Chickens! (New chicks!)

[Lupis]

Haven't been able to update in ages, the snow has kept us inside. But it melted, so have a few more pictures! More to come after this at some point.



James being proud. He always stands with his chest way up in the air.



Joan Jett, who still isn't laying eggs for us, the evil bird.

[cowmuflage]

Just say if you don't lay eggs we will have you for dinner Should make her lay heaps of eggs!

[Wain]

James is a very handsome boy.

In the second picture... is that chicken in the background wearing a blanket??

[Lupis]

Oh, hah, yeah, she is. The roosters have a habit of clawing up the backs of hens when they mate, so we put chicken saddles (they look like blankets) on the hens to keep their backs safe from claws. They tend to settle and tolerate them, but every now and then we find a trampled saddle that a hen got out of.

[Wain]

So it's kind of a... marital aid for chickens. Ok

[Lupis]

Hah! Yep, pretty much.

[cowmuflage]

Is it because roosters have those spur things on their legs? They look like they'd hurt lots.

[Lupis]

Yup, that and just their regular claws. Very sharp claws! And I finally uploaded the pictures I took the other day.



Qouth, all dirty after a dustbath.





Elliot posing. He's the only one who will pose for pictures.



When one of the roos makes a certain growling noise, all the hens look up, completely alert. Well, the ones that aren't busy stuffing their face.



Legbars with bars over them. Ha- hahaha- okay done.



I was going to take a cute picture of Mort and Frida Kahlo, but then he decided to flap like a crazy bird.



Many chicken tails.



I dropped a piece of sandwich on the ground. Instant herd of chickens.



The silkies. I still have a hard time believing they're chickens.



Wait, no. I have a hard time believing Robin is a chicken.

[cowmuflage]

Those are some very pretty chickens. Those silkies kind of remind me of quails just with out the head things. I think it's the roundness of them (well in that last picture anyway!) quails and chickens are tied for best farm bird for me at least!

[Serendipity82]

Beautiful birds Lupis.



Mort is still my favorite though XD <3

[Lupis]

The last week or two has been pretty calm. Quoth went broody, so we put a few eggs under her. A few days later we got six Cream Legbar eggs in the mail, so we swapped out the eggs under her so she can raise our precious little Legbars (should any of them hatch). The other eggs we put in our incubator as a "test run" so to speak.



Broody Quoth. She fluffs up when you get near her, and makes annoyed purring sounds.



Joan Jett, who is not broody, but who is indeed a little jerk. Frida Kahlo is broody and was sitting on a big pile of eggs when Joan jumped up, attacked her repeatedly until poor little Frida ran off, and then sat on the eggs. She sat there for maybe five minutes before abandoning them. I think she just wanted to show off. Either way, Frida went back to the eggs after that. Both Frida Kahlos are brooding now, tucked up right next to each other. They're adorable.

So expect chick pictures, in a week or two! At least a half dozen of the incubator eggs seem to be developing nicely, so if they survive to hatching, we should have a bunch of little fuzzies this spring.

[cowmuflage]

Whoo babies! How long does it take for one to hatch?

[Lupis]

21 days, on average. They can take up to 25 days or so depending on how long the eggs sat around before being incubated. They're on day 14 or so, though some of them are younger and some are older. It's an odd mix. xD

[cowmuflage]

Cool. Man shows how much I know I was thinking it would of been like 2 or so weeks Only a week and a bit off!

[SpiritBinder]

WOW, Robin is just stunning! I love the colouration and the head crest is just too cute!

[Boven]

So Joan Jett don't give a damn about her bad hen reputation?

[Lupis]

So Joan Jett don't give a damn about her bad hen reputation?

You get a gold star for that.

[Lupis]

So, for the last while, we've had quite a lot of egg incubation going on. Here's the list:

Quoth is sitting on six Cream Legbar eggs, plus one she found.
Both Frida Kahlos are sitting on about six eggs each.
The first of our (now two) incubators has about ten eggs in it.
The second of our brooders has maybe 18 eggs in it.

This morning, mom woke me up by saying that one of them (which had a small hole in it the day before) had hatched. I went and looked at it, then was so tired that I went back to bed. She woke me up later by telling me that we had to move the chick, because it was "picking on the other two".

Pictures will come soon of the three new chicks! We know one is half Robin (Polish) and half white silkie. We have since named it Godzilla because it's an unholy terror. There's also a white chick with black on the neck and wings, so we think it's another Light Sussex mix. The third is still wet, but it's a little brown chick that hatched from a green egg, so it's probably an Easter Egger (aka Gryphon or Falcor.)

[Lupis]

Pictures of the new chicks!



Godzilla in front, showing off his dark blue skin and leg feathers- both definite Silkie traits. In back is the sussex mix.



The Easter Egger mix, who at the moment has feathers that look like spun gold.

[cowmuflage]

They are very pretty. They all look like they are wet and dry at the same time.