Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens (for now)

[WingItRanch]

Got some stinkin cute pics this evening, everyone is harmonious!

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then they decided they really wanted to check out my phone....

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Then Puff had to get in on it

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got a nice one of Cracker

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Oh man... they are absolutely precious!!! Great pics!

Cracker already has a pretty sizable comb!

 

[thistlewick]

Yessss we think it's a boy too and he is gonna be BUSY because I have plans:

here is a link where the images came from with more explanation

He is an Olive Egger -- those are his precise egg genes.

We also have Oscar coming up, our new FBC Maran cockerel:

And Chuck is our current Rooster serving our girls lol and he can stay (we will have ~36 hens)

I will probably remove Heath to the bachelor pad, since he's Wyandotte and tan layer. However -- I have designs on him and Dorothy making VERY pretty babies so I want to get them together for a couple of weeks and see what comes out of them as well.

This is assuming everyone's healthy and happy and survives their teenagerhood from hawks.

It is my biggest fear, but I will not keep them in a run.

 

[TwoCrows]

Got some stinkin cute pics this evening, everyone is harmonious!

View attachment 4099117


then they decided they really wanted to check out my phone....

View attachment 4099118

Then Puff had to get in on it

View attachment 4099119

got a nice one of Cracker

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These photos are just TOO adorable!!

 

[thistlewick]

Okay so yesterday and today we observed Helga and Ayu PLUCKING FEATHERS from Oscar, badly - and he just sits there and takes it.

Well... Oscar is a precious resource imo and I won't allow two salty sassy pullets to be nasty to him and pluck his feathers out so, those 7 week olds... went out.

YEP, call me nasty or evil or whatever. They are now with the big flock (basically this means, they are hanging with the ducks lol)

Anyway, we let them out this evening with the big girls around the hen house and Sophia and Pepper had neck pecks, but no one else cared. Pudding came and said HIIIII bc she's our golden retriever chicken. Gentle, derpy Ginger said 'hello young ones' and just glided by.


Our nice ladies are the NICEST ladies <3

However, I do realize I am throwing them to the wolves. I know!

But I let two days go by watching them just PLUCK at him while he was always trying to rest. No one else did it. Today, I started correcting them -- with a loud "HEY!" when they were doing it, and they stopped, they KNEW they were doing a bad thing. Mind you there are like 8-10 chicks running/laying around at any given time in that brooder area and with every single bark of a "HEY!" that I did, the ONLY reaction was those two freakin girls stopping plucking his feathers. They KNEW.

So out they went.

They are flippin SMALL. I am scared to death of everything that is going to come at them potentially out in the big, wide world. But I won't have nastyness. Let them be taught a lesson they aren't the big fish in the little pond anymore.

Also look at my adorable ducks, my husband snapped this one today:

 

[thistlewick]

I was not sure what I would find this morning when I went outside. I was spying on the camera very early, right after sunrise just to see and much to my surprise, all the girls were in the run section.

When I go to 'let them out' at around 2 hours after sunrise (whenever that ends up being day by day) they are always waiting inside the hen house, at the pop door, like little robots remembering when I used to open the pop door for them.

Now we leave the pop door open all the time, so they can all come and go as they please to the run (which is very secure) and its open 24/7 but I didn't know they were going OUT into the run at dawn and coming BACK IN for 'release' lolololol what silly chickens. They must enjoy routine as much as me

The little ones are FINE - I was halfway expecting possibly to find 2 dead pullets in there >< I just mentally prepare for the worst every single time just in case.

All the girls out, I opened the door and these two coulda ran out with them but did not and stayed in the hen house. I expect them to stick close to the other chicks actually and stay close to the hen house despite the fact that they can go roam if they want to.

I stayed for about 45 minutes out there this morning, just silently observing. It's busy in the mornings with hens coming in and out to lay, snack, what have you. Every single one of my hens ignored the pullets as if they were supposed to be there. Made me very happy. The pullets steered clear of them (and me)

I did observe Helga (the Vorwerk pullet) try and feather pick at Ayu, who was trying to sunbathe. It wasn't very determined picking, but it did bother Ayu enough to get up and move.

Both of these pullets come from Greenfire Farms; I wonder if their genetic lines have feather plucking and don't do confinement as well, and they were certainly confined in the brooder pen.... I will continue to observe.

I am SO tempted to take all the 7 week olds out. SO tempted. I might just do it today and let them just.. be. Would be nice to free up space for the littler ones. Or honestly, I am tempted to just OPEN UP the brooder space and let them decide where they want to be with the door we made. But 4 and 5 weeks are probably too young...

I dropped the food down to their back height and there is plenty of water to be had.

 

[thistlewick]

HUGE day today! We picked up our sheep!

