chicks

All posts tagged chicks

Boy or Girl?

Posted by kenleighacres on May 14, 2011
Posted in: Chickens, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 3 Comments

I have been staring at our chicks wondering if they are boys or girls.  This is the down side to hatching eggs and liking a breed that you can only buy straight run (unsexed).  There are inevitably going to be boys.  We have 6 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and 2 Olive Eggers and I have been keeping my fingers crossed that the boy to girl ratio is better than it was last year.  Of the 4 Blue Laced Red chicks I ordered last year, 3 of them were boys.  I can finally see little clues and I am ‘tentatively’ happy with what I am seeing.

It looks like we have 1 Olive Egger girl and…

1 Olive Egger boy.  You can see subtle differences in their combs and waddles.


It looks like we have 4 Blue Laced Red hens – YAY!  I was really afraid we were going to end up with a bunch of boys again.  This is one of the hatchery chicks, a girl.

This is one of the chicks that was hatched by our hen, a girl.

and yet another pretty girl!

I am hoping this is a girl too, but I am not 100% sure.  It could be a late blooming boy – what do you think?

This one is definitely a boy.  I was kind of happy to see that this one was a boy because he doesn’t have very good lacing on his feathers.  A lot of his feathers are solid red instead of having the pretty blue edge on each feather.

The other boy is the black variety.  The Blue Laced Red is genetically the Andalusian type of blue – as a result, there are three possible colors on the lacing within the breed.  The colors are Blue Laced Red, Splash Laced Red, and Black Laced Red.  You can visit the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte page for more information and pictures of the three colors.

All of the other chicks that were ordered as girls, appear to be girls.  Here is one of my son’s Rhode Island Reds, he has 3 of them.

This striking lady is a Speckled Sussex.  She is one of the chicks we are raising for a neighbor.

I have no idea what the little Polish chick is – any ideas?  My son is really hoping it is a girl so it can stay and I must admit that it is growing on me too 🙂

Dream Big!

Posted by kenleighacres on April 8, 2011
Posted in: Chickens, Farm Life, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 18 Comments

I am so happy no one told this little hen that sitting on rocks was pointless.  I am very happy that no one discouraged her from trying to hatch her ‘rocks’.  Her’s is the ultimate story of dreaming big and aiming high.

Here is the original post about our broody hen.

I couldn’t let such determination go unrewarded, so I ordered some hatching eggs and replaced the rocks.

21 days later…we have chicks!

This was the first one to hatch.  It is an olive egger – Black Copper Maran crossed with an Ameraucana. 

I had to be very patient and wait for the rest to hatch…

The total count is 6 – 4 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and 2 Olive Eggers.

I love the coloring of the BLRW chicks.

How many times have you had an idea, just to have it shot down by someone?  How many times have you wanted to do something, but haven’t felt it was within reach?  Here is a little inspiration from a special little hen.  Don’t let the little road blocks in life keep you from your dreams!

This proud mama started with rocks and now has precious little chicks to care for.

Linking with Farm Friend Friday

Time to go outside!

Posted by kenleighacres on May 3, 2010
Posted in: Chickens, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

That is what I told the chicks this morning.  They have started roosting on the side of the brooder and I found poop on top of one of the dog kennels. 

They are in the ugly duckling stage 🙂

I LOVE the colors in these chicks.

The blue laced red wyandottes were only available in straight run (unsexed) and it looks like there is one rooster.  That is better than I expected and hope it stays that way!

I think they enjoyed exploring the big pen and tonight is supposed to be pretty mild temperature wise and the dog room smells SO much better tonight!

Look at who else was outside this weekend!  Two VERY protective parents and their 4 babies.  These are at a friend’s house.

The weather was beautiful today and it was nice to enjoy the outdoors again!

Hangin’ with the peeps

Posted by kenleighacres on April 15, 2010
Posted in: Chickens, family, Farm Life. Tagged: , , , . 6 Comments

For the people who enjoy pictures of chicks and those living vicariously through us 🙂

We took some of the chicks out for a little sunshine this afternoon. 

They had fun scratching at the ground, looking for tasty little morsels.

You can already see differences in the breeds…

for example, the Silver Spangled Hamburgs like to be UP.  They jumped up on the edge of the box while we were carrying them outside and my son had fun having them walk up and down his arm. 

The BLR Wyandottes are the mellowest of the group and have no problem being picked up over and over again 🙂

The Cukoo Marans are kind of middle of the road.

I’m sure they will all be used to being handled in a few weeks!

You can really see the colors in the BLR Wyandottes in the sunlight.

The following aren’t chicks or peeps, but they are hangin’ out!

My son is still working on his cat – down to just eyes and ears.  While he has been working on it,  I have gotten quite a few woolly sheep made.  You can see close-ups of them in my Etsy shop.

I’ll leave you with one more picture of the peeps!

Our new egg layers

Posted by kenleighacres on April 13, 2010
Posted in: Chickens, Farm Life. Tagged: , , , . 6 Comments

A few weeks ago we ordered chicks through McMurray Hatchery and they were scheduled to arrive sometime this week.  They arrived yesterday… while I was gone for the day!  Luckily my husband was home and was able to go into to town and pick them up. 

Nothing like a box FULL of chirping chicks!

The minimum order is 25 and that is a LOT more than I wanted/needed.  So, I asked my dad, brother, and sister and they all wanted some.  The total came to 51 chicks of 13 different breeds!

We received a total of 55 chicks and I split them into two different boxes.

Box #1

Box #2

Now came the fun part – we had to figure out which chicks belonged to who???  My sister came over to help and pick up her chicks.

Gracie Ann had fun helping.

 

Some were easy to tell apart – New Hampshire Red on the left and a Phoenix on the right.  Some were not so easy.  My brother ordered some Buff Orpingtons and my sister ordered the New Hampshires – they look very similar and were very hard to tell apart.  Luckily they weren’t picky!  

 

This chick is a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and I am so excited about this breed. 

Here is an adult – I love the colors. 

I also ordered some Cukoo Marans, Lakenvelders, and Silver Spangled Hamburgs.

This is the first time I have ordered chicks through the mail and am very pleased with the results.  The chicks arrived in good health and we were able to get the breeds we wanted.

I’m glad I only have 10 to raise and not 55 🙂