The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Wahoo - it's summertime - perfect treat for a 95 degree day

3 1/2 weeks old

beautiful chics.............Im still trying to get mine to eat watermelon lol I figure when I put one of the Big girls in with them and they see her eating they will join in

 

[PatQ]

they sure look healthy

Happy and healthy )

 

[PatQ]

beautiful chics.............Im still trying to get mine to eat watermelon lol I figure when I put one of the Big girls in with them and they see her eating they will join in

I put it down and they attacked it right away. Usually they are hesitant with anything new, so this totally surprised me! I figured it might be because it was red and they are attracted to red?

PS - I think they are beautiful too

Here is my favorite... (shhhh - don't tell the others)

 

[Mumsy]

Roses blooming, 70 degrees out and sun shining. Next two kids to get baths are the Catdance male and female Blue Split chicks. Little female is quite a bit smaller than the other. The biggest has a larger comb and acts aggressive with other chicks so he has been put in a male grow out pen. They sat very quietly for pictures. The smallest chick has beautiful blue under coat with black tipped fluff. The big one looks almost black but there is darker blue in his under coat.

Here are their day old pictures.





The tiny one with pink foot and Hello Kitty bandaid to correct crooked toes is the one I've always thought was female. I thought the BlS on the eggs meant Blue Splash. Now I think it meant Blue Split.

Here is what they look like today.


Male on the left standing. Little one sitting the female.

Then I switched their positions. The male has the best foot feathering. I've been wrong before about sexing Silkies. Time will tell.

 

[Ashdoes]

I'm still waiting for GreenFire to ship the Cream Legbars, my husband is not so patient about it. After seeing those little ones...Fridays I think...I really want mine! I've had to feed out my chick starter FF once already and about to empty half the bucket again. She wrote last week and said they didn't have enough pullets and they should have shipped this last Tuesday, but now I haven't heard anything. Keeping my fingers crossed for shipping in the next week.

 

[Alibabe]

Wahoo - it's summertime - perfect treat for a 95 degree day

3 1/2 weeks old

Too cute, love the colours

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
Khaki Campbell.

 

[FridayYet]

I "landscaped" the run with some leftover sod and a dustbath area. In the corner, I dug out the clay & gravel and replaced it with a mixture of fine dirt, sand, and wood ashes. They love it!



Ashdoes, I hope you get your legbars soon. They are so curious and funny! I got mine from Phage in San Diego.

 

[Alibabe]

Khaki Campbell.

aww, how wonderful, good luck with the hatch, hope all goes well, can't wait to see pics in a few weeks time

 

[NanaLynn]

Wow, so many posts, I finally got caught up.

Thanks Mumsy for educating all of us about the balloon chicken, so sorry you went through that. The silkies are cute little poof balls too.

Everyone else with all the chicks and duck pictures, those are great, I love seeing all the different breeds and it is so neat to see a chicken with baby ducklings.

Someone mentioned about using the trigger cups for watering the chickens. I learned that they eventually catch on, but in my case it wasn't until they were around 12 weeks old before they started getting the trigger to work properly. I was so frustrated with it that I gave up with the cups on a bucket and just made a waterer with the bucket flipped over into a pan. I left the cup waterer in the garden where they free range and they just started using it on their own. Maybe their beaks are too small when they are young to do the trigger? Or maybe they're not too bright when they are little? Anyway all of my almost 16 week old chicks use the cups now and I took out the other water bucket. Now I have six almost 5 week old chicks that need to learn how to use it too, they have their separate chick water dish right now.

Integration: My chicks are successfully in with the bigger chickens now. They still have a brooder they can go into at night and get away from the big chickens. I added a separate roost for them in the coop and they are using it at night now. At first the big girls would not let them, but they have used it the past 2 nights, so I should be able to move the brooder out of the coop soon. They have an area in the run with their food and water that only they can get to. Those big girls still enjoying chasing them. I let the little ones out to free range too and they do until the big girls decide to chase them back in the coop or run. I'm trying to just let them be chickens and so far no blood or feather loss.

Covered Feeder: LoanW, thanks for the covered feeder pictures and info. One of these days I may get around to making one. I'm glad it was also posted elsewhere so I can come back to it, if I ever have time. Crazy work week!