Welcome to Club Yoke! (new pics page 7)

[AmyLM]

Just a short update: The Derpster managed to get herself stuck in yet ANOTHER place. . She managed to SOMEHOW get her itty bitty butt fluff stuck in the crack on the edge of the long metal feeder tray. I heard her screeching and ran into the bedroom the chicks are in... and saw her madly flapping her wings trying to get her butt off the feeder. I'm quite sure that if I could understand peep-ish my ears would be burning at this point. So I picked her up and managed to unhook the fluff... well... mostly. Shes now sporting a lovely nakie backside though..... *sigh* Luckily other than loosing a few fluffy feathers she seems fine. The other chicks huddle in a corner softly peeping like "can you believe this?? AGAIN!?"

Is there such thing as a coop with padded walls? A rubber run? I might have to look into that option for her. I think the worlds a bit too dangerous of a place for our little Derpetto.


I was hoping she would grow out of this... Instead shes growing INTO it..... wish I had gotten it on camera but I was a little more concerned to disconnect her butt from the feeder at the time. . I will try to take more pics today. The chicks are getting so many feathers now

 

[AmyLM]

This week was rather tramatic for our household. We had a pipe break in our foundation and flood three bedrooms (including the chicks room) and a bathroom. We spent 4 days with no water, no toilet, nothing... (ewww!) and had to move the chicks not once.. but 4 times due to trying to keep them dry and away from the sound of the jack hammer when the break was finaly fixed yesterday. They are now in a diffrent room from before as the room they were in ... is now missing a good piece of the wall and has no carpet (none of the rooms do now) but this one also sports a LOVELY big hole thats roughly filled in with no concrete. Lets just say..its been a stressfull week for ALL of us. The chicks are not handiling the stress so well. Anytime they see someone approach them they all start screaming like "THEY ARE GONNA GRAB US AND SHOVE US IN THE BIG SCARY BOX AGAIN!" (moving room to room in a big cardboard must be rather like being abducted by aliens...)

Ok so now that Ive finaly had a shower and can think again... I mean seriously... who can think when they are sitting on a couch going "omg... I feel so discusting!" Ok... life is setteling back down... at least I hope. So I took some new pics and video of the rapidly growing babies. We now have wing feathers and some tail feathers... and some are taking alittle longer to learn how to use them than others. Our little Derpetto ... aka "The Derpster" as hubby calls her provided me with a great clip that just shows exactly what her daily life is like!

At the start of the video ... shes the grey ball of polish fluff walking towards the waterer but stairing up into thin air (no there is NOTHING there...seriously). Then for no reason she flips sideways and makes a mad dash across the brooder... and slams into the side with an autable *THUMP* then rolls back and sits on her little fluffy rear like "Derrr... Wall = Soild... still"

Trust me.. you will want to play it several times with the volume on. LOL trust me on this one...


Ok and some pics... not the best pics. I will try to take some later when I can take them with better lighting.

Derpster (Derpetto) with Zilly (Chickzilla) looking on going "yur do'in it wrong" Derpster was scratching and pecking agasint cardboard that had no food on it... kicking everyone in the corner with shavings in the process. It is not wise to kick shavings at Chickzilla otherwize someones getting bumped. And yes .. I do still have three bantams that survived the disasterious shipping. This little one looks to be a VERY nicely marked silver laced pullet ... I hope!



Derpster examining the ground closely: "I scratch... I peck... no food appear... ?! Must look close!"



When your little... its best to let others do the hard work. This little bantam has mastered the fine art of being lazy! Others do the scracthing to find the food... she steals it from under them before they bend down to get it!



HaHa. I gots it before you gots it!

Other chick:

Group shot... cardboard brooder with higher sides because they think they can fly now. Btw.. Derps doing her scratch dance... and another little polish is doing the "ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME!?" head shot over by the water'er



Derpster... "Iz STILL not findz fud!! May bez I standz on it"



Lukin fer fudz in kleen bed... wherz dah FUUUD?!



clean water... must put in shavings... team effort!



New pics comming tonight this is all I could get before I filled up the card

 

[AmyLM]

I took the advice of some of the people here on BYC and gave my chicks eggs for the first time. It was hilarious watching them! My husband kept asking if it was cannibalism lol The best part was watching Chick Zilla aka Silly Zilly running around with a big hunk of egg in her mouth going "I GOT EGG! I GOT EGG!" she runs around chirping at the top of her voice, bumping into everyone, bull dozing her way through entire clusters of chicks... until someone else steals it and eats it. Then she just stand there going "THEY STOLE IT!" No kidding Silly Zilly... if you just ate it then you wouldn't have lost it!

