WE HAVE PEEPING!!

[Granny Heeney]

Okay...also don't need to worry about stoppages ATM...he just pooped all over me LOL

 

[Sheepshape]

Very exciting. I've hatched (on the incubator) and my girls have hatched many chicks. I currently have 30+ chickens (I am able to count over 30, just refuse to count them when OH starts saying "We have WAY too many chickens. How many is it right now?"

The excitement of seeing those tiny little heads under mum's wing and hearing their cheeping is too precious.

Mum will do all the work....she'll break up food for them, keep them warm, take them to water etc. Could you maybe move her to somewhere a bit warmer when they are all hatched as they may struggle a bit for heat, though the hen usually manages whatever the temperature.

Water....a shallow dish with little stones in it to prevent drowning.

Food....chick crumbs are the best, but ground up adult food will do.

Cockerels or hens?......cockerels...often more aggressive from the outset, bigger wattles, comb and feet. Permanent feathers start developing into 'blocks' of colour rather than the uniformity of pullets (6-10 weeks). Some breeds have different colour down at hatching. Ah....then the cockerels will start to crow at some stage!

Good luck and enjoy your little ones.

 

[Granny Heeney]

Very exciting. I've hatched (on the incubator) and my girls have hatched many chicks. I currently have 30+ chickens (I am able to count over 30, just refuse to count them when OH starts saying "We have WAY too many chickens. How many is it right now?"

The excitement of seeing those tiny little heads under mum's wing and hearing their cheeping is too precious.

Mum will do all the work....she'll break up food for them, keep them warm, take them to water etc. Could you maybe move her to somewhere a bit warmer when they are all hatched as they may struggle a bit for heat, though the hen usually manages whatever the temperature.

Water....a shallow dish with little stones in it to prevent drowning.

Food....chick crumbs are the best, but ground up adult food will do.

Cockerels or hens?......cockerels...often more aggressive from the outset, bigger wattles, comb and feet. Permanent feathers start developing into 'blocks' of colour rather than the uniformity of pullets (6-10 weeks). Some breeds have different colour down at hatching. Ah....then the cockerels will start to crow at some stage!

Good luck and enjoy your little ones.

Thank you very much!

 

[Granny Heeney]

Keeping your advice in mind, Rammy, this little one has spunk...nippy, bullheaded, grabbed my lip once and did that rooster-twist-bite...and 9 Volt wants NOTHING to do with this youngster. He loved on every Brahma pullet that came through here but hated my daughter's chick, which turned out to be a roo...seriously thinking Gus Gus' kid is a Jr! :-o

 

[Baymule]

Congrats on the cute chick. Enjoy.

 

[Carla D]

That is so exciting! Congrats.

 

[Granny Heeney]

My neighbor Marie checked the chick out a couple days ago and said something about a double row of wing feathers? So she thinks it's a pullet; she was right about my daughter's Barnevelder roo. :-o She walked in, looked at him and said, "Well hello, little fella." :-o Cricket NEEDS to be a pullet. *crossings of fingerses* If Marie nailed the sex on a Barnevelder chick, she gotz skillz! I sure hope she's right!

 

[Rammy]

If shes not, two for the stewpot!

 

[Granny Heeney]

That's what I'm saying *evil grin* A Barnevelder roo? I'd bake that big boy! She'd kill me!

 

[Baymule]

That what roosters are for, the stew pot! Same thing with boy lambs, I castrate them and name them Dinner.