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Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Hey, it’s Chickam time again, and this is our 15th year, yay!

You can watch the hatch, with sound and chat, here:
https://www.youtube.com/@jackshenhouse/live

Want to help support Chickam? Wow, we LOVE you, thanks!
Go to my Jack's Henhouse chicken info site, scroll down to the bottom, and you can click on a big blue Paypal button if you want to make a donation:

http://jackshenhouse.com/


What The Hell Is *Chickam* You Ask?
Why it’s a live webcam feed of baby chicks hatching in my ReptiPro incubator, in my dining room! After the hatch, we’ll move the cam to the brooder box for the next 8 weeks, it will run 24/7, with sound, so you can watch the chicks grow up! You will also hear our family, since the chicks are taking over my dining room for the next 8 weeks.

If you have a question, fire away!

Hope everyone is ready for some hot chick action, ‘cause we’ve got eggs pipped and chicks on the way…

How Many?
This year, we started with 28 in the incubator, a variety of standard and bantam sizes. All of the bantam eggs are from our flock, but this year we bought some mixed-breed eggs from a neighbor in our valley. Unfortunately, when I candled the neighbor’s eggs, most were cracked—it seems he has an egg eater in his flock. So out of the 28 eggs, 25 eggs were from from our flock, the remaining 3 were from our neighbor’s hens.
After ten days I candled the eggs, 10 eggs were duds and were removed. On Lockdown day (three days before hatch) I candled again and removed three more late quitters. Two more eggs are questionable, but I left them in the incubator to give them every chance.


That leaves us with us with 11 eggs that have embryos! 9 are ours, 2 are from the neighbors. So a possible hatch of 11, though it will likely be less than that. Mother Nature ultimately makes the call and sometimes pulls the plug at the last minute. Bantam eggs like to hatch a day or so earlier then the usual incubation period of 21 days, though!

Of these eggs, eggs from Spork #6 (Barred Rock, Chickam class of '21), Sesame #7 (Smokey Pearl, Chickam class of '22) and Brick #4 (bantam Cochin/d'Uccle mix, Chickam class of '19) all have embryos! Only one other bantam egg besides Brick's has an embryo, and it might be a late quitter.



I kinda blame so many duds (and possibly the early quitters) on our extra-harsh and cold winter. Even though we gathered eggs 2-4 times a day, they were always very cold. Several feet of snow on the ground since December 31st, and we still have low 40's days/low 20's nights (I think we've only broken 50 degrees two days since Jan 1).

We're once again using our brooder box that we broke down and built last year:


So Club Flamingo is ‘Go!’


Thanks to two very generous Goons, devicenull and pisciesbobbie we were able to update and add new equipment this year! You can read all about the cool new stuff on my blog:
https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/


Will There Be A Mama Hen This Year?
Nope. Not this year, no one has gone broody. Again, I blame this long-rear end winter that’s been hanging on like an angry ex.

What’s With The Missing Sequential Numbers Of Eggs?
I candled (shined a bright light through each egg in a darkened room to see if there was an embryo inside) the eggs 10 days in and again on day 18 of incubation and removed some duds, that’s why you’ll see a break in the numerical sequence of the eggs.

In addition to being numbered, the neighbor’s eggs are marked with an ‘N’ at the large end of the egg. Also, each egg is marked with an X on one side and an O on the other, this is for us to keep track of which egg was turned every time we turned the eggs—5 times a day for three weeks, by the way, because I wanted no life other than OMG EGGS for the last three weeks.

What’s Taking So Long?! And ICK!
Patience, little one. When chicks hatch they pip first (peck a small airhole), then hours later (sometimes up to 24 hours later) start to ‘unzip’ their shell (peck in a line as they rotate in the shell) then finally kick free all at once. It’s hours of waiting with a sudden payoff at the end, but once they start to unzip they can be out of the shell anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour later—or anywhere in between. And YES, they are icky and slimy and lay around like wet noodles when they first hatch, don’t worry they get cute and fluffy as they dry and get stronger. Also, hatched chicks can be quite rough and step on each other, or flip over onto their backs and have trouble righting themselves—they’ll be okay, no damage is done; so don’t worry. We monitor them carefully and will lend a hand where needed. Ditto for any that require assistance hatching. And chicks will run around and then crash out and sleep HARD--they aren't dead! Once dry and strong we move them and the cam to the brooder box.

