The peeps I won't be quiet about

[Zass]

I think I commented about these little ones every other day since I placed the egg order.

This is my third attempt at bantam chickens, and my second at Bantam cochins.
Since I only try once a year, these little guys are a few years overdue for me.

The first year, I was sold the wrong peeps. They grew much larger than anticipated.
The second year, I set a meager 1/2 dozen mailed bantam cochen eggs in the incubator. Not a single one developed. :|

This time, I got two dozen ebay eggs from different sellers. (about $45, shipping included)
One dozen was bantam cochins. The other was to be seramas, size a and b.
No colors were specified, so I just had to cross my fingers and hope the breeders had good taste with their pairings, and that I would get a nice variety.

13 peeps, which was about spot on with the 50% hatch rates I've been averaging with shipped eggs. No disappointment there, it's what I planned for. Seramas are said to be a bit trickier to hatch, but my little incubator has proven itself a few times now.

8 bantam cochins: 5 in varying shades of brown, 2 black, and 1 black with a white belly and throat.

5 Little Seramas: 2 are yellowish, 1 is sorta brownish, and 2 are silvery.

That's as far as I can ID baby chicken colors. I'll have to wait for feathers before I even begin to make legit guesses.

Once the feathers come in, we can also play the rooster/hen game.
Only hens stay in town with me, unless.. Unless maybe I get a really handsome little guy, of either breed.
I have done a bit of research on rooster collars. That might be an option.
Of the posts I saw where people were talking about being extremely careful to follow directions, and still having problems with the collars, it seemed like was almost always a bantam roo involved.

I don't know if it was from using one-size-fits-all collars on the little guys, if they just have so much less wiggle room between suffocation and enough air to crow, or maybe both. Either way, I picked up that one should be extra super careful when trying to use one with bantams, and that the initial tightening process might be best done in an enclosed space, where it will be easier to catch and adjust the collar as needed.





silvery serama







I'm doing quail next, so expect to hear me going on and on about those..
Oh, and I have a litter of harlis due at the end of the month.
It's finally starting to feel like spring here.

 

[WVForestGirl]

Cuties!!
How do you like the wood pellets in the brooder, is it better than chips?

 

[michaels4gardens]

wonderful-- I so love bantams ... brings back memories-
When I was a kid- we had a few bantam chickens that never came in the coop ,they lived in the cow pasture, and orchard -spent their summers scratching cow pies apart eating lost grain, and grubs, in winter I tossed them a little feed when they came asking for it-- they roosted way up in a big spruce tree near the house, they survived 20 below winters... I would find their nests and remove most of their eggs, and replace them with eggs from our laying hens, -then when the chicks were feathered out- I would collect the bigger pullet chicks and put them in the coop.. [and eat the roosters] Those little bantam eggs were so much better than our "cooped chicken" eggs..

 

[Rainey]

Thanks, Zass, I enjoyed seeing your peeps. And thanks, Michael, enjoy your stories from boyhood.

 

[Marinea]

So cute!

 

[MaggieJ]

Love the pics, Zass. Chicks are always so cute! The "feety feathers" are a bonus.

Thanks for posting this. I'm so glad you had a good hatch this time around.

 

[Zass]

Cuties!!
How do you like the wood pellets in the brooder, is it better than chips?

I couldn't imagine anything much better than wood pellets in a brooder. They are super absorbent, and it's easy to stir mess under. They also give plenty of grip for little birdy feet. I tried them a few years back, as it's what I had on hand for indoor rabbit bedding, and I was sold on the stuff.

I suggest giving them a try, especially if you ever have to brood ducks.

 

[akane]

oooo I just found with an entire rewrite of the municipal code that the new version they finally have easily accessible is not worded in a way that likely can ban quail and definitely not button quail. I need to hatch something :lol: I've been debating if animal control is stupid enough for "malaysian ground parrots" (seramas) indoors but I'm not willing to risk it. They like to blanket word laws in this county and more so the city to not bother researching individual species much less breeds. Since they stick family names on everything in order to ban one species they tend to end up banning everything in that group. Then put idiots who have no idea how taxonomy works on animal control. When confused they try to say you can't keep any "wild animals" or "livestock" but beyond common pets that's a darn big grey area. :roll:

 

[WVForestGirl]

I suggest giving them a try, especially if you ever have to brood ducks.

I definitely will next batch. I wanted to try them in rabbit pans anyway so it sounds like a good time to pick up a bag. Thanks!
Ducks are totally on my wish list but I think they're a no-go on my current urban microfarm.

 

[Zass]

I also love to hear everyone's the stories. <3

I learned that bantam cochins aren't really miniature cochins at all, but properly "pekin chickens." A small, very similar breed.

I suggest giving them a try, especially if you ever have to brood ducks.

