[The Shire] Our growing flock!

[newchickychick]

Little reds went to bed with full crops again so staying cautiously optimistic! One went NUTS over the scrambled eggs. The other didn't but wound up with a full crop later after I checked back, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The more sleepy one got another nightly drop of the poultry cell. I'm hoping they will both be perked up enough tomorrow to lay off of it. I could just only be seeing them when they're sleepy/have run around a bit, but them being so small still makes me nervous!

The Turken and 2 mystery chicks we got in the Turken bin are definitely a little noticeably larger than the Wyandottes now. :[ I am worried all 4 are cornish crosses. It's just a good note to self to get Turkens in the future from a hatchery if these guys are crosses, and be more wary of yellow chicks from TSC. Such a shame! There's still hope but man, it's amazing how big they're getting so fast. The good thing is, though, they're all very gentle with even the little reds. The Wyandottes too have so far been very sweet!

The phoenixes or yokohamas (not sure which they are!) are so skittish, but I had a good bonding session with one tonight. He was the last pasty butt of the group and he was *mad peeping* at me and shivering. Got a warm wet cloth and cleaned him up. He looked shocked and relieved that he could, well, poop without trouble. He cuddled into my hand as I dried him off and then went buckwild with zoomies once he was back in with the others.

Just going to keep taking it one day at a time and loving these little ones!

The little Splash who'd had the problem with the other Polish (eye-pecker; who is now reformed!) has tried out each and every other chick as a pillow. (Forgive the poor lighting - it was chickie bed time when I snapped these) It is so sweet! They all are spread out widely during the day, and it stays plenty warm at night, but every time one picks a spot to sleep, even if it's not even near being under the lamp, they all follow suit for a little cuddle puddle.

 

[newchickychick]

Caught the little reds eating and drinking this morning. Gave them one more early morning drop of the vitamins before that and am hoping they won't need it any more after this. Fingers crossed!
They just seem to be perkier today. Still just cautiously optimistic but they seemed quite wide awake when I went in there. Still so very small but hoping they're just a small breed. I think the only pic they match from the rares page are little exhibition standard Rhode Island Reds. Which, I thought they'd be about the size of the others at this point, but I've never had RIRs so I could be wrong.

Chickies have the happy zoomies again this morning though. The outside chicks FLEW out of their coop and were happy to greet us this morning. They also had their little zoomies and seem to really enjoy their temporary coop/run. We'll be making huge progress on their big coop/run this weekend. So excited!

 

[newchickychick]

Little reds are doing MUCH better, wow! One is still leaning on the very small side but they seem so much more energetic. I’m hopeful!

The four from the Turken bin… are huge. Definitely thinking cornish crosses but I’m also not an expert in chicken breeds so hoping I’m wrong!

Turken with two of the Wyandottes we got same day. Ugh. I’ve fallen so in love with them!
I’m very happy though that they and the other two we got with them (one I think might be a RIR cross?) are very gentle with the littlest chicks. I was worried they would bowl everyone over with zoomies but everyone seems to be getting along so well, even the bully Polish (named Brutus now!).

 

[newchickychick]

The little reds are finally starting to catch up! Still just kind of guessing they're the exhibition standard RIRs. Such sweeties!

There were Buff Orpingtons and Americanas at TSC today. Chicken math kicked in. Those CHEEKS on the Americanas. Precious!
The TSC worker also saw me eyeing a chick that was in the RIR bin and is most certainly not a RIR. He "forgot" to ring it up and told me to tell him what the little bab grows up to be.

He did say at least their store has a new supplier and was the issue behind the Cornish Cross chicks. He said he's sent up several complaints every time a customer gets in something that was mislabeled from the new supplier and is trying to fight to either get them to label things correctly or to not use them as a supplier any more. Our local store is fantastic and the regular employees really care about their chicks but also making sure customers get what they pay for/are expecting. It was a super refreshing visit! He apologized profusely about the Turkens as he knew I had my heart set on some for our flock and offered to make it right. I told him the gesture was enough and we're just happy they care about both the chicks and the customers. It does stink as I'm LOVING these suckers, but we'll get Turkens one day from a hatchery that we know won't send us cornish crosses. And we'll just stay away from very bright yellow chicks at TSC while they've got this supplier. All the Americanas and Buff Orpingtons were labeled as premium pullets but... we'll see.

I was always so scared to finally jump into chickens because I expected a total fiasco (what can go wrong will go wrong, etc). The fact that our big chicks are nearly 7 weeks old and doing great, as well as all these babies doing well (outside of our 2 total FTTs), I'm very grateful! Looking forward to many, many years of well-loved chicken pets.

