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So I finally put my newest hen in with the others last night, and she beat the crap out of my poor wimpy sex-link Agnes. Even the little OEGB isn't getting messed with. Poor Agnes. 
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Mar 5, 2012 17:44
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Chicks are a week old today! They have little tail feathers coming in and their wings are about half feathered now. They've also gone from eating one jar worth of food in three days to a jar in less than 24 hours! They are still pretty skittish about being picked up, probably because I had to wash most of their butts during the first couple of days. Working on getting them more comfortable with handling now. Also going to try to bring them upstairs where there is more light and get individual shots of each of them today.
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Mar 8, 2012 17:25
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Ceridwen posted:Chicks are a week old today! They have little tail feathers coming in and their wings are about half feathered now. They've also gone from eating one jar worth of food in three days to a jar in less than 24 hours! Looking forward to seeing photos of their cute, fuzzy (and clean) butts. I love seeing photos of people's chickens! 
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Mar 8, 2012 21:50
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Ceridwen posted:Chicks are a week old today! They have little tail feathers coming in and their wings are about half feathered now. They've also gone from eating one jar worth of food in three days to a jar in less than 24 hours! How much water did they drink the first week? I'm worried mine aren't drinking enough. They go through about a pint a day for 12 chicks. We have well water and a water softener, so I'm worried they may not like the taste of the water and may not be drinking enough. I have Buff Orpingtons and Barred Rocks - the Rocks are much more tolerant of being caught and handled. The Buffs are really skittish. LordOfThePants fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Mar 9, 2012 |
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Mar 9, 2012 01:27
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LordOfThePants posted:How much water did they drink the first week? I'm worried mine aren't drinking enough. They go through about a pint a day for 12 chicks. They drank almost an undetectable amount of water. I just didn't worry about it and assumed if they were behaving like they were pretty happy then they were fine. I saw them drinking plenty, so I knew it was happening, but it wasn't enough to make the water level drop before I needed to clean it out because of them getting shavings in it. Now they are up to drinking a little over 1 pint a day. My SLW are much more skittish than my Easter Eggers. They are all still unhappy about being picked up though. Funny story from today: I gave them a grape as a treat. Just one, cut into a lot of little pieces. This is the second time, they got another grape the other day, which it took them about an hour to figure out was actual food. This time, I set it down (on a paper plate) and they ignored it because they were all sleeping. They continued to sleep for about another 10 minutes, pointedly ignoring the plate of food. All the sudden one got up and picked up one piece of grape. At which point all the others woke up immediately and took off after the chick with the piece of grape. Leaving ~15 pieces of grape sitting on the plate untouched. This process continued for the next 10 minutes. It is the most active I've ever seen them and was also hilarious. Next time I'll try to catch it on video.
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Mar 9, 2012 02:45
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Ceridwen posted:Funny story from today: I gave them a grape as a treat. Just one, cut into a lot of little pieces. This is the second time, they got another grape the other day, which it took them about an hour to figure out was actual food. This time, I set it down (on a paper plate) and they ignored it because they were all sleeping. They continued to sleep for about another 10 minutes, pointedly ignoring the plate of food. All the sudden one got up and picked up one piece of grape. At which point all the others woke up immediately and took off after the chick with the piece of grape. Leaving ~15 pieces of grape sitting on the plate untouched. This process continued for the next 10 minutes. It is the most active I've ever seen them and was also hilarious. Next time I'll try to catch it on video. You should overlay it with the song "Yakety Sax" (aka: The Benny Hill Chase Song), it seems most fitting.
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Mar 9, 2012 03:17
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All right, here are the pics! They are currently 8 days old. Easter Egger 1 (who took a poo poo as soon as I put it on the table):  Easter Egger 2:  Easter Egger 3:  Easter Egger 4:  Easter Egger 5:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 1:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 2:   Silver Laced Wyandotte 3:   Silver Laced Wyandotte 4:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 5:  Chicken Butt:  10-pack:  Chicks in a box:  For reference, this is at ~5 days old:  And this is the day they got to us (3 days old): 
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Mar 9, 2012 06:36
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Ceridwen posted:All right, here are the pics! They are currently 8 days old. Do all the Easter Eggers have puffy cheeks? I burst out laughing at photo one with the little poop mountain. The Silver Laced Wyandottes are really pretty. Why does the 2nd one look like it has a huge beak? Wow! I can't believe they are already growing feathers! Thanks for sharing your photos! 
