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.

Chickam 2024 Chicks Two Months Old!

Year 16 of Chickam!

After a start loaded with ups and downs, this year's chicks have proven to be remarkably normal. We ended up getting ten chicks, and with such a good outcome I'm thinking that from now on I'll set eggs in mid-April, aiming for a May 1st hatch date. Uptown Bus played momma this year for the first few weeks, but when the brooder box began to get too crowded and she was ready to quit we put her back out into the flock.

Pardon the goofy beach towel background, several of the chicks were so tall I had to use a larger towel for a backdrop. Also, this year's best pics all feature my kid's (he was playing chicken wrangler) arm in the shot. *sigh*

So here they are, in order of hatch!

First is Big Cluckin McGuckin, a little rooster hatched from an egg laid by Swiffer, our frizzle bantam Cochin hen who passed away just before Chickam got underway. We incubated three of her eggs...and all turned out to be roosters. I think it's just Swiffer's final FU to the universe. Not sure who McGuckin's daddy is--possibly Bobbie, our buff Brahma rooster.

...and the typical leeeaan to the left...

Blaziken, who has either Basil (highly likely) or Rapunzel for mom and Bacon for a daddy, both tiny bantams. Blazi suffered several instances of being injured from momma Bus and her larger siblings treading on her. She's still gimpy and since her hatch has required a handfeeding boost to keep her going. She tended to hide a lot, so while the other chicks went out into the flock today, Blazi is staying in for another week or two to build up strength/walking ability. Her brother Mammon is also staying in to keep her company--also, both of them are so small they could slip right through our chain link fence.

Blaziken has her daddy's facial fluffies.

Blazi might be being the tiniest bit judgemental...

Big Nasty, another Swiffer/Bobbie chick. All three of Swiffer's boys are cookie cutter images of each other, very pretty boys.

Mammon, Blaziken's brother with Rapunzel for mom and Bacon for daddy. He sulked during picture time and wouldn't hold his tail up.

Grump, grump, grump.

Grug!, one of three blondies this year and a rooster. Grug! has Dubious Intentions for a mom, Mjolnir is daddy. Pathologically friendly, Grug! spent most of his time out of the box running around trying to con any available human out of goodies from the fridge.

Sticky, the little hen hatched from the Americaunas (either Peanut or Cheese is mom) egg that was so badly cracked and taped back together. Sticky is very friendly, and has Eggroll (blue laced red Wyandotte roo) for a daddy. She has Americaunas face fluffies and striking wings, with varied plumage that reminds me of Bonesaw, one of our other hens.

Please admire her ORANGE legs.

Takoyaki, a lovely little gray hen who ended up showing off her grandfather Cam's Giant Cochin plumage! And weight, Tako is gaining some serious chicken meat. She also carries her tail down most of the time, as Cochins do. With no sign of leg feathers, Tako likely has Eggroll for a daddy and one of our black Giant Cochin mix hens for a mom.

Derp. Stand on your own feet and do the 1000-yard-stare thing.

Owl, the last Swiffer rooster. A beautiful boy and the sweetest of Swiffer's chicks.

Thunderfuss, momma is Imminent Disaster, Daddy is Mjolnir. The first chick to show up as a rooster and very bold. Although he pouted during picture time...

And leaned.

Lastly, Snack, another blondie hen and a sweetie. Momma is Bort Grungus, daddy is Mjolnir.

That's all ten of the chicks this year--four hens and six roosters!

Morehen's Disease Flare-Up

 That's what everyone's calling it.

Because today the kid and I went to the first poultry swap of the season for our local chicken club. I took along some hatching eggs to sell.

And we came home with...

Triffid, a Polish mix chick approximately 4 weeks old. Triffid didn't really dig picture time and tried to sneak off. The green thing was a marker from her seller, she didn't get to keep her bling.

Wingding, a frizzle Silkie mix, approximately 3 weeks old. Wingding is a fiesty little stinker and wants to FIGHT YOU.

Last is Eggroll, a splash Blue Laced Red Wyandotte approximately 1 week old. A very pretty breed, kinda rare, that's been on my 'want' list for a long time!

But...that's not all. We also picked up Swiffer, a frizzle bantam Cochin hen. Swiffer has had a rough day, poor baby, and is really feeling it, so better pics in a day or so when she's stronger. But she was griping at me and giving me hell at the swap, very talkative. She has the bald head typical of a hen popular with the fellas, and her seller said the eggs she lays for the next week or so should be fertile!

Lastly...yeah. There are calico bantam Cochin eggs from both smooth coat and frizzle birds. We don't know what we'll get when they hatch!

So yep, there'll be another hatch in 3 weeks. I'll add a few of our eggs to these six when I set them. Since we have 4-5 broody hens now, there *might* be a broody mama for this batch! It all depends on how cool she'd be with sharing the brooder with a bunch of 5 week old chicks--I don't have room for a second brooder box, they'll have to share!

