- Jul 11, 2016
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We had a very weird situation happen and I would love to have help identifying these chicks if you all would be willing.
Backstory:
We have a neighbor across the street here in TN that seems to love acquiring animals but not so much the effort of taking proper care of them. He’s had animal control called on him 2-3 times since we have known him (8 years) but they’ve done nothing. This past spring he decided to raise a flock of chickens and guineas.
Since they were all free range, the guineas traveled a radius from their home that included our property. The chickens also traveled across the road onto part of our 2 acres, but not as far as the guineas did. Over time, his flocks dwindled and I am not sure he has any left other than 1 chicken and 1 guinea, both of whom have traveled up our hill and now live together on our property full-time free-ranging near the house.
We have chickens already so the chicken has been hanging around our flock if they are by the house, but won’t be enticed up to the chicken coop further up the hill. We have not tried, but funnily enough one of our roosters befriended her and each morning when they were let out of the coop to free range, he would head down to the house to find her and try to get her to come up to the coop with him. She’d follow him half way, then turn and run back to the house. He’d attempt this a few times a day. Never was successful.
We left for vacation and when we came back we didn’t see her for a couple of days. Then we saw her sporadically, but not like before. Then suddenly a week after vacation, she came out from under the shed and low and behold she had 15 little chickens follow her!!! We hurriedly built her a coop to help her keep her chicks safe (took us just over a week, but she did a great job keeping them safe until then) and are currently working on a run for them to be back pecking on the ground again. We also had a half a bag of chick feed we were no longer needing that we let her and her babies have as desired. We've had a variety of chickens over time, but never a mystery brood like this. My son, who had befriended her before all this happened and named her Little Guy, is taking on their loving care and would like help with the breeds (and sexes, if possible — How many roosters should I expect out of 15 chicks? ~50/50? Hopefully less
). They are all currently about 4 weeks old, but I will include pictures of them younger, also. They were fully full-ranged when younger and now are strictly cooped (until we get their run finished). The coop is only half roofed so they can have half open to air (but wire protected), but has a floor since it will eventually be fully roofed once the run is completed; the pictures aren’t great, but the best I can do with the circumstances as they are.
Parents:
“Little Guy”/Mom: We are assuming maybe Brown Leghorn, but since she wasn’t ours to begin with, we aren’t sure if that’s right or if she is even a full breed.
“Mr. Darcy”/Dad?: We had 3 roos at the time (one was mostly enclosed in a separate enclosure trying to introduce to the flock), but the only one we saw anywhere near her was Mr. Darcy, our Speckled Sussex, that we bought and raised from day-old. He would try to find her and lead her to the rest of the flock. (Other possible dads would be a Golden Comet (the one separated for most of the time) and, I believe, a Light Brahma?–adopted from another neighbor, but we never saw them anywhere near her.)
Chicks:
The only one he’s named so far is “Bear”. She is mostly brown and the only one of her coloring in this brood. Maybe brown leghorn (or whatever mom is)?
We have one yellow/tan colored chick. Starting to get some light gray/silver tips to her feathers as she has gotten older. We really have no idea on this one. We thought something buff like a leghorn or orpington, but the gray that's coming in is confusing us.
Two black chicks with a white dot on their head and white bottoms. One of which (fully black and white) has a shorter tail, stubbier wings, and thicker legs. Roo maybe? The other has turned more of a brown color as she has aged. These are a little camera shy so the picture options aren't great as itty bitties. The one is by the mother's head in both pictures (he still sticks by her even today at 4 weeks and seems to get picked on here and there and is the black and white older chick picture, too.). We are thinking Dominique or barred rock? The other is at the top of the screen in the first picture and towards the top and furthest to the left in the other. Not sure about her, speckled something?
The bulk of them (10) are what we call the chipmunk striped chicks. At 4 weeks old they are developing a bit of a speckled look… maybe taking after their daddy? I am not sure about the gender split. They all developed tails and wings at the same rate. Legs all seem to be the same size. Their patterning all looks pretty much the same, but their combs might have a slightly different rate of development. Leaning toward speckled sussex on these guys, maybe?
There is one chipmunk striped that is a white background color rather than the brown/tan of the bulk of them. Compared to all the other chicks this one has short wings and tail. Maybe breed qualities or gender related? Have no idea what she's going to look like.
Thank you in advance for all your help with this. They are all well loved and cared for for now. If there are too many roosters we may have to re-home some? Our other flock has 20 hens and they will all free range together eventually so we could keep some, but not too many depending on how many hens end up in this flock. Advice or thoughts on that are also appreciated. I'll post elsewhere about the Guinea.
