My New Family Members!!

Oh I'm in Heaven!! I just located an Auction close to my home! A friend recommended it to me and she let me know some reputable sellers! I went and got to view some new babies up close . Then I decided who would join my family and then bid on them ! I won some pretty awesome Chickies!!!! I am keeping them in there cages for a 2 week quarantine , them add them to population , as soon as know they are truly as healthy as they look!!!
The first are my beauties, A pair of Black Tail Short leg Japanese! Can you believe I only bid $5.00 apiece!!!!!! Whoooeee!!

These are a trio of Bantam Araucauna,( Easter Egg) Chickens! they are young but should lay soon !! Cant wait to see what color eggs I'll get!!!!

Now these are my funny little BB Reds! They had been mistreated and kept in a too little cage all their young lives!! They had no tail feathers and their combs were drooping!! As a matter of fact their combs werent even red they were an awful salmon color!!! After treating them too fresh greens and marigold flowers, with fresh air and water,along with wild bird feed, I was able to turn these babies loose in the pasture! As you can see they have grown back Most of their feathers and just look at those beautiful red combs!

these are my Elusive little Bantam Pheonix! the Rooster will grow a Loooooonnnngg tail when grown! They are very young yet, so havent fully feathered yet! they hate to be looked at and hide in the tall grass in the pasture! They come back to the barn at night to roost! I will have to wait till them to get really good pix!!

Oh, those black tail Japanese are beauties! Very nice! Are they calm, or short-tempered?

Hi ourfarm, They are soooo calm!!! Apparently they were hand raised! They are very fat and healthy, well cared for! I removed them from the original "SeLL" cage into their quarantine cage with no Problem. They seemed to like being handled!

Heres another view! He likes to be in the lime lite, seems to know when Im going to photo!

Those Japanese are beauts!

I thought you couldn't introduce new chickens to an established flock. I've always wondered about that, what people do with new chickens. So it isn't a problem?

Gwen

Your chickens look great, I was at an auction and all the chickens looked terrible and we didn't buy any. I have 1 little BBR and she is wonderful, hopefully next season I'll find her a mate, the males are beautiful. How big do the Black Tail Short leg Japanese get?

I like 'em, the Japenese are really showy. Great price too. Are they fully grown? How big do they get.?

calvin

Hey Y'all, Well Im sooo mad right now I could just sit down and cry!!!! I released all my newbies into the Yard with the "Old" ones! They all got along just fine! There was a little altercation between an older Black Cochin and one of the new BBR's, but my Chihuahua, Mr. P.P., broke them up and let them know he did not want them being Ugly!! So all was fine ,and I went inside to do some work! then all Heck broke loose! I heard all my babies Clacking and Shreeking !! I ran out and to my horror, A huge Hawk,had one of my BB Hens and was attempting to fly off with her!! I ran at him and he dropped her, then flew back down and grabbed her again!!! He dropped her and I was hollering and clapping my hands!!! He flew into a tree and Mama BB ran! I ran into the house for the Pellet gun and then remembered I couldnt harm him!!!! Arrrrrrghhhhhh!!! Its a no no to Shoot or harm a Hawk!!!
I ran back out and couldnt find Mama BB!!! I couldnt find her mate or the other Hen! I found the other Roo , He was hiding in the barn!!!!! That was three BB's in one day!!! I have never had any trouble with Hawks before!!! So I am so sad!!!!!
Not only will I have to keep an eye out now for hawks I can no longer let my little bantams wonder and free range!!!

Calvin,Gwen, cbrandenburg, My Japanese are all Bantams, They are grown!! I would guess they are about 11 inches tall!! My problem will be to keep them,safe,now that the hawks know I have them! I have them in an area that is about 14 ft. across and has a good 4ft tall wall ! I will have to come up with a cover until I can get pens made with tops!!

I just hate keeping my birds confined!! I guess the dreaded Chicken tractor is in their future!!!

UPDATE!!!! Yaaaaay, they were hiding!!! the gang is all here!!!! Mama BB is just missing a few feathers!!!! No punctures! Apparently Hawk was a baby learning to hunt!!!!

Whew!

My parents have a big chicken yard with wire over it. Or you could invest in some of the no-fly netting that they have in farming catalogues, and make them a big big pen to play in. Yikes! What a close call!

Yep ,close call for sure!! I was so happy that I didnt have to worry about neighbors dogs bothering them any longer, that I forgot altogether about hawks! Boy what was I thinking???
Sooooo, now I have a huge dog run, 20x20, that I will divide down to two 10x10 pens. The highth is 6 ft. I'll cap them off with netting . I already have another capped pen that houses my older birds, so now maybe I will have enough housing for a while.
I really would like to be able to provide individual pens for each trio of birds. Im hoping to raise certain breeds for show! hopefully I ll get 'er done soon!
Hmmmm, lets see, I have BBReds, Pheonix,Blacktail Japanese,Araucanas,barred Rocks,Cornish Game , Sumatras, ................ Uh forget the soon!

