Sorry Granny! I can't imagine what happened. Hope no more losses. Aussie chicks do have some white on their primaries until the adult molt. Mine finally went black at the 4 month molt. Good luck.
eggs chirping
Thanks all. I actually was hoping that I would get a RIR/Aussie cross. But maybe it wasn't meant to be. Since I am going to buy some Buffs, and going to keep one rooster out of this hatch, and buy another rooster, I will probably get some crosses next year. DH wants the hens to be a little larger than the Aussies. Don't know what kind of roo I am going to buy, but it won't be a Buff, that's for sure.
Well, the yellow feet are promising. Aussie's are suppose to have white to whitish pink bottoms to their feet. Buffs are so nice--I still think the roosters are just spoiled. One of mine charged me to get food and I can imagine him getting mean later. The other was a doll, but they are just so fearless around people that I imagine it can mutate into aggression when they are mature and the hormones kick in.
Well, since the one we had turned out to be so mean, that soured me on having another Buff roo. I am thinking about a barred rock. I will what Tractor Supply has when we go to get our buffs.
I'm sorry you lost them Granny. I hope no more.
I had one quail seemingly die of -nothing- overnight
after almost 2 days of vigor and apparent health. I can only
imagine it may have been from fright, as my yearling kitty
had been hanging around overnight.
I just figure it was meant to be. Nature does things we can't understand but there is usually a reason. The others are doing very well. Just checked on them and finally saw one that went to sleep like a "rubber chicken", but it did that by burrowing its head under the others and then stretching out its legs. The other mostly just squat down and go to sleep like that.
Mine all did the "rubber chicken". When they got a little older, they would loll around like teenager under the heat lamp, stretching out and rolling around until they were all warm--then go sleep side by side out of the reach of the lamp. I had the hardest time figuring out if they were too warm or too cold. It was like they went hot tubbing and then got together on the patio to talk it over. Very decadent.
That's just about what mine are doing now. They will lay down on their side then turn over and lay on their other side, then just stick their head out one way and their feet out the other way. Funny.
Or, I saw all of them laying down side by side and all asleep in a bunch. So, who knows.
Glad the rest of the babies are doing well, Granny.
bet you are proud, and enjoying them.
I liked watching my babies do that. They looked so
comfortable, like they hadn't a care in the world.
I have one cochin I call Amelia Earhart, that would lie
under the lamp with one wing raised to warm her side.
It was strange looking and funny. She may turn out to be
a roo, not sure yet.
I am going to divide the pen they are in today. Then I will let them out of the brooder box so they can run around like "free range" in the 3 x 3 pen. We will still have the light for them to get under, but since the box is getting too crowded, this will give them some more room, and they can see the world (at least that part of the garage where they are).
They are going to be so happy with that. I made 1 of my
brooders out of a camo tarp on the floor, and surrounded
by 16x16 cinderblocks. As my chicks got bigger and more
crowded, I lengthened it by adding a couple more blocks.
This has worked very well, they are just heavy as the
dickens, and have to be strategically placed so they can't
cave in.
I loved watching them get more curious about the world.
You would have thought they won a million dollars when
I moved them outside.LOL
All this talk about babies and getting them outside is making me anxious to get my babies here. Two more days and they will start hatching. I kinda hope they start tomorrow while I'm home, but I doubt out. Good luck to everyone with little ones.
Well, we started with the large pen four years ago and found it was too big for day-olds when we first got them. I measured it wrong and it will be 3 x 4 or thereabouts. So, when we let the younger ones out in the other half of the pen, these will be able to see but not fight the others. And, hopefully we can put them together before we move them outside in the big run. That one is also divided with another henhouse for the younger ones. After they get almost full size, we will let them mix with the others. And, most likely start culling the older ones this fall.
Granny and others,
What kind of temperatures do you look for before you move chicks outside? I'm assuming that night time temps are the main consideration here. I keep picturing 25 youngsters all trying out their new wings as the feathers come in and it scares the beejeebers out of me!
MollyD
I have found out that if it is comfortable for me to be sitting out at night with no sleeves it is the right temperature for FULLY FEATHERED chicks to be out in the big house. That is usually around July. I think we put them out last year in June, but could be wrong.
One thing, our temperatures are very like yours and we get -20 to -25 temps in the dead of winter, and our adult chicks sometimes come out of their heated house then, so they are pretty hardy.
i like your way of testing when its right lol
Granny ^_^ glad this popped up! I was looking for this thread and couldn't find it before. Here it's warm at night in May, usually late May. Of course there are odd years when it's later.
MollyD
Molly, about 4 to 5 years ago, we had frost on the first of July and again on the first of September. That year I couldn't sit out at night without sleeves at all!!! ^_^
But, guess what? I had to turn on the air today for a few minutes before the sun went down. It was 80○ in our living room. Too warm for me.
Thanks, Lucky. I go most days without sleeves on my "popover" dresses or wear tank tops. Just can't stand the heat.
And I'm cold unless it's above 75!