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Mar 9, 2012 07:42
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Inveigle posted:Do all the Easter Eggers have puffy cheeks? I burst out laughing at photo one with the little poop mountain. Yup. The last two I think have the puffiest, but they all have super cute puffy cheeks. The pooping is pretty hilarious because I was photographing them on top of the pool table (only place with enough light) which my husband did NOT approve of. Because he was sure they would poop all over it. And what does the very first chick I put up on the table do right away? That's right. In the end more than half pooped while having their pics taken actually. Good thing I covered the pool table with a sleeping bag. quote:The Silver Laced Wyandottes are really pretty. Why does the 2nd one look like it has a huge beak? I still find them really hard to tell apart. I can tell the darkest (number 4, which our friend has decided is named Matilda) and the lighest (5), but the others all look the same to me. I think the second one just has a lighter beak that I took a closer photo of than the others. quote:Wow! I can't believe they are already growing feathers! Thanks for sharing your photos! It's crazy how fast they grow. They are also starting to figure out that they have wings now. They flap while they run across the brooder (I've got them in a 4'x4' brooder so they have a lot of room) but don't get off the ground yet. They also flap when they jump out of my hands and can slow down their fall now (granted they are only dropping a few inches). Glad you like the pics! They are starting to develop individual personalities and I can tell it's gonna be really hard to decide which ones we keep (4-6 of them) and which we sell!
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Mar 9, 2012 08:04
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Surprised you didn't have to chicken wrangle to get those pics. They seem so well behaved.
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Mar 9, 2012 20:29
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Chido you have to do this with your rooster. http://drsophiayin.com/resources/video_full/sophias_trained_chickens
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Mar 9, 2012 23:33
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c355n4 posted:Surprised you didn't have to chicken wrangle to get those pics. They seem so well behaved. Well, those were only a few of many pictures. There was a fair bit of wrangling going on between shots. I think they were confused enough to stay relatively still though. It got up to almost 65 degrees outside today and was beautiful and sunny, so I took the chicks out in the backyard for the first time. They got to spend about 45 min in a little enclosure I set up and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  Rusty letting me know he does not approve of this situation 
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Mar 10, 2012 06:26
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Ceridwen posted:It got up to almost 65 degrees outside today and was beautiful and sunny, so I took the chicks out in the backyard for the first time. They got to spend about 45 min in a little enclosure I set up and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Oh wow, I didn't know you could take them out that early at that temperature. It's been about the same here, with forecasts in the 70's this week, so maybe I'll take them out sometime. It looks like yours are only a week or two old, and ours will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, so guess they're ready for some sunshine! I have to go through and do individual pictures and I'll post them hopefully sometime tomorrow. We've gotten a few more and lost one (gave away the super aggressive one) since the last time I posted pics, I believe. They're all getting so big and feathery! The two that we have had all along are super tame, and will jump to get up on your hand if you put it down in the brooder. The other three are still kinda chicken  but we are working on them and making good progress. I gave them some mealworms today, pinching down tight and only feeding enough for them to take small bites. We gave them some maybe a week ago and they were stealing the whole worms, and and eventually making GBS threads largely undigested worm husks. It's amazing how much these creatures poo poo, by the way. We only have 5 in a 8 square foot enclosure, and I knew I was going to have to clean it daily, but by the time it does get cleaned it's a horrible mess. Even 5 minutes after it's been cleaned, it's been shitted all over and walked through for good measure. Honestly can't wait for them to be out of the house, but I do love the little buggers. 
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Mar 12, 2012 03:30
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Yep. Just imagine when they get bigger! They poo poo just as much, but their shits are huge. I swear sometimes I'll see a golf-ball sized poo poo.
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Mar 12, 2012 15:39
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Maximusi posted:Yep. Just imagine when they get bigger! They poo poo just as much, but their shits are huge. I swear sometimes I'll see a golf-ball sized poo poo.
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Mar 12, 2012 15:50
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marauderthirty posted:Oh wow, I didn't know you could take them out that early at that temperature. It's been about the same here, with forecasts in the 70's this week, so maybe I'll take them out sometime. It looks like yours are only a week or two old, and ours will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, so guess they're ready for some sunshine! They were ~1.5 weeks. No one told me they could go out and I couldn't really find any specific info on it, but they've been spending plenty of time in the colder portions of their brooder, which is only 70 degrees, so I decided it wasn't a huge risk. I made sure they were in the sun, and used some glass panels to set up the enclosure outside so that there were no drafts. They seemed totally happy and did not act cold at all, nor have there been any ill effects since then! I'm no looking forward to mine getting to the giant poo poo stage. Right now they don't dirty up the brooder very quickly at all. I really only have to clean the corner by the food and the light every day. I built a lid the other day for the brooder from hardware cloth and pieces of wood our landlord left in the garage (he's a friend of ours and we've got permission to use stuff like that). Would have been a nightmare had I not also found a staple gun in there. With the staple gun it became a 1 hour project. Now I don't have to worry about them figuring out how to escape while we are out of town.