Backstory:
We have a neighbor across the street here in TN that seems to love acquiring animals but not so much the effort of taking proper care of them. He’s had animal control called on him 2-3 times since we have known him (8 years) but they’ve done nothing. This past spring he decided to raise a flock of chickens and guineas.
Since they were all free range, the guineas traveled a radius from their home that included our property. The chickens also traveled across the road onto part of our 2 acres, but not as far as the guineas did. Over time, his flocks dwindled and I am not sure he has any left other than 1 chicken and 1 guinea, both of whom have traveled up our hill and now live together on our property full-time free-ranging near the house.
We have chickens already so the chicken has been hanging around our flock if they are by the house, but won’t be enticed up to the chicken coop further up the hill. We have not tried, but funnily enough one of our roosters befriended her and each morning when they were let out of the coop to free range, he would head down to the house to find her and try to get her to come up to the coop with him. She’d follow him half way, then turn and run back to the house. He’d attempt this a few times a day. Never was successful.
We left for vacation and when we came back we didn’t see her for a couple of days. Then we saw her sporadically, but not like before. Then suddenly a week after vacation, she came out from under the shed and low and behold she had 15 little chickens follow her!!! We hurriedly built her a coop to help her keep her chicks safe (took us just over a week, but she did a great job keeping them safe until then) and are currently working on a run for them to be back pecking on the ground again. We also had a half a bag of chick feed we were no longer needing that we let her and her babies have as desired. We've had a variety of chickens over time, but never a mystery brood like this. My son, who had befriended her before all this happened and named her Little Guy, is taking on their loving care and would like help with the breeds (and sexes, if possible — How many roosters should I expect out of 15 chicks? ~50/50? Hopefully less
). They are all currently about 4 weeks old, but I will include pictures of them younger, also. They were fully full-ranged when younger and now are strictly cooped (until we get their run finished). The coop is only half roofed so they can have half open to air (but wire protected), but has a floor since it will eventually be fully roofed once the run is completed; the pictures aren’t great, but the best I can do with the circumstances as they are.Parents:
“Little Guy”/Mom: We are assuming maybe Brown Leghorn, but since she wasn’t ours to begin with, we aren’t sure if that’s right or if she is even a full breed.
“Mr. Darcy”/Dad?: We had 3 roos at the time (one was mostly enclosed in a separate enclosure trying to introduce to the flock), but the only one we saw anywhere near her was Mr. Darcy, our Speckled Sussex, that we bought and raised from day-old. He would try to find her and lead her to the rest of the flock. (Other possible dads would be a Golden Comet (the one separated for most of the time) and, I believe, a Light Brahma?–adopted from another neighbor, but we never saw them anywhere near her.)
Chicks:
The only one he’s named so far is “Bear”. She is mostly brown and the only one of her coloring in this brood. Maybe brown leghorn (or whatever mom is)?
We have one yellow/tan colored chick. Starting to get some light gray/silver tips to her feathers as she has gotten older. We really have no idea on this one. We thought something buff like a leghorn or orpington, but the gray that's coming in is confusing us.
Two black chicks with a white dot on their head and white bottoms. One of which (fully black and white) has a shorter tail, stubbier wings, and thicker legs. Roo maybe? The other has turned more of a brown color as she has aged. These are a little camera shy so the picture options aren't great as itty bitties. The one is by the mother's head in both pictures (he still sticks by her even today at 4 weeks and seems to get picked on here and there and is the black and white older chick picture, too.). We are thinking Dominique or barred rock? The other is at the top of the screen in the first picture and towards the top and furthest to the left in the other. Not sure about her, speckled something?
The bulk of them (10) are what we call the chipmunk striped chicks. At 4 weeks old they are developing a bit of a speckled look… maybe taking after their daddy? I am not sure about the gender split. They all developed tails and wings at the same rate. Legs all seem to be the same size. Their patterning all looks pretty much the same, but their combs might have a slightly different rate of development. Leaning toward speckled sussex on these guys, maybe?
There is one chipmunk striped that is a white background color rather than the brown/tan of the bulk of them. Compared to all the other chicks this one has short wings and tail. Maybe breed qualities or gender related? Have no idea what she's going to look like.
Thank you in advance for all your help with this. They are all well loved and cared for for now. If there are too many roosters we may have to re-home some? Our other flock has 20 hens and they will all free range together eventually so we could keep some, but not too many depending on how many hens end up in this flock. Advice or thoughts on that are also appreciated. I'll post elsewhere about the Guinea.