NOW FOR THE BEST PART: YOU GUYS GET TO NAME THE CHICKS!
Egg number has no bearing on what name they get, it’s just whoever hatches first gets named first. Post your name suggestions here, ONE per Goon, please--be advised we already have chickens named things like ‘Dinner’, ‘Burger’, etc.--so use your imagination and give us some good/weird/fun chicken names! This year we’re also tossing names of fonts into the hat—Wing Ding, Garamond, etc. If your name suggestion has been used in the past I’ll let you know and you can repost a new name. These are CHICKENS after all, and should have silly names. As each chick hatches we will draw a name for it out of a hat!


I’ll list the eggs that have pipped and hatched here, with their progress and names, mama hen if known is noted. Neighbor’s eggs are marked with an ‘N’ on the end:

#1—Neighbor’s—(Large dark pink/brown)—
#3—Neighbor’s—(Large/medium light brown)—
#4—Brick (Small, tan bantam)—Pipped 4/6 6PM, hatched 10:30PM, named 'Garibaldi', (blue color spot).
#6—Spork (Medium pink/brown)—Pipped 4/7 at 12:30AM, assisted hatch at 6:30PM--has health issues, may not make it.
#7—Sesame (Large dark brown)—
#9—(Large long pointed olive green)—Pipped 4/6 at 3:30PM, hatched 4/7 4:30AM, named 'Brian' 'Mooncake' (purple color spot).
#10—(Large light blue)—
#11—(Medium olive green)—Pipped 4/5, 10:30PM, Hatched 4/6 11:45AM, named 'Imminent Disaster'.
#14—(Medium light blue)—Pipped 4/6 6PM, hatched 8:50PM, named 'Bort Grungus' (Green food color spot).
#17—(Bantam)—Possible late quitter, left in.
#21—(Large/medium dark brown)—
#22—(Large dark pink/brown)—
#23—(Small/medium light tan)—Pipped 4/6 10:40AM, hatched 4/6 at 4:15PM, named 'Scraunch.
#24—(Small/medium light pink/brown)—Pipped 4/5 10:30PM, hatched 4/6 at 2PM, named 'Dubious Intentions'.
#27—(Small/medium light pink/tan) — Possible late quitter, left in.


EDIT: 4/22 Thanks to a local poultry club swap, we now have three NEW chicks! :henget:
Pictures here: https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/morehens-disease-flare-up.html
The older Polish mix is 'Triffid'
The Silkie frizzle is 'Wingding' by ynohtna
The little splash blue laced red Wyandotte is 'Eggroll' by Spagett

I also picked up 6 bantam calico Cochin (Frizzles and smooth coats) eggs that will go in the incubator for a second round of Chickam!


CHICKAM ROUND 2!
These eggs are *supposed* to hatch Monday, May 15th.
All of these are from our flock, except for one possible Calico bantam Cochin egg, #4.
#4--Calico bantam Cochin, purchased egg, one of the 'maybes'.
#9--Another 'maybe'
#10--Pipped 5/13, 5PM (at the small end of the egg, the wrong end, may need assistance), 5/14 hatched 11:10AM, no assistance needed! Named 'Cao Cao' by Chaosfeather.
#12--
#15
#16--Pipped 5/13, 5PM, unzipping. Hatched 5/14 3:45PM. Named 'Deliciousaurus' by Leperflesh (on behalf of Pickled Tink).
#17--Pipped 5/13, 5PM. Hatched 5/15 12:30AM. Named 'Spam'. Blue leg band on right leg.



