There's nothing like being the Chicken Mommy! My girl's come running at the sound of my voice and crowd around my feet. My friends tease and say they're trying to trip me so I break a leg, but I know they just love their Mommy!
Funny chick antics
I would love to say mine love their mommy but in truth they get excited to see me because I bring the mealworm treat bowl. And they do recognize that bowl.
You are the Mommy chicken that feeds them, trust me, they love you!
love to watch the chicks dust bathing. It is so funny.
They do know who the grocery lady is for sure lol
The chicks have spent so much time 'dust bathing' today. More like wood pellet shaving bathing LOL! The little ones have been at it too but the bigger ones have been just total ninneys today. Seems like one or the other of them have been at it most of the day. Then the others will stand over the 'bathing' one and pick the little pieces of sawdust out of the feathers and eat them.
Boy, they sure are riled up this morning and running around like ninnies. By the end of the week I am going to have to move those Lavender Orps into that big new brooder cage I bought as they are growing like weeds.
Here is my favotire BO, Connie, dust bathing today. They've done a great job of tilling the flower bed too!
I guess the dustbathing routine is hardwired into them as they all seem to do it from the time they are little chicks. It sure is funny the conturtions thay put themselves thru and the positions they take. Plus they toss shaving around everywhere. I am sure its even more funny in actual dirt LOL! Connie looks like she is really into the bathing routine :-))
I bet all you guys already know all these things. But I am learning as I watch my chicks. It really helps lots that they are here in my office were I spend lots of time. So I see what they are doing most of the time.
I have just realised that chickens are really very interested in what other chickens are doing. The two batches (which are side by side) watch each other all the time. Plus things like one starts eating and everone else runs over and eats too. It really must be a chicken thing.
I get so tickled watching the funny way they have about eating something new. If I give them something new, like canned peas and carrots, no one wants them at first. It takes a little while and then the "taste tester" ( usually the oldest Cochin baby "Cotton") comes over and inspects the item. She picks at it then grabs and runs.......then everyone else just has to have that one particular piece! After about three or four times everyone calms down and decides thay want their own , then the games begin! Toooo funny!
I haven't figgured out how to get them to eat any other treats besides thier mealworms. I try the older chicks, they will take about anything from my fingers. This because I feed them mealworms from my fingers. As soon as they realise its not mealworms they drop it. Usually go peck at it afew times but hey it's not mealworms so no one will eat it, whatever it is.
Mealworms are a hard act to follow.
oooh yeah! If it wiggles crawls or hops .. it just has to be yummy!!! LOl!
Well, I started with the mealworms because I couldn't get them to try anything else I gave them. Had to go to live wiggly things ha-ha because I wanted them to quit running away from me. Well, that worked they now run toward me and look for their treats. It's sorta unnerving the way they slant their head and just stare at you :-(( Jabber away while they are at it too. Jenna (Black Copper Marens pullet) flies up to see me, landed on my arm. Surprised me. But those mealworms sure are a big hit.
When they are tiny babiez.. you can make a scratching sound by pushing down your fingernail on some crumbles.. kinda "pecking" with your finger, toss a tiny bit of crumbles aside gently.. it will trigger their curiosity.. and they will peck like mad in no time.. Meal worms are a back up.. LOL The finger scratching sound works every time.. The roo will meet your finger first..:) (when they are tiny) This is what I do to get a lone baby to start eating..
You'll have to quit the meal worms for a while to get them to eat something else. Talk about spoiled rotten! :) You will be rewarded for a long time for the kindness you show them now.
A cherry tomato is a good starter.. cause it's red.. and if you split it and squeeze a little to let the seeds ooze out, it usually triggers interest.. (split it first, if you pop it and squirt them, it's all over) LOL
I think I will try some scrambled egg next time I make some for myself. But they sure do love those mealworms and I have plenty. Oh, they also love to play in their water.
I will try the finger pecking next time and also sprinkle afew crumbles on there hopefully give them the idea. Thanks for the tips :-))
Well, I cleaned out everything. The Lavenders are now in a new big clear storage box similar to the one the big guys are in. Its bigger than their aquarium, actually bigger than the one the big guys are in. I really think they will appreciate the extra room. They are really enjoying scratching around and I bet it won't be long before the dust bathing starts up again.
I decided to wait until they are bigger to use the big cage. Maybe by then I will be able to tell the unwanted rooosters.
The aquarium is cleaned out and washed and new bedding put in to get ready for next weeks hatch. Plus I also completed scuped out the dirty bedding from the big guys brooder and replaced and cleaned it. Everything looks and smells so good now. It was getting a bit ripe LOL!
I am down 3 chickens as I figgured since I will hatch new chicks soon this is a good time to cull the unwanted ones. I no longer have the rooster from the big batch or the two blacks splits from the lavender Orps that I never wanted anyway. So I only have the 4 real lavenders from them.
This is the right thread!
What did you do with them or do I dare ask?
I was going to wait in case the Black Orps might be hens and then make a trio with a Lavender roo to give or sell. But the guy (friend of a friend of a friend) was here and willing to take the bigger one I know is a roo. So I gave the kid (young man, looked like a kid to me) the two blacks too. As I understand it he is giving them to his Uncle. He didn't speak English and didn't much care about the chickens. Uncle will stew them Roosters when they get bigger. Maybe keep hens, I don't know and didn't ask thru my interpretor. Wasn't really planned but I figgured if he was willing to take them now instead of next month, it is all good for me. I just never wanted the blacks, even if they are hens. I would rather hatch out something I do want instead.
