Chicks, man.

Fun!  In the last post, I mentioned a chick that was found later in the day after the first 5.  This is it.

It's a bit lighter than the other patterned one.  A thing I noticed was that its beak is colored.  The other one, even though it's darker, has a pink beak.  Got me wondering sooo.....

Looky there...5 toes.  I think this is a Silky Cochin.  Silkies have black skin which is why the colored beak caught my eye.  That's definitely possible, I have the one partridge Silky hen.  I got rid of all the other odd breeds so my Cochins could mingle freely, but decided I didn't mind if there were Silky/Cochin crosses.  Can't wait to see what this looks like later.

Got a better idea of colors and maybe sexes.  Looks like 2 buffs, 1 white, 1 birchen (the aforementioned darker patterned), and the white patterned one.  I think now that it will be patterned and not pure white (yay!) because the wing feathers are coming in very dark.  And whatever color the Silky Cochin is.  I'll say birchen or partridge.  Cool!  Lots of pretty colors.  As to sexes, I'm using a hint I read that the ones that have wing feathers at hatch or before others are hens.  If so, got plenty of those in this little clutch.  We'll see how accurate that is later.

A friend blogged about how she raises chicks.  Thought I'd talk about how I do it.  This might not work for anyone who raises a large number of chicks but it works for my small scale operation.  I can raise 6-8 bantam chicks at time in this smaller bin.  I have had more, but it does get crowded after a while.  I do have 2 of these so I can split them up if necessary.

This is set up in a back bedroom.  I like having it near to keep an eye on things.  I'm changing water several times a day for the first few days because the water dish is so small.  There's actually stages for the dishes.  The first day or so, the water is in a small plastic jar lid.  They can't drown in it.  Once they are drinking and walking well, I move up to a small pet dish.  I think it was meant for hamsters or something.  It's flared at the bottom like a dog dish so it won't tip over.  The food dish is a shallow plastic thing.  I don't remember what it was originally.

I start the chicks on newspaper at first.  I know this isn't recommended because it can cause leg problems as the chicks move around on the slippery paper, but it hasn't been a problem for me.  They are only on the paper for 3 days.  I discovered I hated raising them on shavings.  I tried shavings on top of paper, and it ended up in the water and food dish.  I was cleaning out the water dish too many times a day.  And it got stinky real fast.  I tried a piece of wire on top of shavings to keep it from being kicked around and that was a little better but still way too smelly.  There is also a risk the chicks could become trapped under the wire.  That happened with the guinea keets.

After 3 days, they're strong enough to go on wire.  I made the insert to fit inside the bin.  It's rabbit floor wire on the bottom with plastic mesh forming the sides.  I had the mesh for something else and it's too small for them to get their heads stuck.  I just put paper under the insert.  Perfect!  No fouled water or food, and it's so much easier to clean.  I just pick up the insert, chicks and all, and replace the paper.  There's a flange on the floor wire to hold it a little above the paper, and they can reach the paper to peck at food that falls there.  They also graduate to the large water crock and chick feeder.  After a couple weeks, they will move into the larger bin which also has a custom insert.  That one has a hinged top as well.  You'd be surprised how high chicks can jump once their wings grow out.

The heat lamp is used for as long as I think the chicks need it.  Usually 2-3 weeks, but that depends on the weather.  When it gets warm outside, the room is also warmer.  The bulb is just a 60 watt household bulb.  It's puts out enough heat, and I always have some on hand.  If the chicks aren't huddled under it or shivering, they're warm enough.  If I see them panting, it's definitely too hot and I'll either reposition the lamp or remove it.  I keep them in the house for a while longer without the lamp.

If all goes well weather-wise, I move the big bin out to the rabbit barn when the chicks are well-feathered.  It has to be consistently above freezing at night before I'll move them out.  By this time, I'm over having them in the house because the odor is too strong.

After they've acclimated to the barn and outside temps,  they'll go out in the pen in the transition cage.  This is an old 24x24 rabbit cage.  I flipped it over so the bottom is the larger gauge wire on the top of the cage.  This gives the chicks access to the dirt under the cage.  The first thing they do when they realize there's dirt is dust bathe.  It's kind of comical to see how much they wanted that dust bath.  I guess under more natural conditions, they would have it much sooner.  They are also ready to perch so there's one in the cage.  I move the cage every day to give them clean dirt underneath.  This also saves feed.  If they scatter it on the ground, and they will, they can easily clean it up.  I give feed in an old rabbit J-feeder, and water in a clamp-on parrot cup.  They stay in the cage until I think they are big enough to be allowed out into the pen.  Then I open the cage door so they can come and go as they please.  They return to it to eat, drink, and roost, and also to escape the older birds.  The pen is kept closed during this time which means most of the adults have to stay out.  They get used to getting their feed and water outside the pen, although a broody hen might be locked up with the chicks because that's where the nestboxes are.

I'm in the process of converting an old 4 foot dog cage into a better chick cage.  They'll be able to live in that for longer, and I can take it out on the grass.  The chickies will enjoy that.  Photos when I finish it.

tnt

This week at SCG

So this happened yesterday.