BTW—please keep the YouTube chat CLEAN. Lots of kids watch Chickam every year, likely moreso during the pandemic than ever. We have zero tolerance for over-the-top bad language, racism, hate or other things of that nature and will kick & ban anyone not being a decent human being.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 04:41 on May 26, 2023

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Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#11 has hatched! :v:
We'll be choosing a name in the next 60 minutes or so.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Did you happen to fix the humidifier issue from last year? I remember there was an issue with like a regulator or something

I made all KINDS of changes this year to try and correct what went on in 2021 and 2022. New equipment, took the ReptiPro apart and cleaned it's innards, changed how I handled the eggs, used a higher incubation temperature.
So this year is kind of a test...I wanted to do a small test hatch in January, but our winter was so awful and cold that I couldn't (also we kept getting power outages so it was too unreliable).

I'm kind of clenching my teeth to see how things work out this year, I'm a nervous wreck.


EDIT--#24 is making progress unzipping!

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Apr 6, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#24 is about to hatch!

We have a name for #11!
'Imminent Disaster', named by Wonky Bird! :v:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#24 has speed-hatched, and is named 'Dubious Intentions' by one of the kid's friends!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#9 has pipped, and #23 is unzipping very quickly!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Toxic Mental posted:

Is it true that chicks breaking out of the shell helps strengthen their bodies and get them flowing, and you shouldn't really help them out unless they're seemingly trapped?

The big reason you don't help unless you have to, is because it's bad to open the incubator during the hatch. Chicks require a minimum of 99.5 degrees and 65% humidity in order to hatch, and opening the 'bator lets all that heat and moisture out.
Luckily the ReptiPro unit we use recovers VERY quickly and gets back up to the right temp/humidity within a minute or so, it's a lot more forgiving.
I help chicks if they've pipped and/or unzipped partway and haven't progressed for hours and are getting too weak to hatch, or if they've pipped at the wrong end of the egg.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#23 has hatched and is named 'Scraunch' by City of Glompton!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Toxic Mental posted:

drat 65% does that mean that mother chicken asses are super sweaty on day 21 or something?

It means mama hen clamps her butt down tight on those eggs during the last three days, LOL. At that point she stops turning the eggs, which sends a signal to the chicks to rotate into hatch position. She feels the chicks moving around and locks down on the eggs, also once the chicks do the internal pip into the air cell so they can breathe, they start peeping--another motivator for mama hen to tighten her set.

I sincerely hope hens do not have super sweaty asses, I NEVER want to see chicken buttsweat.


VVV It gets weirder. Once I started to learn about chickens and how they hatch eggs...wow.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Apr 7, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Okay, I just checked the eggs.
#9 had pipped, but now also #4 (Brick's egg) and #14 are pipped! I'm not sure if they'll hatch tonight or tomorrow, though.
As I checked the rest of the eggs, several peeped at me. :v:

I did a quick health check on the three hatched chicks and they all look great, no problems!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Scraunch has discovered that she can cram in behind the hygrometer. DON'T PANIC if you look at the cam and don't see her, or only see part of her. She isn't stuck, and there's nothing back there she can hurt herself on.
She's just being a little weirdo. We're watching her!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#4 has hatched, and is named 'Garibaldi' by my cat is norris!

We're warming up the brooder box and in about an hour the oldest two or three chicks will be moved into it.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Apr 7, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

#6, Spork's egg, has pipped!
I checked #9 and expanded her pip a bit, she's fine.

The three oldest chicks: Imminent Disaster (the messy-looking one giving me some quality Stink Eye--I'll clean her up tomorrow), Dubious Intentions (dark chick with tan face) and Scraunch (blindingly blond)--have been removed to the brooder box and are doing great! You can just see the tip of mama flamingo's beak watching over them.
Club Flamingo is open for business!

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Apr 7, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Sorry about Chickam going down, but at least it was only our Internet and not the power. Stupid wind. It's back now, and #9 has hatched! A big, noisy redhead, very active! We'll pick a name in a few hours when everyone here wakes up.

All of the chicks are doing great so far!

spookygonk we have 42 adult chickens right now.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

So Bort now has a green food color spot on the top/back of her head--she looked too much like Scraunch--and has been moved to Club Flamingo.