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Mar 12, 2012 18:32
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This was a really rough week on the chicken front. A month ago, I'd caught Rosie, my RIR oranged beaked as she was eating an egg. I'd thought I'd had an egg eater for awhile, and after trying the usual wooden eggs, and putting mustard in eggs, on Saturday I butchered her. Then, on Monday I caught Thing One, one of my two white leghorns, eating eggs. Since my previous attempts to cure egg eaters had been so pointless, I went ahead and butchered her that day. It really sucked, because I liked both of them, and they were good layers, but I couldn't see any other option, other than letting them teach the rest of the flock how to eat eggs. Right now, I'm just crossing my fingers it was just those two.
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Mar 13, 2012 22:26
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Sorry to hear about the hard decisions. Back in the day my grandmother always put eggshells back out and the hens would go absolutely crazy for them. I thought that this was the thing to do of course. But now with all the talk about egg eaters I'm not so sure if that isn't teaching the hens to eat eggs. Then again, I've never heard about egg eating until this thread and now I'm all confused. So far we don't have any hens yet, but the coop is going up right now and Chicken ETA is in May, so I'm preemptively obsessing about what to do and not to do. Should I give the eggshells back to the hens?
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Mar 13, 2012 22:53
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I've seen pictures of nests that have the bottom at an angle so the egg rolls away from the hen after she lays it, dunno if that would work for egg eaters, though. Edit: found this video, it might help if another of your hens discovers she can make her own snack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQFIH8Y1ac
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Mar 13, 2012 23:40
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Wrath of khan that sucks about your hens eating eggs. I hope none of the others had learned from them. Hey santa baby, I'm not sure if there is anything to it but I saw a recommendation to only give them eggshells that have been cooked our washed so that they smell different than when they come out of the hen. On the surface at least it sounds reasonable. Home from our trip and the chicks are huge! Pics of them at two weeks old tomorrow when I get some time. They have officially hit the awkward looking stage. When does it end?
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Mar 16, 2012 06:32
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Two week old pics! (really 2 weeks 2 days) First, chicks in a box. Last week (10 chicks in box, room for at least 3 more): This week (8 chicks in the box before I ran out of room):  Did my best to match them up with the pics from last week. I'm pretty sure I can tell them all apart except for the two brown Easter Eggers. Easter Egger 1:  Easter Egger 2 (because at least one needed to take a poo poo during the photos):  Easter Egger 3:  Easter Egger 4:  Easter Egger 5:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 1:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 2:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 3:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 4:  Silver Laced Wyandotte 5:  And one overhead shot to show how their feathers are coming in:  They are now attempting to fly over the sides of the brooder if I leave the lid off long enough. They can't quite get it yet (sides are about 18" high). They got mealworms for the first time today and it only took about 10 minutes or so of us feeding those to them for even the shy ones to go from running away from our hands to running toward them. They are also up to almost 2 quart jars full of food a day.
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Mar 17, 2012 01:47
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Man these threads popping up during springtime always make me wish our house was zoned to allow chicken keeping. A local no-kill organization successfully campaigned to keep it illegal though, for pretty understandable and practical reasons. My ideal flock would be a couple guineas and few Americaunas. Dem baby blue eggs 
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Mar 17, 2012 01:57
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Ceridwen posted:Two week old pics! (really 2 weeks 2 days) D'awwww. These are so adorable! It's amazing how quickly their feathers start coming in. I'm interested in seeing how the Laced Wyandottes turn out -- I love the beautiful feathers on Laced Wyandottes.
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Mar 17, 2012 08:29
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Chickens always seem to need to take a dump immediately after they are set somewhere new. Chicken takes dump at point A,you move them to point B which is 5 feet away and they immediately take another crap.
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Mar 18, 2012 18:14
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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Anyone have any experience with nipple based watering systems for chickens? I'm already seriously annoyed at how quickly they toss ridiculous amounts of shavings into the waterer.
