Pipd's Peeps!

[NagemTX]

Somebody stop the ride, I'm ready to get off

I spent yesterday checking on the outer coop every hour to hour and a half, trying to catch whatever the egg thief is in the act. Well, around 6:30, I went out and as I was walking past the coop (the pens are on the other side of it from the house so I walk past it to get to them), I heard something skitter and run off in the bushes nearby. I walked that way a bit to see if I could spot what it was, and didn't see anything. However, upon turning around to walk back toward the pens, I witnessed a HUGE raccoon coming around the corner of the coop and squeezing underneath.

So I set up the live trap by the corner, got the birds set up inside, and went ahead and locked them in for the night.

The good news is I caught the raccoon. Or A raccoon, presumably the same one as it's also a big one.

The bad news is that while trying to find a way out of the trap, it ripped a huge hole in the siding of the coop next to where the live trap was set.

Best I could do for now is hardware cloth over the opening. I guess I'm replacing siding when I fix the floor, too. This coop had zero problems until I had birds living in it again!!


Meanwhile, I noticed that one of the cockerels among the Easter-hatch babies out in the main coop was acting off yesterday, so I started them on amprolium, just to be safe. Well, he passed away in the night. Poor baby was so young. He was not one of my keepers in that batch, but now the only keeper pullet is acting off, so I'm going to be going out there as much as possible and making sure she's drinking plenty of the amprolium-treated water today. I only got 3 pullets out of the batch of 9, so I definitely don't want to lose any of them!


On the brighter side, I moved the last little Gus baby to the brooder last night, so here's her first picture. She's so small!!

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And here's the whole brood in the brooder I did notice that a couple of them are having a hard time fluffing out properly, so I've got to keep an eye on that as well.

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This pretty little Blue baby hasn't had any trouble fluffing up, though

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Here are the older peeps in the big kid brooder, too. They're very grown up now (at 1 and 2 weeks old, respectively) and don't want my attention anymore, apparently.

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Ewe coons! It's good you've not lost any birds. Hope you get everything fixed up enough to deter them.

Awwww babies!

I'm looking forward to not hatching anything else till maybe August/September. Will be getting some Spitzhauben eggs and maybe bantam polish and more silver and blue Ameraucana bantam eggs.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

What causes the chicks to not fluff up correctly? I've had 1 each in 2 different hatches and the second day I gave them a little wipe down with warm water and then they fluffed.

To be honest, I'm not sure. I've been looking into this a bit today because three of that batch are not as fluffy, and looking at them, they seem to have kind of stunted, brittle down on them. They're the same size, roughly, as the fluffier ones, just not fluffy. It's almost as if they didn't quite finish growing their down in the egg before they hatched.

I did see something about 'clubbed down syndrome' when searching, which apparently is from a vitamin deficiency in the parents, but all of my coops are on the same feed in roughly the same accommodations and none of the others had chicks like this. They also don't seem to have the 'clubbed' down as described in CDS, it's just not as fluffy and almost shiny?

This is under the EcoGlow. As you can see, the ones with weird down are losing bits of their down as well, which makes me hesitant to wipe or brush them to try and fluff them...

They do seem to be active, eating, and drinking as normal, though. I don't know, maybe I'll make a thread in raising chicks and see if anyone has any insight.

Ewe coons! It's good you've not lost any birds. Hope you get everything fixed up enough to deter them.

Awwww babies!

I'm looking forward to not hatching anything else till maybe August/September. Will be getting some Spitzhauben eggs and maybe bantam polish and more silver and blue Ameraucana bantam eggs.

Yeah, I'm grateful that I haven't lost any birds so far. I'm planning to skirt that coop to deter critters from living underneath it (and prevent any further issues with holes in the floor allowing access to the inside ).

Haha, yeah, I think I need a little bit of a hatching break, too! I do want to hatch just a few more Cochins this year, particularly out of Gus III's girls, especially with three of his current offspring being a bit... odd. But I may let the broodies do the dirty work for me.

Speaking of broodies, we're at 5 out of 5 out under the Splash girl, and the fourth egg under the Blue girl has pipped externally and is active, so shouldn't be much longer.

A little cuteness from them.

Blue lady is VERY serious about her babies!

