who has chickens

littlejo wrote:Rose, good picks! And yes, it will be interesting to see what color the eggs are. While they are young, if you put your hand right in front of them, and tell them to step up, helping them onto your hand, they will eventually learn this, then when they are full grown, they will step up for you. Be sure to pet them too. My DH has done this with ours and they come a running to see who can step up first. Makes it easier to gather the eggs for they get off nests in a hurry. Also makes them easy with the feet, no clawing.
Jo

What interesting advice to someone like me who has never dealt with chicks or chickens.  When our city gives us permission to have a few hens each, I will remember this. 

oh rose, they're adorable!!! I'll bet the little ones are loving them!!! congrats on your flock!! Ours are finally getting into the compost pile to start their magic. they're so cute, they scratch like mad and find goodies and the others come running!! Have fun!!

Thank you everyone

great advice littlejo!!.....the chicks are already getting on to our hands while getting a treat....they LOVE dried mealworms   we have also provided a small container with some dirt and its a BIG hit! 

Big Bird our Buff Orpington who is the really light yellow fluffy chick, has been teaching the others how to dust bath    lots of scratching and flicking dirt everywhere...its so cute....when one of them finds a goodie (dry meal worm) they will make this cute chirping sound and run around the brooder saying.....mine, mine, mine,......and everyone chases her around....ha ha ha

its interesting, they are already getting the pecking order down....they are still working on it, but you can tell who is at the top and who is at the bottom....

the bottom of the pecking order is *Penny* our Black Australorp.....she is the smallest, quietest and meek of the birds.....

*Red* our Rhode Island Red we believe she is top Chick....she is the first and smartest when it comes to new things....and when she wakes up....she is the loudest to chirp waking up everyone else LOL my daughter and I fear she is a roo.......

then we have *WhyNot* our Golden Laced Wyandotte.....( her name came from my husband at the feed store....we were only to get 5 chicks, but the feed store said the min was 6....I looked at my husband and he said why not....LOL and picked out her out as the last chick) she is in the middle of the pecking order who makes sure Penny knows it...as WhyNot tends to pick on Penny to remind her that she is the bottom of the order....

our daughters Blue Ameraucana  *Sa-fear* (not sure how she is spelling her name) she is the thief....she steals treats from others instead of scratching and pecking for her self.... LOL...she is also the fastest runner   

*Big Bird* is the teacher and looks out for Penny......

*Thunder*, who use to be Mikey, who use to be Butter cup, is our son Barred Rock, she is very sweet and will sit in his hands....she is in the middle of the pack...

hugs,
rose

Stepping up! Sort of like with parakeets and parrots.

I don't have chickens, but I love reading the stories here.

sanderson wrote:Stepping up!  Sort of like with parakeets and parrots.

I don't have chickens, but I love reading the stories here.

Same here!  I love reading the stories about everybody's cute critters! 

GG

Goosegirl wrote:

sanderson wrote:Stepping up!  Sort of like with parakeets and parrots.

I don't have chickens, but I love reading the stories here.

Same here!  I love reading the stories about everybody's cute critters! 

GG

Me too, Goosegirl and sanderson

Thought I would share our chicks brooder that hubby made   they will stay in here until they get to big, and by then we hope hubby will have their house done outside...but for now they are in our study room and we love them!

2 clear plastic rubber maid containers with a screen on top of one and holes cut in to the top of the other.....one tote is where the heat lamp, water dish, food dish and a small roosting area for them to practice sitting on a roost.....




the 2nd tote is connected to the first one......hubby built them a tunnel to go back and forth from....



the 2nd tote is where they have some rocks, stick, swing, ladder and some dirt to scratch and peck in.....the lid is off so you cant see the swing, and the container with dirt is out because we are refilling it and need to let the dirt dry from outside...but they love in it here....they are hard at work making compost for the garden!



top view of the 2 totes



a few pic's of sweet babies

BIG BIRD



center black bird looking straight at you.....who use to be skittles, butter cup, Mickie, lightning and now THUNDER...and the pretty one below her is ZAPHYR



this is Penny



The container is a bit dusty so Im not sure if you are able to see these funny chicks who have their bodies mushed up against the plastic wall of the container because they were so excited to hear and see me vaccum the room   they are such curious little peeps!



happy farming
rose

Rose, those chicks have the Hilton! nice set up. I broke my "rule" about chickens being chickens, but have gotten infatuated with Golden Laced Wyandotte and Silver Laced Wyandottes!! They look so beautiful! My sweet hubby is sooo very patient with me, and I have 3 of each (chicks) coming on Monday. Rose, what does you Golden Laced Wyandotte look like?? I've always just gotten "good layers", but I just love the pics of them!! Can't wait! Sounds like it's going to be a "deal" to integrate with the others, but I think we can do it!!

here is our Golden Laced Wyandotte   she is the first bird on the top



cant wait to see your new babies!

happy farming
rose

oh she's so cute! the guy said he was gonna deliver Friday, my grandson sat outside for hours waiting and begged me to call the guy. I did, and he said, "Oh, we're not coming until Monday or Tuesday". Boy, that went over like a lead balloon!! Can't wait for them. I'm just hoping I can integrate them when the time comes without someone getting beaten up too badly ;/

SG, Great set-up for them the "practice!" They are so, so cute.