They are Dorset sheep out of University of Missouri's breeding program. I got them from my Border Collie breeder, so these are dog trained sheep if I ever wanted to teach our own BC to work them. I doubt I will but you never know with ADHD lol

That went smoothly, we got them set up in a temporary pasture while they are shedding from being de-wormed -- the pasture that will be 'theirs' is a fresh clean pasture, no need to infest it with parasites if we don't have to!

Then, we opened the baby pen!

I spent three hours in there just observing - had to kick the ducks out because Spitfire (the girl White Layer) was just guarding the door and not letting anyone out or back in. What a little brat!

As soon as she was gone they all came out and tentatively explored - but it's familiar to them because they grew up just on the floor there haha so it wasn't too much trouble.

Much to my total relief, the big girls showed up later (about 2 and a half hours later) and it was almost anti-climactic. Nothing happened. They walked in and started eating and ignored the little ones as if they were just the wallpaper.

The only chicken who cared was Pepper.

Ah, Pepper... our spicy, talkative Sliver-Laced Wyandotte. Very sweet to us, very bossy to lower pecking order chickens. She is Chuck's #1 groupie. She is OBSESSED with Chuck. Anyway she likes to peck at the necks of the babies but she isn't too hard about it, only does it once, and does not chase. So she's just doing her thing. It's fine. She does it to Pudding and Blanche and Tilly too.

I am worried about Lil Peep -

I let this over crowded brooder go too long.

She was not bleeding yesterday, so that's just today but hopefully it will stop now that there is literally *everywhere* else to get to. I got some bloodstop powder coming. Hopefully we will see how it all goes. This is all my fault and I feel terrible about it. I didn't anticipate this happening. Lil Peep and Oscar don't deserve their feathers being picked :/

I cannot believe they ALL were standing there, but that's all of them in one shot. Absolute vulture era.

 

[WingItRanch]

What an exciting day for you! I hope you end up letting your pup work the sheep!

 

[thistlewick]

What an exciting day for you! I hope you end up letting your pup work the sheep!

I might! She has been doing nothing but sitting on the other side of the fence from them and staring at them ALL DAY LONG. lol

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This morning was uneventful! So good news all around. I don't open up the hen house until about 2 hours after sunrise so there was definite mingling going on. But I went out there, a bunch of the babies were out in the run with the ducks.

I call to the chickens and all the big girls come out to the door of the run to be let out. They just completely ignore the little ones. The little ones almost followed the flock, but were wary. They stayed behind.

I did my normal chicken chores and went back inside. About an hour later I spy on the camera that Spitfire is LAYING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR and all the babies are stuck inside their brooder pen.

Yeah, that pissed me off. So out I go, kicked the ducks out. The littles immediately started going out of their pen. My husband last night said it might be a good idea to add another door at the back end of the pen -- so that is what I did this morning. I just finished it so now there are 2 exits/entrances and no one is getting stuck inside anymore.

They all stay in the hen house and the run. I hope they eventually learn that they can go outside and forage lol but for now, I am glad they are in the safety of the hen house and run. The doors are wide open but they just stick around.

 

[thistlewick]

Everything is going so well with the teenagers! At around roosting time, when the big girls come back to the hen house and forage around the hen house and pasture for an hour or so, the littles are coming out to forage too, around the big girls and everyone gets along. All the teens know to steer clear and give way to the big ladies, except Pudding, who they have learned is just a nice hen. And Blanche too. Safe.

No one but Pepper gives them any fuss. I am amazed and happy.

In the mornings, the teens REALLY want to follow the big ladies out, but the Big Scary World is out beyond the fence and they backtrack to the hen house. It's freakin so cute.

Lil Peep is all healed, I never needed to use the blood stop powder; just opening the brooder pen was enough to get them to stop that. Hopefully on their next juvenile molt they will grow their feathers in. Crossing fingers it's not a habit from anyone. But everyone seems to be so busy doing other things now.

Heath and Oscar, two little cockerels, thinking they were gonna sleep outside tonight. Nope nope nope little rascals! Had to gently shoo them back in lol

 

[thistlewick]

Was late to bedtime tonight, husband and I went out to dinner on a lark that was supposed to originally go to TSC to buy another pen -- we nixxed that idea, decided to talk about it over dinner and ended up about 15 minutes past lockup time.

Everyone was in, tucked up and roosting and relaxed and quiet. We just checked the perimeter for any possible strays but there was none (we'd hear them crying if so, and it was silent) just closed them up and said good night <3 So proud of these teens!

I had fun doing some photography today for the Natural Egg Photo Contest and these were some leftovers that didn't make the cut;

I just thought there was too much going on, didn't look editorial enough - but I think they're hilarious pics LOL

The look on Chocolate's face