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The older chicks are now 8 weeks old, and mature enough to go out into the flock...but we're having thunderstorms for the next week, so it may be delayed. Kinda mean to put baby chicks out in bad weather... I took Spam's blue legband off today, I as afraid it would start to get tight. Spam is the bigger one with the BIG tall tail and tiny vulture hocks (those long, straight thigh feathers). Both Spam and Delicious have feathered feet/legs, tho.
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Jun 6, 2023 03:45
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The older chicks are spending their first night out with the flock! If all goes well overnight, I'll reconfigure the brooder box tomorrow so the little ones can have full use of the space. In other news, we discovered today that we've got coccidiosis (a parasite, endemic pretty much wherever you have chickens and wild animals) going through the flock. Bobbie the buff Brahma rooster was hit hard and is feeling poorly, he's is in the house getting special soft foods, supportive care & meds, and the entire flock is getting an anti-coccistat. The chicks have been on medicated feed since they hatched, which has an anti-coccistat. We'll keep an eye on them, everyone should be okay. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 05:42
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*sigh...*Their first night out with the adult flock, and this morning we found Scraunch hanging upside down by one foot, she'd hooked it in the roost (don't ask me how!). She's now in the brooder box, recovering. Some scrapes, nothing seems broken. She's an unhappy girl, though. Resting & sleeping, she's had electrolytes and has a dish of assorted goodies in front of her. Gonna just mostly let her rest. Idiot chickens. 
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Jun 8, 2023 16:11
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Velvet Sparrow posted:*sigh...*Their first night out with the adult flock, and this morning we found Scraunch hanging upside down by one foot, she'd hooked it in the roost (don't ask me how!). She's now in the brooder box, recovering. Some scrapes, nothing seems broken. She's an unhappy girl, though. Resting & sleeping, she's had electrolytes and has a dish of assorted goodies in front of her. Seems unlikely that a chicken could do that to themselves on their own. If you ask me, it sounds like...  Fowl play.
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Jun 8, 2023 16:56
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get well soon Scraunch!
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Jun 8, 2023 19:36
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Man, crazy stuff going on. Hope they all keep recovering fine. Tiny Myers posted:Seems unlikely that a chicken could do that to themselves on their own. If you ask me, it sounds like...  e: so scraggly   
Captain Hygiene fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 20:50
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^^ Eyeing the evil plate of goodies. Eight hours later and Scraunch is looking better. Eating and drinking on her own, alert enough but clearly hurting. Mostly sits and keeps the babies company (still seperate), doesn't want to walk much. Heavy limp to her left leg. She needs time to heal. Older chicks are outside and experiencing their first rainy day. Not cold, we're checking them. Scrunched under a bush, they don't want to go in the run with the adults.
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Jun 9, 2023 00:34
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Get well soon Scraunch.
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Jun 9, 2023 10:43
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Warm enough for the lights to be off, babies in natural daylight! I gave them goodies in a dish this morning, but the dish is *clearly* EVIL, they wouldn't touch them until I dumped the food out onto the hay. Little heathens. Provided no other older chick drama occurs, tomorrow I'll reconfigure the brooder box...they had their first outdoor rainstorm yesterday and waited it out under a bush, did fine. Scraunch is much improved and only has a slight limp now, so she's back outside. She *should* be fine as long as she stays out of trouble! She really worried me though, when the kid first brought her in she was in bad shape and I wasn't sure she'd make it. Shock is a popular chicken-killer. Bobbie is also improving, though slowly. It takes a few days for the meds to work. He's in my bathroom, crowing and NOT happy about being inside.
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Jun 9, 2023 19:31
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Glad Scraunch and Bobbie are on the mend! Hopefully they're both fully recovered soon. Can chickens end up in bonded pairs/sets? If they do, would you try to keep them together either in your flock or in whatever home they go to?
