There is nothing like seeing the baby and the red hen gently squabble over a fat worm (the hen usually wins).
Why I have chickens...
They've been friends since they both hatched.
Awww It's best picture! It should be the photo of the day!!!! I love it!
That is an adorable baby and totally overshadows those silly chickens!! Well, the chicks are okay, but that baby is a doll!!! Are there siblings??
... and the soil looks nice too! Love those pics Zeppy, you should send them in to Backyard Poultry Magazine...
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Didn't even know there was such a mag; I'll have to look at it. Sherry, that's the youngest one. The others are 6,5, and 2.
Zeppy, those are so cute. I still have photos of me when I was that age, out sitting with the chickens and ducks. I loved being around the animals from the beginning. BAM
Adorable ! Pictures like that are priceless ! You are one lucky mom. I sure enjoyed my kids when they were that age. Now they're all grown up.
Wow, I don't know how you do it all !!!!! 4 kids, age 6 and under, a home, a garden, chickens. My goodness. I bet you sleep good once your head finally hits the pillow at night. I bet you eat Wheaties every morning too ! hehe.
Gonna go get me a bowl full right now..................and see if I can find that bottle of Geritol too..................lol, I'm getting tired just thinking about all the energy you must have. :-)
Thanks, Peggie, Ha ha, me high energy? Try extra-lazy. I do have an excellent husband who does at least as much as I do with the kids and probably more. Unfortunately, he's down with strep and the kids are down with that most evil of tummy bugs, rotavirus. It's all doing laundry and bleach spray here lately... sigh...
I need to post a new pic of the baby chicks we have...
yes, pelase do!
Bad pic, but here they are. Light Brahmas, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Black Australorps, and one mystery chick that looks a lot like the one someone else got from McMurray...
Cute chicks. Looks as if there should be a caption for the one on the right side of pic. What do you suppose he'd be saying ?
Hey everyone, pitch in, lets see what he's saying............................?
I bet he's my little rooster, the Light Brahma. He's the one who's always alert. Last time, that was my rooster.
"pay attention everyone, this is our first baby portrait!"
Zeppy, it looks like our Tweeter! :-)
So how did you manage to get so few from McMurray?
I traded them one of my kids.
No, I went in with some friends who live nearby. :) McMurray really should set up a share board just for people who want smaller numbers to connect on, but I'm lucky: almost all my friends keep small flocks and are happy to share an order.
Yep, probably an Ameraucana!
I have 13 babies. 12 are black & white pure bred Bantams (forgot their breed), crossed with 1/2 'wild' Bantams, it is possible I have pure bred, black/white Bantams, time will tell. Well, when I went out to check them mid morning, today (last chick hatched about 6am today) I thought my grands had played a trick - I found one HUGE, red-ish chick in the Bantam nest. My goodness, I didn't know for sure, until school was out, that it was indeed the chick whelped, ooops, excuse me, hatched this am. All other babies have feathers on their legs, except Big Red, and she/he is beautiful, eyes look like they are outlined in jet black kohl, I was just flabbergasted. It was no joke, it's just a big red baby. The other hens tried to peck it, they meant business, but we got them all out this afternoon and patched things up, but we will take no chances, we watch it every second when it is anywhere near the two hens. My Golden joined us as usual today, for the babies first outing and he LOVES the babies, he loves all the chickens, you would think the babies were his, and Big Red looks like it could be his - maybe there was a Golden in the hen house, ya think??!!
LOL Sherry
The hens were so mean to Big Red this am, he's just 18 hours old, and he was smart enough to get in a corner, under hay, I whipped him away and set him, his two hatch mates, and three other babies (one from each hen) together in their own apartment, about 3 feet off the ground in a pen with 9 teen bantam youngsters. I'll integrate him slowly until those naughty hens learn to behave. My hubby and I think that when it grows up, Big Red will be the boss of the chickens yard and very handsome too. He is adorable!! Poor baby being stuck there with those mean hens...
So the bantams are being okay to Red? I'm glad you removed him; it takes no time to kill a baby that age.
The Bantam babies are most cordial to the three chicks that hatched four days after them. It was their mommas who pecked Big Red. The best think about today is that ALL chickens are safe. I examined the crate I put the 13 babies in and it was fine, without any place for the babies to get out. Then I went in for a bottle of water and heard a terrible disruption from the chickens, by the time I got to the chicken yard, it was raining babies, who managed to force their way outta the crate AND the second fence below. Big Red was stuck in the exit which stopped him and three more from getting out. So, all I had to do was collect the other 9. When I started to pick up the very last one, she had a cricket in her mouth and the three adult hens immediately tried to take it from her. She hung on for dear life and I hand lifted her and the cricket into the crate which I had repaired. And, she did NOT share it with anyone. We had a little runt chick which is also greatly improved since the chicks have been moved to their own crate. Who knew baby chicks would be just as 'bad' as a litter of puppies, whew!!
whew, i read that with awful anitcipation!!!
glad they are in and safe.
today i moved my twelve "runts" into their separate cage in the poultry house. they are now surprisingly not much smaller than those that were much bigger than them at two weeks. somehow, separating by size [they were all the same age] evened out the odds! wanted to share that info with anyone who runs into this dilemna, it is worth it to separate them! the big guys are just plain mean little hogs to the little ones!!!
i am surpirsed, though, that the "teen" [i guess you mean teenage?] youngsters accepted the newly hatched.... please watch just to be sure, it makes me nervous that the little ones won't get as much food or water... you could likely put a simple divider between them for a week or two...
tf
That's sort of what I did with my younger ones. I made a little area inside the big pen with chicken wire attached to the wall and curved over to the ground that made a safe place for the little ones to run when the bigger ones got too mean. The opening was only big enough for the little guys, so they learned to get in there when things got too tough. I was surprised at how well it worked. I guess I was more surprised that the little guys were smart enough to know to run in there. Instinct for survival.
After a couple weeks, they grew, the older chickens got used to them and things settled down. But there's still definately a pecking order.
well, today i released the runts out with the bigguns! the smalls are about 75% or more the size of the others... a few came out willingly, the rest were "removed" LOL. i will watch for several days to see if there are any feathers laying around or any extrra squaling going on. then it will be tiem for hte hospital birds to go into the cage. i still have to order the leg tags, as these guys are named and have been held a lot, so we want to continue doing that. it is getting harder to tell them apart just from each other now. well, except Tiny lol
After I have quarrentined any new birds for two weeks or when I introduce older chicks to the flock, I keep them in a holding cage in the henhouse for a week or so. It is a pain to feed and water them from in there but I have noticed that it greatly reduces the attacks the other birds make on the newbies. They can stare at them and threaten them through the safety of the cage and also get familar with them without so much torture. They still do it but it's not nearly as bad as when I simply used to toss the newbies in.
Diane/Mid-Michigan