Who wants to play whats that Chicken?

Holas

Chirping
6 Years
Feb 22, 2014
32
6
79
So yesterday I responded to one of those 5 dollar chicken Craigs list ads. I was hoping to get a couple of pullets to add to my flock. It was not exactly the experience I was expecting. My wife and I were met by a really nice lady who had A LOT of chickens.
D.gif
D.gif
D.gif
Apparently just about every bird she owned that year had decided to go broody and as a result she had about 75 birds born this year.
jumpy.gif
She was pretty desperate to thin down her flock before winter.

In fact I was a bit afraid if I looked away for a sec she would be shoving birds in the back of my car.
big_smile.png
any way she had sold all the older pullets and really had a ton of younger birds. At least we think they were younger birds..... and not older bantams.... any way they are totally mutt chickens and most likely have some bantam in there blood lines some where but should turn out to be medium ish sized..... Well at least she thinks
hmm.png
so anyhow they all looked healthy and I felt like I could help... However I'm not really sure what I have now.

She told me that they had been outside their entire life without a heat lamp and Momma kinda left them alone after about two weeks. they have been eating crushed corn and layer feed their entire life.

I now have 5 of them and I don't really know how old they are or. what sex they are or what kind of breeds are in them........But I ended up only paying 10 bucks for five birds.

I now have them quarantined (will keep them that way for a least 30 days) maybe longer depending on how big they get. They are eating fermented wheat and chick starter.

So what do you guys think how old are they what do they have in them and how big do you think they might get.... It's mostly guessing at this point but hey it might be fun..... Oh and I am a bit concerned about the naked neck on.. I didn't even notice it was naked necked till I got it home.... I's it supposed to be that way? or did it just get picked on too much? I have never owned a naked neck breed.













 
Naked necks are a breed. I don't have one myself. They do look kind of funny though!
Your birds definitely seem like mixed breeds. A little bit of everything!
Hope all works out well for you!
 
Quote: Good for you on the quarantine! While they are there, you should probably dust them for mites and lice. If they were older, I'd say worm them all as well, but unless you see wormy poop, they're a little young for that, at least to my way of thinking. If you do see worms, you could do the basic worming, using Wazine (piperazine), which only gets roundworms, but those are definitely the most common. Her conditions may have been crowded and that can lead to pests, inside and outside the bird.

You have some mixed breeds and I see Easter Eggers. Some may not technically be the Naked Neck breed, but could have been plucked by the others, it's hard to say. That happens with overcrowding.
 
No, that's not a Naked Neck.. They won't have any feathers at all on their neck. Not little patches or foliciles like your little girl has. They all appear to be girls. The reddish ones remind me of my Buckeyes at that age.

Here are some Naked Necks (and not pure for the gene either)






Here is a NN pure for the NN gene (ie: Homozygous) - See how smooth the neck is? It's like that in Heterozygous NNs too, but there is just a bowtie on the neck.
 
So yesterday I responded to one of those 5 dollar chicken Craigs list ads. I was hoping to get a couple of pullets to add to my flock. It was not exactly the experience I was expecting. My wife and I were met by a really nice lady who had A LOT of chickens.
D.gif
D.gif
D.gif
Apparently just about every bird she owned that year had decided to go broody and as a result she had about 75 birds born this year.
jumpy.gif
She was pretty desperate to thin down her flock before winter.

In fact I was a bit afraid if I looked away for a sec she would be shoving birds in the back of my car.
big_smile.png
any way she had sold all the older pullets and really had a ton of younger birds. At least we think they were younger birds..... and not older bantams.... any way they are totally mutt chickens and most likely have some bantam in there blood lines some where but should turn out to be medium ish sized..... Well at least she thinks
hmm.png
so anyhow they all looked healthy and I felt like I could help... However I'm not really sure what I have now.

She told me that they had been outside their entire life without a heat lamp and Momma kinda left them alone after about two weeks. they have been eating crushed corn and layer feed their entire life.

I now have 5 of them and I don't really know how old they are or. what sex they are or what kind of breeds are in them........But I ended up only paying 10 bucks for five birds.

I now have them quarantined (will keep them that way for a least 30 days) maybe longer depending on how big they get. They are eating fermented wheat and chick starter.

So what do you guys think how old are they what do they have in them and how big do you think they might get.... It's mostly guessing at this point but hey it might be fun..... Oh and I am a bit concerned about the naked neck on.. I didn't even notice it was naked necked till I got it home.... I's it supposed to be that way? or did it just get picked on too much? I have never owned a naked neck breed.




Sorry, this one is a boy. Scratch my earlier comment about them all being girls

I'd say they are all around 6-8 weeks old.
 
Good for you on the quarantine! While they are there, you should probably dust them for mites and lice.

Good advice on that. I have been watching them today and they have been dust bathing a lot. I have also looked at their poop.. ( Managed to get some all over my hands) and it looks ok for now. I will most certainly monitor it though.
 
No, that's not a Naked Neck.. They won't have any feathers at all on their neck. Not little patches or foliciles like your little girl has.

Ok thanks I was thinking that was the case... Looks like at this point everyone is getting along nicely
hugs.gif
so hopefully she will grow those back in quickly.
 
Good advice on that. I have been watching them today and they have been dust bathing a lot. I have also looked at their poop.. ( Managed to get some all over my hands) and it looks ok for now. I will most certainly monitor it though.

You're doing great on the quarantine-kudos to you for that! So many folks skip that, but it's always prudent. This is the time to watch for symptoms and if any show signs of serious respiratory illness, you'd want to forgo ever putting them into a coop with your current flock. And you also can bond with the birds as well, learn who's who. Whatever you do, just do not give any antibiotics during this time period. Good luck to you!
 
You're doing great on the quarantine-kudos to you for that! So many folks skip that, but it's always prudent. This is the time to watch for symptoms and if any show signs of serious respiratory illness, you'd want to forgo ever putting them into a coop with your current flock. And you also can bond with the birds as well, learn who's who. Whatever you do, just do not give any antibiotics during this time period. Good luck to you!
What I do, is I sacrifice one of my own to see if they are carriers.. I know it sounds cruel.. I raise a lot, so I have many, many boys destined for the freezer anyway..

If the newbies are carriers I will find out. If they aren't obviously ill (umm, not going to happen, I would never buy anything obviously ill), I'll add him right away.

I rarely bring in chickens.. I bring in chicks (day olds) and hatching eggs. Only from trusted sources
 
Quote: And you know me, Justine, I don't even do that much, only hatching eggs from trusted sources and I haven't even gotten hatching eggs since my last Stukel BRs were hatched, over 3 1/2 years ago. William got his Stukel male directly from Marvin Stukel and he put that rooster through so many tests before he'd even put him with the hens in order to send me hatching eggs (William, aka Pine Grove, is an NPIP tester for the state of GA). That's about as secure as it gets.


It's not cruel to sacrifice if you have them to do that, like your extra cockerels, who may be destined for the table anyway. I do not have extras here, unfortunately.
 
Last edited:

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom