The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

Pictures of my new baby (well... today is my son's 18th birthday, so his new baby... who apparently enjoys video games...)





Going... going...


Gone!


Oh - and this is the hatching basket I made to keep certain eggs separate - left over hardware cloth that goes up to the top of the 'bator. I cut out areas for the heat element and for the thermostat box. It works great! No escapees so far.

 

[Mumsy]

Those dark eggs are gorgeous. I can't even imagine trying to candle those.

The sleepy new Silkie is gorgeous as well BDM. Great job on that hatching basket too. I need to figure out how to make lids for mine.

First pictures of the Catdance babies that hatched yesterday and this morning. Another Lavender chick zipped and hatched and I didn't even see it pip! I will leave it in the bator for a while until the rest of the eggs have a chance to do something.


Now...This is what I'm talking about! Worth the wait.










The first to pip took the longest to hatch so far and has the curled toes. I've gotten the Hello Kitty bandaid on right away. The red food coloring got all over baby. Sweet litte mug.



The color difference in the two Blue Splash threw me.

Same with the two Partridge. I love the one on the right. So striking.




The only colors I don't have yet to hatch are Black and Buff. Both pipped but no action yet.
If I got the colors mixed up on any of these, the jokes on me. Hah! I'm thrilled to have them and will do my best to keep them safe and thriving.

 

[Bulldogma]

Those dark eggs are gorgeous. I can't even imagine trying to candle those.

The sleepy new Silkie is gorgeous as well BDM. Great job on that hatching basket too. I need to figure out how to make lids for mine.

First pictures of the Catdance babies that hatched yesterday and this morning. Another Lavender chick zipped and hatched and I didn't even see it pip! I will leave it in the bator for a while until the rest of the eggs have a chance to do something.


Now...This is what I'm talking about! Worth the wait.










The first to pip took the longest to hatch so far and has the curled toes. I've gotten the Hello Kitty bandaid on right away. The red food coloring got all over baby. Sweet litte mug.



The color difference in the two Blue Splash threw me.

Same with the two Partridge. I love the one on the right. So striking.




The only colors I don't have yet to hatch are Black and Buff. Both pipped but no action yet.
If I got the colors mixed up on any of these, the jokes on me. Hah! I'm thrilled to have them and will do my best to keep them safe and thriving.

Normally I would delete all the photos before telling you how beautiful your chicks are... but these babies are just too darn beautiful to delete!!! Oh Mumsy - I'm so happy for you! They are beautiful!!!

 

[Mumsy]

Normally I would delete all the photos before telling you how beautiful your chicks are... but these babies are just too darn beautiful to delete!!! Oh Mumsy - I'm so happy for you! They are beautiful!!!

Thank you. Truly. I get a bit teary when I think about how hard it was with Binkus and Dumpling. Maybe all the sleep deprivation is catching up with me. But...I have dreamed about babies like this. Spent countless hours online just staring and wishing at other peoples chicks. I am just so darn grateful right now.

 

[TeriO]

Beautiful babies. I couldn't wait to see pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[countrygirl74]

Thank you. Truly. I get a bit teary when I think about how hard it was with Binkus and Dumpling. Maybe all the sleep deprivation is catching up with me. But...I have dreamed about babies like this. Spent countless hours online just staring and wishing at other peoples chicks. I am just so darn grateful right now.

So happy for you that you can take joy in these little ones!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

lovely chicks.

 

[Pozees]

Now...This is what I'm talking about! Worth the wait.

The only colors I don't have yet to hatch are Black and Buff. Both pipped but no action yet.
If I got the colors mixed up on any of these, the jokes on me. Hah! I'm thrilled to have them and will do my best to keep them safe and thriving.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

thought about you today Mumsy - I went to the Monroe Poultry show. Had a lot of fun looking at tons of different chickens - got some pics - It'll be a couple of days before I can see if I can upload a couple for you all - -busy day tomorrow. Homeowner Assc community road work & St Paddy's party for everyone at our house! - green beer & green pop of course - have green cookies to bake & made green popcorn tonight.

so - learned something at the poultry show today - thought I'd share my - hmm - outrage is a little strong - but - here goes.

looking at the chicks for sale & I see 3 of an uncommon breed that I've been looking for --- not silkies - raised by someone in my area (omitting the telling details here so as to not disparage someone who's not here to defend themselves). -- - one roo, two hens - or more likely pullets as they seemed a little small.

I watched them for awhile & the rooster was doing this head tick thing. It stood out so I looked for some time & saw that it would open its beak – I was waiting for a crow – but it just gaped. I didn’t see someone – or at least anyone that appeared to be the person who owned them. so I wandered around until I found a chicken person who wasn’t busy (she was selling poultry stuff & araucanas) – I told her I was new to chickens & what did it imply if a chicken was shaking its head. She said ‘if it’s a silkie… I said no a large fowl – she said then that indicates an upper respiratory infection, especially if they are gaping. Your instincts are right. NEVER buy a bird with those symptoms & NEVER buy a bird that is in the vicinity of one that is behaving in that manner. When you do buy to add to your own flock, quarantine them for at least 6 weeks to observe if they have anything. In fact when I take my birds home from a show I quarantine them for 6 weeks to make sure they haven’t picked anything up. And yes those of us who show, do end up with birds that have become infected at shows. In fact I have known people who have had their whole flock decimated by bringing home illnesses from shows, not quarantining their birds and having it spread to their entire flock”

So this person, who sells ‘show’ chickens, several breeds – brought a SICK chicken to a show – exposed other peoples birds to a sick bird & was trying to SELL it! It was in a pen right next to 4 really beautiful banty somethings that someone else had sold to someone –so they are now exposed to whatever that rooster has. I showed up at the beginning of the show – so not like they’d been there a week & it just came down with something. They had to have known – if I, a novice, could see something wasn’t right…

So tell me what I'm missing - why would the show people not kick this bird out? Let me say this was not an occasional tick - this was several times a minute, all the time that I watched. & the gaping was distressing to me to watch. I won't be going to this farm to buy birds - the araucana lady said - buy his fertile eggs & incubate - but his show chickens didn't look that impressive to me. I'd rather buy feed store chicks... The possibly sick roo was in the for sale area - not the show area, else I would think the judges who were wandering thru the show area would have seen it & done something???

It was just distressing - but I learned something today - & quarantine is burned into my brain. Chatted with Araucana lady for awhile about closed flocks, & etc - liked her & her advice. She's a BYC person too.

I was there yesterday too, didn't spend much time in the selling area. If that trio had been in the judging are they would have been removed. I saw the judge have 2 birds removed for legmites. It is sad that they would try and sell obvious unhealthy birds. And I know those birds were mostly not cheap either.

 

[Sally8]

Bulldogma, what a beautiful Silkie. What warms my heart even more is to see an older child love them too. Thanks for showing the pic's.

Mumsy -I can't believe 21 days has already gone by! They are so cute. I'm glad things are going well with the hatch. Keep the pic's coming.

How young is too young to give yogurt to chicks?