Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[kattabelly]

Grim, wet day and so overcast that it already looked to be getting dark before 10pm. Got a very slightly larger and more olivey green egg from the pullet today.

The guy who was meant to be getting the RIR chicks has gone quiet and I'm wondering if he's had second thoughts about taking just the two when they can't be sexed this young.

 

[kattabelly]

Chicks don't imprint quickly enough or to the extent that it causes issues

Had to go and put that in writing, didn't I?

So I now have two chicks who think I'm their mum. Lol. Maybe always hatching bigger groups is why this has never happened before?

Going to check if I know anyone who has a potential broody foster mum right now once I've confirmed the guy I hatched them for isn't taking them, but otherwise they're going to have to get used to the brooder heat plate no matter how much they hate it.

Edit - he does still want them! But asked if I can hang onto them until Wednesday. That works for me.

 

[kattabelly]

Chicks are gone to their new home (but possibly not their forever home because they'll be taking a trip south in a couple of weeks and the guy who took them reckons his daughter might not let them leave her house again ). Chick 1 had the dark, well-defined back stripe that iirc is more common in pullets and took a full 48 hours to get to grips with the whole eating thing. Chick 2 I'm certain is a cockerel - when he wasn't eating he spent most of his time here running around getting into everything, or stalking the walls of their brooder box shouting demands to be picked up. He hatched Sunday morning and by Monday evening I could hold out my hand and he'd step onto it himself.

Spent a lot of yesterday afternoon up with my chickens, just watching. The pullet is still laying regularly, similar looking eggs about 48 hours apart. I realised the other day that they're over 20 weeks old now, so I'll have to stop referring to that group as the teens. Dynamic between the two boys has changed some - no fights, but I think Mr Fancy-Pants is a bit lonely now he's a third wheel. It might not have worked out as they got older and the pullet started laying but I think things were actually better when I had the three cockerels and Mr FP could hang out with whichever of the more dominant two wasn't with the pullet right then. The black and white cockerel who still needs a name was showing off his growing vocal repertoire last night at rat rush hour - some impressive growls! He still tidbits when I fill their feeder and now the other two have started to ignore him when he does it at other times

Some changes in the younger group, too. The Norfolk Grey will peck the Shetlands away from something she wants to eat - only seen her do it to the ones I think are more likely to be pullets but I've not watched enough for that to mean much - but allows the slightly larger Barred Rock pullet to eat with her. BR pullet is still a shoulder chicken (I think she'll end up being called Polly, although for some reason my brain keeps saying Dolores when I look at her) and I'm now allowed to pet and groom her while she's up there too. She's fussier about treats than most of the others but I need to find something high value to start training her to walk onto my arm when I want her off me. At the moment she shuffles down towards the middle of my upper back, where I can't reach her and have to just tip/throw her off as gently as I can. Little Shets were trying to sleep heap under a bush last night and it surprised me how easily I could pick them up to take them back to their run. I've not handled them much recently but trying to herd them was impossible because they just ignored me.

The Light Sussex cockerels have been chasing each other and facing off a lot but nothing more. The one I'm not planning to keep is still a bully to most of the others and the only one who won't ever let the younger birds near the feeder while he eats. He's a much better example of the breed - really black hackles, straight comb, no brassiness yet - but no one in the flock likes him, so he'll probably be receiving a dinner invitation soon. The odd one out with yellow legs still isn't showing any signs of being a cockerel or having anything resembling a personality, but I won't complain if she remains a she and eventually gives me eggs.

 

[Perris]

Chick 2 I'm certain is a cockerel

I don't play this game anymore, because I'm really bad at it . I've had bold chicks and timid chicks, and quick chicks and slow chicks, with and without early wattle development, and I get it wrong so often, I just wait for eggs or crows now The presence of mature roos can have a suppressing effect on the emergence of secondary male characteristics I've read, and that's been true of some (but not all) cockerels here too.

On the taming front, one of my young Fayoumis will come into the utility room now for a private feast on mealworms. And leave again when I open the door. I just hope I'm not creating another Maria, who has taken to shouting at the back door until I open it to let her in

 

[kattabelly]

I don't play this game anymore, because I'm really bad at it . I've had bold chicks and timid chicks, and quick chicks and slow chicks, with and without early wattle development, and I get it wrong so often, I just wait for eggs or crows now The presence of mature roos can have a suppressing effect on the emergence of secondary male characteristics I've read, and that's been true of some (but not all) cockerels here too.

On the taming front, one of my young Fayoumis will come into the utility room now for a private feast on mealworms. And leave again when I open the door. I just hope I'm not creating another Maria, who has taken to shouting at the back door until I open it to let her in

I don't really worry about it or take my predictions seriously but I still like to play the game. That chick had a really upright posture and fairly chunky legs as well as being incredibly bold, and everything about it was just screaming 'cockerel' to me. I'll update if I'm right!

My two Light Sussex cockerels were both very early developers and the pullet feathered out so differently that it was easy to guess she was female even though she looked very wattley for a girl at just a few weeks old. The other one was more similar to the boys but given the yellow legs there's clearly something else going on there.

The Shetlands are impossible to guess! Even the experienced breeder I got them from had one poor pullet in his bachelor pen at one point because he was so sure she was a he, and only realised when he started finding an egg in the corner. The chick I was sure was a cockerel for a while is looking more pullet-y now, but the buff chick's comb has started looking a bit pinker than the others and the colour as it's feathered out is just patchy enough colour-wise to suggest cockerel. That buff one's had the posture of a runner duck right from the day it hatched but it's a delicate little thing with tiny skinny legs. The ones that look more likely to be pullets at the moment are stomping around on legs like tree trunks

I know you can't generalise across a whole breed but what are your Fayoumis like, out of interest? Someone might've offered me some hatching eggs

and that's one of the breeds they keep

 

[Perris]

what are your Fayoumis like, out of interest?