Maybe it was grandfather instead of uncle, I can't remember. I don't know if this was the best solution or not. But he was willing take them and I was willing to give them.
My bigger chicks sure have been talking up a storm since yesterday afternoon after I cleaned all the brooders and moved the younger chicks over accross the room. Don't know if they could possibly be missing seeing them next to them. They usually yak a lot but this chatter has been non stop unless they are sleeping. It is a low volume chattering. Sometimes more noisey.
Meantime the younger ones are chest bumping and trying to establish dominace. Must not be done as they are still at it today. They 'fight' and then a minute later are all piled up together sleeping. Silly chickens :-))
This might be the way all chickens talk most of the time for all I know. Remember they are only afew feet away from me so I can easily hear them.
I have two cages of cockatiels, one for males and one for females. They sit next to each other. You should hear them scream back and forth to each other if I move a cage, even for a minute.
Last week I bought a new bird. It is pearl colored with yellow tail feathers. I thought he/she was pretty. Now, I'm wondering what in the world I was thinking. Impulse buying I guess they call it.
I used to have lots of different birds like Cockateils and parrakeets and finches (lots of others too) but it was so many years ago that I just forget how they were. But I had all my cockateils set up together in one big flight run. They had nest boxes and bred but choose their own mates. The parrakeets I set up in pairs. Both were usually noisey but I more or less ignorned that. I had them in the basement.
I just never figgured chickens made so many different sounds. I thought they just clucked. This is quite the learning experience for me.
I really love, love, love having them here. I like to watch them and I like hearing them yakk to each other most of the day. I don't know how I am going to stand it when they move out of my office to bigger quarters.
I have noticed that my chicks make a particular loud cheeping call when I separate a couple of friends.
I thought maybe you were going to just keep hatching and hatching.
Shhhh! {{{I think she is.}}}
I think I am too LOL! I just want chicks around all the time :-)) But I know that I am going to eventually move them as they get bigger. But I love hatching.
Maybe the smaller ones are calling to their friends that used to be next to them. They have been peeping loudly and I can't see anything wrong. For sure they can hear each other, they are just on opposite sides of the room instead of next to each other.
Maybe they think they are lost.
Kitten do that. If they are away from their mother, they let out long cries to call them.
It is difficult to introduce chickens too. They know that one hasn't been there before, and the pecking order process begins.
Well, some of these chickens will have to be introduced to each other after they get bigger. But who knows what I have yet. I could have three roos out of those four Lavenders for all I know. Just wait and see.
I wanted to add that as I started I learned that I just loved the hatching. Don't want to buy started chicks AT ALL! Only want to get eggs and do it myself. But I am quickly realising it is not only the hatching I love but the having. I just can't believe how much entertainment the chickens are. Who knew LOL?
Man has had chickens for thousands of years now. Probably many went through the same things we do today. Watching the babies grow, enjoying the eggs, and then later having to decide to kill and eat them. Some people just as squeamish as some of us are about it, but when we are hungry we are hungry and need food.
I assume they made their own pens out of sticks, wood, stone, whatever they had. Similar to the way they built their own houses I suppose. No doubt suffering from predators and losses as we do at times.
I still say, that without chickens, most of our ancestors would not have survived. Even my grandparents relied on chickens for a food source in the depression. All their children were healthy too.
It is no wonder chickens are the "farm" animal for backyards. They are fairly easy keepers and very entertaining. Add the duel purposae food source that they are (eggs and meat) I don't see how they can be beat.
I was playing with my lavenders as I was feeding and watering today. I change the water each day and add feed. They are just getting soooo very pretty. The sun was shining and they just glisten in the sun. I love their coloring. Plus they are quite friendly. They immediatly try to get near me as soon as they see me. My hand gets mobbed as I try to pickup the feeder or waterer. The also fly up onto my hand often. I know this is because I give them mealworms but hey, I don't care why they like me. Just that they do LOL!
Yesterday one of them went to sleep in their grit bowl after taking a dustbath in the grit. Silly chicks.
I really think that I have one girl for sure and two boys for sure and one not sure. But I am leaning to three boys. The girl, small comb, no color no wattles. Two boys lots of comb and wattles are starting to come plus red. One kinda in between.
This message was edited Nov 17, 2010 10:14 PM
There is this funny trilling noise they make. It can be louder but usually it is quieter. They do it all the time when they are doing the dustbathing. At least the older chicks do. I think it is a sound of pleasure or contentment as it accompanies the ninny dustbathing that they really, really seem to enjoy.
I love to watching sleeping in big puppy piles lol
So the older chicks definately see the little ones in the aquarium that I put in not long ago. They are over on that side of their container gaukking and yakking up a storm whenever the little ones walk around.
....and some people think Chickens are Dumb!!!!! The things they learn and the way they figure things out so quickly amazes me!
I tried to snap a picture of one of the big guys as it perched up on the edge when I was doing the daily feeding but all I got was a siluette of a chicken :-(( It is my olive egger chick.
Black animals tend to just look like a hole in the picture when photographed.
The flash did not go off probably because of all the light in the backround.
They sure grow up fast don't they?
The ninny Lavenders (well at least one of them) are taking a dust bath in the newly cleaned and refilled gravel bowl. One will do the dust bathing and the others will groom it and pick stuff out of its feathers. Last night before I went to bed they simply would not settle down and peeped and peeped really loudly whenever they saw me. I had forgotten to give them their dayly mealworms. I guess I may have forgotten but they had not forgotten. I am amazed they can be so smart about some things and so silly about others. I had to give them treats before they would go to bed LOL!