named it "Pinkie". It seems to have a very small comb. DD has a "fool proof cockerel test". She challenges the chick with her finger as a beak. If the chick meets the challenge and/or attacks the finger, it's a cockerel; if it does anything else (bite, play with, look at, run away from, anything other than fight/attack), then it's a pullet. I don't subscribe to it (b/c I really want Pinkie to be a girl and I've seen pullets and hens fighting with cockerels/roosters), but she's not altogether off base.
Here's a picture of Pinkie:


That's hours after hatch. I forgot to add water, so she was dry there, but she hadn't fluffed out. This one is from tonight. Very light red barred. DD thinks this one's a cockerel, but I hope it's a pullet.

Also in December, Pichard, my New Hampshire rooster, started mating with my hens. I want to be able to breed pure New Hampshire Reds and free range, so I'm only keeping NH roos. In light of those facts, I re-homed Eddie. A man who works at the feed store needed a rooster, so I gave Eddie to him.
I got some news from him a few weeks ago, Eddie was killed by the neighborhood dog. =(

 

[TeaChick]

In January, a fox ate Ashley in broad daylight, while I was outside talking on the phone less than a hundred yards away. I was in front of the house and the chicken/fox were in the woods around the side of the house, so I didn't see anything, but we set a trap and caught the fox and haven't lost anymore hens to predation.

Also in January, I lost my last White Leghorn. Cottontail was acting kind of tired. I thought she might be sick, but she's so skittish that putting her in the brooder to try and treat her would have been more stressful for her than letting her continue running around the yard and letting nature take its course. On Sunday two weeks ago, she climbed into the nest box, and when we went to count, she wasn't in the pallet coop. We found her dead in the nest box. =(

So, I set all six of her eggs that I had on hand. One of those was a clear, two were very early quitters, and two more quit at about one week. I only have one left now. It's developing slowly like all the other eggs I've set in these homemade incubators. It will be a sex-link. A New Hampshire Red rooster over a White Leghorn hen. I've named the link a Golden Jenny. Anyway, I'll know as soon as it hatches whether it's a pullet or cockerel. I'll let you all know. =)

 

[TeaChick]

Tonight, I went to the pallet coop to count the hens (all four of them) and to get pics and to lock up the coop (of course). Chocolate wasn't there. I found her in the nest box. She was sleeping. She was on about half the eggs that were in there, so I removed them. She had liquid-pooped in the nest, so I removed the clean eggs and put them in the other nest box and I tossed the one her poo had gotten on. I don't expect her to make it through the night. Here's a pic to honor her, she's a good hen:


I'd like to set some eggs from her, but I can't justify putting more eggs into the homemade incubators. Six to eight eggs in and one or two chicks out aren't good hatch rates. =(
Hopefully, DH will be super sweet and nice and buy me an incubator soon enough to be able to hatch some of Chocolate's eggs.

The New Hampshire chicks I got in Aug and Sept last year look like this now:
This is some of them, they've officially taken over the yard. lol

This is where they sleep. I haven't had a chance to fix the roost that DH made for them and they broke (they got heavier after we built it).

Those are two of the roosters. The one in the back is Pichard. IDK who the one in the front is. The other three males are named Riker, Bootsy, and Little Boy.

These are the nest boxes I hope they lay in when they start laying (the pullets, not the roosters lol). I've checked the pelvic bones and vents of two of the older ones (I have four left). They're not laying yet, but they're getting there for sure. I also cooped them today. No eggs. It won't be long though, so I'll probably coop them again another day this week. I'll add more nest boxes.

Oh, yes, we made nest boxes out of totes. We used ones that are approximately 18 gal size. I folded a piece of Xerox paper in thirds and traced around two thirds of it with a Sharpie marker. DH was kind enough to cut out the hole for me. He used a box cutter. I added pine straw and my hens that are already laying like the ones on the back porch (that I used to replace the 5-gal buckets they were laying in.

 

[TeaChick]

Okay, so as it stands, I have
~ 3 hens (Golden Comets: Chocolate, Caramel, and Sandy) from my original flock
~ 1 hen from my Jan 2014 hatch (Georgette) from my White Leghorn eggs
~ 4 NH Roosters (Pichard, Riker, and Bootsy from Aug 2014 and Little Boy from Sept 2014)
~ 13 NH pullets (4 from Aug 2014 and 9 from Sept 2014) {I just lost one of the younger girls; IDK what happened, I went to lock up the coop night before last, and she was laying dead on the floor of the coop.} =(
~ Golden Nugget and the two cockerels are "the big chicks" for now
~ Pinkie is "the little chick"
~ 1 egg in the incubator
and
DH ordered me some more New Hampshire chicks, plus he was super sweet and ordered me some assorted rare breeds pullets.

(that's for DH, not the chicks)

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I wanted to let you know that I split up the updates so it would be a little easier to see what happened when.
Take care of yourselves and each other!!!

 

[TeaChick]

I'm getting more chicks on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The egg in my incubator is doing alright, but super slow and getting slower by the day. If I incubate again, it will be with a large box, not a small cooler.
I'll have to get more pics posted. (better ones)

I'm doing research on the German New Hampshire breed right now.

For what it's worth to whomever,
My aim in breeding New Hampshire chickens is to improve the natural-ness of the breed. I understand that they were originally intended to be great dual purpose, broody, good mothers, excellent foragers, very intelligent, etc, a very natural breed, but also very friendly.
If this is wrong, please correct me.
Thank you. =)

 

[TeaChick]

Oooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so excited!!!!!
Here's a pic of the pip that DS just discovered!!!



So excited!!!
Pipped on the wrong end, but I'm keeping an eye and an ear out. I couldn't get it to peep at me, but I'm going to leave it alone for now. I might go cluck at it in a minute.

 

[TeaChick]

Sooooooo
Here's an update:
The chick in the above pictured egg hatched! It took all day long!!!
I did some reading and, apparently, there's too much bleed through of white on the girls for NH x WL to be a sex-link. But this one does have a little red on it, so I'm hoping that's an indication that it's a girl!

And here (s)he is all dried out and almost finished fluffing out:

Please tell me I'm not the only one who can see the red on the head, neck, and shoulders!!!

And here (s)he is with her new "sisters."


And here are pics of the "sisters" I just got at TSC. They're some type of production red, probably a red sex-link of course. I've got to look up pics to see if I can figure out what they are, but I probably won't know until they're finished feathering out and fully grown. But fuzz butt pics are so totally super cute!!!