Progeny from heroic rooster

[sakerobot]

At 4 weeks of age, only three are showing rooster traits, so we decided to name them. In these lineup pictures, from the viewer's left to right, they are: Apollo, Adonis, and Ares.

Adonis is the largest one in the middle. The bird on the right appears to be a hen so far, but she tends to always be on the front line with the roosters.

What's kind of funny to think about is that this pullet and Apollo have personalities that remind us of Jessica, so perhaps they could be hers. Hopefully she has at least one child, or otherwise Tsunade has 10.

At 2w4d, here's the youngest Mystery Chicken, which seems to be resembling how Ares looked about a week ago:

With the barring, is a Wyandotte mother ruled out? There seems to be red wattling in progress, and the comb is slightly taller than that of the sibling.

The one I posted in the previous post is definitely darker by contrast, and doesn't seem to have as vertical of a stance.

 

[NatJ]

At 2w4d, here's the youngest Mystery Chicken, which seems to be resembling how Ares looked about a week ago:

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With the barring, is a Wyandotte mother ruled out? There seems to be red wattling in progress, and the comb is slightly taller than that of the sibling.

I think he looks like he's got two barring genes (lighter coloring than the ones with just one barring gene.) So that would mean he inherited one barring gene from his Delaware father, and one from his mother.

That would mean he has a mother with barring. Yes, I think that rules out your Wyandotte hens.

 

[kenziecluck]

There don't seem to be any that would be from the Brahma or the Wyandottes. In the weeke after we lost Arthur, I set a trailcam on the nesting boxes. We were getting 1-2 eggs per day, and they would be either from Tsunade the Buff Orpington, or from a BR we call B-Chicken being responsible for most of the eggs, with other BRs about 15% of the time. It's possible that the younger hens stopped feeling secure enough to lay after losing him, as they were especially close and he would often guard the coop door while the young ones laid their eggs. So from the best batch of 6 that's due on the 13th, only BRs or Orpingtons will be the mothers.

Some images from day 3:

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Everyone seems healthy, they're starting to grow their wing feathers and already believe that they can fly.

They are beautiful little babies! I’d like to add some BRs to our flock one day

 

[sakerobot]

Among the young batch, one of the yellows turned out to be a rooster. Here he is at almost 4 weeks, but it was apparent at 3 weeks already.

And the young BRs both seem to be BR roosters, just that one is darker.

The youngest one, pictured second, has a taller and pinker comb, and is not as dark.

This is the darker rooster:

And one more picture here is of one of the older pullets (5w1d). It's neat how her front area is turning out lighter, while the back has more black.

The last picture is one of the younger BR roosters, but not sure which one.

The weather looks like Friday is when they will finally get to enjoy being outside for the first time.

 

[NatJ]

Among the young batch, one of the yellows turned out to be a rooster. Here he is at almost 4 weeks, but it was apparent at 3 weeks already.
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And the young BRs both seem to be BR roosters, just that one is darker.
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The youngest one, pictured second, has a taller and pinker comb, and is not as dark.

This is the darker rooster:
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And one more picture here is of one of the older pullets (5w1d). It's neat how her front area is turning out lighter, while the back has more black.
View attachment 4071348
The last picture is one of the younger BR roosters, but not sure which one. View attachment 4071346

The weather looks like Friday is when they will finally get to enjoy being outside for the first time.

I'm enjoying the progression photos as they grow!

 

[sakerobot]

Here are a bunch of pictures from today, when they finally got to go outside for the first time. The ages are 4w1d, and 5w3d. (And technically the youngest rooster is 4w.)

The temperature was 52F, and they all did fine for three hours until we brought them in for the night.

The young roosters identified aerial predators several times and alarmed the rest of the flock, which froze accordingly.

 

[sakerobot]

Some group photos of an outside adventure. Ages are 6w1d and 4w6d.

I've almost finished securing our currently unused chicken yard against hawks, so I want to put them into the little coop (4x4, I'll have to build a bigger one later) as soon as possible. The main concern right now is the weather - during the day it's going to range between 38F to about 55F, which is fine as they were outside at 41 without a problem. However, on some nights it's going to fall below freezing, down to the 20s.

We can put the heating plate from their brooder into the coop for a couple weeks, I feel like that should be enough? They seem very hardy and invincible, but we don't want to rush and make a bad mistake.

 

[NatJ]

Some group photos of an outside adventure. Ages are 6w1d and 4w6d.

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I've almost finished securing our currently unused chicken yard against hawks, so I want to put them into the little coop (4x4, I'll have to build a bigger one later) as soon as possible. The main concern right now is the weather - during the day it's going to range between 38F to about 55F, which is fine as they were outside at 41 without a problem. However, on some nights it's going to fall below freezing, down to the 20s.

We can put the heating plate from their brooder into the coop for a couple weeks, I feel like that should be enough? They seem very hardy and invincible, but we don't want to rush and make a bad mistake.

What is the temperature in their brooder at present? Are they getting heat from the heating pad now?

I think they will probably not need the heating plate in the coop, even if nights fall into the 20s (or maybe even a little lower yet).
I am basing that on:
--age of 4+ weeks for all of them
--the amount of feathering in the photos
--that they were already fine at 41 degrees
--there are so many of them to huddle together and stay warm
--the coop will provide protection from wind and rain and other kinds of weather. Chickens that are dry and out of the wind can tolerate quite a bit of cold, even when they are young, compared with how much they could stand if they were wet or if the wind was blowing on them.

But if you are still providing heat in their brooder, I would either wean them off the heat there, or move the heat source out to the coop with them, rather than making both changes at once (move to coop and remove heating plate.)

 

[sakerobot]

Today while working on the netting, we decided to pick up Tsunade and bring her to the tractor to meet her children and those of her peers. That went well, she displayed no concern about them and proceeded to forage. The young ones mashed up against the wall trying to run over to her.

She's likely the mother of most of the DEs, though we have no idea of which in the older batch. All of the younger ones should be hers, and in the below picture the DE rooster on the very left is definitely her son. He's named Alcibiades. The two young BR roosters are Aristophanes and Aristotle.

Soon they will have much more outside space.

 

[sakerobot]

Yesterday the older batch turned 7 weeks, and in the morning Ares and one of the DE roosters were trying to crow already.

We finally have everyone outside. It took longer than we wanted as there was more snow again.

The feeders were removed before closing.