It's almost coop up time, so I don't expect either will bring their babies out of the nest until tomorrow. Be ready for pictures if the mamas will let me get them!!

 

[2ndTink]

I've never heard of CDS, the nutrition thing wouldn't make sense unless there's one chicken with some anomaly that is keeping it from absorbing vitamins like it should? But it would seem that over time you'd see it struggling?

I hope someone can help figure it out, I'm am curious to know as well

Your vroodies are so beautiful, love the serious face!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I've never heard of CDS, the nutrition thing wouldn't make sense unless there's one chicken with some anomaly that is keeping it from absorbing vitamins like it should? But it would seem that over time you'd see it struggling?

I hope someone can help figure it out, I'm am curious to know as well

That's my thought as well. The only symptom any of them have for deficiency is that Bella either doesn't lay at all or doesn't lay much, but there should be other symptoms like leg issues if she was truly deficient and that's what was causing that. I don't know. I never got around to making a thread, will have to do that tomorrow or something.

Your vroodies are so beautiful, love the serious face!

They are. They're also doing pretty well as mamas, so I guess that means they're gonna end up staying and I need to come up with names for them.

It took alllll day, but the Blue mama finally brought her babies out this evening for a quick bite to eat and a drink before shuffling them back in to the nest for the night. Here's a few pics I grabbed of them while they were out. Such cuties! She hatched THREE Splashes!!

Look at this gorgeous little Blue baby she hatched, too!

She and baby were NOT happy with me for picking the little one up Like mama, like baby, huh?

One last picture from Blue mama and babies, because it was too cute

Splash mama didn't seem inclined to come out yet, but as hot as it's been today, I wanted to make sure she and her babes got something to drink at least. So I carefully lifted her out of the nest and shuffled her babies along behind her to the waterer. While they were out, I was able to clean out the nest of the eggshells from hatching and a big ol poop that mama had dropped in there. Anyway, mama and babies drank for a while, and then she took them back into the nest for the night as well.

 

[2ndTink]

That's my thought as well. The only symptom any of them have for deficiency is that Bella either doesn't lay at all or doesn't lay much, but there should be other symptoms like leg issues if she was truly deficient and that's what was causing that. I don't know. I never got around to making a thread, will have to do that tomorrow or something.




They are. They're also doing pretty well as mamas, so I guess that means they're gonna end up staying and I need to come up with names for them.

It took alllll day, but the Blue mama finally brought her babies out this evening for a quick bite to eat and a drink before shuffling them back in to the nest for the night. Here's a few pics I grabbed of them while they were out. Such cuties! She hatched THREE Splashes!!

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Look at this gorgeous little Blue baby she hatched, too!

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She and baby were NOT happy with me for picking the little one up Like mama, like baby, huh?

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One last picture from Blue mama and babies, because it was too cute

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Splash mama didn't seem inclined to come out yet, but as hot as it's been today, I wanted to make sure she and her babes got something to drink at least. So I carefully lifted her out of the nest and shuffled her babies along behind her to the waterer. While they were out, I was able to clean out the nest of the eggshells from hatching and a big ol poop that mama had dropped in there. Anyway, mama and babies drank for a while, and then she took them back into the nest for the night as well.

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They are SO cute

Oops, I see I had a typo vroodies

Thanks for the photos! Send more!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Yeah, that's my current top suspect and the main reason why I'm too afraid not to leave any eggs for it to get at in case it goes for a bird instead.




I'm so daunted by the idea of electric fencing, though I have thought about it quite a bit. A large problem with it for me is that we're in a woods. Just keeping all the weeds, undergrowth, leaves, branches, twigs, etc. off of the line to keep it active would be a ton of work.

Hello! I just read through the last few pages. I have lots more to read to fully catch up. But, I have a solar electric fence charger I'd give you if you would use it. You can hook it up to a battery to have it charge when there is little to no sun. I have electricity available now and so switched to an electric charger so that I wouldn't have to worry about changing out the batteries. We always kept two on hand so that one was fully charged while the other was being used. The wires would need to be cleared of debris and grass or it drains quickly.
Let me know - the solar charger is just sitting in the shed.

