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O, Marsha, how cute is that little one???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love watching hatched chicks w/ the mama's - even when the mama isn't really theirs...

I'm hoping to be able to produce some chicks from some of the chickens I have now. Need to see if we make it thru the heat wave w/ chicks first, though.

I have all the parts and supplies to update my hoop coop tractors, but I find it really hard to sit on the sand when you soaked thru with sweat from a heat index of 112*! So, it hasn't happened yet. Need it to soon, have to switch the babies into the nursery pen that the older girls are currently in...
 
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Love the pic of momma and biddie, so cute. Sorry she abandoned the others, always disappointing. They can take a few days longer to hatch sometimes depending upon temperature , don't give up just yet. Do you have anyone else to stick them under? Can you candle them? I cannot resist opening the duds to see what went wrong...curiosity gets the better of me. I want to know if it was a rooster problem or an environmental problem (temp, humidity etc). You may be able to feather sex the chick so you know what you got. You can tell once the feathers on the wing begin to pop, usually around day 2 or 3. Hen's coverlet feathers are longer than primary while roosters look almost all the same length.
 
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Love the pic of momma and biddie, so cute. Sorry she abandoned the others, always disappointing. They can take a few days longer to hatch sometimes depending upon temperature , don't give up just yet. Do you have anyone else to stick them under? Can you candle them? I cannot resist opening the duds to see what went wrong...curiosity gets the better of me. I want to know if it was a rooster problem or an environmental problem (temp, humidity etc). You may be able to feather sex the chick so you know what you got. You can tell once the feathers on the wing begin to pop, usually around day 2 or 3. Hen's coverlet feathers are longer than primary while roosters look almost all the same length.
If we were raising chickens I would definitely want to know if our rooster was any good. But this was a one-shot.
 
Wish I knew what was up with our hen too.......ONE chick hatched and she abandoned the rest of the eggs.....

I left the nest box alone for over 24 hours, but nope.
 
Wish I knew what was up with our hen too.......ONE chick hatched and she abandoned the rest of the eggs.....

I left the nest box alone for over 24 hours, but nope.
Well, darn. All that work for one chick. I looked at our lone chick today to see if the wing feathers showed pullet/cockerel. I think it is a pullet. The feathers were definitely different lengths. Very robust chick and quick as a grasshopper. It's fun to see mom scratch up a morsel and show Baby how it's done.

A friend in another state has a small flock of chickens. She said her rooster only likes 3 of the hens. He won't bother with the others. I think that is strange.
 
A friend of mine has a few hens and one rooster. There are a few hens that are trying to eat the eggs, she has narrowed it down to a few possible suspects but she is not quite sure why this is happening.

Does anyone have an idea as to why ?
 
Once an egg eater....always an egg eater. I cull these birds from my flock before they destroy the whole clutch every day. I have heard many theories on the reasoning from lack of calcium to boredom. Giving them space to roam and lots of things to scratch at/occupy them may deter it, but often the culprit teaches others to do it.
 
Yes, get rid of the egg eater. She will be the one with beautiful, glossy feathers. Possibly a cracked egg was left in the nest and the hen figured out it was good to eat.

On a sad note, our chick is gone. I think mom crushed her. I found her flattened under the mother. Husband was mowing around the area and wonders if he caused the hen to get more protective and accidentally confine the chick under her too closely. It is upsetting.
 
I am so sorry to hear about your little chick. That is very disappointing. Nature can be cruel sometimes.
 
Awww.......I'm sorry Marsha.....
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Poor little Chick, Sorry to hear it, Marsha!
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Oh! Yes, my girls are going fine, I've been super busy lately! New Car, Volunteer Work, School, Chickens, Horses, Fences, Blah! Got a University Open day that I am attending and In search for a School Based Traineeship and a Job. So much!

Last Thursday we let them out for the first time! They were pretty skittish at first, pretty funny actually, they were walking around outside their coop, they all freeze randomly and as if on queue they all scatter back into the coop. But now they swarm me at the gate of a morning waiting to come out.

I got coloured leg rings for the chickens online. Since they all look the same, but I want to be able to put names to chickens. So they each got a colour.

Blue: Mavis

Yellow: Henni

Green: Gretchen

Red: Myrtle

Purple: Gloria

I have a friend that has chickens. She said she noticed her young hens that had never laid before, squatting when she went to catch them. Then she said, about a week later they laid their first egg. Going by that, Gloria and Gretchen should be laying soon! They are about 25-26 weeks now.

The horses met the chickens too! I got some pretty cute photos of them with the chickens, but I have no way to post images on here anymore! Just my luck! So, those cute pictures are forever to be unseen
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I was going to post pictures of my new car as well, but I couldn't.. * Huff *

Do you know if anyone can fix my uploading issue??
 
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I have them separate at the moment. Its a bit cold here still so they come inside of a night, and they would easily escape my coop.
 
Be careful about introducing chicks to older chickens. The older chickens may attack and kill or severely injure the chicks.
 

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