horselover1999's 2025 flock

[Chicken_Obsesser]

That's so adorable!!! Lol!

 

[Cheekychook12]

That's so adorable!!! Lol!

I think I even guessed when he was zipping, he knocked huge pieces of shell off with each peck and then exploded out of the egg

 

[horselover1999]

Tuesday's news...
Not much has happened, but their shoulder feathers are coming in!
They are now going through a whole pint of water a day.
We did find out last night that Basil doesn't have the tips of his outer toes. That was interesting.

Todays featured chicks-
Crackerjack and Walnut!

Crackerjack is another one that I know is a rooster without having to wait a few weeks. Like Basil, Jack is one of the first up to my hand and is always judging me. Unlike Basil, Jack does not get worried about the other chicks when I pick them up, and tries to challenge my hand like he's the boss. We have already had several fights, and if Jack does turn out to be a rooster, I will be rehoming him. I don't have the time or want to deal with aggressive roosters, especially since I have dealt with them in the past and aggressiveness is genetic.

Walnut is one of the more reserved chicks. I put them in this cage for photos, and Walnut cocked its head like a puppy and was curious about this box-like thing with shiny round dots that was pointed right at it, as seen in this photo. There's not much more to say, some personalities have really stood out to me, but Walnut just isn't one of them, which isn't a bad thing.

 

[horselover1999]

Basil's missing toes!

 

[horselover1999]

The only update today is that I got 4 White Leghorn chicks from TSC. I was going to hatch some, but Leghorn hatching eggs are hard to get right now and the breeders that I have been in contact with don't have any available.
They wing sex to 1 cockerel and 3 pullets!

 

[horselover1999]

I am going to pause individual chick profiles for now, I have covered all of the stand out personalities.

Yesterday's news:
One of the Leghorn chicks died overnight, apparently just before I checked them in the morning, rigor mortis hadn't set in yet. It wasn't looking good the night before, so I was expecting it.

Today's news:
Due to feed wastage, I am starting to ferment their feed. I wanted to get a baseline of what they are currently eating, so I filled and weighed their feed when I got home from the barn. It weighed 695g. After the initial feed rush, they ate 12g. 3 hours later, the jar had lost a whole 2-3" of feed, and they had "eaten" another 111g of feed. I don't believe them on that, they're tricksters. I removed their feeder and left them to their own devices, and they have now learned how to scratch for food. Olive has learned how to dust bathe, which provided some other chicks with the opportunity of using Olive as a dinner plate.

Fermenting:
I have done this before. Now that I have a sourdough starter I can understand this process a lot better.
I put 200g of food in 575g of water, I think I will add another 50g of dry food mixed in to the drained fermented starter when it is ready in a few days to dry it out a bit.

 

[horselover1999]

I will be out of town when the fermented feed is supposed to be ready, so I decided to feed part of it today. I mixed in some dry feed to absorb some of the water. It took them a good while to learn that it was edible! The little leghorns took over and learned what it was before the older chicks.

 

[horselover1999]

Long time no update...
They are 3 weeks old (ish)
Cockerels:
Crackerjack
Clover
Basil
Violet
Olive
I took this on the 7th of the guys.

So all of the barred chicks are roosters, plus Clover.
Jack has been a turd since he hatched, and took his turdness to a new level last night, fighting with Clover. When I removed Jack from the brooder, Clover took over as head rooster and started the same fighting with everyone else. There was comb, toe, and face pulling all around. Clover calmed down after a bit once I put Jack in solitary confinement. Both Clover and Jack will be rehomed later today, I don't have the time nor physical space to deal with their hormones. I was hoping to have a bachelor brooder since I have split the chicks into two groups, but that's not going to work out with these two boys.

In other news:
Pineapple now loves being petted! I reached in to the girls' (and Clover's) brooder cage to clean out their feed and refill their water, and she didn't move! I took this last night:

Now that the girls are almost completely feathered in, they have been in their own cage for the past few nights.
The barred roosters all have a weird feathering pattern. They have 1 white stripe, then the rest of their feather is blue or black. I think Olive is actually a blue barred. Basil's wing from last night...

Basil's little tan dot beside the barred dot is adorable!

 

[Cheekychook12]

Long time no update...
They are 3 weeks old (ish)
Cockerels:
Crackerjack
Clover
Basil
Violet
Olive
I took this on the 7th of the guys.
View attachment 4070161
So all of the barred chicks are roosters, plus Clover.
Jack has been a turd since he hatched, and took his turdness to a new level last night, fighting with Clover. When I removed Jack from the brooder, Clover took over as head rooster and started the same fighting with everyone else. There was comb, toe, and face pulling all around. Clover calmed down after a bit once I put Jack in solitary confinement. Both Clover and Jack will be rehomed later today, I don't have the time nor physical space to deal with their hormones. I was hoping to have a bachelor brooder since I have split the chicks into two groups, but that's not going to work out with these two boys.

In other news:
Pineapple now loves being petted! I reached in to the girls' (and Clover's) brooder cage to clean out their feed and refill their water, and she didn't move! I took this last night:

Now that the girls are almost completely feathered in, they have been in their own cage for the past few nights.
The barred roosters all have a weird feathering pattern. They have 1 white stripe, then the rest of their feather is blue or black. I think Olive is actually a blue barred. Basil's wing from last night...
View attachment 4070164
Basil's little tan dot beside the barred dot is adorable!

Are you keeping any cockerels?
I’m glad lotus and iris are girls, how are they doing?

 

[horselover1999]

Yes, I will be keeping 1 or 2. It depends on which personalities pan out to mesh well. Basil is a front runner, and the leghorn cockerel was the one that broke up every fight last night, so he's looking good. The rest of them are getting along well.
The girls are doing really well. They have been off of the heat lamp for a couple days now. They are scared of the orange cup that I refill their food with, but the glass jar I refill their water with is fine to them. I'll try a glass jar for their food and see if they freak out next time.
I just went and cuddled with Pineapple. So sweet!

Reminder of how she looked as a chick!