The Hippie Chicks: April 2014

One week ago today, on April 14, three chicks hatched out of the incubator. Two Golden Laced Wyandottes and one Silver Laced Wyandotte. Sadly, most of the 18 eggs were duds, but that was because of my inability to keep the humidity and temperature steady.

Two days later, another Golden Laced Wyandotte hatched. For a little while after it hatched, its little umbilical was still attached to the shell, and it would trip the poor thing every time he got up to move around. When the umbilical finally broke, it left a huge nasty clump hanging off his navel about 1/4" below his vent. He also has a "rough navel" due to the high humidity in the last few days before he hatched. (graphic pictures)

I kept him separated from his brothers and sisters to keep him from getting trampled and pecked to death, and I gave him something to cuddle up to so he wasn't so lonely.

To give him more room, I put his brothers and sisters in a separate bin with some older chicks. The older chicks weren't very happy about the arrangement, but they got used to it fairly quickly.

Here are the chicks at a week old. (Little Runt will be a week old on Wed.) The yellow chick was bought around the same time as my hatchlings broke out, and I would say she's about two weeks old now. She was advertised as an Amber Laced Wyandotte. There's no such breed, so what she is is beyond me, though she's cute so...

I mean, as you can see, she has no lacing in her wing feathers, and she doesn't look like my other Wyandotte chicks at all. The comb is different, the color in her feet are different, and she doesn't have the same color pattern. Eh, oh well. Figuring out what she is is half the fun.

"Amber Laced Wyandotte"

The color doesn't show up that well, but her feet are close to a slate-grey.

Golden Laced Wyandotte (Dark)

Silver Laced Wyandotte (one and only)

Golden Laced Wyandotte (Lighter)

Golden Laced Wyandotte (Little Runt)

You can see his navel has mostly healed over. There is still a little bald spot, but it's mostly gone.

Now for pictures of the other chicks.

They wanted to play around and give themselves dirt baths.

It must really feel good.

I was trying to get the little girls in their coop, and I usually have a stick of some sort to help herd them in. This is what happens when I put a stick in front of Red the Red Sex-Link.

Show Off...

The cockerels and OEs make it their mission to bully the little girls when I'm not around. Here, they are trying to get away from me before I touch them. No really, they hate me. The cockerels have good reason though. They are going in my freezer this weekend.

Remember my first hatchlings and the Welsummer, Barred Rock, and Silver Laced Wyandotte? Here they are. The EE went to a new home since I have so many, so I now have a total of six in this little flock. The little girls peck the crap out of them and bully them so I moved them to their own pen. Until I can figure something else out, they go in here during the day and a crate inside the little coop at night.

The little girls are relentless.

I have named the older Welsummer Dora. She is the most adventurous.

One of the Salmon Faverolles has a name, though it's sometimes hard to remember who has the name. "Feather" at one point didn't have any tail feathers, but they have since grown back so she is back to no-name. I'm sure I'll eventually name them both with something that will stick, but for now, they are just my Salmon Faverolles.

I just call the Jersey Giants Jersey. It doesn't matter which one I'm talking to, they are both Jersey. They both look exactly alike! How the heck would I be able to tell them apart? The picture needs to be rotated... Sorry about that.

Red

Salmon Faverolle

The only EE girl that has a name. Spaz. She is the most spastic of all the little girls, hence her name.

Jersey and Salmon Faverolle

Jersey

Jersey and Dora behind her

Spaz

Dora

The "other" EE

Bandit

He's kind of turned into a jerk, but he's so pretty so I let it slide. He knows who's boss and doesn't really mess with me unless I'm messing with his ladies. He should be grateful. It's not like he would have any ladies if it weren't for me to begin with.

Domino

It must be a cockerel thing to be a jerk. He's a jerk too, but worse. He's turned into a terror! He goes after my kids. I tried to sell him, but no one wants him, so he's going in my freezer this weekend. I can't have a hostile cockerel on my property. At least Bandit try to hurt my children.

Crow!

Ravyne and Poof

We haven't seen a whole lot of Labelle. Here she is! She's lost a lot of her saddle feathers thanks to the boys over-breeding. It will be another benefit to get rid of Domino. The poor girls are being over-used.

The Columbian Wyandottes, Joan and Elisabeth, really like the smaller coop. They prefer to lay in it, though I'm not sure why. They didn't even spend one night in it.

I think they are just jelous... Skye is also taking advantage of the newer pad.

The little girls are not happy the big girls paid them a visit.

I'm trying to get a picture of my OE girls, and they didn't want to cooperate. They hate me. Maybe after we dispatch the cockerels they will intermingle with the bigger hippies.