What's This?

Hey look, it's 28 Chickam eggs!
They go into the ReptiPro in about 6 hours!

This will be our 15th year of doing Chickam, yay! 
Because we are gluttons for punishment and powerless to resist cute fluffies...

All but three of these eggs are from our flock--sadly, when I candled the eggs tonight, 10 of the 12 eggs we got locally were badly cracked from repeated pecking (it seems our friend has an egg eater in his flock!)

#1-3 are the eggs from our friend. I know who laid some of our eggs: #4 Brick (bantam Cochin mix), 5 Slick Charlie (Partridge Rock), 6 Spork (Barred Rock), 7 Sesame (Smokey Pearl), 9 Cheerio (Cochin/Americaunas/Red Star mix).

There are 4 bantam eggs (#15-18, which will no doubt hatch first), the rest are a mix across our flock. I believe #19-20 are from Frittata (Danish Brown Leghorn), Pearl (Sussex mix) or Boombox (White Leghorn).

All of the equipment is running perfectly and ready to go!

Gearing Up For Chickam...

So I'm doing my best to avoid a repeat of the chick deathfest that has plagued Chickam for the last two years.

Chicks need to incubate at a temperature of 99.5, with humidity for day 1-18 at 50%, 65% days 19-21. Nobody does it better than a hen.

Keeping the temp/humidity consistent inside an incubator is generally agreed to be a MASSIVE PAIN. Since 2/6 I've been test running the ReptiPro and all of our assorted devices (including some nifty new ones!) that track temperature/humidity...I wanted to work out all possible bugs. Everything got calibrated (ice bath AND salt method), several times just to be sure.

Thanks to a generous Chickam patron, we were able to get some new equipment. The first is a Chef's Alarm temperature monitor (yes, it's for use in barbecuing. Hey, any port in a storm). You can set the alarm to alert you if the temps go above/below the range you specify, and it uses a probe (I had to order a shorter one than the one pictured) that is going inside a water weasel on one of the incubator racks. Our old Spot Check temp probe will go in a water weasel on the other rack.

Next is a Govee Smart thermometer/Hygrometer. VERY accurate, the little unit goes inside the incubator and synchs to your smartphone--and tracks temp/humidity spikes and drops by hour, day, week and month.

 

Lastly, I got a new digital hygrometer, so I could have it on one shelf and the Govee on the other.

I even dismantled the ReptiPro in order to clean out dust/chick dander from its innards. Which was a good thing, as I didn't realize just how nasty it had gotten in there over the years! I took the back off to find this:

And...

When you can write 'Ick!' in the dust, you know it needs cleaning.

In the end, everything was thoroughly cleaned.

I've poured over my hatch records going back to the beginning of time. Read articles online hour after hour until my eyeballs are about to fall out & my brain is overstuffed on high altitude hatching. I came up with little that was new to me, which is good--but I think I figured out the cause of the chicks dying and have done everything I can to prevent it.

One thing about the chicks that died last year, was that they ALL died 4 days post-hatch, within a few hours of each other, and all displayed identical symptoms.

It's a red flag--a chick survives it's first 1-3 days living off the last of the egg yolk it absorbs just before hatching. It's why hatchery chicks survive 1-3 days of shipping w/no food or water. I suspect our incubation temps/humidity were off without us knowing it, which caused internal defects to form. I think this made it impossible for the chicks to process any food they ate post-hatch--and they weakened & died.

It would fit. The chicks did tend to walk like their gut bothered them...

When I calibrated everything this year, it turns out that the old hygrometer was reading 11% too humid & the Spot Check temperature 1 degree too cold! It's amazing we got anything to hatch last year.

Hopefully that's now under control. Hatching at high altitudes is already hard enough, there is an unavoidable ding to your hatch rate of 50% or so. No magic bullet for a great hatch at our altitude, but every little 'help' counts at 4800 feet!

Meanwhile, here are the eggs we'll choose from!

Ours (some we know are from certain hens):

And eggs from our local friend:

Getting these eggs was a whole 'nother mini-adventure that involved trying to drive out to his house the day after our area had a voluntary evacuation from flooding by the lastest in a series of Atmospheric River megastorms. Our friend is WAY out across the valley with no other houses within miles...

...so of course we got stuck in the mud.

We eventually got loose, but had to give up and go home. Our poor car--!

Kind friend met us in town the next day with the eggs.

So, we're as ready as we're gonna be! The eggs go into the incubator this Saturday, March 18th for a target hatch date of Easter weekend, April 8-9th. BUT--as usual, start checking our YouTube channel a day or so BEFORE that, as high altitude chicks tend to hatch early!

I'll post updates on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/chickam2008

When Chickam starts, you can watch it here--if you tune in and see EGGS instead of Jack, the hatch has begun! Click on the 'Notify Me' icon to get an alert from YouTube when we go live:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CteVAyCD2iY