Update on breeds and health...

Well, four or five of the chicks have diarrhea.  We're taking our adult rooster to the vet Wednesday, and they will check out the diarrhea problem with the chicks while we're there.

A friend on facebook was trying to name some of the breeds, and I found they were right about one breed.  Jade and Ruby appear to be golden sebrights.  Sebright hens lay about 1 tiny egg that is cream or tinted in color, and have rose combs.  When I was looking at the combs they are slowly growing, I thought they looked like they would be rose or pea.  And Jade's comb is slightly bigger than Ruby's, although they are only just starting to grow them.  They were thinking that Aurora may be a silver sebright, but Aurora is growing his/her comb in, and it isn't shaped like that.  It is more of a single comb that sticks up. 

Aurora, Ruby, Angel, and one or two of the ameraucana chicks all have the diarrhea issue.  Hopefully they will get better soon.  I'm sure it will eventually spread to the rest of the group before it's over. 

One other thing I have noticed is that they seem to be somewhat attached to me already.  Some of them attempt to groom me, which I find interesting.  Diamond, one of the fuzzy footers has done something even more interestingly funny.  I was holding Diamond, and she/he decided to crawl down onto my leg.  (I was laying in bed.)  My husband reached over to pet Diamond, who decided to go running back to mommy for protection.  lol  And my husband says they are HIS babies.  HAH!  lol

As for the ameraucana chicks... they are both doing very well.  The "lazy" chick has finally perked up and is keeping up with the rest very well.  Crooked toe now has a permanent name... Eagle.  We're not sure, but we think Eagle is a male while the other is a female.  That one still needs a name.

We are working on backup names for the chicks who turn out to be males instead of females.

Aurora will be Ricky if male
Ruby will be Ruben
Eagle will still be Eagle
Jade will be Nemo
The rest... well... we're still working on the rest.  lol

I think some of these babies may very well be on their way to being show birds.  Jade, one of the golden sebrights, poses on its own.  Still working on getting Jade used to having his/her vent, wings, legs, feet, etc looked at.  (As with all of the others.)  Diamond... we're still trying to figure out what Diamond and Angel are.  They seem exactly the same, except for one thing...  Diamond has fluffy cheeks.  Diamond has the same comb type, coloration, and fuzzy feet as Angel.  Just fluffy cheeks... like an ameraucana.  It's weird.  I wonder if Diamond is a mutt?  A cross between whatever Angel is (possibly cochin or brahma) and an ameraucana?  Or, if Diamond just happens to have fluffy cheeks right now.  But I have to say that Diamond is proving to be somewhat show worthy as well.  Poses beautifully, takes excellent pictures... still working on the having wings, vent, legs, feet, etc examined. 

We'd like to tag all of our birds with leg bands.  My husband's idea is to put blue on the boys, and pink on the girls... though I don't like pink, so we agreed to use purple instead.  That's good and all, but I suppose we'd then have to continue to paint toe nails to tell the girls apart if we can't otherwise.  I mean... we're getting a shipment of chicks in May.  2 speckled sussex hens, and 10 silkies... of which only one is supposed to be a boy.  So how else can we tell the girls apart?  Nail polished toes.  =)  lol  We're going to wait until all of our birds are full grown to put leg bands on them though, so we don't have to worry about them outgrowing them.  I'm thinking of going with bandettes, or spiraled bands.  I don't really like the idea of not being able to easily get them on and off.

Differences in combs to determine genders?  Well, I mentioned a little above... but here we go....
Jade's comb is bigger than Ruby's
Aurora has the biggest comb, but no others that are the same breed to determine a real difference
Eagle seems to have a bigger comb than "the lazy chick"
And Angel appears to have a bigger comb than Diamond
So we could have 3 or 4 boys and/or 3 or 4 girls.  I'm hoping for more girls.

A friend of mine is letting me purchase some of her bantam cochin eggs.  The babies will be added to the group of bantams we have now.  I'm curious though whether the ameraucana's are bantam or large fowl.  They are a week older than the original 5, who are bantams, and are just about the same size... only a fraction of a bit bigger, which is hardly noticeable.  I guess time will tell.  OR... I could email the lady we got them from and ask her.  That would be smart.  lol  That is... if she left a way to email her on her ad.  My husband called her about purchasing the chicks, so if no email... maybe I can convince him to call her real quick to ask about their size.

Well... that's about all the update I have for now.  Sorry no pics this time.  I don't want to harass them while they're not feeling good.

