Anyone know if it's common for hens to .. attack? each other? I don't know how else to explain it. They stand super tall, flutter their wings, and then .. breastbeat ? each other. Then they all lay down in a big old floofy pile of feathers. Weird....

I've had a few young hens that did that. I mark all new pullets with leg bands made of zip ties. Just for grins the most aggressive chick always gets a red band, #2 gets blue, the wimpiest gets yellow, and the other colors are arbitrary. I usually find that the pushy ones keep their aggressive characters into adulthood. (once in a while the red band turns out to be a rooster.)

PPal - That's a GREAT idea!! I'll band them! I never thought about using zip ties and all I have for regular leg bands are canary bands, which are WAAAAAAAY too teeny. I'll have to watch them carefully. The "dead chicken" is the 3rd agressive.. there are 2 others more aggressive than her. Then there's the runt of the litter.. but she's not much smaller than the others. The two big big ones are always chest bumping each other. I guess it's a pecking order thing. They're getting much more assertive I've noticed now that I have them in the hutch & out of the basement. Probably because they're getting a LOT more interaction with other critters. Before, they'd seen the cats/dogs once in their lives. Now it's CatTV. There's absolutely NO WAY the cats can get to the chickens, I quadruple checked that. The hutch has the regular wires, then a microdimond sheet of wire in front of that so NOTHING can get through. I can't even poke a pencil through it, that's how small the holes are. Almost as good as window screening, but this is hard wire & not flexible/shredable. They're perfectly safe in there. In the pictures above, the one w/the wings completely flared out I think is the most aggressive girl.

Oh, when is it safe to start giving them greens?

Pecking orders start out young..........Introduce greens slowly.

My chicks love grass tufts with roots and dirt included; I give it to them from the beginning.

I don't have any grass in my yard.. everything's frozen (and I don't have any grass period). Was gonna buy them some broccoli & spinach like my canaries used to eat.

Well, got some more chicks this weekend! Yay!! Love it! My buff Orps are getting SOOOOOOO big!

The Hen Party



Dead Bird doing her Dead Bird move...


I bought 2 Light Brahmas and 2 Pearl White Leghorns

Light Brahmas




Pearl White Leghorns

Fuzzy feet! Cute.

What are your plans for the leghorns? They won't be much good to eat. Will you keep them for eggs?

PPal - Oh, didn't post here, posted on Cubits my plans. I'm planning on growing them out & then selling them. I'll keep them until they start laying, then sell them to someone who wants egg producers. I tried to get meat birds, but they're all sold out pretty much everywhere. And, to be honest, I don't know if I could kill a chicken. Gut it/pluck it/prep it, sure. Kill it? I don't know. I can put down an animal that's sick & suffering, but I've never personally killed an animal (outside of catfish/trout/bass) for food. I suppose if I *had* to I could.. I'd make sure that it was quick & as painless as possible, but just 'cuz? Don't know. But I did some quick research that leghorns are good for colder weather & are good layers, especially in winter, so I know they'll go. For some reason (I understand why) people are more interested in adult chickens than in babies, and I'm more interested in growing them up than keeping them. I don't eat eggs that often, so laying hens wouldn't be very useful for me. But I love growing them up, watching them go from little bitty fuzzies to inquisitive teenagers to demanding adults. LOLLL

Sounds like a good system.

Where on Cubits do you post?

PPal - I haunt BlueGardens (Sharon's cubit) & Gotta Get FIT

http://cubits.org/bluegardens/
http://cubits.org/Fitorbust/

BlueGardens is very eclectic. But you should check it out.. there's some subcategories that you'd be interested in (Lamb's Tales & On the Farm by MaryE up in Oregon, British Columbia by Margaret...)

I've noticed that these babies are a lot more skittish than the buff orps were. Especially the brahmas. They definitely don't like being picked up. Hopefully will be getting my silkies tomorrow!@!

Yes, Orpingtons are exceptionally calm and friendly.

Calm? My girls really aren't very calm. They're very inquisitive, they love jumping out of the hutch whenever I open it so I have to chase 'em around before the cats get to them. There's definitely 3 brave ones and one who's very shy.

Just looked at the list.. the silkies won't be in until next Friday. Rats. Oh well..

Read this article on this person's opinion on Buffs..

http://www.backyardchickens.co...

Fluffy chicken butts. LOLL My girls are out of the "dinosaur chicken phase" and are starting to look like actual chickens. But they still make peeping noises.

Calm doesn't mean lazy. Orpingtons are active, they just don't fly into a panic if you reach into the brooder or walk near them in the coop. Also mine are easy to pick up even as adults which most of my hens are not.

Fed them whole wheat honey bread heels.. they absolutely LOVE that stuff. And they love attacking my bracelet, too. And have no fear of the cats, either. Can't say the same about the cats and them. One of the cats ran in absolute terror when the chicken (I think DeadChick) pecked towards him. Pretty funny. They'll be going outside next weekend hopefully... I'll have their outside area ready on Easter (that's my Easter plans is to work on their coop).

Well, got the big girls outside. Set up their coop in the main part of the dog-yard to protect them from whatever. I know no cats or raccoons get in that area, the dogs keep them out. Going to be working on building a new coop or something for them, but I'll figure something out. They're enjoying being outside I think.. at first they were completely freaked out, but they're exploring a lot more now, which is good.

The "2nd gen" of chicks was moved from downstairs to upstairs into the hutch where the big girls were at. However, there's something wrong with one of the light brahmas. I don't know, I'm thinking she's blind. She keeps her head tucked ALL the time and only runs around in circles. She's not skinny, though, so I know she's eating & drinking just fine. I took these pictures about 5 minutes before I cleaned the hutch.




The other three (another light brahma & 2 pearl leghorns) are doing fine


"3rd Gen" are the silkies. I had 4 on order, and when I went to pick them up, there was a family there trying to buy a single silkie chick because the daughter, who's in 4H, just lost hers. However, they were completely sold out (all the silkies ordered were on hold or already picked up.. silkies go fast here). So they were completely bummed out. I told the cashier to let them have at least 1 of my silkie chicks as I completely support 4H. It's a great organization to keep the kids outta trouble, so I approve of them. They were elated! So they got a white silkie chick & I brought home the 3 others. One was rather flighty & tried to wing off a few times!

There is a problem called "wry neck" in poultry. Is that what you think she has? They tend to spin around when excited or flip over backwards. If she is eating and drinking okay, she may gradually improve/recover without any other treatment.

What color will your Silkies grow up to be?

PPal - I got "white" silkies, but they look kinda blue to me. I didn't want blues, I wanted whites. Is "wry neck" a bad thing? Detrimental? Do I need to put her down?