Actually we don't know if they are boys or girls, we suspect they may be roosters, because of the way they play/fight each other. They were give to us by neighbors, who got them from somebody esle who didn't want them.
We are guessing they are about 8 or 9 weeks old. We are keeping them with the Bantams, till they are large enough to live with the bigger chickens (if they turn out to be hens). Even though they are bigger than the Bantams, they are also big sissies; the Bantams easily hen-peck and terrorise them. They are SLOWLY getting used to each other, but I always separate the three stooges out from the Bantams for part of the day, to feed them and make sure they get to eat as much as they need to.
They must have been pets, because they are extremly tame, even affectionate. It would be a shame if they had to end up in the stewpot.
The 13 new chicks just keep growing...
we've build a small "nursery" compartment inside the chicken coop, with an extention cage on the outside. We are keeping the chicks in this during the day, but still bringing them into our house at night; the nights are still very cool, but I expect soon that they will be staying out in the coop full time.
The chicks are about 6 weeks old now. Moving them back and forth from the house to the coop has the advantage of making them used to being handled a lot and taming them more. Some of them are taking to it quicker than others.
The ducklings are coming along nicely. Dilly and Daffy are getting their wing-tip feathers, and become bolder every day...
They don't follow me around the yard quite as religously as they used to, and in fact, they occasionally find it fun to run in the opposite direction. They have bit two dogs on their noses, and the cats stay a healthy distance away. They run together like a pair of raptors sometimes... I guess they aren't called "running" ducks for nothing. They have discovered the joys of playing in mud puddles...
They seem to take great pleasure in being as messy and dirty as possible. As soon as they get all their feathers in, and are mature enough to excrete the needed oil on their feathers, we are going to get one of those plastic children's wadding pools for them to play in.
They have already outgrown their cage, to the point where they cannot stand up in it if the lid is closed. Today I will be putting the finishing touches on a new, larger cage we have just build for them. They should be able to start living outside soon in a hutch of their own.
Meanwhile, the roosters are still at war. Here is Cecil the Rhode Island Red in the background, crowing at Bertie, the 10 inch Bantam rooster:
Cecil wants to kill Bertie, and Bertie want to kill my foot every time I step in there to feed them. I never imagined that owning a chicken coop would be so much like having a Jurrasic Park of one's own.
I love it... the fun never stops!
No comments:
Post a Comment