The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Have to post some photos over here of the new boys. I also put these in the SFH thread but wanted "you guys" to see them too

They will be 19 weeks on Tuesday coming. I've had them here 2 weeks as of last Thursday; still in semi-quarantine. Neither are crowing. YET.



2 Boys.



Having some yogurt. Couldn't get close enough to get the "yogurt mustaches" and the yogurt strip on the Mahogany boy's comb






I wasn't able to get a really good photo of chocolate boy today but here's what I got.












Now THIS GUY, seems to always be ready for a photo-op.










Hey mom!!!!! Look at me!!!! I can FLY!!!!!!

 

[lalaland]

lalaland, my girls were consuming WAY less than normal for a while too. I ferment their feed and out of 5 girls that are older and all going through molts, they were not eating hardly at all. I would feed enough for five but they would consume barely enough for two! I usually put just a little bit of rolled barley and even less BOSS seeds in the ferment for visual stimulation (plus they're good for the birds) but that is what they would pick out. None of them ever had a full crop. So, I mixed up some pelleted feed for them with no whole grains at all and fermented it. It has taken a while but they are finally, between the 5 of them, starting to eat enough for 4 hens. So, I'm happy with that. I will continue to feed for 5 and hopefully they'll keep picking up the amount they eat.

We seem to do this every winter. Every single winter, my birds' feed consumption goes WAY down and I start jumping through hoops just to get them to eat. It's not even really cold here yet but once it gets cold, I'm going to want them to eat quite a lot so they can stay warm through the night.

Thats reassuring. I'm paying more attention than I normally do, and I haven't ever really worried about their feed intake before.

 

[lalaland]

Have to post some photos over here of the new boys. I also put these in the SFH thread but wanted "you guys" to see them too

They will be 19 weeks on Tuesday coming. I've had them here 2 weeks as of last Thursday; still in semi-quarantine. Neither are crowing. YET

Hey mom!!!!! Look at me!!!! I can FLY!!!!!!

Sue, they are just gorgeous. You got some stunning pics and I love the flying pic.

 

[hennible]

SFH? Sorry not familiar with the breed...they're beautiful. They look like speckled Sussex ( I think that's what I mean :/ )

 

[ronott1]

SFH? Sorry not familiar with the breed...they're beautiful. They look like speckled Sussex ( I think that's what I mean

)

They are Swedish Flower Hens and a land race breed. They can have a lot of different looks to them.

I am tempted by them but like the Pita Pintas and Basque hens too much so far to add them.

 

[hennible]

Lovely birds

 

[ronott1]

Have to post some photos over here of the new boys. I also put these in the SFH thread but wanted "you guys" to see them too

They will be 19 weeks on Tuesday coming. I've had them here 2 weeks as of last Thursday; still in semi-quarantine. Neither are crowing. YET.



2 Boys.



Having some yogurt. Couldn't get close enough to get the "yogurt mustaches" and the yogurt strip on the Mahogany boy's comb






I wasn't able to get a really good photo of chocolate boy today but here's what I got.












Now THIS GUY, seems to always be ready for a photo-op.










Hey mom!!!!! Look at me!!!! I can FLY!!!!!!

They look very nice!

Thanks for posting pictures of them here.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@ronott1

I know some folks that have very nice birds that sell hatching eggs very reasonably. I'll probably have some next spring myself.

I don't have much luck with shipped eggs as I don't own an incubator and have, so far, just used broodys. When they're shipped I think they do better in an incubator where they can be kept upright.


To get my 3 pullets from this spring, I drove and met one of the gals half way. (about a 4 hour drive) to pick up day old chicks. I prefer not shipping!

These are the new pullets from that drive. As you can see, I prefer the dark birds. The "brown" one is not my favorite but I wanted 3. Thankfully they all turned out to be ladies

These photos are at 22 weeks I think.




This girl still has very few white flowers. I hear that they can completely change appearance after first molt. So far I'm not that excited with her coloring.







This is Queen Emma. She'll be 2 yo on New Year's Eve this year. I really like her coloring too...this is more like what the girl above should look like with more white flowers.

 

[hennible]

That's funny, I like your least favourite the best... I'll take her off your hands

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lalaland

Thanks! I LOVE that photo too. I just happened to have the "better" camera and be ready at the right time. A fluke for me ! With my former roo, I tried to get photos like that purposefully over and over to no avail.

And...
A SFH FYI (love these acronyms)
They come either in crested or non crested. My former roo was quite nice but he was crested. I prefer non-crested birds and do not want to breed crested so I purposefully sought out non-crested. "Mister" with the crest went to live at a new home this summer.