A Small Chickam Update...

Because some of the chicks were being little snots during picture time and refused to come out from under the bushes. I don't blame them, it got hot early this morning.

But anyway, here's pictures of the ones I could lure out with frozen watermelon. Ishkabibble is the red chick on the left, Sunshine the little blond on the right. The gray hen center back is Rainbow. Garnet is the big red girl in front.

One of last year's chicks, Sticky, is on the left, caught in mid-leap with one wing extended. That's because Apricot, barely visible next to her, had pecked her away from the watermelon. Mjolnir the buff Orpington roo, and Cheerio watching.

  

 

Ishkabibble lookin' tiny next to Nyx, our Midnight Majesty Marans. Mayhem, one of the Russian Orloffs, is behind Nyx. 

Another mixed group. In the back on the left are Lemon Zest, Supernova (black and white), Enzyme (gray) and Zigzag (red/black/white mottled). For the older hens, Blazikin is on the front left, Garibaldi (blond), Peanut and part of Apricot.

Sticky on the run, Lemon Zest behind her.

Eggroll, our blue laced red Wyandotte roo and his impressive dinosaur frills, with Supernova behind him.

 

 

Sunshine and Huntress having a dustbath. 

 

  

Enzyme, Sunshine, and Huntress. And Huntress' ORANGE legs.

 Nothing much can dislodge a chicken that is dustbathing, not even Mace Wingdu.

 

 

Rainbow the gray Orpington, Doughnut (I accidently typed that as 'Douchnut' and spent about 5 minutes laughing) the chocolate Orp. Don't ask me what Rainbow is doing with her legs.

It's pretty much a given that the best picture you get of your chickens will be in the most cluttered part of the yard. Zigzag's head far left, then Doughnut, Rainbow, and Mayhem.

Moose the Salmon Faverolle in the foreground, Yeti, Huntress, and Enzyme eating.

 

 

Criminy, they were really serious about it and refused to come up for air. 

All the chicks are doing well, the rooboys will be rehomed soon to GOOD homes.

Our Hatched Chickam Chicks, Two Months Old!

Out of the six surviving chicks that hatched from our eggs, three are hens, and three are roos. Once again in order of hatch, here they are at two months old! As far as we know all have Mjolnir, our Buff Orpington rooboy, for a daddy except for one chick. But all that red means they may surprise us when they molt out into their first set of adult feathers in a few months!

 

This batch was MUCH better behaved during picture time than the hatchery chicks, although most of their pictures look like they've been taken hostage.

 

First is Lemon Zest, a hen (mom: Luna), egg #6.  Lemon Zest surprised us by swapping out her blond feathers for red, and is clean legged.

 Fair warning, this group really leaned into the 'Gawky Teen' stance.

 

Jay Jay, a hen (mom: Brick), egg #6. She is very sweet, with feathered feet/shanks. She has a lot of gray in her tail, which she kept well-hidden during picture time.

 

 

Ishkabibble, a rooster (mom: Bobo), egg # 4. He was an assisted hatch because of the weird oblong shape of Bobo's egg. And Bobo is black, so it's a little surprising that he kept his red coloring. Ish has heavily feathered feet & shanks.

 

 

Mace Wingdu, a rooster (mom: Brick), egg #7. Blond with feathered legs & feet. A lot of the chicks turned their toes under during picture time--they aren't really missing claws!

 

Yeti, a rooster (mom: Takoyaki), egg # 2. The only non-blond in the hatch, he has Eggroll, our blue laced red Wyandotte rooster, for a daddy! This is the only chick fathered by Eggroll so far.

 I dunno why he found the ceiling so fascinating.

 Or why he insisted on perfecting his 'Derp' pose.

 

Sunshine, a hen (mom: Luna), egg #5. Another sweetie, she is blond, fluffy-faced and clean legged--except for ONE feather on each foot, both of which she promptly broke off.

 Another one practicing the 'Derp' look.

That's it for this year!

Chickam Chicks, Two Months Old!

Here is the first group of Chickam chicks, they turned two months old on July 10th. Picture time involved more aggrieved screaming (mostly from me begging them to calm down, shut up, for crying out loud) and struggling than previous years. When they did settle down, we got loads of judgemental looks. We paid through the nose to get all pullets, so no rooboys in this batch!

 

In the same order as their baby chick pics, here they are:

 

Supernova, a Mottled Java. A critically endangered breed, now I think I know why--Supernova is a total drama llama and screamed and ran every time we even thought about reaching into the brooder box. Once you caught her she calmed down...but criminy, catching her involved loads of chicken drama that I hope she grows out of once she realizes we aren't gonna eat her.

Derp.