Welp, we got our Silver and gold laced Wyandottes just now! My grandson quickly put them away! He's been sitting here all morning waiting lol. i hope they turn out as beautiful as the pictures we've seen! Anyone else have these??

SG, I have raised both in the past. They are my one of my favorite breeds, very pretty and very hardy and long lived here. For me they lay till very old age. I have had a hard time getting replacement chicks over the last number of years so I am excited to see them available again.

SG,  Happy grandson!  If the delivery man didn't show up today there would have been a very disappointed young man.  

Good news Turan!  thanks! Yes, Sanderson, you got that right. They're here and are pretty cute Need to get a little more size on them to integrate with the White Leghorn's we got a few weeks ago

My little grand daughter got to see the new additions today! She was so excited, wanted to name them Elsa and Anna after the "Frozen" movie. I HOPE you can see them behind her. They're so cute, and so is she :)hehe, said the proud Gramma!!

SG....your grandchildren are precious!!!....your baby chicks are pretty cute too!

don't you love being a grandma!!....we have 3 granddaughters.....age 10 years old....8 months old and 4 months old.....I love it!!!

kind of funny....our youngest son was born 3 years AFTER I became a grandma for the first time   talk about a SURPRISE baby.....our oldest and youngest are 20 years apart!   ....I wouldn't trade it for the world!

hugs
rose

I'd sure enjoy having some chickens around, wife said I could move into the coup with them if I got em.
I told her !!! I can't find a coup big enough, so I'll give up on that one....

 

jimmy cee wrote:I'd sure enjoy having some chickens around, wife said I could move into the coup with them if I got em.
I told her !!! I can't find a coup big enough, so I'll give up on that one....

Then build one, jimmy, and make it nice an comfortable for both you and the chickens. They would appreciate it.

FamilyGardening wrote:SG....your grandchildren are precious!!!....your baby chicks are pretty cute too!

don't you love being a grandma!!....we have 3 granddaughters.....age 10 years old....8 months old and 4 months old.....I love it!!!

kind of funny....our youngest son was born 3 years AFTER I became a grandma for the first time   talk about a SURPRISE baby.....our oldest and youngest are 20 years apart!   ....I wouldn't trade it for the world!

hugs
rose

Yes Rose, being a Gramma is the BEST! I can't imagine your surprise! I thought there for a while I was gonna be in the same boat as you!! After the "test", I sighed a big sigh of relief, but also would have loved one more It's so good for the kids to be with animals. Our littlest grandson is 2, and he was down with the pigs yesterday, those are his favs
Jimmy, I wonder why your wife is so against the chickens? they're easy and quiet and you get the BEST eggs you'll ever eat? Maybe try again later hehe!!

A Man "Cage"

Kelejan wrote:

jimmy cee wrote:I'd sure enjoy having some chickens around, wife said I could move into the coup with them if I got em.
I told her !!! I can't find a coup big enough, so I'll give up on that one....

Then build one, jimmy, and make it nice an comfortable for both you and the chickens. They would appreciate it.

Great idea, however I don't like chicken feed...

Time sure if flying by fast with our baby chicks....they are growing up!

the chicks are getting in most of their feathers and losing their baby fluff....

Monday they turned 3 weeks old and that after noon was full of sunshine.... so hubby and I made up a temp play yard outside....who says a green house is only for plants LOL

we have one of those small fences that is used to keep puppies in....so we thought hey that is the perfect size for our baby chicks to have a little out side play time....so we set it up half in the green house and half out onto the grass and put their heat lamp at the end so they had a place to warm up if needed   in side the green house it stayed about 80-90 so it seemed warm enough for them.....

hubby and our son cut some branches and laid them across the dog fencing so the birds could have some roosts to play on...they also laid some pine limbs across the roost so the chicks had places to run and hide.....our chicks had a blast!....we laughed and laughed....they were so cute running, jumping, chirping and playing what looked like tag and a bit of football.....(most likely finding a pecking order)..... just like a school yard full of little kids.....

it was great they were able to go out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for a few hours.....they loved scratching for worms & bugs and on Wednesday they discovered they loved to nip off the tips of the grass.....

today it was cold and rainy and the babies were not able to go out side....boy are they upset....tomorrow we are going to rig it so its covered more and it wont matter if its rainy.....

I will post some pics we took when im at our other computer   

SG what are your baby chicks up too?

Hi Rose, our chickens are doing really well. The bigger White Leghorns have accepted the Golden and Silver Laced Wyandottes as family, so that's good!
The Wyandottes are sooo pretty! Can't wait for them to get their real feathers.
One of the big ones got out of the pen today and LUCKILY nothing killed it. We can't figure out how it got out. We can't find any holes anywhere.
There are two big hawks that sit in a pine tree and look at them all day. They got one of them a couple of weeks ago, and it was only out for no more than an hour!!
Our dog will get it too, so phew!!
Glad yours are doing well! please post some pics! Ours have figured out how to get in/out of the compost pile and are loving scratching away for any goodies they can find

Talk to you soon :0) God bless........