- Thread starter
- #11
kattabelly
Chirping
The babies!
They're mostly 16 days old now, give or take a day. Only 3/8 of the Plymouth Barred Rock eggs were fertile - apparently that was starting to be a pattern and the cock has since been switched for another. I guessed two were male and one female and pretty much sure of that now their wing feathers are coming in. All the Shetland eggs were fertile but 3/10 quit towards the end and one got as far as pipping but then died. Not uncommon with these apparently. I find it really hard not to be too hands-on with hatches, so of course I was kicking myself for not intervening with that one for once.
Another Shetland hatched with what I thought was an umbilical hernia at first - very pink and visible small blood vessels - but turned out to be just unabsorbed yolk. There was a fair bit of it and the naval was already closed around it, so I had to tie and cut that off. Chick was tiny and very skinny but I spent the first day doing regular egg yolk feeds and it was soon able to manage in with all the rest. It's still smaller than all the others from this hatch but otherwise seems to be thriving. It worked out early on that the biggest BR chick is tall enough and greedy enough to act like a combination radiator / creep feeder, so they spend a lot of time together.
Creep feeder in action
All three BR chicks are really bold and friendly. The cockerels are handled on my terms, rather than cuddled, now they're not brand new babies but the female is the friendliest of the three and often the first to seek me out for some attention. Right after I took this photo the other day, she hopped up and perched on the edge of my phone while I took snaps of the others. Not sure how she'll work out as a shoulder chicken once she's fully grown!
This hatch had bad luck with the weather, so they didn't get to spend as much time outside the first week but trying to make up for that now. It's helpful that there are more of them, and the older chicks will pile into the pet carrier with them if it's especially cold, so they're already happily running around in the wind and rain for hours and only needing shelter and their own combined body heat to stay warm. If I'd been more organised getting things sorted they could really be outdoors full time now.
They're mostly 16 days old now, give or take a day. Only 3/8 of the Plymouth Barred Rock eggs were fertile - apparently that was starting to be a pattern and the cock has since been switched for another. I guessed two were male and one female and pretty much sure of that now their wing feathers are coming in. All the Shetland eggs were fertile but 3/10 quit towards the end and one got as far as pipping but then died. Not uncommon with these apparently. I find it really hard not to be too hands-on with hatches, so of course I was kicking myself for not intervening with that one for once.
Another Shetland hatched with what I thought was an umbilical hernia at first - very pink and visible small blood vessels - but turned out to be just unabsorbed yolk. There was a fair bit of it and the naval was already closed around it, so I had to tie and cut that off. Chick was tiny and very skinny but I spent the first day doing regular egg yolk feeds and it was soon able to manage in with all the rest. It's still smaller than all the others from this hatch but otherwise seems to be thriving. It worked out early on that the biggest BR chick is tall enough and greedy enough to act like a combination radiator / creep feeder, so they spend a lot of time together.
Creep feeder in action
All three BR chicks are really bold and friendly. The cockerels are handled on my terms, rather than cuddled, now they're not brand new babies but the female is the friendliest of the three and often the first to seek me out for some attention. Right after I took this photo the other day, she hopped up and perched on the edge of my phone while I took snaps of the others. Not sure how she'll work out as a shoulder chicken once she's fully grown!
This hatch had bad luck with the weather, so they didn't get to spend as much time outside the first week but trying to make up for that now. It's helpful that there are more of them, and the older chicks will pile into the pet carrier with them if it's especially cold, so they're already happily running around in the wind and rain for hours and only needing shelter and their own combined body heat to stay warm. If I'd been more organised getting things sorted they could really be outdoors full time now.
