Chickens?

[sime42]

[Welshfred]

On 08/06/2025 at 11:36, Welshfred said:

Hatch day is Tuesday

 

Well one popped out early on Monday, 2 on time and one late one yesterday. 4 out of 18 is disappointing, having said that 18 would've been a challenge! Leaving the incubator run another 24hrs just in case but 4 doing well in the brooder now... 

[htb]

5 peachicks last Friday.

[Welshfred]

58 minutes ago, htb said:

5 peachicks last Friday.

 

Excellent! Incubator or mother bird?

Edited June 12 by Welshfred
Typo

[htb]

13 hours ago, Welshfred said:

 

Excellent! Incubator or mother bird?

Mother bird.

[Mesterh]

A bit off topic but does anyone rear quails? I only ask as Mum fancied giving it a go but wasn't sure if they are hard work or not. 

[AHPP]

Still have two chicks. Bought some crumb. Seem to be coming on quite fast. They go for a half hour walk outside with mum. One did get picked up by another chicken a few days ago. Chaos ensued. Mum fearless. She’s so far squared up to the geese, the other chickens, Sailor and me to protect them. 

[Oldfeller]

4 hours ago, AHPP said:

Still have two chicks. Bought some crumb. Seem to be coming on quite fast. They go for a half hour walk outside with mum. One did get picked up by another chicken a few days ago. Chaos ensued. Mum fearless. She’s so far squared up to the geese, the other chickens, Sailor and me to protect them. 

about time you had a tidy up in the kitchen!

[AHPP]

My house isn’t nearly as tidy as the allotment. I’m not remotely joking. 

[AHPP]

 

Both still alive and coming on well. I put down chick crumb, layers’ pellets and grain. Sometimes I can be bothered to crush the grain.
 

Mother hen is taking them for walks outside, teaching them to scratch worms up etc. Very gratifying to watch. They’re up to about two hours today. The other chickens haven’t tried eating the chicks again. Largely ignore them. I have quite a bit of faith in mother to fight them off if they try. She just ably reprimanded Sailor for coming too close. Geese stood off in such a way that makes me think they’re playing the long game. Have left a variety of broom handles around to diffuse any of that when necessary. Still locking them in the pavilion when I’m not here. Probably will do for another week or so. Thoughts invited.  

The white/yellow one, your standard chick, is a bit bigger than the coloured one. Makes sense because my mate who gave me the fertile eggs has some fancy chickens, bantams, game cocks or something. Small ones. So looks like we’ve got one of those. Worth money apparently. 
 

 

Edited Thursday at 14:00 by AHPP