I'm waiting to hear back from the Goon I promised naming rights to for #9. If I don't hear from him by the end of the day I guess we'll choose a name from the hat.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Apr 7, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

All six chicks have been moved to Club Flamingo, we still have one unhatched chick left to go, #6. Once she's out of her egg we'll move the cam to the brooder box.
No new pips on the remaining eggs, I'm pretty sure this hatch is done. But the eggs will stay in the ReptiPro through the weekend just in case there are any stragglers.

Since several of the chicks look VERY alike, I've put food color spots on the back of the head/neck of three of them: Garabaldi has blue, Bort Grungus has Green, and #9 (who gets named shortly) has Purple.

All of the chicks are perky and alert, eating and drinking! :v:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Okay, I moved the cam to the brooder box and restarted the stream.

Bad news: #6 was getting pretty badly shrink-wrapped, so I had to get her out of her shell. When I popped her out, her navel still had a bit of yolk sac attached and hadn't fully closed. She was very active, alert and peeping, eyes open, so I cleaned her up the best I could, applied Preparation H (yes, THAT stuff, it helps prolapses like this) to the site and placed her back in the incubator.
Now it's up to her if she'll make it.

Meanwhile, the other six are all in the brooder and doing great.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Thanks everyone. Just once I'd like -zero- Chickam drama, but by now I know it's not to be.

We did check our feed stores for hatchery chicks, but all they have right now is older ones--I think they're wisely avoiding people buying cute fluffy chicks for their kids for Easter, then dumping the half-grown bird somewhere when it's no longer cute or the kid tires of it. Hatchery chicks are handy to help teach the new chicks how to eat, drink and chicken.

BTW, #9 is named 'Brian'! Brian has a purple color spot on the back of her head for ID.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Apr 8, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.


#6 is still with us, alert and active, doesn't appear to be in pain or suffering. We'll see how she does today.

The Club Flamingo crew is doing great.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Well...#6 is still with us, VERY perky, alert and active.

Her prolapse is about 80-90% gone, and I was able to trim away most of the dried umbilicus material. We reapplied the Prep H & gave her a few drops of the vitamin/electrolyte water, which she drank eagerly. For now she's going to stay in the incubator until she's stronger and able to get around better, and I want her navel to be closed before she goes in the brooder box. She sees the other chicks in the brooder and is yelling to join them.

We're not going to name her yet, since she may well have internal issues such as her organs not being fully formed/functioning, so may die no matter what we do.

But I'm cautiously optimistic!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Captain Hygiene posted:

Oh cool, always enjoy this thread!

Best of luck to #6! We somehow never had one make it out of the shell like that over the years, hope they'll continue recovering.

This was a first for me, as well. Threw me for a loop, because the kid was out feeding the animals and I didn't want them to see how bad #6 was. I had to stand there knowing I had about 1 minute to make the decision to euthanize #6 or not. It sucked.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Love the name suggestions, LOL.

We're moving #6 into her own wire enclosure, just for a day or two until she gets stronger and we're sure the others won't peck at her. She'll have her own food, water and heat lamp.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

CJacobs posted:



Watching every body chase after a single piece of corn in a conga line is one of many reasons to love chickam.

Great picture!

As to the can of soup: one year people were saying they needed something for scale, so I went and just grabbed a can of soup because it's something most people know when it comes to size.

Later I realized it was a can of chicken noodle soup.

Thoroughly unintentional, but now placing one has become Chickam canon.

We're still dosing them with drops of the vitamin ick water. I'll be cleaning #6 up a bit more to remove egg goo. In a bit we'll be taking pictures of the chicks, I'll post a link when they're done. They'll also get vaccinated for Marek's Disease today (it must be done pretty quickly after they hatch), which is SUPER stressful on them. I'll give them mealworms afterwards for an apology/boost.
But expect the chicks to have low activity levels this afternoon into tonight, they'll naturally sleep a lot after all this.

EDIT-- Since Six is so weak, we're postponing vacinations until tomorrow (the stuff is all mixed at once and must be used right away).

