Washingtonians

[Nikki99]

My little brahma chicks are 6 weeks old now. Speckles who raised them kicked them to the corner last week and started getting really spazzy so I put her out and back in with the layers earlier this week since they were learning bad habits from her. She's been laying since two days before she was done with the chicks. Now they are just left with the silkies and ameraucanas who are calm or outright demanding lovebirds. I can handle the brahmas now without them freaking out, and they will come up to me as well. If this ameraucana pullet goes broody as an adult, I'll let her raise all the chicks she wants since she's so sweet and should teach good manners.

Oh my goodness they are adorable!! Congrats on the babies!

I had planned on leaving early today for the farmers market in Tenino.. but as we were pulling out of our driveway I saw a box.... Hopped out to move it and low and behold there were 2 hens in it!!!!

Both look like RIR and both are pretty small and ones entire rear is a big RED featherless mess..... Grrrrrr So what could I do, couldnt leave them there... I have no clue where they came from.. only thought is from someone who knew I sell eggs... So I made them a quarintine pen in the barn and set them up. Im not looking forward to nursing pecked on hens again I just finished up with 2 other girls that were from a friend and litterally just added them into the main coop on Tuesday. Was planning on using the small movable pen for some Cornish X (we are wanting to try meat birds). At least on the bright side I still have the meds and stuff to give them for the peck wounds.

So done with that, we attempted to leave again and in the street were the neighbors 2 Boxers... Their people are on vacation for the weekend and we are feeding and watching the place... This is first time the puppy was left home and she must be missing her people because she is digging out.. So we loaded them up brought them home and fixed them a shady kennal with a tot size swimming pool and fans LOL.
So now its the time we had planned on being back home by and we still haven't left . So gave the chickens some frozen water bottles for the afternoon heat. I think we are still gonna try to head to the Arts Fair in Eatonville for ..
the afternoon.. Ill cross my fingers

I hope everyone is doing well and can enjoy the sunshine a little bit

Wow! People are nuts! I can't imagine just throwing in the towel and dropping any kind of live critter off at some random persons house just because it wasn't working out for me. That is so insanely selfish of them! The Rhodies and the Boxers are very lucky to have you!

I have heard that you only want to clip the flight feathers on one wing. This keep them from getting their bodies balanced enough for flight. Even if they manage to get balanced they can't fly straight.

I'm so glad this question was answered. I started thinking that my question had been missed and I'd never know. Thanks for this!

 

[itsren]

Anyone else having fly troubles with all this heat? They're super thick around the run and back patio. Hosed down the patio and hung a fly trap which already has a lot in it! What else can I do? Is this just what happens when you turn up the heat with lots of chickens around? Kind of a bummer Maybe I'll hang the last of the vanilla scented tree scents I have LOL

I hung a brand new fly trap yesterday before we left. We haven't been home long... I haven't been out to see how full it got. I hope the number of flies flying around weren't too high.

 

[itsren]

I don't know how anyone would know about meat birds crowing. Meat birds rarely survive beyond 12 weeks at the most. Unless the food is severely restricted, meaties start to die off from about 10 weeks and on. So they never get old enough to start crowing. It strikes me that the book maybe referring to roos that are being kept for meat. It that case it is simply that all roos will tend to have crow contests, especially if they are kept in individual cages. Cornish cross meat birds will simply grow to fast, to be able to get old enough to crow in most cases.

That's good to know! It was kind of funny when I read that... it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't associated "meat bird" with a cockerel.

Tomorrow... I doubt I'll make it that early tomorrow morning. I am so tired from our overnight Cub Scout camping trip. I even plan to skip church in the morning. I need to catch up on sleep before I work myself into another migraine.

 

[lisaheath1]

showing off my babies, five of them They are 4wks old tomorrow. I'm hoping they are all hens, we will not be keeping any roosters. They really enjoy the outdoor run during the day. Then I bring them back in the house at night still. I'm working on getting the coop built still. It's coming along nicely though. I will share pics of that soon


This is Spike. My son named her. But now I think she is a boy any comments on that would be helpful.



another pic of Spike.



This is Red (upper) and Pandora (lower)



This is Chick. My daughter (she's 20) thought it would be funny if we had a chick named Chick, lol.




and this is Roxy. She seems to be the runt, lol

 

[Hinotori]

Oh! I just

the baby Brahmas. I want more. How on earth did you get them to go on that roost? Good grief... I couldn't get Drama to hop up on a flat 2x4 that was sitting on the ground at that age!

They were raised by an easter egger. She's had them up on stuff from as soon as they could manage to sort of flap up. I just put the long top branch in the other day for them to play on as well since they can now manage to walk down a branch without falling off. I do love how well they forage even at this young age. I just sit out there and read while they are out roaming.

This was about two weeks ago before mama was done with them.

 

[Hinotori]

showing off my babies, five of them They are 4wks old tomorrow. I'm hoping they are all hens, we will not be keeping any roosters. They really enjoy the outdoor run during the day. Then I bring them back in the house at night still. I'm working on getting the coop built still. It's coming along nicely though. I will share pics of that soon


This is Spike. My son named her. But now I think she is a boy any comments on that would be helpful.



another pic of Spike.



This is Red (upper) and Pandora (lower)



This is Chick. My daughter (she's 20) thought it would be funny if we had a chick named Chick, lol.




and this is Roxy. She seems to be the runt, lol

They are adorable. I'm missing the stage where they are little already and my youngest are just 6 weeks.

So what breeds are they?

I'm not going to guess on the sex of the one. I don't want to jinx anything, but even with sexed birds sometimes you end up with a cockerel. Out of the 6 brahma pullets I bought, there is one that I'm certain is a boy.

 

[FirewifeJess]

If I had to venture an educated guess (though I'm not terribly skilled at this by any means!) I would say Spike is a cockeral; s/he has a wider, and of course MUCH more red pea comb than anyone else! Can you post a pic of his/her legs? Cockerals are supposed to have sturdier, thicker legs than pullets, though it doesn't always hold true. I hope Spike turns out a girl though, for your sake! We just got rid of our cockeral today and it was hard! I loved that boy!

 

[drumstick diva]

your son is good at sexing chicks - Spike is a boy

 

[15shenyl]

I love all these pictures of chicks, there just so cute! I would put pictures of mine on, but I don't know how...
I never posted on this thread so I am from Grandview .

 

[JNB]

Hello Everyone Just been reading back and catching up on your post Some super cute and nice pics of folks little ones

I did see some conversation about CLIPPING WINGS... thought Id share what I did with my hens.. My main coop has a big run and the run is open on the top partly,depending on the season. My girls were flying out then getting outside and having a fit because they couldn't figure out how to get back in ... Silly Chickens Gheesh.

I did clip their wings.. Just the front flight feathers and ONLY one wing. This stopped the problem. I repeated the clipping whenever I saw them escaping again (3 times total). Then a funny thing happened.. They stopped flying out . Not sure if they just figured they had better give it up because they knew Id come after them with the sheers, or what.. They fly in side the coop and run...Just not out ..

I was told that chickens learn by following a leader.. So If they see another doing it they may start it again.. but its been1 and1/ 2 years with these girls and no escapes