Utah!

[UtahChickenDad]

Well it is midnight of day one with them out in coop. After all day I had to round them before sunset and put them through their normal door into the coop before closing it all up. Now I have been checking on them and am surprised the they seem to be doing so well. I still feel nervous, but as first time chicken dad I guess it is normal. Almost as bad as the first time my daughter was out in her car after dark. Did the food switch and wow they took to the new stuff, so no more starter. Yeah. The coop temp is 53 so far with light on, but they are not all grouped under it and I was worried about the nipple waterer. Well while spying on them just now I saw all of them hit the nipples for water, so one less worry.
This is becoming easier than I thought to raise them so far.

Thank to everyone for letting me do the ramble. Will try to upload pictures latter. Back to bed for now.

 

[auntie hattie]

Lisa here is a site that shows a bacterial blood ring. The one on my egg was a bright red ring about the size of a ping pong ball. Not a dark circle. Here is a site I found that might help you. http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs32.htm

Bird man you have a Welsh Flemish Gaint mix! How fun is that! How big is he? I would love to see a picture. Thanks for the advice I really want to give it a try and my coop is plenty big. I either need more chickens or a bunny or maybe both. I'll take the time to read up on the diseases that can transfer between chicken and rabbits. Thanks again.

Red I will take a picture tomorrow of my little broody silkie and post it. I think she is pretty cute.

 

[UtahChickenDad]

7Am and just went out to open the coop for the girls and they were not under the light but were in the 2 nexting boxes looking at me like whats up. They are so funny to watch. The coop never got below 51 overnight, so tonight I will have the on the therm block just in case but it would have to drop below 40 for it to turn on and that should not happen. I am just a worried parent.

 

[Sphinx]

Yay, glad your babies did well, UtahChickenDad!

I have a friend whose got a rather ingenious setup with her coop setup. She has it divided out so that her rabbits have part of the coop, and then part of the run that's under the coop. There's fencing and such completely separating her rabbits from her chickens.

Nobody has ever said that I was "taller than they expected". Ever. LOL

Red, sorry about Jerry, that's really sad. I've heard that raccoons can reach through chain link and try to grab chickens. Maybe he was grabbed and didn't get his head caught?

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Red so sad about Jerry! You are having a bad chicken year with varmints and such. Hope no more sad stuff for you!!

Utahchickendad, congrats on making it through night 1!! I had my babies out for their first night in the cage in the coop...other than they knocked the water over and made a mess everybody was happy this morning, just thirsty. Perfect timing with the nice weather, wasn't it!

Hattie, thanks for the links! Appreciate your help.

 

[corvidae]

Okay, so Greenfire says those mystery chicks are indeed Breda Fowl. We haven't been able to find a whole lot about them on the web--really just some general basic info about their appearnce and possible history (no one seems 100% sure where they came from). I was thinking to put them up on KSL or whatever, but now my 12 year old son has nixed that idea. He is totally in love with them and wants to make a study of them--I think he was fascinated by the fact that we couldn't find much about them. So now, not only are we keeping them (which means I need to build another coop up in Duchesne!), but he has talked me into ordering more of them! At first, he wanted 10 more--at $50 each, I nearly stroked at the thought. He wisely pointed out that I spent more than that on my own pet project (the Cream Legbars), so we haggled and settled on 6 more Bredas--that's the minimum Greenfire will guarantee live arrival at.

Holy moley, what have I gotten myself into??

 

[the-bird-man]

Lisa here is a site that shows a bacterial blood ring. The one on my egg was a bright red ring about the size of a ping pong ball. Not a dark circle. Here is a site I found that might help you. http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs32.htm
Bird man you have a Welsh Flemish Gaint mix! How fun is that! How big is he? I would love to see a picture. Thanks for the advice I really want to give it a try and my coop is plenty big. I either need more chickens or a bunny or maybe both. I'll take the time to read up on the diseases that can transfer between chicken and rabbits. Thanks again.
Red I will take a picture tomorrow of my little broody silkie and post it. I think she is pretty cute.

because she is a mix she is not as big as a pure flemish but she is solid. she is a very sweet girl. i got her at the fair last year, she was abandoned so the lady decided to take her to the fair to find her a home and well it was love at first sight. i had a pure flemish years ago that was i kid you not 40lbs. he was my baby and boy could he eat! it took a few years to get over his loss. my flemish now is gray so her name is graysee because she is gray see. the name came from the lady that rescued her and i love it. not sure how i can post a picture because i only have a phone. sorry

 

[RedIII]

Sphinx, I had wondered that, myself. It just seems too coincidental that Jerry went so soon after that raccoon got another hen, y'know?

corvidae, I feel for you. I was going through the same thing when I brought home three new little babies a couple of weeks ago. But $50 a pop? Holy cow, no wonder you're reeling! It would be interesting to see what you find out about the Breda's, though. I'd never heard of them before you posted those pictures of the chicks.

UCD - Yay! Glad your chicks are doing well out in the coop! I've got two teenagers that I'm working on getting used to the outdoors. So far they're fine, but I still worry, too

 

[Cynthia12]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/625456/mahonris-3rd-annual-byc-easter-hatch-a-long/6840 Post 6483 shows the list done.

Lisa Shinx..are you going to do the entry form? Go to page 599, for a good post to do it..If I remember correctily..your name is still on the list for those that haven't.

I have some babies! I thought the first ones that came out looked blue! But, they dried black? Kind of a grey black, because there are some that are real black. Only one blue, and two that look like they will be splash. One splash is still struggling. Will take pics later.

 

[jwoo]

So we got some chicks this last week! Went to Cal-Ranch in AF and to IFA in Lindon. First a few thoughts about the stores:

Cal-Ranch - We went here because IFA Lindon didn't have some of the standard breeds we wanted. I have to say the Cal-Ranch was run fairly poor. I didn't see any chicks that looked really bad but none of them looked fantastic. The water dishes were dirty and the chicks were all thrown in hodge podge into different brooders. Still we did get three chicks that had just come in that day that looked really good. The chicks that had been there a while looked lethargic . . . not a good sign, I wonder if the light was too much for the older chicks that hadn't sold. The ducks were a mess. Poor ducklings. If you've ever raised ducks you'll know that they out mess a chick x100. We raised five last year and I had to clean the brooder everyday and then twice a day after two weeks. The ducks looked happy but man was the brooder filthy! Here is what we got at Cal-Ranch:

Buff Orp
Wyandotte
Barred Rock

They all are doing great now that we've had them home for a week however and the Buff Orp is getting Big Fast!

IFA Lindon - This was day and night difference from Cal Ranch. The lady that runs the chicks was standing over them every time I've gone in there since they got chicks. At Cal Ranch no one was even near them. She was very helpful and knew her stuff and you could tell that she really cared about the chicks. She was very protective of them - on the one had that's good on the other my 7 year old wanted to pet a chick before we bought it and she said no. I don't actually have a problem with that. Good policy. IFA Lindon had mainly bantams as she said they had a hard time getting the standards in. This worked out well because we wanted some bantys! Since they are bantams they were all straight run. We decided to get three in the hopes that one turns out to be a pullet. Not sure what to do if we get boys . . . ksl I suppose. Here is what we got from IFA:

Black Silkie
Blue Chochin
Light Brahama

So fingers crossed that the turn out girls. If not we can try again I suppose. When should I start seeing signs of which gender is which? Five weeks +?

Anyway pictures!


Barred Rock, Buff, Orp, Wyandotte:



Cochin, Silkie, and Brahama