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Apr 9, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

A CRAB IRL posted:

I've suggested my stupid name for probably 5 years in a row, and finally big Bort G is making things happen

I am now invested in the life and progress of a chick with a green spot on its head halfway round the planet from me


...which is as it should be. :v:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

CJacobs posted:



I made this for my girlfriend because she's having a bad day and has a particular favorite this year, please enjoy

(in case it isn't clear, chickam helps immensely :) )

You are an excellent partner. :v:

No new pips, the hatch is over and I'vd pulled the remaining eggs from the ReptiPro. Now comes my least favorite part--the eggtopsy to see if I can find out why the unhatched eggs failed.


Six isn't eating or drinking on her own, and she's outside the three day grace period where the chick lives off the yolk it absorbs just before hatch. So until she starts to eat and drink, every 30 minutes I'm feeding her a slurry of vitamin water, baby bird food, hard-boiled egg yolk, mashed corn and mashed mealworms. It should be enough to keep her going...if she's going to make it.

The next hurdle for her will be to see if her internal organs are functioning, she needs to be able to process food and poop.

This is the hard part, think good thought for her please, everyone!

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Sirotan posted:

I wonder if you could put the link to your Youtube channel in the OP so that other dummies like me don't miss that the linked video is not actually the live stream. (I did figure it out the second time I clicked on it though...).

Y'know...every time either the laptop reboots, YouTube on my computer gacks, or our Internet goes down, it's a new link.
Best to just go here: https://www.youtube.com/@jackshenhouse
And click on 'Live Stream'

VVVGreat, thanks!

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Apr 10, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Chickam chick pictures posted here!:
https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/chickam-chicks-2023.html

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Stupid stream keeps going down. Back again now.

All the chicks are doing great, very active and plyful today, running, jumping, flapping. Little dweebs. :v:

Six is doing fine, I'm feeding her every 40 minutes. She's producing normal poops, which is a GREAT thing. While she isn't making progress by leaps and bounds, neither is she losing ground, so...?
Just gonna keep up with the supportive care and hope she starts eating and drinking on her own soon.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

All the babies have now been inoculated for Marek's Disease--a subcutaneous injection to the back of the neck. We also applied fresh color spots to Garibaldi (blue), Bort (green) and Brian (muddy purple--it didn't mix well!).

The chicks will ikely be low-energy the rest of the day, but they got mealworms, corn and hard-boiled egg as an apology.

Six is doing okay, her navel looks good and she's fluffed out a little more. I'm hand-feeding her every 40 minutes and she eats pretty well--at feeding time she's alert and active. She still keeps her eyes closed most of the time. We'll just keep doing what we're doing...and time will tell.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Well, I'm sorry guys but Six passed away in her sleep. She gave it her best shot, poor baby, and doesn't seem to have suffered.
Sometimes all you can do for them is to keep them warm, safe and comfortable. :smith:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Sharpest Crayon posted:

Dubious Intent was very keen to taste flesh by grabbing Scraunch's leg.



OMG this is gorgeous and perfect and EXACTLY what I needed after a really lovely day today, thank you! :v:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Sharpest Crayon posted:

The colour spots on the back of the head reminded me of little punk mullet hairdo's



Anyway Bort is definitely hardcore.

OMFG I've died and gone to chicken heaven!!! I love the safety pin through her nares! Thanks so much! :cloudnine:



On a side note, Garibaldi is congenitally missing the claws on the outer toe of each. foot--I noticed it when she was hatching and forgot to mention it. It won't hurt her.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

While I was petting the chicks one of them started pecking at the blood vessel in my wrist. Thinking it was a mealworm...?

Not sure I like where this batch of chicks is headed... :derp:


EDIT: The chicks now have a grassy dirt clod!

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Apr 16, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Sharpest Crayon posted:

I have another theory:



OMG the meat gobbets in the background... :v: THE RED EYE!!!

The stretchy-neck zoop thing happens a lot. They're starting to grow actual feathers on their backs and chests, and have graduated from 'peep' to 'chirp'. Next will come that horrid, gawky teenage 'yorp-yorp-yorp' stage where their voices crack.
Oh, and they're flying pretty darned good, all horsepower and no brain...which means that soon, one will end up outside the box, panic at not being able to figure out how to get back in, and YELL for help while the others mill about in distress.

