The "baby babies"

I have a lot of chickens. And to categorize the different age groups, we sometimes call them by the "Girls," "The babies," "The baby babies," and "The chicks," or "Baby baby babies."

So, let's give an update first on "The baby baby babies!" These little tykes just hatched this last Friday through Saturday, and are doing fine now. We experienced the loss of two Jersey Giants out of a great hatch of 10/11 but haven't experienced any troubles since then.

In fact, we had one who hatched out with its yolk still hanging from its behind, and another chick eventually pecked and popped it. . . There went all its nutrients for the next two days all over the bottom of the incubator. . . And there was nothing we could do about it until the hatch was completely done. Well, once we finally pulled everyone out of the incubator, the chick was really small and skinny, quite lifeless, and couldn't even open its eyes. After hours of forcing it to drink, trying somehow to make it eat, and keeping watch of it, I had to go to bed. . . The next morning it was still alive. In fact, a day later after much care put into it, the chick began to open its eyes. Now, it's still small and skinny, but isn't quite so weak anymore.

This is all the chicks in the brooder just yesterday:



The black ones are Black Copper Marans and Black Jersey Giants. The blue/grey ones are Blue Jersey Giants. The huge, fluffy yellow-white ones are Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Marans. The one truly white one on the left is a Polish x Easter Egger. The cutie will be our one and only white chicken, and should grow up to have a tiny crest on its head and lay mint green eggs.

Here's a closeup of a Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. This one, like a couple, is marked. The blue signifies that this one hatched from the bluest egg.





Next, we have updates on the "Baby Babies" - And of course first to show off are our Araucanas - They've got true tufts coming in now! Not just little nubbins of feathers, but real tufts. They're becoming very beautiful birds, but still quite small.

Here's a white one with great tufts, though on the white background you may or may not see them very well. . .



Here's a blue pullet with magnificent tufts, also a very friendly one compared to others.



Here's a beautiful but clean-faced Silver Duckwing pullet.



And here's a unique "Blue Cuckoo" type clean faced Araucana:



Next, here's a Blue Wheaten Marans pullet:





A Blue Wheaten Marans cockerel:



And a Black Copper Marans cockerel:



And then there's our oldest mini-flock of Marans and Ameraucanas. . . Here's how our cockerel, Maple, is at 2 months old. He's finally starting to actually look like a Black Copper Marans.



Well, . . My camera's batteries need to be recharged. and tomorrow is a promised good and sunny day, so I'll show you around to our pregnant goat who's due in just a couple days, and the rest of the chookies!

A bump in the population!

So my hatch finally commenced today. It began excitingly with a pip on day 20, a day early for hatching, then took a little hiatus until midnight and into the morning, more pips arrived and finally the first chick, a BBS Wheaten Ameraucana, hatched out.







This little'un was alone for hours, but unlike the last hatch's first Ameraucana, this one was really quiet, good, brave, and VERY curious. I could even tap the incubator and make light little peep peeps at it, and it would look up at me and run on over. SO cute!! So, I lured it to the ventplug, snuck a pink marker through, and marked it to remember it specifically once the others hatch. . .

Later on, even more Ameraucanas hatched, and our Jersey Giants followed right behind. After a while it was a whole party of Jersey Giant hatchings.







And of course, during all this new traffic that soon got pretty busy and crowded, my first little "strawberry blonde" watched from above. . .



And finally, the Marans began to hatch. . .



I find that when we hatch chicks, they seem to take turns. . . One will only start to zip and hatch once another has already hatched from its egg, wandered off, and settled down. It's like they are waiting in line with their tickets out, and sometimes they'll steal each others' tickets! Some of the chicks will almost zip, then another races it to zipping, and hatches. . . So the first one has to wait until that hatched chick is done. THEN it can hatch. . .

In the end, out of 11 Jersey Giant eggs - 10 made it. Wooo!!!
Out of 9 Marans eggs, 5 made it. Not bad, considering 2 I'm pretty sure were never alive before lockdown.
Out of 15 Ameraucana eggs - 5 made it. REALLY not great.
Out of 1 Polish x Easter Egger egg, 1 made it. SO proud of it!!

The rest of them

Well, a couple days ago I had the time to actually be out with all the animals in the pasture. It was really nice - I got to watch Djimon wander off, almost to the burn piles and itch his horns on a stump; I got to fix up a nice, huge pit of dirt for the chickens to dust bathe in, and I was able to actually take a photo of all the Wyandottes in one frame. Oh, and I got to stare at my Easter Egger rooster and take in all the beauty that he is! I have a most beautiful Easter Egger.





Here's Djimon now. He's really grown since our first couple days! He's loose now, has been for some number of days. He's really really good with people, the only thing he still needs work with is halter training. Oh, and I actually had a chance to photograph the size of his horn. When we first got him, they were practically non-existent. In a matter of hours to a day, they were visible bumps. Now, they're getting shape, and starting to curve up and out of his fuzzy forehead.






Now, of course, there's two animals left that I have not spoken of since perhaps the day after we got them. They are the goats - Our LaMancha dairy girls. Zing, the black one, is due in less than 2 months, and Zest, the yellow-striped one, is due in June. Zing is still a sweety, and Zest isn't really as playful anymore but still quite distant. Sometimes it takes chasing her around until you catch her to actually put her to bed in the barn at night. One new thing that I have yet to catch on camera though is their almost daily "fights" now. Not sure if it is play or not, but during or after their breakfast, I have twice now caught the girls ramming their heads. Zest is always the one to pack the most punch, rearing into the air and coming straight down - But Zing is the one who resists the most. I just hope it doesn't hurt the babies inside them!



^ Zing and Zest approaching me, with all the chickens foraging behind. You can just see the bratty look on Zest's face! She always gives a sharp look at you. She's pretty bad right now - Her favorite thing to do is go up in the corner nearest the chicken coop and stand up on the fence. It tears down the chicken wire that lines the bottom of the fence, allowing the chickens to get loose from their pasture.