[The Shire] Our growing flock!

[newchickychick]

"Moving Through Network

In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving On Time"

Now I'm nervous. Does "on time" mean Monday as projected (which would be 5 days of shipping...)? Or tomorrow like it usually is? My sweet little babies. Praying they'll make it here tomorrow morning or at least Saturday!

 

[newchickychick]

"Moving Through Network

In Transit to Next Facility, Arriving On Time"

Now I'm nervous. Does "on time" mean Monday as projected (which would be 5 days of shipping...)? Or tomorrow like it usually is? My sweet little babies. Praying they'll make it here tomorrow morning or at least Saturday!

Spoke too soon. BABIES ARE THERE. I’ll get the call soon! I’m so thankful. I’ve got an extra waterer in with the Bantams so they’ve got ample room and two good waterers to drink from after their long journey. I’m so excited to see what we got! But I’ll be happy with any chickies that are alive and well.

 

[newchickychick]

Possible wry neck in one silkie? RUNNING to get 400 iu caps of vitamin e. Will mix it in with egg yolks and syringe feed

 

[newchickychick]

Cautiously optimistic. Weebles has had a good appetite all day. I’m worried I didn’t get his crop quite full enough but definitely got enough hydration and vitamins in there as well as the e + selenium and b complex. Really hoping I can help him pull through. I already got more b tablets crushed and set aside in little baggies for the next couple days worth so it’s grab and go quick, especially in the mornings. He didn’t much care for the mash at all so I may stick with the yolk more heavily tomorrow but get the feed into a finer powder to mix in with it. With how far back he bends, I’m sure it’s unpleasant to try to navigate eating it. So I’ll just have to make the yolk as nutritious as possible for the first bit until he’s steady enough to handle the mash. Or maybe I’ll add water to it so it’s not just the yolk and food and make sure the food is a lot more crushed. Thankfully getting the selenium and e in him was no issue at all. I just got him really hydrated and as much food as I could just in case I fall asleep.

The other babies have now created a second diggy diggy hole crew. Some of the new babies, Silkies and standards alike, have joined their Bantam brethren in their task to find the center of the earth. It’s a shame a cloth pool bottom stands in their way. One of the Silkies is just extra ridiculously puffy. I love them! I THINK one might be a Splash, two are black, one is buff, and the last one is definitely probably white. So a really nice variety with those too!

 

[newchickychick]

Working hard to give Weebles the care it needs. I'm so worried I won't do everything right. I don't want to lose this sweet bean!
Hubby's fallen in love with it too, and is going to watch me do its vitamin/care regimen this evening so he can learn. I'm really happy! I'm about to give him another egg yolk and the vitamin e + selenium.

We definitely got a nice variety of Silkies though (2 black, I think 1 Splash, 1 White, and 1 Buff) and the rare breed assortment was really nice too!

I've definitely discovered I have a thing for EEs/Americanas. THOSE CHEEKS. The random surprise patterns! I really hope most are indeed pullets as they were all supposedly sexed pullets/premium pullets. It'll be quite impossible to know who's laying what with so many chickens though. Oops. But we're certainly due for a colorful basket.

 

[newchickychick]

We lost Weebles last night and I’m heartbroken. He declined SO fast yesterday. I’m so worried I did something wrong. Ugh. We have so many healthy and happy chicks but I feel like that’s just luck and I’ve been doing poorly at catching unwell chicks in time or treating them properly. Everyone else in the Bantam brooder is doing great though.

One of the cochins got a stick up its you know where and was pecking at others. It plucked a few spots raw on three of our Sapphire Gems (some of our youngest that were in with the older littles). They weren’t BLEEDING at all thankfully but freshly growing molt feathers had been plucked it looks like.

The babies were put in with the Bantams (thankfully they’re not terribly much bigger than the oldest Bantams at all) and immediately took to their new friends. I’ve been observing the past few hours straight JUST to be sure. There’s no blood at all on them (otherwise I would have completely separated) but I put some vetricyn (spelling?) on the wounds and a dab of plain neosporin to get them clean and soothed. The babies have paid no mind to the raw spots on the gems and the gems in fact have taken to helping the diggy diggy hole crews.

Cochin in timeout got a little outside time in hopes it would help cool his jets. I’m sure everyone is antsy for lots more room and it looks like it’s a he - he’s had a pink comb and wattles for a whole week despite barely being 5 weeks, so he may just be moody. He got a supervised “one chance or back to your dog crate to sleep separately” for a few hours while I was also watching the gems. He has completely settled down and seems less anxious. Maybe it was just an off day - who knows.

He looked dumbfounded by the outside. I really can’t wait to get the chicks into the big coop so they can enjoy so much freedom. We ordered our windows to help additionally with ventilation on top of our in progress soffits for the roof. We left enough space to just pop the windows in. I can’t wait to show pics and videos when we unveil the full thing and release the chickens.

The little aggressor in question with some supervised outside time. Why is it always our Gold Laceds?

 

[thistlewick]

How old are the ones pecking? Overcrowded brooders can cause that

I had that issue earlier this year with my set of teens. 17 chicks in 36 square feet was too much, even at 5-6 weeks old

I let them out into the big wide world, pecking stopped.

 

[newchickychick]

How old are the ones pecking? Overcrowded brooders can cause that

I had that issue earlier this year with my set of teens. 17 chicks in 36 square feet was too much, even at 5-6 weeks old

I let them out into the big wide world, pecking stopped.

