I love chickens.
I don't know why. Maybe because they are very non-judgemental. The roosters don't care if the hen is a different breed, I'm not even sure if they care about the breed of animal ... very non-judgemental.
They also take care of each other - just kidding, they pick on each other all the time, especially the hens. It's like mean girls in the coop during the winter. Now that it's summer, the Leghorns (white hens) have all grown their feathers back and don't look like they are suffering from mange or something.
Some of our older hens, the red ones of unknown breed because I never bothered to ask, are kind of ... dying. Except one. They are old, like 5 or 6 ... or ... somewhere in there. They aren't even laying any eggs anymore. #slackers. #eatingforfree
Batoche is getting their hens (and one rooster) back for the summer. I don't know if they are coming back for the winter but I'm keeping Henrietta because she has been broody once and raised a chick. Little Peep, who we just separated from her. We still don't know if Little Peep is a boy or a girl ... I change it to he or she every day. Will that confuse her? Meh. We've also caught little Peep and started taming him. Today William was able to catch her! Usually it takes all of us cornering him.
I also managed to hatch 4 chicks in an incubator Corey built me! It was super exciting and we (I) pretty much sat in front of it for 3 straight days while they hatched. There were some problems though and out of 16 eggs ... only 4 ... hatched. That's awkward. And one had to be put down because it's legs were broken. Also - another one - my favorite - died. It got squished by a board and I feel sick when I think about it. He was super, super tame. There are still 2 left, one of them is from William's egg he claimed. It's name is Lightning and it's SUPER neat looking. Leghorn X Barred Rock Rooster. I can't wait to see it grow up. The other one is getting very fluffy with darker bars I think ... it might be a little pullet (hen) I hope so!
I have 30 more eggs in the incubator but I'm not worried about getting 30 more chicks. At my hatch rate I'll be lucky to get ... 6. Plus they are sold already to someone who was looking for some barred rock chicks.
We also ordered some chicks from the hatchery. We ordered before we knew I would like to incubate. We ordered 25 meat chicks, 25 laying hens and 10 barred rocks. We got 25 meat chicks that look like the 25 laying chicks .... and 10 brown mysterious chicks. After getting in touch with the hatchery they offered us to get 10 barred rocks (if they have enough) or refund us. If we can't get the barred rock chicks I will ask if they can send us more meat chicks I think instead. Maybe. I better decide soon.
Anyways, we don't know what breed the brown chicks are but we have it narrowed down to Rhode Island Reds or New Hampshire Reds. We will have to wait and see. Also - I can now tell the difference between the meat chicks and the laying chicks LOL. More on that another day.
And Now ... chick pictures
I don't know why. Maybe because they are very non-judgemental. The roosters don't care if the hen is a different breed, I'm not even sure if they care about the breed of animal ... very non-judgemental.
They also take care of each other - just kidding, they pick on each other all the time, especially the hens. It's like mean girls in the coop during the winter. Now that it's summer, the Leghorns (white hens) have all grown their feathers back and don't look like they are suffering from mange or something.
Some of our older hens, the red ones of unknown breed because I never bothered to ask, are kind of ... dying. Except one. They are old, like 5 or 6 ... or ... somewhere in there. They aren't even laying any eggs anymore. #slackers. #eatingforfree
Batoche is getting their hens (and one rooster) back for the summer. I don't know if they are coming back for the winter but I'm keeping Henrietta because she has been broody once and raised a chick. Little Peep, who we just separated from her. We still don't know if Little Peep is a boy or a girl ... I change it to he or she every day. Will that confuse her? Meh. We've also caught little Peep and started taming him. Today William was able to catch her! Usually it takes all of us cornering him.
I also managed to hatch 4 chicks in an incubator Corey built me! It was super exciting and we (I) pretty much sat in front of it for 3 straight days while they hatched. There were some problems though and out of 16 eggs ... only 4 ... hatched. That's awkward. And one had to be put down because it's legs were broken. Also - another one - my favorite - died. It got squished by a board and I feel sick when I think about it. He was super, super tame. There are still 2 left, one of them is from William's egg he claimed. It's name is Lightning and it's SUPER neat looking. Leghorn X Barred Rock Rooster. I can't wait to see it grow up. The other one is getting very fluffy with darker bars I think ... it might be a little pullet (hen) I hope so!
I have 30 more eggs in the incubator but I'm not worried about getting 30 more chicks. At my hatch rate I'll be lucky to get ... 6. Plus they are sold already to someone who was looking for some barred rock chicks.
We also ordered some chicks from the hatchery. We ordered before we knew I would like to incubate. We ordered 25 meat chicks, 25 laying hens and 10 barred rocks. We got 25 meat chicks that look like the 25 laying chicks .... and 10 brown mysterious chicks. After getting in touch with the hatchery they offered us to get 10 barred rocks (if they have enough) or refund us. If we can't get the barred rock chicks I will ask if they can send us more meat chicks I think instead. Maybe. I better decide soon.
Anyways, we don't know what breed the brown chicks are but we have it narrowed down to Rhode Island Reds or New Hampshire Reds. We will have to wait and see. Also - I can now tell the difference between the meat chicks and the laying chicks LOL. More on that another day.
And Now ... chick pictures
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| Female? Barred Rock chick and meat chick |
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| Lightning in the background, 2 barred rocks (including the one that died) and the ordered chicks |
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| This is my baby that died. :( |
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| Little Peep ... not so little anymore! 6 weeks ... maybe 7 weeks. Born April 20th |
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