Viewing post #1237856 by Skiekitty
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You are viewing a single post made by Skiekitty in the thread called Toni's Chickens, 2017.
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| Took some pictures this morning. It's my goal to handle them every day so that they grow up to be people friendly. Terri - Chickens are fun, but they're also pretty dumb, so you have to watch out for them. They have, what I call & apparently a LOT of people call, 3 different phases. You have McNuggets, which is when they're itty bitties like these babies. They were hatched probably on 2/20, mailed out 2/21, received by the feedstore on 2/23, and then I got them on 2/25, so, technically, they're a whole week old. Chickens aren't like other birds that require a mom to care for them.. they're actually self-sufficient from the get go. Their only drawback is lack of body temperature. They need to be kept at about 90degs for their first 2-3 weeks of life until they get feathers. They do have a soft floofy down, but it's not really enough to keep them warm, so you have to keep them under a heatlamp if you don't have a broody hen to sit on them. But they eat food & drink water completely on their own from the time they're hatched. It's amazing compared to a lot of other birds that require a parent to feed/care for them for the first 3-5 weeks. And chickens will change a LOT in their 2 months of life. Right now, I have Nuggets. At about 4 weeks they'll really start feathering out and will stand about 5-6" tall and are gangly teenagers. I call that the Dinosaur phase. At 2 months of age, they'll actually look like chickens and will have their adult coloring (babies look completely different, for the most part, from what the adults look like). They can go outside, depending on temperatures, by that time (I watch for when they're sleeping away from the heatlamp. If they're sleeping away from the heatlamp, then they're ready for outside provided it doesn't get butt-chilling cold). The two Aruacanas. One is definitely going to be a character, I can tell.     And the two cuckoo Marans    Never be afraid of a scar. It just means that you were stronger than something that tried to hurt you. My new Etsy shop - handmade jewelry by ME!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/OjodelGato Buy some of my photos! http://www.catsonkeyboards.com "I've seen better acting from extras in Godzilla movies!" - Calculon |
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