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Jun 10, 2023 15:39
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...is this thing on? https://i.imgur.com/xI3htWb.mp4 Captain Hygiene fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jun 11, 2023 |
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Jun 10, 2023 20:25
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^^^ LOL Cao Cao, you goof.PhysicsFrenzy posted:Glad Scraunch and Bobbie are on the mend! Hopefully they're both fully recovered soon. They do bond--and conversely, decide they suddenly HATE THAT ONE GRAY HEN, fight for three days and then forget all about it. But they form new attachments quickly in whatever flock they end up in. A Head Rooster will have a Head Hen (it's never his choice, SHE decides she's top dog), and once in a while they really get along well and genuinely care for each other. It's very sweet.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:06
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Velvet Sparrow posted:They do bond--and conversely, decide they suddenly HATE THAT ONE GRAY HEN, fight for three days and then forget all about it. Awwwwww. Can you tell us more about affectionate chickens and what kind of attention they enjoy? Do they enjoy scratches on the head, the wings, et cetera? Any areas that are like "absolutely not" for most chickens, or chickens who had really weird places they liked being touched (or weird things they enjoyed in general)? Are they as warm and soft to hug as they look? Were it not for my cat and my ADHD I would definitely have gotten some kind of pet birds, I think. I just wanna go to someone's farm and snuggle the birds.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:36
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Tiny Myers posted:Awwwwww. The thing chickens enjoy most is FOOD. Live mealworms are honest to God like Crack for chickens, they go insane for them. I tried the dried ones for my birds and they wouldn't touch 'em. They like being cuddled in your lap and petting more than scritches (weird because parrots LOVE scritches). You have to use one arm to support the bird because as you pet them, they completely relax, close their eyes and almost pass out, and will slide off your lap otherwise. Chickens also love to sit in your lap and hog all of your attention, setting up a perimeter of MINE so other chickens like to jump up and oust them. You get to see the pecking order in full swing, there. All an upper chicken has to do is give that uppity youngster in your lap a single look, and they scramble to get down. 'Absolutely NOT' is the fluffy buttage area--the vent. Whenever we do have to do anything back there in No Man's Land, the hen will turn and give us SUCH a look of disbelief. Chickens are 100% as warm, soft and fluffy as they look. Holding one and petting it is the best stress reliever I know. Knocks a bad day right outta the park. EDIT--The brooder box has been revamped, the chicks have a LOT more room to chase around now! Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 12, 2023 16:04
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Happy monthiversary, time to stand on stuff!  
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Jun 14, 2023 19:11
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Captain Hygiene posted:Happy monthiversary, time to stand on stuff! I felt bad with Cao Cao left out, so we swapped out the rocks for a proper chick playground--a big cinderblock!
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Jun 14, 2023 21:11
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That's awesome, they seem like they've settled down around it and I saw Cao Cao up on top earlier, so I think it's going well.
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Jun 14, 2023 21:43
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 They’re so tall!
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Jun 14, 2023 23:41
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Oh man they got so big and feathery. Little dinosaurs with their cinderblock cave.
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Jun 15, 2023 01:46
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Captain Hygiene posted:Happy monthiversary, time to stand on stuff! That's an album cover if ever I saw one.
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Jun 15, 2023 03:01
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Neddy Seagoon posted:That's an album cover if ever I saw one. lol, for real
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Jun 15, 2023 03:44
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CJacobs posted:Oh man they got so big and feathery. Little dinosaurs with their cinderblock cave.
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Jun 15, 2023 11:47
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Velvet Sparrow posted:The thing chickens enjoy most is FOOD. Live mealworms are honest to God like Crack for chickens, they go insane for them. I tried the dried ones for my birds and they wouldn't touch 'em.  Just wanted to say thank you for satisfying my chicken curiosities. I wanna pet a chicken so loving bad. TBH especially with how stressed people are in today's society, farms should just let you pay $20 to come chill with their animals for an hour. I guess I'm describing a petting zoo but I think the ones around here are mobile petting zoos that come to your party or whatever (and are understandably expensive).
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Jun 15, 2023 17:06
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Everyone's getting up close for their glamour shots this afternoon    
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Jun 17, 2023 20:53
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Chick pics are up of the older babies, 9 weeks old now! https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2023/06/chickam-chicks-at-two-months-old-give.html The younger chicks are now a month old.
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Jun 20, 2023 01:57
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Chick pics are up of the older babies, 9 weeks old now! Cao Cao gettin ready to conquer the world, then. You take such excellent pictures of your birds 
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Jun 20, 2023 02:08
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Gosh, isn't Triffid a beautiful boy. Cao Cao was made to be a roo by virtue of his name. Let me tell you about the time he overheard a plot about how his friend was about to murder him. He killed his friend and the friend's entire househould, only to find that they were discussing how best to slaughter a pig to give him a nice dinner. After that he left like nothing had happened. "I would rather betray the world than have the world betray me." note: Romance of the Three Kingdoms is fiction and almost none of it actually happened. But it's fun
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Jun 20, 2023 02:35
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Chick pics are up of the older babies, 9 weeks old now! That's awesome, I was wondering about them lately - I figured they've gotta be full-on little chickens by now.