MollyD
ooooooohhhh, Molly, and you live in Canandaigua? You must stay indoors all winter. ^_^
i luv the cold as well
LOL as much as possible Granny! As much as possible!
Paul laughs at me when he sees me all bundled up and he's only got a sweat shirt on. He's not laughing when I touch him with icy cold fingers!!
MollyD
Don't feel bad, Molly, my DH puts on a quilted flannel shirt and I am walking around in short sleeves in the winter. In fact, I was so hot yesterday, I turned on the air conditioner for a few minutes to cool the air down and already had the fan on. And he was STILL wearing a flannel shirt!! He had the nerve to ask me if I was having hot flashes. Of course I was...lol...one constant one.
LOL poor guy! Sounds like he's in my shoes. Paul wanted me to lower the heat (set at 70 because the reading is 2 degrees off) and I said "if you'll look at me you'll see I'm already wearing a coat in the house'! I was too. I had on one of those sweat shirt zip up coats LOL. That shut him up real fast!
Problem here is that this house tends to stay on the cool side even in summer. We have no air conditioning and in the summer rarely run the fans. It can be 80 outside and 70 inside if you don't open the windows. I open them cause I like warm summer breezes but even then it doesn't get that hot.
Molly
We don't have a choice. We don't have mature trees around to keep the sun off the house, and it really beats down on us. So, we do have to have something to keep the heat off of us.
Now, just to show you, I sleep with my window open all year unless the temperature goes down to at least -10. And, I have no heat in my bedroom. That's why we have separate bedrooms. DH happens to be bald, and I freeze him out. that could also be the reason he gets cold easily.
I have no idea why you get cold easily. ^_^
Soooooo funny you are talking about hot flashes.
I am getting an introduction here of late. uh oh. and yea!
no wait- uh oh.
Didn't they used to make sleeping caps to keep heads warm while sleeping?!(sending out a visual! hee hee!)
LOL yes they did Sandy. Both men and women wore them since their homes were so cold at night. A head cold could lead to pneumonia and death. We tend to take colds for granted nowdays.
Granny we have huge black walnuts all around us plus we're at a higher altitude than the city of Canandaigua. Not mountains though. No hot flashes here ^_^ wish I did have them then I could stay warm!
MollyD
Molly, we don't have black walnuts here, but have access to them. Right now there is a couple of bags of walnuts hanging in my shed waiting for DH to crack them so I can shell them. A lot of work but worth it. Just found out you can buy them at the market. Hammons put them out and they run $4.99 for a 12 ounce bag.
Granny if you are ever out this way you are more than welcome to all you can carry! We hate them and they draw the squirrels in. The squirrels dig in my flower beds and pots to bury them in the fall and to dig them up in the spring.Not happy with that damage if they find one they bring it up on our deck to shell it. That leaves a mess all over and those walnuts stain everything badly!! When I first moved here I had the idea that I was going to collect them and use them to cook with. Well on the tree they've got a green outer husk that you have to peel off to reach the walnut you see in the store. That husk is very thick and it stains everything! I wore heavy rubber gloves and would you believe my hands still got stained brown! Now it DOES NOT WASH OFF!! I walked around for a year looking like my hands were dirty till it wore off. UGH!
MollyD
A whole year???ugh! poor thing!
Yep, very embarrassing especially in restaurants. The waitresses would look at me like 'don't you know you should wash your hands before eating'! If they only knew how many times I tried dipping them in bleach and scrubbing them with Ajax!!
MollyD
Molly, I don't what kind of bleach you used, but I had no trouble with Clorox. Straight from the bottle, then wash hands and use heavy duty lotion on them. I didn't even use gloves when I husked the walnuts. And, I wish we had walnut trees of any kind here. But the only kind that will grow here are black ones.
I remember the first time I "played" with black walnuts. My next door neighbor at the time and I had picked up a couple of feed sacks, and when we went to a farmer's house and asked him if we could have the black walnuts from his yard, he told us to take all we wanted outside of the fence. The only thing we had to put them in was those feed sacks. The background was white with blue roses on it. I used Clorox on them and also on my hands, and it came right out.
That's what I used Granny and it didn't come out! Wish it had :-(
MollyD
Maybe it was stronger back then. That was over 30 years ago. YIKES!!! I'm getting old.
I thought about this and I had those walnuts soaking in water for a while to soften the husk. Maybe that let more of the dye come out?
btw Granny if you want them I can always send you a boxfull (with husk!!!) when they drop around August. Let me know.
MollyD
No, thank you, we get them by the truckload from a friend who has about 15 trees. We will be cracking and shelling them all spring. Then we will be freezing them so we can make black walnut cake and black walnut fudge and black walnut ice cream.
Aw shucks! Thought I'd found a place to unload those things ;-)
MollyD
So sorry. Of course, you could always sell the trees to a lumber company. That would get rid of them. ^_^
Granny I would in a heartbeat but Paul loves those weed trees!! I keep quoting $ at him that he could make just by selling the ones close to the house, nevermind the rest of the ten acres ^_^ Can't persuade him :-(
MollyD