The setting 8/12 raising thread

[dwegg]

Discover egg...I like how your roo is on pink and hen on blue! Can't wait to see them all grown...pretty colors.

Melissa...I think I am in love with Bebe! So darn cute...

We are out in the sun again today and having a ball sitting under the tree...sitting in the sun was too hot for the chicks so we moved. They really do love it outside...

Here is their new big brooder in the walkout basement...I took the top off our dogs travel crate and joined the ends together so they have a lot of room to grow in.

This was the 2 week brooder...

 

[discoveregg]

Quote:
Are the chicks eating the grass outside yet? I've never started giving my chicks anything else but starter feed this young...I assume you're just throwing in some chick gravel for them?
It's been too hot here to let my fuzzy butts outside yet. It's supposed to cool down later this week though

I love the pics of your chicks on the grass!

 

[dwegg]

yes the chicks are eating the grass and little bits and pieces they find but they also have some play sand which they love to eat and that is acting like grit for them at the moment till they are bigger. I also give them scrambled egg which they have just started to recognize as food.

Yesterday while sitting on the grass a large spider crawled across the grass and they all grabbed it but it was rather large (almost half the size of them) and it freaked me out and I thought it might fight back and hurt them so i quickly grabbed it off them...lol They were exhausted when i put them to bed in the afternoon.

 

[dwegg]

Hey guys...I just bid on 12 silkie eggs

am I crazy? I haven't told DH as he is away for the week for work... They are from someone here in GA so if I win I will drive 2 hrs on wed and pick them up..

 

[farmgirlforever18]

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yeah!!! SILKIES and no you are not crazy

ive got quail due this weekend and i found someone 2 hrs from me with lavender orps

. and i have a few roosters they dont like it when i pick up the others lol

 

[chickee]

Quote:
How exciting!

I have been eyeballing those silkie eggs myself

I would be buying more eggs but I am running out of room to grow out my chicks

I am not even sure where I will put the chicks that are in the incubator now when they hatch

Your chicks are so cute

Boy are they growing fast! Loved the pictures!

 

[chickee]

Here are some pictures I took of my chicks today at 1 week, 2 days old. I am pretty sure both splashes are roosters by their attitude and the shape of the smaller ones head. I will hope the 2 blues are pullets

 

[chickee]

Quote:
Awwww

I love the fuzzy faces! I have mostly Ameraucanas and EEs and they are so darling as chicks!

 

[dwegg]

Thanks guys for telling me I'm not crazy...

but i am so worried about telling my partner that we have MORE eggs to hatch... we have the room for at least a couple more...I only plan on keeping 2-3 of the ameraucanas and then 2 of these silkies...so not going overboard with numbers!!! I have a whole small coop that noone uses...this will be for the ameraucanas to grow up in till they can be let out with the big girls...then the silkies can go in there.

here is the little coop next to the big coop...but my girls spend all day with the coop/run doors open so they can come and go as they please around the garden...you can see the little coop to the left of the big coop in these pictures

This is the little coop for growing up in...I put a new sand floor in on the weekend...the roof is hinged so I can stand up in it to clean it ect.

lol..this is all to reassure myself that it will be ok...

 

[chickee]

What a great looking setup!

I just put up a 10 x 10 covered dog kennel to grow out my roosters in but I have to have electric wire all around the tops of the pens and kennel to keep our local Bobcat from helping itself to a chicken dinner. The roosters were in the kennel for the first time last night and I heard a couple of great horned owls hooting this morning down there and it made me real nervous!!

My friend had an owl reach through the kennel wire and kill 3 of her bantams, but couldn't pull them through the wire.