Back on June 17th we had five chicks hatch from eggs. Now, five months later, two of those little babies are laying their own eggs! Out of the five chicks we got 3 cockerels and 2 pullets. We named the boys Big Red, Blackie, and Little Brownie. We don't pick good names for the boys because we probably will not keep them much longer. We just don't need all the roosters. It's hard because we raised their parents and get to see the personality trains from the parents coming through the sons. The girls are Lilly and Cinnamon. Lilly is a splitting image of her biological mother, Lucy. Lilly has a great personality like Lucy, too - very friendly, always ready for a hug and a treat! We aren't really sure which hen is Cinnamon's biological mama, there are three possibilities. Lilly and Cinn are now laying little eggs, just like their mama's and aunts. They picked right up and started laying in the nest boxes like they knew what to do. Such good little pullets!
 |
| Little eggs from Lilly and Cinnamon- 3rd row from top |
 |
| Lilly |
 |
| Cinnamon |
Here's a picture of the mama hen who raised the chicks, Zoner, back on June 18, 2010. The chicks were one day old back then! Cinnamon is the darker striped chick, Lilly is one of the other two striped ones. The white chick, the black one and one of the striped ones turned out to be the boys.
 |
| Zoner and the baby chicks - Jun 18, 2010 |
Since I was in the coop tonight trying to take pictures of Lilly and Cinn for this blog post, I couldn't help but take some extra pictures of the other chickens as they started to roost for the night.
 |
| Left to Right, Charlotte I, Muffin, Charlotte II, Leggy, Singer |
 |
| From Left, Freckles, Lucy, Bella, Zoner, Raspberry |
 |
| Lucy looking at camera |
16 comments:
How nice to get to see the chicks all grown up, they turned out lovely. Do you have a heat lamp in your coop? I only got one egg and I am thinking that it is so cold right now it is taking to much energy to produce eggs. You still have a bunch of eggs. Just curious.
Kim - we keep a heat lamp going in the coop all day every day now. It goes above freezing during the day, but it's still cold out there. The hens like it warm to lay. They especially like the heat lamp on wet days like today - they come in, dry off under the lamp, then go back out to play. It seems to encourage the hens to lay, too. Even though it goes below freezing at night, we've been turning off the heat lamp at night because the birds peck each other when the lamp is running at night. Even though it's a red bulb. I think we need more roosting room, right now there's only room for everyone to be packed shoulder to shoulder on the roosts. And everyone side-by-side with any kind of light encourages pecking. But tonight I left the heat lamp on - it's 6pm and dark now. I figured I'd check the birds in a few hours and see if they're ok with the light on. It's going to be very cold tonight. I'd like to start leaving the heat lamp on at night - it really doesn't make it all that warm, but just keeps it from freezing. Last winter we left 2 heat lamps running every day/night in the coop, but all the birds were babies then (they were only 2 months old a year ago).
We get anywhere from 4 - 11 eggs a day right now from 15 laying hens/pullets.
I didn't mention that most of my birds are molting and look horrible in these pictures!
~Lynn
I love the picture of Zoner with the little chicks, they are so cute.
You changed your blog's coloring, it looks nice!
I'm partial to brown and gray stripey chickens like yours. So pretty!
In that last picture, the hen on the far left has her head upside down. I was trying to figure out what she might have been doing when the flash went off. :-)
Chai Chai - I love to see the former mama hens with their little babies - makes me miss chicks! We did have fun this year with all the chicks and keets that we raised.
Yes, I changed the blog. I sometimes just need an update. Thanks for noticing!
Kessie - I had to go look at that pic again! That was Charlotte, and she's scratching her head with her right foot. The foot is up in the air and the head is totally upside down!!! How funny, I didn't notice that when I put the pic up!
~Lynn
All the chickens look warm and happy. :)
I love when the pullets lay for the first time. I know it's the way of mother nature, but it thrills me every time.
Gorgeous eggs. My two youngest girls Fern and Phoebe are laying daily too. I love their petite little eggs. Your girl Cinnamon has such a sweet little face. Do your roosters roost with the girls at night or do they hang out by themselves on another perch? I have to tell ya I'm still drooling over your blueberry crumb pie!
CeeCee - I think it's so sweet when the pullets lay, too. The little girls are growing up!
Julie - The roosters perch right beside the hens at night. The biggest night peckers are the hens - they always peck each other in the head when they're lined up on the roosts! The boys just want to sleep at night!
I still have some of that blueberry crumb pie left! I've eaten way too many desserts lately! Luckily my husband loves it - I'm hoping he'll finish it off before I do!
~Lynn
I love your names....so much...."Lilly & Cinnamon"
Because our hens usually all lay together (they are very good at waiting there turn), I am always trying to guess which chicks belong to which mama?? This may sound silly but do you know if they carry the same colour characteristics from mum to bub? obviously it also depends on dad I guess??? Your new chicks are so cute...
GJ - We have 9 nest boxes, but usually the hens only lay in 6 of those boxes. On the days that we decide to save the eggs for hatching, we really spend alot of time in the coop watching the hens. We normally do this on a weekend. When one hen leaves the nest we mark her egg with her name and the date in marker. So we know who laid which egg. Sometimes hens sneak in and lay without us seeing them, but most of them we see. Then we know which chicks come from which mama's. When the chicks are born we are very attentive, too, noticing which egg hatched and what the chick looked like. I love to study genetics - the babies do carry the colors, body shape and personality traits of the parents. My only question is always who was the father of the egg, since we had several roosters back then.
~Lynn
Very sweet! And Leggy is a handsome fellow.
Terry - Leggy is my darling white leghorn rooster. I think he is beautiful! He has the biggest comb ever! He loves snuggling with me, and he especially loves Freckles the hen!
~Lynn
I gotta tell you, I think Leggy is gorgeous too. He has the BIGGEST comb! It's nice to see my niecechicks all grown up and starting lay. They're beautiful.
Zoner looks good now that his feathers have come back in.
I am in love with Cinnamon. She has the sweetest face ever. They are both adorable and what great eggs you are getting. We used a heat lamp last year and we’ve heard different things--not to and to do. I think we are going to put it back out there tomorrow.
Amy :)
That is so neat. I would love to have baby chicks from our hens.
Post a Comment