I've only had them since they hatched in April, so my experience with them is confined to chickhood thus far. Two didn't survive the first week, though they might have done with a different broody (the one they had has some experience, but is excitable and does not allow sufficiently for newly hatched chicks' capabilities, or lack thereof; my guess is that they were just unable to keep up with her).

The two that did are both clearly smart; they alone of all the chickens in the flock got round the fencing panel we use to keep chickens out when a particular door is open ; being physically small may have helped them there. That also showed their courage/ confidence to go where no other chicken had been before btw.
Flighty, but not from me now (I've worked on that since I first saw them apart from their hatch-mates, because of what other people have written about the difficulty of taming them). Capable of flight, but runners by preference. Tree hugger tendencies, but to date have roosted in coop (though I had a near miss with one last night). Great foragers. Have not bullied other, younger chicks. Have developed at different rates from the get go, but I've yet to establish whether that's because of gender or other genetics in play.

 

[kattabelly]

He still tidbits when I fill their feeder and now the other two have started to ignore him when he does it at other times

Poor boy was definitely blessed with more beauty than brains. Today I watched him start to get agitated because the pullet was taking a while to lay her egg, so he walked up the ramp to stick his head in the coop and did a shouty cockerel version of the egg song at her until she was done. (She's laid the last four days consecutively, including a double yolker yesterday.)

The way he tidbits while excitedly eating all the food himself and being ignored by the other two is hilarious though.

 

[Shadrach]

He was eating their pellet feed along with the others this morning when I first got there, and generally acting normal - crowed a few times, talked a lot, showed interest in the others and what I was doing. It was a pretty sudden change. They went out after he started looking peaky and he followed but just stood and then lay down next to the others while they foraged.

He still isn't keen on being touched and was walking away or getting worked up if he felt trapped when I got too close. I'll see how he's doing in a bit and be more insistent about grabbing him for a proper check if he's not improved. Hard to tell visually through the feathers but he didn't look to have the really bulging crop they get with bad impactions. I provide grit in case they don't find enough in the soil.

I do most of the crop checks when they are on their roost bar just before shutting them in for the night. They get used to it. Some still tend to shuffle along the roost bar if I take too long over it.

 

[kattabelly]

I do most of the crop checks when they are on their roost bar just before shutting them in for the night. They get used to it. Some still tend to shuffle along the roost bar if I take too long over it.

Do you do it routinely or at least regularly enough for them to see it as normal, or mostly just if there's a bird you're concerned about? Maybe I've just been unusually lucky but I've only ever seen minor crop issues a few times, in young birds whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs and mostly were a bit runty or seemed like they might have other issues to begin with. I'm working at getting them all comfortable enough to do things like this, and I'll start adding in some night checks to get them used to that now that it's getting darker here earlier (thanks for the reminder!), but tbh it hadn't occurred to me to do it as more than a familiarisation thing.

Low predator pressure here means mine aren't shut in a coop at night. The younger group only get supervised ranging time at the moment, partly because some of them are still small enough for predation to be more of a risk but also because they can only get out through the older group's run at the moment and I want to get the rebuild finished rather than creating yet more bodged temporary fixes to have to deal with later. The younger group have open housing in a closed run overnight though, and I've started leaving the older group's run open so they can come and go as they please when I'm not around. So far they've stayed in the extended run of the rest of that plot - it's not securely fenced, but enough to create a visible boundary.

 

[Shadrach]

Do you do it routinely or at least regularly enough for them to see it as normal, or mostly just if there's a bird you're concerned about?

I do it every night. Not because their crops need checking every night, more that they get used to me touching them and this helps a lot when I have to remove one from the coop to attend to something like mite inspection.
I gave up chasing chickens years ago.
None of the field lot apart from a Ex Battery hen called Lima have been keen on being touched no matter how well otherwise we get on. Jumping on me is fine in their eyes and most will let me stroke them if they been the one to initiate contact.
Random grabbing is frowned upon by all.
If I do have to catch one I grab a fistful of tail feathers. All in all I've found this the safest method for me and the bird. As soon as they feel they can't make forward motion they stop trying and that allows me to slip my other hand either under their feet and lift, or do a full palm body lift, forefinger on the outside of one leg and the rest under the breast/belly. They tend to sit quietly once in the body lift position and they are tolerant of being walked about without flapping.
Hand lift under feet works very well with some birds but others will fly off if they can, or try climbing an arm to get on the shoulder or head. It's quite difficult to get a chicken off your head in anything but an ungainly manner and possible injury.

My view is it's important to be able to handle the birds. During the day I don't if I can possibly avoid it; everybody gets stressed. The hen's roosters don't like it, the youngsters don't like it and I don't like it much either because even after years of chicken keeping, I get stressed; not much these days but enough for the birds to sense it.

If asked, my advice is every chicken keeper should get a good head torch with a red light option if possible. For the coops I've had, one has to remove the bird from the coop and when it's late dusk, or dark, they tend to stay outwardly calmer at least.

I used to look after chickens that went up a tree every night. They would come down for food and those that wouldn't I gave an encouraging poke on the arse.
If I wanted to check the bantams I would wait until it was dark and then take them out of the tree one by one and look them over on their way to the coop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/getting-chickens-out-of-trees-and-into-their-coops.75511/