All of my birds are doing well right now. I still have my bantam cochins and the oegbs. My roosters like to annoy each other. Cheddar will chase Rebel around and around the pen. I think Rebel likes to taunt because he can always fly out of the way. I'm currently looking for a few oegb ladies for Rebel since he really only has Ginger. I've also considered ordering some d'uccles and other fun bantams from Meyers Hatchery. You know like the last time, I will probably end up at rural King and have a handful of bantams where only one turns out to be a girl.

Anyway, I will try not to be as much of a stranger as I have been.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They are SO cute

Oops, I see I had a typo vroodies

Thanks for the photos! Send more!

Haha, no worries on the typo, it happens to us all

I do have a few more pictures of the broodies and their babies from the past couple days. I didn't even realize I hadn't checked in in so long!! I'll get them uploaded after this post.

Hello! I just read through the last few pages. I have lots more to read to fully catch up. But, I have a solar electric fence charger I'd give you if you would use it. You can hook it up to a battery to have it charge when there is little to no sun. I have electricity available now and so switched to an electric charger so that I wouldn't have to worry about changing out the batteries. We always kept two on hand so that one was fully charged while the other was being used. The wires would need to be cleared of debris and grass or it drains quickly.
Let me know - the solar charger is just sitting in the shed.

All of my birds are doing well right now. I still have my bantam cochins and the oegbs. My roosters like to annoy each other. Cheddar will chase Rebel around and around the pen. I think Rebel likes to taunt because he can always fly out of the way. I'm currently looking for a few oegb ladies for Rebel since he really only has Ginger. I've also considered ordering some d'uccles and other fun bantams from Meyers Hatchery. You know like the last time, I will probably end up at rural King and have a handful of bantams where only one turns out to be a girl.

Anyway, I will try not to be as much of a stranger as I have been.

Hey, long time no see!! Good to hear that your birds are doing well! It's definitely the time of year when the boys have more hormones than brains and start poking at one another. My one set of guys is constantly chasing each other around their pen. Hope you have better luck with your male to female ratio if you do get unsexed chicks! It's looking pretty bleak so far for my hatches this year, 6 out of 9 of my Easter hatch were boys and I'm seeing a lot of combs popping in the brooder with my more recent hatches as well.

The charger is really tempting!! The big problem here is all the undergrowth and keeping it trimmed back from the line like you mention. I just trimmed the undergrowth back from the outer coop this week to make it less approachable for predators and it about did me in between the heat and the mosquitoes I'll have to think about that.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A check in with the babies! Blue mama is a protective lady. She doesn't outright attack me, but she gets very angry when I reach in there and pokes at my hand sometimes, too. Even when she does, she's super gentle about it.

Splash mama giving pecking lessons to her five They're way too cute!

I've got to figure out names for those two ladies. I'm thinking gemstones for them at the moment...

Anyway, this morning I had to have a stern taking to with Mack because he bit my hand when I reached in his pen to get the water dish and clean it out. He looks like he took me pretty seriously. I hope so, because he's a handsome guy and I'd hate to have to get rid of him.

Oh, and little maybe-recessive-white baby is confirmed just a super light splash. It's hard to capture well in pictures, but his little wing feathers are coming in grayish. And yes, I meant 'his'.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

One more post, but no picture because I forgot to grab my phone before going in there... Looks like Roxanne is back to 100%. No prolapse this morning, appetite back to normal, and she seems to be pooping normally. Yay! I'm keeping her in just a little longer to make sure of that last criteria, and then she'll move back outside to start reintegrating into the flock.

 

[2ndTink]

A check in with the babies! Blue mama is a protective lady. She doesn't outright attack me, but she gets very angry when I reach in there and pokes at my hand sometimes, too. Even when she does, she's super gentle about it.

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Splash mama giving pecking lessons to her five They're way too cute!

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I've got to figure out names for those two ladies. I'm thinking gemstones for them at the moment...

Anyway, this morning I had to have a stern taking to with Mack because he bit my hand when I reached in his pen to get the water dish and clean it out. He looks like he took me pretty seriously. I hope so, because he's a handsome guy and I'd hate to have to get rid of him.

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Oh, and little maybe-recessive-white baby is confirmed just a super light splash. It's hard to capture well in pictures, but his little wing feathers are coming in grayish. And yes, I meant 'his'.

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Love love love the broody pics!

Well, bummer it isn't a recessive white, but maybe also good that you don't have that gene hiding in your flock.