Updated pics... can you tell who is who? =)

Well, just in case you can't tell, I will put their names with the pictures.  =)  They are really growing!  It's amazing!

This is little Angel.  Managed to fly up just enough to get up on top of the brooder lamp.  lol

So... who is who?  Can you guess?  Diamond has more gray to her chest, and fluffy cheeks.  Angel is lighter colored and starting to grow a comb.  Well, technically they're both growing combs.  lol  Do you know who is who yet?

Remember... they are both fuzzy footed babies!  =)

How about this view?  Can you tell who is who?  Angel has lighter colored wings....

Last chance to guess!  Angel has more of a tail.  They were both kept on the same knees.. no one moved.  Diamond is on the left, and Angel on the right.  =)  Ready to do another one?



Who is who?

Here we have Jade and Ruby.  Which one is which?

                                                             Have you guessed yet?

See the tail difference?  Okay, I'll tell you.  Ruby is on the left, Jade on the right.  Jade has more of a tail and is darker colored.


Here are some more pics!

                                                                Aren't they cute???

Now, I know these ones are newer... but can you tell who is who?  Neither really has a name, but we are temporarily calling one of them crooked toe... because it has a crooked toe.  lol

See the tail difference?  Crooked toe is on the left.  He/she has longer wings and a longer tail that is brown.  The other one has a whiter tail and shorter wings.  Crooked toe is also starting to grow a comb.  Just barely there, have to look hard.  And the other one has been spending today and yesterday sleeping about 95% of the time.  I dip his/her beak in water so it can get a drink.  Hubby placed some loose feed on the ground in front of it to get it to eat, and it worked.  =)  Hopefully it will perk up soon.  Now... we just need some real names for them, and decipher gender(s).

Here are a couple more pictures for you!

Crooked toe on the left, Aurora (Ricky) in the middle, and then the "lazier" chick on the right.


Alright kids, that's it for today.  Wasn't that a fun game?  lol  Oh!  Can you see Aurora's comb growing?  And if you look close, you can sort of see the "comb" difference between these two ameraucana's.  =)       Hasta luego

New chicks in the crew!

Okay, so our dumb butts decided to get some Ameraucana chicks.  And my husband actually was so desperate to get some RIGHT NOW that he was willing to drive to Orrville for them.  The people there show their birds, so the chicks are of a good line.  Now, I have showed him how to gender them by feathers because we thought we were getting day old chicks.  Nah... we ended up with 2 week old chicks (a week older than our current bantam chicks).  I let him pick them out.  He picked two he was thinking were both girls.  We start to head home, and as I was holding them on the drive home... I saw that one looks like it is starting to grow its comb.  Hmmm...  Just little bumps, but noticeable if you are really looking.  After we get home and we're both holding them, we decide to paint the toenails on one of them so we can tell them apart.  She said they are wheaton's (sp).  We decided to paint the nails of the one that is growing its comb, and as I painted its nails I noticed it has one crooked toe.  Not sure if there is anything I can do to straighten it.  Probably not.  Now, that one seems to be doing fine now.  Finely starting to relax and join the group of bantams.  The other one just lays there.  It wasn't when it was with its hatchling group at the other house.  It was running around, chirping, and carrying on.  I hope it perks up by tomorrow.  If not, it will be like trying to care for little Bumble again... and I hope, if so, it doesn't have the same result.  We paid $6 each for them, and they have been vaccinated.  I will continue to post on all of the chicks, and keep updating about all of them and how they are doing and growing.  We have also noticed that the one with the crooked toe, and growing comb has a tail, while the other doesn't quite yet.  Well...  without further ado...  Here are pictures of the new Ameraucana chicks!    =)


This is the one with the crooked toe, and growing comb...

Here they are both together... crooked toe facing to the right...

(Can you see the tail difference in the above picture?)

(Such big wings for such little babies...)

And that chick above is the one that is just laying around sleeping the whole time.  Wakes up and sits straight up fast when we touch it.  Perhaps it just needs more time to settle in.  I have showed them where the food and water is, and dipped their beaks in them.  Even left them sitting by the food.  Then they walked back over to be under the brooder light.  (Come on little one... perk up!)

Wow... trying to fly!