Beautiful, beautiful birds! I'd seen pics of the Japanese, and yours are as gorgeous as the professional pictures. And I'm SO glad the hawk didn't get them. Chickens are pretty darned smart. And bless you forever for rescuing those BB Reds. Poor things. I know they appreciate it.

Do you have a hose fairly close that you could squirt hawks with? I don't claim to know anything about it, but it sure works on cats. (No, I don't squirt my cats with a hose, but I've been known to use a watergun for certain purposes.)

Brigidlily, if you ask around, maybe you can find out if there's just a month or two when the hawks are around. Here, it's September and October when they bother the birds. I've found that one altercation will make a flock much more careful, and especially teaches the roos to watch the skies. My birds are standard size, so safer than banties, but they also know that when the bluejays scream (sounds like "HAWK!") to look around and stay near cover.

Oh my Goodness, Zeppy!! You just hit the nail on the head! I just noticed yesterday that my whole yard was surrounded by Jays, They were so noisy and my Banties would take off for their shelters!! Its as if they have come to warn and protect my babies from the hawks!! Until the hawk Scare I hadnt really noticed any Blue jays other than the occasional little Blue theif stealing chicken Scratch... Hmm maybe he was invited to dinner!!!!

The Jay Community Watch PRogram is definitely worth a little chicken feed! LOL! My girls seem to be tuned in to the other birds also. It is neat to see them listening to other birdies!

I use a cheap piantball gun on them Hawks..that was left behind by my kids...I can keep that gun handy without having to remember to load it up..lol...just aim and shoot...well ya yard might be colorful if ya miss...lol..

I love it Moodene! Paint them suckers! That way you know where the Chicken eaters are! I'll have to check out with the DNR here and see if the paint is harmful to them though! As much as I hate losing my chickies Id hate to harm the hawks too! But if the Wild life Bears say its ok , we are going to have a VERY colorful Hawk display! Yaaaaahooo!!!!

I didnt mention my new Buff Black tail Japanese! I was kind of hesitant because I didnt know whether they would make it or not! The pair was in a cage to them selves, and very obviously young! They were still baby talking or peeping! They look grown, even though that is only about 8 oz.! But I could tell since they still wanted to get underneath each others wings for safety that they had not been away from the broody hen too long!
I grabbed them up and put them into an enclosure with my White tail Japanese who were very grown up and they were happy to get the newbies! But the babies didnt even know how to drink from a waterer and refused to eat scratch from the ground, and the grass and plants in the enclosed area frightened them! So I am now giving them theTLC treatment for a while til they can fend for themselves!
I ground up some dried corn and flax seed and then added a little bit of wild bird seed! Then I figured a little vitamin C wouldnt hurt , so I ground up some bradford pears, ( didnt know what I was going to do with them before) and the babies love it!
They are very friendly and dont mind me picking them up at all! as a matter of fact they seem to want me to pay attention to them !! So it looks like I might have a pair of House pets for a little While!! Does that sound familiar to anybody????

Yummy I just love Ground up pears!

Oh, they're beautiful! Bless their little hearts. You've lucked out big time! Keep us posted!

House pets?................ Don't have a clue as to what you are talking about........LOL :)

calvin

Yep! House pets! Oh they are in their snug little coop most times but I let them out to visit and play with Mr. P.P. every now and then!

this one will give you a closer idea of just how small these juveniles are! They want get to much bigger they will however feather out more and a lot of the rough coat will smooth out! As you can see My hubby's foot is bigger than they are! They are so tame! They talk too! It almost like a pidgeon Coo instead of clucking a clacking!

WOW, I did not realize just how small bantam is.

Show pics when they fill out?

calvin

Nivlac arent they the cutest little things!!! They will be smaller than most Parrots that people keep in a cage! But I just could not do that to them, even if I wanted to! I think they benefit from being out in the open and allowed to browse on there own! Just as soon as I feel like they are able to care for themselves out they will go with the others!!

Of course, if they were any bigger they could gang up on Mr. P.P. I doubt he's easily intimidated, though.

OOOh you just dont know the half of it!!! Mr. P.P., loves anything smaller than himself! He intimidates anything his size, by standing his ground and warning, any potential attention stealer, that he will not stand for it! Then if any members of this family get to be bigger than himself , he just likes to pretend they dont exist and not worth his time or trouble!( Meaning: Stay out of sight so it wont eat me!!) LOL