I'm using the eggs to help the chicks get used to being hand fed. And its working rather well! The funniest part is that all the chicks except Derpetto aka "The Derpster" is the only one who doesn't seem to understand whats happening. She gets confused and starts walking around in circles pecking at other chicks and leaning down to look at whats in their mouths and chirping at them. Shes several days behind in skill level to the other chicks at this point. We do think she has some issues but we adore her anyway. Shes one of the few who actually doesn't run away when I try to pick her up.... probably because she just isn't with it enough figure out to run away.

Anyway! I took pictures and video ENJOY!

First to figure out how to get up to the top of the waterer


I'VE GOT EGG! I'VE GOT EGG!


Feathers growing in nicely. Still not sure what breed she is. any ideas?



The Derpster still trying to figure out what every ones eating....



any ideas what breed I am? I'm a little bantam...



Phoenix... boy I think. He has slow wing feather growth but personality is rather bossy.



yummy yummy eggs!



Nom nom nom nom



What breed am I? I'm rather bold and love to roost and don't mind being picked up. I hope I'm a girl! haha
(Been calling her Jessie- mostly because it would work for both genders)



More pics later.. I cant believe how fast they are growing!

 

[Apyl]

Great pics, the chicks are looking great.

 

[AmyLM]

I cant believe how fast they are growing. And boy are they getting loud too. It will be even louder when the replacement chicks get here. Yikes. lol

How long does it take for them to settle down? they are figuring out pecking order and Ive had to isolate two chicks that got hurt. One went back in with no problem at all, the other came back in and went around bulling everyone who bullied her, now they are leaving her alone. But I hate seeing them peck each other and hearing the squawks when someone gets pecked hard.

 

[Chickiee]

I love your pics! It's very helpful to see how your brooder is set up too. Our very first chicks arrive March 20th. So excited! What size are your waterer and feeder... 3 gal?

 

[AmyLM]

what you don't see in the pictures is the deer fencing that I use on top of the brooder to keep the chicks from flying out.. and YES they can. They fly quite well for chicks... I didn't expect them to fly this early.

The brooder is made out of large Lowe's moving boxes, I open it on the side that its glued shut on. I also used tarp under the boxes and two boxes are laid out flat under them to make it sturdy and to give extra padding. It works really well! We will use the small plastic one for other young ones.

 

[dennarahl]

I believe this one is either a barred plymouth rock or a cuckoo maran, in my beginner opinion. I have some of both and they look very similar.

What breed am I? I'm rather bold and love to roost and don't mind being picked up. I hope I'm a girl! haha
(Been calling her Jessie- mostly because it would work for both genders)



More pics later.. I cant believe how fast they are growing!

 

[dennarahl]

My oldest babies just started to really work on pecking order last week. We have one packing peanut (they're all going to be meat birds) who has been named a**hole. He got isolated for about 3 days before he got the idea. He's still chasing the other boys trying to show them he's boss, but he's not biting them anymore. At least not much anyway. As far as I know the big girls don't have a leader yet. My little's do have a leader, but I don't know if it's Spock or Kirk since I can't tell them apart. My mini's haven't even thought about it yet.

I tried to have the little's visit the biggies, but the big boys were all buttheads to them (the big girls were nice). Because we had that problem, the minis' box was connected to the littles' box with a little glass window in between from day one. Yesterday I took out the window for a supervised visit and everything went so well that today they've started to live together happily comingled. It probably helped that there were no older boys in this visit. Some of the minis may be boys because they were straight run bantams, but they're so much smaller it's not an issue. Since the littles and minis still need heat and the biggies don't (and are moving to the garage soon), it will be awhile before they live together.

I cant believe how fast they are growing. And boy are they getting loud too. It will be even louder when the replacement chicks get here. Yikes. lol

How long does it take for them to settle down? they are figuring out pecking order and Ive had to isolate two chicks that got hurt. One went back in with no problem at all, the other came back in and went around bulling everyone who bullied her, now they are leaving her alone. But I hate seeing them peck each other and hearing the squawks when someone gets pecked hard.

 

[AmyLM]

Mine will also be heading to the garage soon. But I'm nervous about it because there is a big gap at the bottom of the stupid garage door .. it could let things in. And judging by the fact that the garage is full of craneflys and full sized, curled up dried leaves can just blow in during the winter that door doesn't seem to keep much out.