What is wrong with spring this year?!  I haven't seen such a crappy March since I've been here.  It's not even the snow, that's not a big deal here, it's the cold.  I'm tired of being cold, and I've got things to do outside.  This is what spring is like in Michigan, and I moved down here to get away from that.

My poor daffs have been frozen and snowed on so many times.  They've been blooming since the middle of February!

This is also the first time in 9 years I've had spring fever.  For me, the main symptoms of spring fever are depression and sometimes unreasonable pissed-offness.  In MI, you get teased and denied spring weather well into May, and it's rough on the mood.  Here, reliably good weather comes early enough that I don't have time to get depressed about it.  Or at least it did until this year.  I get through February by believing that March will be much better, but here it is the end of March and it still looks and feels like February.  I am not content these days.

In other news.

Buffy hatched these little pretties on Sunday.  At first, there was 5, and then I found another later that day.  I can take a guess about colors.  The solid blondies are probably buff and/or white.  The lightest patterned chick (top right) might be white, too, but I hope not.  One of Buffy's last year started out a lot like that and then became pure white.

The 2 darker patterned ones might not be Buffy's.  The hens share nests.  I think they're birchens.  There's 2 birchen hens and the only roos are birchen and red.  Red is the alpha roo, but I've seen Bert hit on a hen when Red wasn't looking.

This is Buffy and her last clutch last year.  Sadly, none survived to maturity.

The other hens are sharing the other boxes and there have been PILES of eggs since early February!  What happens to them all?  It's been so freezing cold, any eggs that I don't see hens sitting on for any length of time get tossed over the fence into the field for the crows.  Yeah, the crows eat them.  A friend mentioned that she tossed "bad" eggs out into the yard for the crows.  Shortly after that, I saw my crows carrying off the eggs they found over there.  I suppose I could eat some of those eggs, but again, they've probably been frozen.  I'll only eat eggs I find fresh and I can't tell which those are when several new eggs appear in each nest every day.  When it gets to be too many, I toss them.  How many is too many?  I have chucked close to 2 dozen at a time, leaving 4 or so to keep the hens laying in the box.  That's a PILE!

Buffy is still sitting on 6 eggs that haven't hatched yet.  I'm not sure if they're bad, or if they're younger.  I did move some from the pile in another box to her clutch.  I'm also thinking about moving some more that way since she's my proven broody.  At this time, there's always 2 hens hunkered down in that other box at the same time and they get quite pissed if I try to see what's going on under them.  Buffy doesn't get as angry about it.

I also learned another thing about hens.  They talk to their babies.  The day I discovered Buffy's had hatched, she was softly clucking.  A sound I hadn't heard any other time.  Sure enough, when I gently picked her up, there were chicks under her.  So now I know how to tell eggs have hatched.  I had also jotted a note about when I expected them to hatch based on when she went broody.  I was spot on, BTW.

In rabbit news, not much new.  I have to get pictures of Daydreamer's 2 little boys.  They are about 5 weeks old now.  The keeper is a nicely broken silver marten.  Not crazy about the fact that he's a silver marten, but I'll see how he grows up.  The other is an otter "hotot".  That's what I call it when they only have color on the eyes and ears.  He's the one with the type of course!  He's way too cute for something I really can't use.  I'm almost tempted to keep him for a pet, except that I can't justify keeping bunnies for that reason.  I'll see how I feel about it when someone hits me up for a pet when he's ready to go.  Been getting the usual Easter bunny inquiries, but I have nothing else available.

Baroquen's 3 are doing well and they are all nicely broken black otters.  The other doe that was due right after her failed, but she actually did pretty well for a 1st-timer.  The kits weren't mangled or stretched which is a good sign for success in the future.  Next litters are due in about 2 weeks.  Sure hope the weather gets better by then!

tnt

St. Patty's babies - 3/16/13

Or close enough to St. Patrick's Day to say so.  Baroquen x Smith's Boo made my day.  She has 3 beautiful brokens.  I'm also calling it my lucky birthday litter.  Hmmm, green might be the theme for names.

Baroquen is one of my favorite brood does.  She's also the oldest in the current herd.  Still producing like crazy, and she hardly ever fails.  One of the best things about her is that she always throws nice brokens.  This time, it was 3/5.  Last litter (died of cold) was 2/2.  Before that 4/4.  There's almost always a keeper or two.  The litter of 4/4, 2 had her gorgeous bold pattern which she had never thrown before.  I kept the 2 does from that litter and one has the pattern.

I had Baroquen up for sale a while back thinking I was done with her, but then took her down and bred her when I didn't get any bites.  That's also when I got the 2 new bucks.  So glad no one bought her then.

She might go up for sale after this litter, or I might repeat the sire(s) one more time.  I'll see how I feel about that when I see how this litter turns out.  I'd like to try Smith's Lou again because I didn't get the chocolate I was expecting from that pairing.  Maybe the genetic dice will roll in my favor next time.

All the other does are bred, and a 1st timer is due Monday.  Here's hoping St. Patty and Baroquen's success bring good luck for more spring litters.

It's finally like spring here!  71 as I write this.  Bout time.  It's been too cold and it snowed a couple days ago.  Yeah yeah, I know, it's just March.  But it's March in the south, ya'll.  It's supposed to be better by now.  

3 days until SPRING!