Well, the babies are just over a week old.  Three have full wings and have started to grow tails.  The other two are just finishing growing their wings, but no tails yet.  Today I watched them gang up on the thermometer, trying to beat it up.  lol  And I have also seen them trying to fly.  Our white and black chick is succeeding with that more than the others.  I saw it get about half way up the cage before tumbling back down.  We have chosen a boy name for it just in case it is a boy... Ricky.  Aurora will stick if it's a girl.  I also noticed that it's comb is starting to grow in.  It is one of the three that has full wings and starting to grow its tail.  It is still a little uneasy about being held, but does quite down after a couple of minutes.

The two feather footers have minor combs that are barely even noticeable.  One has full wings with a tail starting, while the other has no tail yet and is just finishing growing its tail.  I have also noticed that one, the one we call Diamond, has fluffy cheeks while Angel doesn't.  Diamond also has a grayer belly and chest than Angel.  Also, Angel is more calm about being held than Diamond.  Everything else is pretty much the same as far as I can see.  I'm sure I will notice more differences as time goes on.

As for the other two... Jade and Ruby.  Ruby is the quietest of the group.  She is also very calm about being held.  She has more of a reddish hue to her head than Jade, who has more of a brown going into a black colored head.  Jade is the third of the chicks that has full wings and is starting to grow its tail in.  Neither of them have comes as of yet.  I have noticed another difference in them, which is that Ruby has a slightly browner beak than Jade.  Not by much, just slightly. 

Out of the group, I couldn't tell you who poops the most.  lol  They all poop a LOT.  And the terds are getting bigger.  lol  I have more pictures of them for you.  The first is of them ganging up on the thermometer.  Not quite sure what they're trying to accomplish, speaking it's an inanimate object.  Guess they don't quite know that yet.  lol

Here's Angel with her wings open.  It was hard to get her to open them.  lol

Here's Aurora... or Ricky... whatever.  lol

This is Diamond.  With the right background, this could have been a really nice picture....

This one is Jade....

And of course, our little Ruby... the quiet one.  =)

As you know, we're still not sure of their genders... or their breeds.  I know that when they're about 3 months old we should be able to tell the roo's for sure, speaking they'll have spur bumps.  Just wish I could know sooner.  Oh well.  And only time will tell before I know the breeds too.  TTFN

If curiosity "killed the cat", what did it do to the chicken?

lol  Sorry about that title... thought it was cute. 

So today, the chicks are VERY curious and have been trying hard to peak out of the cage we're using as a brooder.  I managed to catch one a few times with my camera...

Another chick was stretching up to check out the brooder light, and two were jumping up trying to get up on the bars of the cage to look out.  That didn't quite work.  It was much easier for them to stretch up and look like the one in the above pictures did.  lol  It's amazing how curious they are, and how fast they're growing.  =)

I have made a decision....

Okay, on Friday March 4th... my 29th birthday... I decided to sucker my husband into taking me to Tractor Supply for chick days.  After we got there... hee hee hee... I annoyed him until he gave in and went in with me to purchase chicks.  lol  He paid the most since he had to also purchase chick feed and chick grit.  lol  But, hey... I got my babies.  As we looked over the chicks to try and pick some out, we found a white one that kept beating the others up.  So mean!  So... we did NOT get that one.  Instead, we got two fuzzy footed babies, two darker babies, one really dark baby, and a really pale yellow baby.  Yeah, the minimum you could purchase was six.

Well, the really dark baby was weak from the get go.  And I knew it.  But I took on the challenge.  She had light striped markings on her that reminded me of a bee, so I named her Bumble.  Unfortunately she didn't make it.  =(

Well, the only thing they could tell me about the chicks was that they came as straight run rather than sexed, and that they are all bantams.  They couldn't tell me the breeds.  Great... now what?  I researched baby chicks and their breeds, and really didn't find many that matched.  I think our two fuzzy footers are cochins, though I'm not sure.  I thought the other "pair" were brahma's, but someone said they disagree because they don't have fuzzy feet like brahma's.  So... I still don't know what they are.  What am I going to do?  Well, after reading over a page someone did about easter egger chickens and their colors... I decided I will continually make posts on my babies' development.  Here are current pictures of them, and their names.  Enjoy!  =)
 
Me with the babies... 

Diamond...

Angel...

Jade...

Jade is one we think MIGHT be a male... but not sure.


Ruby...

And last, but not least, Aurora.  Aurora?  This one we're pretty sure is a male, so we have to think of a different name......

Aren't they cute???  Well, time will tell what they will grow to look like... and what their genders really are.  Hopefully we can figure out their breeds too.  lol  So, sit back and enjoy the growth process with me.  It will be an interesting ride!     Hasta