Yes, we’re going to start field trips tomorrow! I think it’ll help too. I think they’re getting really bored which is more than fair… We’re going to build a HUGE brooder (well, decently big - 10 x 10 and 5 feet tall) in our garage this winter for all future chickie batches. One with a removable partition in case of injury or bad behavior, and we will still have our little brooder for baby babies in case of illness and needing to be kept away from the others.

The only one pecking is 5 weeks. We should have the coop finished SOON soon so they won’t have hit 6 weeks thankfully. It’s warmer here but we had some stragglers that are nearly 4 weeks so that way they can stick together.
But he’s always been a little feisty. And there was only one small spot each on the three, and was not bloody at all at least. I’m thankful it wasn’t worse and the temp fix seems to be working great.
The trip outside seemed to totally 180 him. So I’m going to have to transport like 20 chicks outside in and out the next few days until coop’s finished. It is cutting it pretty close with 50 square feet in the brooder, bah. We had more space but the “cover” didn’t work great for the pools so we tried a tent. No escapes at least but ugh. We’re in the “figuring it out” stage.

 

[newchickychick]

Everyone was in ship shape today. We did separate the bigger chicks into two groups so we’re planning on doing lots of outdoor field trips while we’re outside wrapping up the coop. That way they’re only separated for a couple hours tops for bed and hopefully won’t need any reintegration being 5 weeks and having spent all that time together save today and those few hours a day for the next few. Ugh.

Tomorrow will be the roost and nesting box building start days, hopefully finished then or day after. My grandfather passed away not too long ago and his service is this week, so there was quite a bit going on while we were mourning and trying to make arrangements that put a hold on building. He absolutely loved hearing about our chickens when I went to take care of him every day, so I look forward to getting to put so much love into finishing their coop and run and getting to see them run around now that things are starting to feel a little more calm.

 

[newchickychick]

The Polish’s head peck is healing up VERY nicely! It was JUST the Cochin cockerel being a jerk. No one else has had any issues since we moved him in with the bigger guys separately. I’m sure he’s just antsy to be in his big digs but we're definitely going to keep a close eye out even when they get to the big coop in case it’s poor behavior and not “I want to be out of this garage!” It’s working much better since they are all the biggest, but can still see the others and will get to interact every day for field trips. (Man, that’s a lot of birds to take in and out each day but it will be worth it )
Everyone was so happy and active this morning. It was such a relief! Man these Bantams are cute. Our Silkies from Cackle are SO darn fluffy. One of our Bantams too (I think Porcelain D’uccle) is like the size of a quarter. It is so curious and hyper and sweet! But it’s so funny seeing something so tiny zoom so fast across the brooder.

We’re out of feed. Again! So trip to TSC today. They usually don’t have new birds on Tuesday so it’ll be a good day to take my time to get more feed, more bedding, make sure I’ve got all first aid supplies I needed from there, and get some more hardware cloth as we prepare to build the run.

We’re going to have a big “unleashing the chickens” party once the coop is 100%. It will probably be this weekend as the funeral is Thursday and we will likely not get much work done that day even though we’re in the very final countdown part. Just the roof and the roosting bars/nesting boxes build… We got this! That will give us a week to put up the run while they’re getting used to their new digs. We did run and coop at once for our older babies and putting them in every day got to be a bit of a task. With this batch having more chicks, it’ll be much easier for us to start them in the coop.

Then it’s onto Bantam coop build! It’ll be much smaller, as a 10 x 10, so we’ve definitely got the time to build that before the babies are ready for the big coop. THEN it’ll be introductory coop build! That’ll be a 10 x 10 with the run attached to the big main one so it’ll be a lot easier to integrate new chickens when the need arises that will be comfy for new clucks. We’ve been planning to build a BIG (well, I think it’s big?) garage brooder that’s 10 x 10 for future years’ babies with a really good lid. I’m hoping some of our Silkies end up hens and good broodies so we can let the flock raise them, but have the brooder there in case of injury or abandonment or no one being broody when we have new chicks.

We also plan to build a potential bachelor pad on the other side of our creek. It’s easily visible from our kitchen and would be a quick jog to get to if they were ever in need of quick assistance. Not much further than our big coop is, just on a different side of the house. We figured if we get extra well mannered roos it would be nice to guarantee we can house them if we can’t find them homes to give away to, and in case of rotating roos for breeding. If any of our roos somehow tended to make unhealthy babies, we would rather keep him where he can’t make babies but not have to process him if it’s just a making babies issue. So many plans! But sitting on 29 acres makes it a lot easier to be able to chip away at these plans and not have to worry about having enough room.

Gracious, I think that’s all! Quite ambitious I’m sure, but the only “hop to it”s are the big run and cochin big coop and run. If we hadn’t had a bananas amount of rain, the coop and run would have been done by now. We’re looking into how to divert flooding from the areas as everything is on a flat part near the bottom of huge hills. It’s one reason we built our coop on a bit of a raised foundation though, to be sure the rain wouldn’t hurt the bottom of the coop with how much rain tends to pool up down here.

Rambling over, time to get coffee! I go to take care of my grandmother every morning, so I can do my TSC run on the way back. Kitty tax of Love Bug, the most angelic of babies who is not happy unless she’s curled up against me.