The babies are here!!!!!

[Agafan]

Hope so. Keep us posted. It's good to hear your 8 are all well. Hopefully we both have gotten over the worst of it.

 

[MollyDora]

I thought I'd add some then and now pictures.

We still have 8 left and they are moving to the "ugly" stage.

Black Australorp 3 days old:


and 22 days old:



Easter Egger 3 days old:



and 22 days old:



they grow so fast.... sigh...

~Anna

 

[Agafan]

We lost one of our baby chicks last night in our basement.

No apparent reason. Everybody's been running around like normal. Hubby just found her dead by the feeder this morning. He only checked on them once yesterday morning so we don't know when it happened. We went out to church and Chinese last night and git home late so he didn't go down again before bed It was a big healthy bird. Actually the first we'd lost of that breed, the Buff Brahmas. So now we are down to 13 babies (3 total lost since they got here)

and just a day before she turned 6 weeks old. Sad.

 

[MollyDora]

Oh my... sorry to hear. For some reason it's almost worse to loose them now. Our remaining 8 are doing well, big healthy birds. We are now slowly starting to get them used to the cold.
We started by turning the Eco Glow off during the day, now we opened the door to the garage with the eco glow on again and in a couple of days we'll turn it off again during the day, the next step is to actually move them out to the garage and then when the weather is nice we want to move them outside for a little bit....and on.

 

[Brynansmommie]

Hi! I am pretty new to this too. This is my second year with chickens. Last year I had two get past but. I finally ended up putting Vaseline on after washing. it only took a day to stop after that. Good luck!

 

[Agafan]

Oh my... sorry to hear. For some reason it's almost worse to loose them now. Our remaining 8 are doing well, big healthy birds. We are now slowly starting to get them used to the cold.
We started by turning the Eco Glow off during the day, now we opened the door to the garage with the eco glow on again and in a couple of days we'll turn it off again during the day, the next step is to actually move them out to the garage and then when the weather is nice we want to move them outside for a little bit....and on.

Yes it was a sad surprise that we are clueless since she was a big healthy bird like all the other 13. Funny thing is though we have one Black Langshun that we call Bitsy bc she is half the other girls size and won't seem to grow any tail feathers. She is more duck like than chicken like! But Bitsy holds her own with all her brooder mates seemingly no different. But she looks so funny with her down still and lack of big girl feathers compared to the others. She has short wings and her legs are very long though; she is just gangly! But my favorite as she is the runt. I guess I am always partial to the challenged.
We also have been acclimating our chicks to colder temps. They have been in our heated basement in a new larger space. But we have lowered the temps from low 80's to high 50's low 60's. We have the light on a timer 15 on 15 off for about a week now and they scatter around as normal not necessarily under the lamp so we figure they are doing well. It's been really cold up here in the mts. Teens. It was 9 degrees yesterday morning and its been snowing all day. My real respect is for our 4 Golden Comets and 3 Easter Eggers (all less than a year old: hatched last March and June) who are in unheated coops outside and yet seem to fare well every night, run outside each morning for their treats and continue to give us 6-7 eggs a day!!

 

[MollyDora]

we are doing well.

These chicks need to move outside SOON! it seems they are now getting bored and try to find ways to get out. We're working on getting their part of the coop closed up so hopefully within the next 2 weeks they can move outside.

Also they have to move out on March 13th since that's when we'll do a drive to cackle hatchery to pick up our 10 light brahmas, 5 black Australorps, 2 white leghorn and 1 barred rock rooster.

Have a great day!!

and here is the funky bunch.


a Barred Rock on the left and our (what we belive is a rooster) Easter Egger


the one remaining Black Australorp, now almost completely Black

 

[Agafan]

we are doing well. These chicks need to move outside SOON! It seems they are now getting bored and try to find ways to get out. We're working on getting their part of the coop closed up so hopefully within the next 2 weeks they can move outside. Also they have to move out on March 13th since that's when we'll do a drive to cackle hatchery to pick up our 10 light brahmas, 5 black Australorps, 2 white leghorn and 1 barred rock rooster. Have a great day!! and here is the funky bunch. a Barred Rock on the left and our (what we belive is a rooster) Easter Egger the one remaining Black Australorp, now almost completely Black

Oh they are looking so good! And I know what you mean ... We need ours to go outside soon too. Our basement is a huge dust pile! But it is sooooo cold here in the mts ..single digits tonight. We already heat the basement and heating an additional coop would cost us even more. But they seem to be happy. Plus they can't get out of our arrangement in the basement. We have walls on 3 sides so only needed to wall up with wire one side. But these girls are eating us out of house and home!! They go thru feed like crazy! BTW, how is it you think that chick is a rooster?? How can you tell?

 

[MollyDora]

the brahmas are so cute! what's the black one with the fuzzy feet? Or does it just look like fuzzys?

we think it's a rooster because he is the smallest his tail feathers came in last and over all it was the last one to feather in completely also his legs are fatter.
also his comb is the biggest and his feathers look pointy, hens have rounded feathers
we are not 100% sure but 90%

 

[Agafan]

We lost a RIR this week. Again just found dead. Just like the others, everyone was fine one day then the next day one laying dead with no apparent reason. So from the original 16 we are down to 12 and they will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. We lost the first two when the chicks were less than a week old but these last two really puzzle us as they were big healthy feathered out birds at 7 and 11 weeks old.