Ok guys, I have actual pictures of the possible dads now and the orpington rooster is definitely a barred mix which I didn't notice before. Don't know if that changes things if he is the dad? If he actually carries the barred gene then baby could be a female after all, right? :D
And I now...
This is what I originally thought but it just doesn't look roosterish yet. Plus when I went to find out the difference between BR cockerels and pullets, it seemed like a pullet (black with white stripes, small dot on head, dark splash on feet) but maybe it's just a late bloomer.
Plus, we are...
But cuckoo marans can have clean feet, right?
His/her legs are no thicker than the others we have that are 1-2 days older although I could compare them with the rooster; there may not be a huge difference at this point.
Ok so my friends have two separate flocks; the one is more "purebreds" with the lavender orpington rooster and several different kinds of hens.
The other flock are all babies of the original flock which means they are NOT purebreds. I know the rooster is black so he's probably an Australorp mix...
So I got some eggs from a friend and only one of them hatched. The rooster was a lavender orpington and they have various hens but some are barred rocks. When this baby hatched, I thought for sure it was a barred rock MALE because of my research about possibilities with those two crosses sounded...
Huh, that's interesting! So even though I have two buff orps that I got in the same batch straight run, same size/age but with very different wing growth, they could still both be the same sex?
Don't worry, we aren't making any decisions while they are still little, my kids wouldn't allow it! :D
UPDATE: Last week one of our children accidentally injured a chick and she wasn't using one of her legs. I was so worried; I brought her inside but she was so sad and lonely I took her back out, waking up early for a few days to make sure she got down from the coop safely. After about a week...
Thanks for the input. We have done well with the coop we have with 8 chickens. They are only in it at night and when they lay. I also just got 5 chicks and the mama was able to sit in the coop, hatch one egg out and then raise her babies (4 of which are from TS since the rest of the eggs didn't...
It's SO fascinating to watch a hen with her chicks. After a few days of staying in the coop, she brought them out to the run with her. I wasn't sure how she got them out (I guess they just fell down the ramp? They are quite sturdy little things.) and I noticed her wanting to go back in the coop...
Since I got the eggs from a friend and she knew what they were for, I doubt she cleaned them beforehand. HOWEVER I noticed a smell a week or two in and thought that maybe some poop from the hen had gotten onto some of them. River also smelled a bit as well but I figured it was just because it...
Good ideas! Yeah the mama isn't leaving the coop right now so she will need to eat too. I've just been leaving the feeder in the coop and offering it every so often, trying to shoo the other hens away. Good idea with the mash! I might do that soon. There's about half of a 5 gallon bucket left of...
Because they need to use up their layer feed so I can change to all flock. :p And because I don't have a ton of chick food at the moment.
So I put the chicks in with River last night. She seemed pretty aware of it all but she happily tucked them under her wings and she is scratching around the...
So we found some chicks at TS today! We got four and I plan to put them under her tonight after dark.
She's starting to come out of the nest with the baby so I put some food in there for them. I'm still trying to decide if I should just leave her in the coop with the chicks but I don't want the...