The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

Well, after two full days of the chicks terrorizing the yard they decided not to come out of the coop today. No matter how much Tina tried to get the to cme out. :idunno She kept going back in and sitting with them and then run outside and call to them but no dice....
 
scott, that is really strange - wonder why the chicks wouldn't follow mama??

I came home worried about the week old chicks and the broody being with the two other adult hens......and found the nest box empty, the roosts empty, and all three hens (broody and the other two sulmtalers] cuddled up in the corner on the floor in the hay. Isn't that funny? and one of the other sulmtaler hens, not mama, was fluffed up and making broody noises.

guess I can quit worrying that the hens will bother the chicks. Glad they are all sharing the coop just fine. hope it continues. At some point, I'm going to have to move the 6 chicks to the main coop and I am not looking forward to that. This little coop is just about right for 3 or 4 hens, and 6 + 3= trouble in that space.
 
A few pics from yesterday of my chickens.





















These are the teens and preteens.

Your little Naked one is sure growing. Do you have much trouble with him? Just keep him in shade? Cute
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Kassaundra the chick picks are beautiful. Rudy looks like he has grown some. :)

6 am this morning Lucy was pacing in the old run. I went to grab her and she ran out. We played tag for 10 minutes before I could get her out in the regular run. By the time I went in the house to get a marker to mark the hatching eggs she was back in the he nesting box growling. So I put the eggs under her and left for work. When I got home layer she was still sitting tight & must of convicted Sophie that she had really cool eggs & needed to keep her company.

Later I tried to get the non hatching eggs out & found a cracked hatching egg. I removed it & let the 2 settle back down. Later I tried to stick grass clipping in there to give the eggs more padding (Lucy is somehow still knocking shaving out even with the flat wood covering the slats) and find more other girls eggs and found another broken hatching egg. Lucy had yolk on her stomach I tried to wipe off with grass. My mom said she would come over so I could pick up the girls while someone put grass under the eggs. I then thought of putting a towel down first, then grass then the eggs. I removed Sophie, my mom held her while I carefully took the eggs out, put a folded towel down, grass clippings then the eggs. I put Sophie back in on top of her eggs, took Lucy out & repeated the process. I found 2 more regular eggs as well. Lucy and Sophie stayed calm & settled back in. It's cute to see them huddled up next to each other covering eggs. I never knew the hens tucked them up under their wings as well, I plan on no more moving of either of them and hope the other girls lay in nan other nesting box I put in. I know Edie worms herself between whoever is in the nesting box but perhaps with 2 broodies in there that will stop.

I'm curious. Sophie laid an egg today. Will she keep laying for a couple more days to add to her clutch? If I remember right Lucy laid for about 3'or 4 days before she stopped.

And @RedRidge a question for you. Do you feed chick feed or grower when you have chicks? Or do you tweak your whole grains for them to eat? I need to have food for the chicks ready so if they hatch after I leave it's all set for my friend chick sitting.
 
The naked chick has two scaless genes. It is not from the naked neck genes at all and can occur in any breed of chickens. It was a spontaneous mutation first found in New Hampshire breed of chickens in California in the 1950's. It is a recessive gene so requires both parents to be carriers. Rudy is my first naked chick so it is a learning curve for me.
 
Kassaundra the chick picks are beautiful. Rudy looks like he has grown some.
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6 am this morning Lucy was pacing in the old run. I went to grab her and she ran out. We played tag for 10 minutes before I could get her out in the regular run. By the time I went in the house to get a marker to mark the hatching eggs she was back in the he nesting box growling. So I put the eggs under her and left for work. When I got home layer she was still sitting tight & must of convicted Sophie that she had really cool eggs & needed to keep her company.

Later I tried to get the non hatching eggs out & found a cracked hatching egg. I removed it & let the 2 settle back down. Later I tried to stick grass clipping in there to give the eggs more padding (Lucy is somehow still knocking shaving out even with the flat wood covering the slats) and find more other girls eggs and found another broken hatching egg. Lucy had yolk on her stomach I tried to wipe off with grass. My mom said she would come over so I could pick up the girls while someone put grass under the eggs. I then thought of putting a towel down first, then grass then the eggs. I removed Sophie, my mom held her while I carefully took the eggs out, put a folded towel down, grass clippings then the eggs. I put Sophie back in on top of her eggs, took Lucy out & repeated the process. I found 2 more regular eggs as well. Lucy and Sophie stayed calm & settled back in. It's cute to see them huddled up next to each other covering eggs. I never knew the hens tucked them up under their wings as well, I plan on no more moving of either of them and hope the other girls lay in nan other nesting box I put in. I know Edie worms herself between whoever is in the nesting box but perhaps with 2 broodies in there that will stop.

I'm curious. Sophie laid an egg today. Will she keep laying for a couple more days to add to her clutch? If I remember right Lucy laid for about 3'or 4 days before she stopped.

And @RedRidge a question for you. Do you feed chick feed or grower when you have chicks? Or do you tweak your whole grains for them to eat? I need to have food for the chicks ready so if they hatch after I leave it's all set for my friend chick sitting.
 

Oh my, that would be AWESOME a TARDIS coop!!!!!!!

Just watched the episode w/ one of my many favorite quotes "I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a time lord and ran away."
 

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