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Mar 19, 2012 01:17
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Ceridwen posted:Anyone have any experience with nipple based watering systems for chickens? I'm already seriously annoyed at how quickly they toss ridiculous amounts of shavings into the waterer. People who have the nipple watering systems swear by them. There's a bunch of videos on youtube. Like this one, where the guy ordered nipples for $2 apiece from eBay and then used stuff he already had (plastic bucket, hosing, PVC pipe, silicon caulk) to build his own chicken watering system using the nipples. I think in this video he'd just built it and the chickens were just learning how to drink from the nipples. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg41esvb1Ew Skip the first part of the video to the chicken nipples part which beings at 3:50 or so. You'll see links on the side to other Youtube vids showing various chicken watering systems.
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Mar 19, 2012 03:21
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Inveigle posted:chicken nipples  Words you never think you'll read in that sequence.
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Mar 19, 2012 04:39
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Ceridwen posted:Anyone have any experience with nipple based watering systems for chickens? I'm already seriously annoyed at how quickly they toss ridiculous amounts of shavings into the waterer. I use these and it was the best chicken-related investment I have ever made, period. I hang two waterers from the wire on the side of their run, change the water every 2-3 days, and never have to worry about poop, shavings or other awfulness in their water supply.
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Mar 19, 2012 04:52
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Inveigle posted:D'awwww.
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Mar 19, 2012 04:56
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Megatron and Rusty are not broody Angry Birds anymore, but it took some time ( and a closed coop) for them to give up. Not that they didn't protest about it... They mopped for so long in there that our resident grumpy hen, Spaghetti, went to check them out.  And eventually joined them in their grumpiness.  Meanwhile Roostroyer, Flake, and dust are just ignoring them. Dumb blondies had to hang out together, amirite?  And Godzilla is doing what she does best, stuffing her mouth, oblivious to anything else. 
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Mar 19, 2012 06:22
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I never got around to posting pictures last week as I had promised, so here's pictures from March 5 (2 weeks) on the left, and pictures from today on the right. They're a month old today, and halfway to being out of my house!  First up are the two that we have had all along, Chocobo and Penguin.Chocobo   Penguin   And next up we have the 3 newer chicks. We gave away the first Ancona we got and replaced it with another, and got another two Black Australorps. It's strange how much of a difference a couple days can make. The two pictured above are much tamer than these ones, but we are working on them. Nugget (second picture is very indicative, she is by far the loud one)   Banana   Marilyn   Bonus group shot  I took them outside a couple times this week, the weather has been outstanding. Ms. Bawkbagawk did not seem very impressed at all. She was definitely interested, as she kept circling the makeshift pen I built for them, but she kept walking away and making a very stressed out sound. We're going to take them out as often as we can before it's time to move them out so she hopefully gets used to them, I would like to keep the merging of them all as peaceful as possible! The coop we have outside is equipped to keep them separated, so even when they move we can keep them apart while they get used to seeing each other 24/7.
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Mar 19, 2012 20:48
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Inveigle posted:chicken nipples Serella posted:
True. But if I were going to ever see chicken nipples, I would expect it to be on YouTube. Was down at the local feed & supply to get dog food and they had loads of chicks and baby ducks in. drat, so cute. Not sure how much longer I can resist the temptation. 
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Mar 19, 2012 23:42
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I always worry when I see people buying chicks at the feed store, in case they have no idea what they're doing. There's a guy at my work who actually made me cry last year with his tale of how he bought ducklings at the hardware store to give them to his kids for Easter. They were little fuzzy yellow babies, who lasted in his house for less than a day before being banished to the (unheated) garage because "they are so loud and they poop". He kept them in a cardboard box with with a bowl of water that they refilled once a day, and fed them chunks of bread and birdseed. Later he put the box in the backyard. "It was raining, but that's ok because they're ducks. I was worried that they would fly away but I don't think these are the kind of ducks that grow wings."  After about a week he stopped talking about the ducklings. He had mentioned taking them out to his sister who has a farm, so I like to think there was a happy ending. But I'm fairly sure they just died.
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Mar 20, 2012 07:52
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I think that regular pet stores have long stopped selling Easter chicks, ducks, and bunnies.
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Mar 20, 2012 08:08
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wheatpuppy posted:I always worry when I see people buying chicks at the feed store, in case they have no idea what they're doing. There's a guy at my work who actually made me cry last year with his tale of how he bought ducklings at the hardware store to give them to his kids for Easter. They were little fuzzy yellow babies, who lasted in his house for less than a day before being banished to the (unheated) garage because "they are so loud and they poop". He kept them in a cardboard box with with a bowl of water that they refilled once a day, and fed them chunks of bread and birdseed. My friend (let's face it) impulse bought her chicks at a farm supply store. I'm guessing they come from the same hatcheries that supply factory farms. I'd definitely stick to adopting from craigslist. You'll probably get healthier animals too.