 

Next is Mayhem, the first of a pair of Russian Orloffs, a threatened breed. Mayhem is the larger of the two, and right now has more barring on her back feathers and black feathers on either side of her comb. Both Mayhem and Havoc are growing in their face fluffies and are super cute. Mayhem was a VERY good girl during picture time, standing very still.

 I mean, very still, she literally stayed in whatever position we posed her in. 

Which of course led to getting her beak booped.

Havoc, Mayhem's sister and another Russian Orloff. Havoc had to be handfed a bit when we first brought her home, but has bounced back and is a healthy girl.

 

 

 

 Moose, a Salmon Faverolle, on the Watch list. Another fluffy-faced breed. I think Moose has at last worked out how all those toes go, and is very sweet big sister to the younger chicks.

 Moose being cute, and channeling her inner Blaziken, our little disabled chick from last year.

 

Rainbow, a blue English Orpington and one of THREE Orpington eating machines we got this year, God help us. Further, any time you see 'English' in a chicken breed name it strikes terror in your heart, because you know you're in for a truly gigantic chicken, they make 'em plus-sized over there. She's sweet and really goofy, and she and Doughnut are competing to see who can be the most friendly.

 

 

Zigzag, a Jubilee Orpington and while not as peopletropic as her Orpington sisters, a fun girl.

 ...who screamed her head off during picture time.

 But finally settled down.

Doughnut, a chocolate Orpington (and who of course we call 'Chocolate Doughnut'). She LOVES people and always ran over for pets while she was growing up.

 

Next is Enzyme, a Prairie Bluebell (can't wait till she comes into lay and gifts us with blue eggs). Enzyme wins Butthead of the Year, the only way to get pics of her was for the kid to hold her, otherwise she'd leap away and scream. Weird, because any other time Enzyme is a good, calm girl.

 Silly chicken.

 Lastly is Huntress, a Bielefelder. She decided she no longer needed her leg band at some point and removed it herself.

 

That's it for the older set of chicks! The little ones we hatched are 6 weeks old, and turn 8 weeks old on July 25th. Next week they start spending the daylight hours out in the small run to get used to being outdoors & the adult chickens.

It is just blazing hot right now, and not really optimal for introducing chicks to the flock--it's been 100+ degrees for the last week or so...I think I'm gonna adjust things and next spring move our hatch date up by two weeks. 

My, The Birds Are BIG This Year

 Saw something out in the front yard yesterday morning...

I kinda thought the bird seed block was disappearing awfully fast.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...

This little buck was a LOUD chewer, and stood there and stared at us like, 'Yeah, whatta ya gonna do about it?' 

Just before this he'd been stripping the little marble-sized apples off my tree, and helpfully removing the lower branches. By the time he was done, he left us four small chunks of the bird block on the ground.

Oh, and don't mind the screen door. One of our Howling Nevada Windstorms kinda destroyed it, we're on the hunt for a new, much sturdier one.

 

 

Year 17 of Chickam!

On top of the nine hatchery chicks we got in mid-May, here are the chick hatched from eggs from our flock!

 

In order of hatch, here they are--and lets just say that Mjolnir, our buff Orpington rooster, is WELL represented here:

Lemon Zest (mom: Luna), egg #6. We got so many blondies this year, we food color-spotted some of them. Lemon Zest got green head/chest spots, and is clean legged.

 Jay Jay (mom: Brick), egg #6. Green head/chest spots, feathered feet/shanks. 

Ishkabibble (mom: Bobo), egg # 4. Reddish-blond with a dark stripe down the back of her head and neck, heavily feathered feet & shanks. She was an assisted hatch , mostly I think due to the oblong shape of her egg--she couldn't rotate to unzip. Her name is fake Yiddish, and originally meant 'Don't worry', then changed to 'Should I worry?' then 'You should worry', and these days basically means, 'What, me worry?'.

 Mace Wungdu (mom: Brick), egg #7. Blond with feathers legs & feet, red head and neck spots. 

Yeti (mom: Takoyaki), egg # 2. The only non-blond in the hatch, she is grey with a tan face, clean legged. 

Sunshine (mom: Luna), egg #5. Blond, clean legged, with green spots on her wings ONLY.

Ick (mom: Arson), egg #13. Blond, clean legged, blue spots on her wings ONLY. Ick as another assisted hatch. She had twisted herself up in the inner membrane of the egg, then pooped all over herself and required a major cleaning job. She comes by her name honestly.

Sorry to say that Ick died suddenly a few days after this, a victim of the chicken owner's catch-all term, 'Failure To Thrive', which basically means 'Who knows What The Hell Happened?!' She never progressed--when the other chicks had full wing feathers, she had none, and in a single day went downhill and passed, despite handfeedings every 30 minutes.

Mother Nature does that, sometimes... 

 

That's it for this year!