The Omega Rocks: The Last & Ultimate Barred Plymouth Rock Flock

[speckledhen]

I caught them doing it again on camera.

 

[Ponypoor]

I caught them doing it again on camera.

Awwwwww

They have you well trained

 

[speckledhen]

They have you well trained

Same as always!

 

[speckledhen]

The monsters are a week old today and wow, have they grown! The last chick to hatch, the late one, was smaller than the others and took longer to stop sleeping all the time and eat and drink a normal amount, but it appears to have mostly caught up, though I can still pick it out from the others even without seeing its leg band. Some of these are HUGE! Will post pics or video later when the sun is up and I have some light.

 

[speckledhen]

Short video of these little tanks They won't be in this brooder very long, I have to say, maybe another week or so is all, I think it's all I can manage. I need to get the front pen cleaned out and restocked with bedding for them. Their heat lamp is in place, just need to take care of a few minor details. Bodie has already been moved to the back pen; there is a screen between that one and his own group's pen so he can see them anytime he likes.

 

[speckledhen]

I took some pictures just awhile ago. The Omega Rocks are 10 days old today and I had to change their leg bands to larger ones.They're doing great, the little (not so little) hoodlums! I was trying to decide on the sex of a few confusing ones, but I'm about to just wait and see, which always works. The exhibition types seem are generally harder to sex than the hatchery ones, traits not always as distinct to make the call on a few. I think I have four or five pullets, hopefully five, but a couple have me on the fence. Here are some pics of them, outgrowing their brooder already. I have a pen for them in the barn almost ready. They are getting too rowdy and big to keep in this brooder. I saw that I was letting Hector's bunch outside by a week old, though that was in June, not April, a bit cooler now than it was then. Jamie Duckworth just emailed me to ask how they're all doing.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

10 days old already. Wow. They look great. Looks like want a roost pole already. I like how they are lined up on the feeder. They apparently didn't read the instructions.

 

[speckledhen]

No, they didn't. And I've seen five on the roost bar at one time so they know how to get up there. They are headed for the barn VERY soon, the stinky little heathens. When I put a pooper scooper in there to clean out the mess, they either want to attack it or ride on it. It's impossible to do anything in a timely manner.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

No, they didn't. And I've seen five on the roost bar at one time so they know how to get up there. They are headed for the barn VERY soon, the stinky little heathens. When I put a pooper scooper in there to clean out the mess, they either want to attack it or ride on it. It's impossible to do anything in a timely manner.

They sound precocious, and a lot of fun. I like when they get out of that baby stage and get more active.

 

[speckledhen]

They sound precocious, and a lot of fun. I like when they get out of that baby stage and get more active.

They're definitely active! Soon, our male/female ratio will become clear. With these exhibition type BRs, the usual sexing clues are a bit more murky, but their wings are coming in now so it will be quite obvious what we have in about a week. The head spots on the females are not tiny ones. I have some that, by head spot alone, I would have called male, but the chick has darker leg fronts and now, I can see that the black bars are twice as wide as the white, at least on the part that has grown out, both female indications. Maybe I'll have more females than I realize at the moment, which would be really nice. if so, with fewer males, I can keep all of them a much longer time so that I have great choices for my chosen breeding rooster. I plan to, in the end, to keep two, but I don't mind keeping three or four further into their adulthood. You know me, I love my roosters. According to Jamie, his males are not aggressive to him, just a bit testy with each other occasionally. I have a hard time letting go of pleasant birds. I could separate the extra males if I didn't have Bodie occupying one entire pen.
Tuesday night, we will be below freezing so I want to wait until after that to move these hoodlums to the barn. There will be other nights in the 30's, but not that many and hopefully more high 30's. They'll have the heat lamp, but they will be in a space that is huge to them, just shy of 5' x 8', and have to get used to that much freedom.