I'm happy to report that today, after 4 tries, the chicks have FINALLY caught on that corn on the cob is FOOD, and are pecking it!
I was starting to worry this batch weren't real chickens and instead were little mutant THINGS.


And I *have* been to the feed store, but all they had were older production breed chicks.
But tomorrow my poultry club is having it's first poultry swap of the year and we're going, I'm taking fertile eggs for hatching to offer.
The kid has loaded a couple of animal carriers in the trunk, but we already *have* chicks...

...right?

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

*sigh*... :suicide:
Y'all are horrid little enablers.

https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/morehens-disease-flare-up.html

The older Polish mix is 'Triffid'
The Silkie frizzle is 'Wingding' by ynohtna
The little splash blue laced red Wyandotte is 'Eggroll' by Spagett


The new chicks don't know what mealworms are...

And YES, more eggs means another round of hatching in 3 weeks. But those bantam Cochins were GORGEOUS and I just cannot lay off either the little round borbs nor the big, fluffy fat-rear end borbs.


EDIT--When it comes to names for the next batch, I still have the list of unused names. Anyone who wants to change their name choice, let me know. If you haven't submitted a name, post it in this thread!

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Apr 23, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Swiffer Update: She's doing much better, this morning she's gobbling down mealworms, drinking on her own, talking a bit and looking around, alert.


Captain Hygiene posted:

I always wonder what the camera setup's like, I've seen one of them wandering up to look into it a number of times.

We brought a couple of hens in the other day for a quick Meet & Greet, this is Brick giving me a 'Really? Again?!' look over her shoulder. You can see the two wire windows the chicks have to look out of, and the camera clamped to a half cinderblock is on the left, right above Brick's (Garibaldi's mom) head. As the chickes get bigger, we'll move the cam to the top edge of the box, looking down.



yippeekiyaymf, our oldest chicken so far was Pong, a 15 year old frizzle Belgian d'Uccle/bantam Cochin mix. She died two weeks short of age 16, when she would have officially entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Oldest Chicken: https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2019/02/rip-pong.html
Most of our chickens live to between 8-12 years--we treat our birds as pets, so they get more consistent care then a lot of backyard flocks kept for meat/eggs do though, those birds average 5-7 years.
The oldest birds we have right now are Fries (black mottled Belgian d'Uccle bantam), age 11 and Pie (Americaunas/Giant Cochian/Buff Brahma mix), age 9.


And I don't know what was up with the panic time video...but it appears that maybe Triffid made it up to the edge of the box! :v:

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Swiffer is now nearly 100%, eating, drinking all on her own. Alert and talking, walking around a little (she could walk around a bit more to make me totally happy). Eats her mealworms, corn, grapes, little treat of cooked rice/carrots/peas/egg. Normal poops, yay!
Tomorrow she'll get a bath (badly soiled feathers on her underside) and we'll see how she gets around, she may go out into the small run for a few hours to integrate safely with the flock and get a shot at a dust bath.
I'll also get better pics of her.


EDIT: Triffid keeps scaring the hell out of the other chicks by jumping up on the edge of the box. We're gonna have to put the wire lid on the box to keep her in for now...I'm going to clean the box later and we'll add a new dirt clod and other stuff to play/roost on so everyone's happy.

Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Apr 24, 2023

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

The ReptiPro is warming up...if all goes well, I'll set the next batch of eggs tomorrow, for a planned hatch date of May 16th!
:henget:
I'll keep this same thread for the next batch.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Stocky Manhood posted:

Aww love that you do Meet and Greets!!

Over the years we've discovered that the Meet & Greets are vital when it comes to introducing new birds to the flock. It lets the chicks learn that BIG birds exist, and the adults get over their snit that there are new birds they have to share human attention (and goodies) with. It makes for a WHOLE lot less fighting, biting and bullying once the chicks go out into the yard for good at 2 months old.

We do the same thing when introducing adults (like Swiffer), they hang out in the small run so everyone can safely interact--the hardware cloth eliminates injuries from any fights.
Some squabbling is unavoidable, but Meet & Greets cuts that by about 80%.

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Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

And we're off! :derp:

https://jackshenhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/what-again.html

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