The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[getaclue]

My cat Emma, is the female version of your cat Finn. She guards, protects, and tries to mother hen the chicks too.

The chick in the second picture is cute. It must be one of those new hybrid type chickens.

 

[speckledhen]

Yeah, that big oddly feathered one in the previous post has to be related to a Silkie....

 

[speckledhen]

And just pictures; wow, the mess they made in an hour! Always the same, isn't it? Do we need a new thread for these? Or should we continue them on the Atlas thread?

 

[robhuncor]

How exciting! A new start! Chicks are good for the soul, and so nice to see Finn again!

 

[speckledhen]

UPDATE: The bunny has been moved to an empty 5x8 back pen in the barn and has a big bed of hay. He/she seems completely happy now, not at all afraid of us, very docile. Good bunny. So, now, I have to learn about rabbits, what to put on them for fleas/mites (invermectin pour on?), etc. so this one can be healthy while in our care. If he/she begins pulling fur and making a nest, I'll know I am in trouble, LOL! I know what *that* means!
Tom called the next door neighbor to ask if he had rabbits and was missing one, had to leave a message. I mean, I never knew he had chickens until they began invading my property. Gosh, does my place look like Noah's Ark or something?

 

[speckledhen]

How exciting! A new start! Chicks are good for the soul, and so nice to see Finn again!

Yes, it is exciting! Funny thing is, they probably hatched about April 6, the same day that my Belgian D'Anvers, Maretta, some of the blue/black/splash Rocks like Gloria Jean, and all the original Marvin Stukel BRs hatched. Easy to remember the date!

 

[speckledhen]

I wonder if you can sex bantam Cochins by wing development. The EEs should all be pullets (should). Usually, I can sort of tell on the Brahmas by the flight feathers coming in so fast on the males and the rest of the fringe hanging back. The pullets seem to have the rest of the wing feathers coming in right behind those flight feathers. But, not sure you can rely on that for these at all. I still have no idea, except for the Buffs, what color these are. Apparently, Cackle does not have lavender bantam Cochins, but they sell splashes separately as well as blues. These are so light, with a bluish tinge, I thought they were lavs until I saw the website. Maybe splashes? Those bred together would create blues as long as I had a splash of male and female. Anyway, here are the chicksters making a colossal mess, as they always do.
Excuse the ratty hands-garden season is killing them already and we planted all the tomatoes and bell peppers today, still have to get the broccoli in the ground.

 

[speckledhen]

My new best friend....her name is Ripley. I guess you know who I named her for-she is calm in chaos in that brooder so she got a hero's name.

And here comes trouble....always the first to challenge the hand in the brooder, fight the pooper scooper.

Just cuteness. They're growing so fast. Apparently, Cackle does not have lavenders, but they do have splashes so I think I have more than one of those in the brooder, which of course, will make blues if I have at least a pair of those.

 

[getaclue]

They're adorable, and look to be doing just fine.

 

[speckledhen]

The six EE pullets are named. Of course, I started with Ripley. And because my husband has trouble with names now, I tried to help him by naming several after characters on one of his favorite series Nashville. So, the black one is Layla. The brown one is Rayna. The other three light colored pullets are Juliette, Scarlett and Shelby. Shelby is not on Nashville. She was an olive egger I had who hatched with the original Marvin Stukel BRs, including the original Rex. Shelby plucked poor Rex's saddle feathers and tormented him constantly so I gave her to a friend just after she began laying. Thought I'd reuse the name.
I have been looking at the Cochins. If sexing cues hold true with little girls' tails coming in first and their wings fuller at an earlier date, all three Buff bantam Cochins are probably girls and at least one of the splash-looking ones, maybe a second one, sort of on the fence about that one. Out of 7 straight run bantam Cochins with me having zero choice, just taking the last 7 they had, getting four pullets and three cockerels would not be terrible. Five pullets and two cockerels would be perfect. As long as there are no surprise males among the EEs, and it doesn't seem like it, they could all stay, all 13 of them. I'm not sure, but I might be able to keep three little Cochin males in the group, depending on their personalities.
I'm even considering letting that group eventually have one of the large pens and maybe see if Aimee and Mina could go in with them, perhaps even Aubrey, but that's questionable. If he wasn't here, I'd definitely put Mina and Aimee in with that group.

My fence line is cleared and all the posts are set! The guy who helped Tom with the lift came and brought four of his men and they knocked it out in just over 3 hours! I need to buy the fencing now. And the price was a bargain. They even cut a couple of dead trees into firewood lengths and took a few things off the farm dump out near the pasture at the fence to remove them for us. He said they can work it out so they come back to maintain it every six months if we want. And I can depend on him, which is rare.
We are not removing the old fence, just placing the new, better one in front of it.