People! Our thread is deeeeeaaaad. Haha.
Hope everybody is doing well. Happy November!
Ace, is your Marans blue or black I can't remember? From my flock, I have noticed the blue boys take a while to show up, the black boys however are super obvious within a couple weeks. It is weird. Dang to the Austra-roo!
I have no success with mama broodies so I would know the difference. I have definitely noticed that the more sweet and adapted to me a baby is, the more likely that one will be the target when I integrate them. The best sweetest babies are always the ones that get harassed and pecked the most, I just think their fight or flight instincts are not as good as the ones that are less friendly to start with. The ornery ones are always just fine and run and hide, do what they have to do to survive...the hand raised pampered babies often hide their head in a corner with their body totally exposed, or bury their head with their body sticking out and I have had a few get killed that way, even though there are plenty of boards to hide under and other hiding spots. My very favorite black ameraucana, Maleficent, got murdered....I put her out there 4 different times, at 8 wks, 12 weeks, then a few weeks later, and again at almost 4 months old, after having to keep putting her back in the garage because they attacked her. Everytime they went after her, even though she had buddies she was raised with...the last time she did a little better and by nightfall I thought she would be ok, then the next morning she was MDK'd out by the feeder, all torn up when I went out with her head under the edge of the feeder. So sad, I was soooo mad at my girls for doing that to her. That is the one and only thing I do not like about raising chickens, the peck/murder/cannibalism that pops up, I just hate it! They can all get along great and love each other for months, then one bird can upset the whole Zen thing we have going.