I definitely will next batch. I wanted to try them in rabbit pans anyway so it sounds like a good time to pick up a bag. Thanks!
Ducks are totally on my wish list but I think they're a no-go on my current urban microfarm.

Ducks don't work out for us very well either. A few for meat would be nice, and I hatch some occasionally with that goal in mind, but we never seem to be able to eat them. :roll: It's always a loss.

My urban microfarm livestock favorites are : Rabbits (meat,) coturnix quail (eggs and occasional meat,) composting worms (protein for birds,) pigeons (luxury red meat,) and chickens. Large fowl were lovely to have, but didn't really work for my steep hillside, so we're going to try some little guys this time.



This little guy fell asleep standing up. :lol:

crash

and this is everyone asleep.

sleepy*

Don't even ask about the brooder setup. :roll: It's literally just stuff I found laying around the house, because I've done this a few times now, and I'm lazy and would rather rig something and wash and re-purpose everything later, than have a permanent proper brooder. I'll adjust and improvise some more, as needed by the little guys.

 

[WVForestGirl]

Your steep hillside urban microfarm sounds just like mine! I have a little flat space on top, that's where the vegetable garden is. Everything else is getting terraced and buildings hang off the edge.
I didn't know that pigeons were luxury red meat.....I'll have to look into that, could probably fit some of those. I'm really enjoying the rabbits and chickens. I'm wary of ducks because of the noise, I have one neighbor who isn't too impressed with the farm next door. :?

Your sleepies are adorable. I love when they fall asleep all over like that, it looks like someone reached into a basket and just threw them in there willy nilly.

 

[akane]

Don't even ask about the brooder setup. :roll: It's literally just stuff I found laying around the house, because I've done this a few times now, and I'm lazy and would rather rig something and wash and re-purpose everything later, than have a permanent proper brooder. I'll adjust and improvise some more, as needed by the little guys.

I don't know how many things have gone through the 55gallon fish tank my mom bought me in high school. At minimum it's been a fish tank, frog tank, brooder (heat lamp melted the center brace for any future water filling), button quail breeding trio, giant robo hamster natural setup, young degu growout, and currently crested geckos. Never throw away large panels of glass.....

 

[Zass]

Right now I'm using a plastic tote, a few cookie sheets, a regular lamp with 100 watt bulb, and an upside down wire basket hanger, to make sure the lamp couldn't possibly get dislodged and land on the peeps.. and some leftover bedding pellets.
I do have the TSC chick feeder and waterers, because those little guys make a mess without them.

The peeps are my thermometers. If they cluster, they need more even heat throughout, if they are at the edges of the tub and away from the bulb, they need it moved further away, etc.

I'm going to have to find something bigger soon though. :?

 

[michaels4gardens]

Right now I'm using a plastic tote, a few cookie sheets, a regular lamp with 100 watt bulb, and an upside down wire basket hanger, to make sure the lamp couldn't possibly get dislodged and land on the peeps.. and some leftover bedding pellets.
I do have the TSC chick feeder and waterers, because those little guys make a mess without them.

The peeps are my thermometers. If they cluster, they need more even heat throughout, if they are at the edges of the tub and away from the bulb, they need it moved further away, etc.

I'm going to have to find something bigger soon though. :?

right now my "brooder" is an upside down tote, with a door cut in it, and a hole in the top for the light and cord... so far it is working perfectly ...

 

[Zass]

So, this is the friendliest little batch of peep yet. I told the kids, they are all roosters until proven hen.

The seramas sure are developing fast.
This little guy's got moth wings.


All the brown cochins, no idea what colors, or if they are even going to be anything in particular.





I think this is called lavender or self blue?



Oh and look, some harlis snuck into this post. Whatever are they doing here..

 

[akane]

Seramas develop fast and do even better on a gamebird feed than a chick feed. Same for some of the other small bantams. I fed them what I was giving the button quail and eventually just switched all chicks to being raised on the gamebird crumbles. Chick colors are near impossible unless you are familiar with the appearance of the individual breed so you'd have to ask someone experienced in seramas. I'm not sure if a separate lavender serama color is common enough you'd get them on accident without paying for eggs specifically from a lavender project.

Overall chicken genetics are horribly complicated so good luck even finding what defines lavender besides a specific breed appearance or the whim of the cross breeder naming the colors they get. I have a large and very thick book on poultry genetics somewhere. It's not of much help outside of some specific colors only crossed to each other within specific breeds. :lol: Even the same appearance in 2 different breeds can be different genes that are not equally recessive or dominant so crossing what looks the same may result in an entirely different outcome depending what breed it came from. I got a few weird chocolate mottled japanese bantams while crossing black tail white with buff and all anyone could ever tell me about it was that's an oopsy rather than a Japanese bantam color so I didn't bother with the seramas or bantam EE that had a huge variety of color possiblities. Quail I can do but chickens I'm not spending the time to sort out besides a few isolated color combos.