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Jun 20, 2023 02:39
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Chaosfeather posted:Cao Cao gettin ready to conquer the world, then. LOL, for every decent pic there's 15 that are garbage. Luckily I've got the kid to chick wrangle for me.
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Jun 20, 2023 15:14
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They're all adorable (Scraunch even moreso).
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Jun 20, 2023 16:17
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Do you have any pics you'd like to share of your grown-up chickens? I'd love to see the infamous Bobbie. It's okay if they're not fancy and posed for the camera, I'm just fascinated by Chicken Life.
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Jun 20, 2023 22:06
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Tiny Myers posted:Do you have any pics you'd like to share of your grown-up chickens?  My husband and I really want to see the rest of the flock! I think I remember seeing a few streams of them around Halloween or so, but I always miss it live.
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Jun 21, 2023 14:32
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PhysicsFrenzy posted:
The last 12 months have been absolutely brutal here weather-wise, so we couldn't put the cam outside. The laptop must go with it due to cord lengths, and it was either way too hot/cold/raining or blowing dirt/life-threatening wildfires. Once this current batch is turned out into the flock, we'll try to do a Chickam live on the flock again. Spam has developed a bit of a sneeze/wheeze thing. She's eating, drinking and carrying on normally, and the others have no symptoms. I suspect she's suffering from hayfever like I am...anyway, I'm treating her with VetRx, a few drops in her mouth and rubbed under each wing. So now I've made her a mentholated chicken and a social pariah, LOL. We'll keep and eye on everyone. EDIT: Welp, tonight Deli started sneezing and wheezing too...which means that whatever this is, is contagious. Everybody got dosed tonight and the VetRx is in their water, too. Box o' POed chickens. Meanwhile, here's some of the flock in 2020: https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2020/11/as-long-as-there-is-food-involved.html Bobbie and Swiffer (they were having a thing until she recently went broody):  Bobbie dancing for Rapunzel (he's got it bad for the shorties). In the background L to R are Kana, Bubbles and Jonesy (BTW I'm suspecting Jonesy is mama for Scraunch, Bort and Garabaldi with Bobbie as a possible dad): 
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jun 22, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 23:21
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The photos are wonderful  It’s great to see Swiffer doing well!
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Jun 22, 2023 20:01
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kaom posted:The photos are wonderful Swiffer has joined forces with Frittata to be Broody Bitches together--they share a nest box, come out to eat/dust bathe/attack unsuspecting flock members as a tag team. The little chicks have a fresh grassy (giant dandelion, actually) dirt clod to play in. Also--fair warning, Cao Cao is crowing and it has all the ear-bleeding charm of fork tines being screeched across a plate. 
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Jun 22, 2023 20:49
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Lol, hopefully I'll catch that at some point, little chicks learning to crow is always funny. Cao Cao seems pretty early from what I (vaguely) remember back in the day, so I looked it up and found a couple people saying roosters can start crowing at 6-8 weeks, with most sources saying even later. Don't believe everything you read, I guess.
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Jun 22, 2023 21:35
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He's at it now! 
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Jun 24, 2023 17:02
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The chicks have hit the 6 week mark, so they'll be on 1/2 chick food, 1/2 adult rations from now on. Also, it's nice and warm now (as in, it's 100 damned degrees outside), so the flamingo light will be off to get them used to dark nights. Starting tomorrow, the chicks will go out into the small run for a few hours each day to get them used to being outside, and the adult flock used to them. The cam will be off during that time, back on at night. Two more weeks of Chickam to go! VVV Aren't YOU funny. By the time this ends, I will have had chickens in my house for 3 months. Needless to say, they joyfully spread dirt, hay, etc. I have to go on a hardcore housecleaning spree. We will get the camera out on the flock periodically after Chickam ends, follow Chickam2008 on Twitter for updates when it'll happen--usually on weekends. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jun 30, 2023 |
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Jun 30, 2023 13:41
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Two more weeks of Chickam to go! Before the next hatch, right? 
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Jun 30, 2023 15:24
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Corn on the cob and watermelon? These chickens are eating better than me today! 
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Jul 1, 2023 22:03
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