 

[newchickychick]

Who is this? Or, what is this? I’ll get better pics outside of the red lighting in a while, but this little baby was in with the black sex links and… just didn’t look like any photos I had found of black sex links. It’s got a total white/pale yellow “bald face” pattern and is stark black with some black wash on its legs and I think more pinkish legs than stark yellow. Well, I do love a good mystery chicken. I assume just a funky looking sex link or maybe some type of egger.

 

[newchickychick]

They are all getting along like old chums! The 2 week olds seem very pleased with themselves when the new chicks join them in activities. Chick zoomies everywhere!
Here’s our newest mystery that has me befuddled. This was the one in the black sex link bin. And I’m very new to chicken breeds, so is this just an unusual looking black sex link?

 

[newchickychick]

Uh oh, I’m in love. (Shocker!) This is one of the Americanas we bought as pullets (pleaaase be a pullet). She hopped right into my hand and chirped rather indignantly until I lifted her up to cuddle. After a few minutes of cuddling, she was satisfied and “let” me put her back down. A diva in training! Her eyebrows make her look a little angry.

 

[newchickychick]

How did I miss the red shoulder yokohamas on Cackle’s page? Pretty sure that’s what our little reds are!

After the Turken mixup, I’m nervous about the buff orpington chicks. I would be devastated if it’s another cornish cross situation. At least I’ll know within two weeks, but ugh. It’s made yellow chicks from TSC scary!

Sassy egger/Americana chick was trying to climb on top of one of the Turkens to sleep. The Turken looked a little confused but totally unbothered. I’m so happy they’re all getting along so well!

 

[newchickychick]

Chicken math hit HARD this week. In my defense, they were pullets vs straight runs on most of them. With over half of our first order being roos (thankfully one will have a home and not need to go to the freezer!), I felt it was absolutely necessary to guarantee we’ve got plenty of hens. I was doing us a favor. Right? Right?!

Prarie bluebell eggers, Calico princesses, and some more buff orps made it to the store! And subsequently, into our flock. The oldest chicks are now the itty bitty chickie welcoming committee, ESPECIALLY... Brutus the previous eye-pecker. Of all chicks! Brutus is the quickest one to check out the new chicks and guide them to the feeders/waterers, and always is surrounded by the littlest ones when it's nap/sleep time. So sweet! Brutus really has done a 180. I'm so happy!

I think it's helped that we've been adding in a handful of new chicks every so often since the oldest ones were a couple days old because they've been not just unbothered by new additions, but enthusiastic about them. We've cut off new additions for now though as 4 weeks from now, we're getting our next (and final for the year!) order from Cackle of... 20 more chicks. So that'll give us time to move our current batch outside to the big coop and then start the introductory month period with the older chickies and bringing them into the big coop with the others. The prefab coop will eventually be for Bantams, as we plan to expand it and reinforce it. But that's a next year, at least, project. But until then, we can use it as a temporary introductory pen and coop that'll be within the BIG run so it'll be easier to introduce without them being able to get at each other. (We will eventually build on another introductory coop and run so we won't need to use the garage for brooding any more. Plans, plans, plans!)

One of our three week old Cochins... is forming wattles. Uh oh. I think we're going to have to really look into a bachelor bungalow. I've drawn out a blueprint for a cool way to have them all nearby one another and far enough away from the females to where we could integrate new ones and swap out for breeding stock and have an introductory pen to where integration and re-integration would be easy. Thankfully there's no ordinances against roos where we're at because oof. Granted, we will not keep any that end up terrors, but it'd be nice to keep gentlemanly roos to keep genetics fresh every so often as well as not have to cull quite as many if we've got some really nice and interesting ones. Best part is - hubby loves the idea. He's more interested in roos and admiring their feathers, so he's on board for once our big coop is 100% complete soon!

I'm hoping to do a little photoshoot tomorrow but I'm sure it'll take lots of bribery to get everyone to sit still long enough to get good photos. It should be really warm outside, so the older chickies might get a quick trip out if it's super warm for their pics!

All in all, loving being a chicken parent. I know there'll be tons of tough and frustrating times, but the good ones will make it worth it.

 

[newchickychick]

May the records show that it was my husband this time who got chicks. We have our coop that we're moving the big chickies from to the BIG coop when it's done really soon, so that one's free for other chicks.
And naturally, being a pre-fab, we figured it would be wisest for it to be for Bantams and to add others to it to make one big... mini-town for Bantams.
He saw the Bantams, fell in love, and now we've got 12 little Bantam babies. We've got our work cut out for us!