The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Sally8]

Unless you like giving chickens baths, I would steer clear of white.

I just can't see you cooping them indoors. Doesn't seem like a thing you would do either!

Oh Gretta. You are so strange.

HOW ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

[aoxa]

At three weeks old these two still scream male to me as well. I was hoping the chick with the vaulted skull in the foreground would be female but all things look male to me. Big boy beaks, eyes, and feet. These chicks really lack good feathering on their feet. If they are boys they won't stay with me long. I really want to be wrong on at least one of these two chicks.

I think you are right on these two as well. I think their foot feathering is great for their age. Since I started FF the silkie feet (on chicks) have been getting less and less. I think they step in the food a bit and the feathers end up gunky and come off. Any chance that's what's going on here? Though these two look clean in comparison to mine.

HOW ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Thanks Sally!!

 

[TriangleMaster9]

Awww.. they're so cute!

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote: Mumsy, I know a few of the techniques, I was adding this to aoxa's FAQ list.

Melabella - congratulations on your first egg. It wasn't long ago that I was dancing and shouting.

For those of you that sell eggs, do you wash them? If so, with hot water? Only about half the time do I find perfect eggs that do not have something on them. Since I collect them 2x day, I wash them with hot water and use them first. I give eggs away but worry that I'm doing something wrong. 20 years ago I don't think I ever gave this much thought.

How accurate are the color charts that I view from my laptop or iPad? I have Black Copper Marans and EE's. I'd like to know how dark and how blue my eggs are. Like everyone else trying to have that very blue egg, I'd like to know how far off I am.

Mumsy - before I met my DH, he used to live in Enumclaw, WA for 21 yr and says that he misses it so much, especially with all the fishing and so much to do out there. He says it's very beautiful. (I told him he should see the chicken coops!). lol

I do not wash mine. My girls keep the nest boxes free of poo. Now when I chicken-sit my neighbors(like I am now) I do wash theirs. They are always covered in poo. A lot of his birds sleep in the communal nests.

Just getting back from a road trip... and catching up.

My news: Mom is out of the nest today w/baby. My husb has been checking on them all day since I've been gone. Mom just hunkers down on baby every once in awhile to keep it warm.

Would y'all w/experience expect that mom will go back to the next box for the night or just hunker down in the litter?

My broody always went back to the nest for the first week, then she started taking the chick up onto the top of the nest box(covered with ramp, the roost bar comes off that), but she never got to take the chick to sleep on the roost before the hawk attack. She will take the chick where she feels safest.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I am gonna try and get some pics of my DW's Silkies and see if you all judge boys and girls like we have.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just getting back from a road trip... and catching up.

My news: Mom is out of the nest today w/baby. My husb has been checking on them all day since I've been gone. Mom just hunkers down on baby every once in awhile to keep it warm.

Would y'all w/experience expect that mom will go back to the next box for the night or just hunker down in the litter?

PS: Where's Stony today?



Congrats!

I remember the first egg when it was hard to eat it! Wanted everyone to try some but it was still hard.... like I wanted to to frame it or something!

!

I'd sure love to learn this!!!!!! What about feather sexing...any luck w/that?



Yes...I and everyone I've spoken to is having the same problem. I'm hoping someone has notified the mods!


YAY!!!!!!

Road trip? what did you end up getting? I've been thinking about you all day.

some of mine take chicks back to nest box other take them into the main coop. you'll have to play detective at roost time.

 

[Sally8]

I went out to check for eggs and saw that the chickens finally came out. It was a warmer cold day. Still below breezing but bright.

 

[stonykill]

geez BYC doesn't send me updates for a few days .....lots of catching up to do....

 

[Mumsy]

My Silkie and BRIR chicks are on DL in the chick house and I put their FF in a covered chick feeder with the individual openings. It sits on a block of wood so they eat at chest level. I feed once a day and clean it each morning and fill it up. Their feet stay clean. I will certainly wait a good long while before making a final judgement on these guys. I have not raised this strain before and do not know what to expect.


These are my day old BRIR. The chick following my finger is my favorite. I have thought it a male since day three. I like this chicks spunk, intelligence, and dark color. Darker than the rest. Started to feather in first and still ahead of the other two that way.





These wing feathers seem male to me. Can't really say why. They just do.



This chick cracks me up! Struggle struggle struggle then complete surrender. Hah!


Another favorite is the 'Hello Kitty' chick. She hatched with deformed toes and I fixed them with bandaids. She is paler, and more docile. This chick seems female to me.



Hello Kitty chick day old.

Almost three weeks. Look at those perfect toes! I still think it's a female.



The wing feathers look different too. This chick is slower to feather out and is paler. Though that could be the strain not sex. I don't know for sure. I really hope this chick is female. I love love Bantam RIR and would like to breed them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

geez BYC doesn't send me updates for a few days .....lots of catching up to do....

I know I answered a post that was 2 days old.