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Mar 20, 2012 12:40
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kreayshawns talent posted:My friend (let's face it) impulse bought her chicks at a farm supply store. I'm guessing they come from the same hatcheries that supply factory farms. There probably are people who impulse-buy from farm supply stores. That's also where we got our last flock after getting screwed (once royally) from unhealthy animals we got on craigslist. The second time, we got them from a woman who didn't believe in any kind of antibiotics or medicated feed whatsoever, and our chickens literally fell apart from the inside-out because of a stomach bacteria they pick up from crows or other birds that's usually controllable if you simply vaccinate young. It causes their intestines to dissolve so they poop them out, then they starve slowly because they can't digest their food without intestines anymore. So in short: beware craigslist sellers and don't buy into the myth the myth that just because it's on craigslist (or antibiotic-free) doesn't mean it's somehow better. Also- my farm supply store routinely gets heritage breeds, which is the only kind we have in our flocks. Most factory farms use Leghorns or other layer/meat superbreeds.
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Mar 20, 2012 16:01
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kreayshawns talent posted:My friend (let's face it) impulse bought her chicks at a farm supply store. I'm guessing they come from the same hatcheries that supply factory farms. Sorry, gonna have to agree with Peas and Rice here. The cute little chicks you see in my post? The ones that all survived being shipped none the worse for wear, are learning to come running to my hand for treats, and are growing like weeds. They come from the same hatchery that provides most Tractor Supply Company stores (and a great many other feed stores) with chicks. They are quite healthy and this is pretty much normal for hatchery supplied chicks. Whether the stores take good care of them once they get them is another issue entirely. Lots of places have laws in place requiring that you purchase at least 3-6 chicks when you buy from a feed store to discourage impulse buys (because most impulse buyers only want a chick or two). I'm sure it doesn't completely eliminate that issue, but this sort of thing does help. And I don't think that hatchery chicks are innately less healthy than craigslist birds. At least in part because you can always go research how chicks other people have bought from hatcheries did, not possible with a craigslist seller. The biggest thing with getting a hatchery bird is that it may or may not adhere well to breed specifications. For most backyard keepers this is pretty much a non-issue, since they are not looking to show the birds.
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Mar 20, 2012 16:56
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Uh, yea, I get all that about impulse buying Easter chicks, ducks, bunnies etc. but that isn't the kind of area we live in. I mean, it's possible someone clueless might wander into Bowman's on a whim, but their usual clientele knows their way around a farm. The animals there aren't being sold for Easter pets. Easter isn't the only thing going on right now. Most of the folks I see at Bowman's probably wouldn't know a Craigslist if it bit 'em in the rear end. I was only joking about the temptation. All animals are adorable to me as babies, but I wouldn't bring home anything unless I was completely prepared to take care of it. I can't speak for every feed store, but the ones I've been to have animals from farms that people know or can get to know. I have no complaints about them. I would definitely buy from a feed store before Craigslist. Actually, I probably would never use Craigslist for that purpose, but that's just me.
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Mar 20, 2012 17:09
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I want to add, because I made that post before I had enough coffee: most farm supply stores are local businesses and you can track the chicks to the hatchery and get information about how they were medicated (and if they were), where they came from exactly, etc. The clientele tends to be pretty community-based - most of them are small-scale, hobby or backyard farmers like me, and factory farms can get their chicks easier / cheaper from other locations. I have nothing inherently against getting stuff from craigslist, but the likelyhood that you end up dealing with (like we did) a well-meaning but... misguided individual who thinks they are doing the right thing, but isn't. I could go on at length about the arguments for at least basic vaccinations and medications - certainly there's no need to dose your birds full of them all the time, but it's kind of like giving your dog his shots every year, and not doing so is just irresponsible hippie crap - which you find a lot more of on CL than in your local farm store. OK, off my soapbox now.
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Mar 20, 2012 17:29
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Thanks for the feedback about the chicken nipples. I've got a few on order and they should get here tomorrow or thursday. Then I can build a new waterer and hopefully quit having to deal with all the shavings getting in. Are some breeds of chicken more inclined toward roosting than others? We gave them a place to roost a few days ago and only the SLWs seem interested. The Easter Eggers just hang out and sleep on the floor. The SLWs also seem much more interested in what lies beyond the brooder, and are much more committed to attempting to fly out of it whenever the lid is off. Also, should I be worried at all that they ate a bit less today than over the last few days? Like ~20% less than usual. I just gave them a treat and they were all still going crazy to get some, and they are drinking and behaving as normal.
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Mar 21, 2012 03:45
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