Adding young ones to an older crew.

 This baby was one of the lucky chicks I happened to find wandering in the yard.  Hatched by one of my "missing" hens.  Her hatch mate was eaten by the flock :(  I know!  Very sad, but it's the life of a chicken.  In fact I had to chase a chicken around who had this chick in it's mouth about to eat it.  She is an Ameraucana/Barnevelder mix and is super adorable! (her daddy is to the left of her actually calling her to come see what he found to eat).  She is fast, she is very fast...she has to be yet.  When she is the same size she will fit right in though.  

Adding young chickens to your already established flock could be big trouble and it should only be done if you have some time to watch how it goes.  If you don't have the time it simply should not be done in my opinion.  You will end up with a dead or at the very least very injured chick.  My hens have ate bigger prey then this little girl. Adding new ones to a free range flock is MUCH different then adding to a caged flock.  I have done both and let me tell you...it was horrific adding to a "non free range" flock and I did not get good results. And this is after allowing them to see the newbie through wire for weeks and weeks prior to adding.    If I were the type of person who would just throw and go  I would have had dead chicks/pullets on my hands.  Only the strong (or fast) survive but they usually don't look pretty when it's all said and done.  I can't do it and never will after seeing what I have seen.
 

What I recommend is to add the babies to an outdoor "free range" flock and I'm here to tell ya.  It goes MUCH better!  IF you have no choice but to add to an enclosed flock then I would not add anything until they were the same size (which means waiting until the newbie is at least 5 months old).   I have done this MANY times now and I have consistent results from my flocks in both types of settings.  

The first few weeks (about six or until chick is  fully feathered for sure)  I do keep the baby in a smaller cage with it's food/water while the others check it out.  Then on day one (of adding to a free range flock)  I open the door and allow the chick to explore on it's own (and be sure you have time to watch what's going on) I just grab my lawn chair and a book and I wait...hrs...I wait, and I watch.  The first day I only allow it out for a few hours (or as much time as your willing to give that day) and each day I go a little longer.  IF the chick wanders outside with the others you will most likely have to pick it up and put it back in at dusk.  For some reason (maybe the big ones won't allow it in or maybe it's that their instinct to roost is not all there yet) but the babies never seem to go in the first two or three days on their own.  After about two or three days they finally get the message.  When I have to put the chick back in I put it back into it's cage if I don't plan on letting it out right at sun up so it doesn't get picked on.  The smaller the coop the more it will prob get picked on.  My coop is huge so there are plenty of hiding spots (which baby does use).  It's been a few weeks now since adding baby and as you can see from the picture she has now been excepted into the flock but is (and there is no doubt about this) on the bottom of the pecking order and prob will always be unless someone gets sick.  But she's thriving and doing wonderfully :D

Our ducks are laying!

They started on Oct 6th.  Today we got a shell less one which is common for new layers.  The back one is shell less.  We fried it and fed to the chickens.

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Have my ducks, I mean chickens all in a row.

Here are ny four bantam Cochin all grown up and out with the crew.  Everyone was very respectful of them, thank goodness.  Here they are in the coop at bedtime.  The roo with them is my "surprise" roo from Mcmurray.  He's a dark Brahma.  He's a good boy but I just can't keep any more roos :(  So he has to go to the stew pot but letting him live here until winter so he at least gets a few good months.  I feel bad but I would rather have him go for food then to someone who will fight him.

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Are ducks digging these holes?

Yes they are! And they dig some pretty deep ones I may add.  The deepest one would prob be six inches deep and a good 12 inches wide.  They dig all different types of holes (looking for good bugs). What they do is dig a bill full of dirt and run to the pool and swish it around looking for the bugs that float to the top of the water.  Smart really!  I am learning SO much about them just by sitting out there and watching them. 

 My ducks love me.  They made me this heart.

This is their favorite of all holes...the one that's filled with water lol

It's been a while! Here is my crew :)

My boy finally got his tail curl!  About two weeks ago :)  still no eggs but I'm thinking real soon! 

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The four bantam cochin chicks at around 12 weeks old as well.

Added a total of six posts today so scroll back to see the other pictures :D  Can't figure out how to add all on one post through my android...will try to figure out if there is a way.

Anyhow these four are from a friend of mine and are getting nice and fluffy for only being 12 weeks old :D  Not sure yet what I have but possibly four girls?  I hope!  The splash over to the right has the biggest waddles but still not as big as my other roos did at that same age. I will let you know what I end up with.  They are enjoying their enlarged brooder now that the ducks are out :D  However will be dividing it again once I add the new baby chicks in there.  

The lil chicken crew at 12 weeks old

Here is the crew at 12 weeks old (on Saturday).  They are getting nice and big and still have plenty of room.  In a few weeks they will be set out to free range with the others (they will be about the same size then).  They are getting pretty darn friendly, I will actually set a chair right in the middle of the coop and spend time with them.  They LOVE their treats I bring into them as well which makes them my best friends.  Still thinking I have at least one roo (I could be wrong and I hoping I am) but can't tell 100% yet.  Still no crowing.  Everyone is getting along and I have not had to remove anyone else :D

More new babies!

Here is my D'uccle hen after hatching out her new babies a few days ago.  There are three...two lavender bantam Ameraucana (over to the right of her) and one Partridge Wyandotte bantam (to the left of her).  They are so sweet!  I will eventually take them and add the four of them (these three chicks and the other lav chick from the orp hen) together in the brooder.  That way I can put the boys back in with their hens and have two less coops to feed and water.  As it is now, it takes me over an hour every day to take care of them all.  Which in reality is not bad and I don't mind it.  But with more hours at work this will save me about 15 min...I'm tired when I get home and the less work the better!  
NOTE:  Check out the previous posts...added more pictures and someday I will learn if there a way to add ALL the pics on one post from my android.  That way I won't have to add 5 posts a day!  

Do we put food and water in the coop?

another view of the hallway and you can see the windows also...same on both sides.

NO, we absolutely do not put food in the coop.  Why?  Because it would be a HUGE mess and unless you want to clean a coop on a daily basis I would recommend not putting water in the coop.  If you don't have water do NOT add food in the coop.  They cannot have food without having water, they may choke.  
I know a guy who has raised ducks for 20 plus years and he said that ducks don't need food or water in the coop and he has never put it in there from 4 weeks on.  He has never lost a duck yet. 

So I put the ducks in the coop about 8:30 pm last night and let them out at a little before 8 this AM.  They lived and yes, they did go right for the water but they were ok.  

I was a little worried and told him, "but everyone is saying that ducks NEED water 24/7" Then he told me something that really made sense.  He said, in the wild when the ducks are hatched by the mother there are times when the ducklings have to go a whole day without water.  They can surely live 8-12 hours without water.  Totally made sense to me.

Our fenced in "hallway" and Bedding info

This is the "hallway" we put in to make it MUCH easier to herd the ducks to bed at night. We got them to go down the hallway easy but they didn't get to go up the rubber mat, we had to help them out last night...wonder how tonight will go.  Ya, the hallway doesn't look pretty but it does the trick.  They love their nice new large home.  It's not insulated and it does not have power (it was only suppose to be used for meat chickens which I was not able to go through with) so I hope they are ok in the winter here in WI.  Everyone says they can handle winter really well so we will just make sure they have a nice hay pile to dig into to stay warm.  We use pine shavings in the rest of the coop. I did move them earlier then planned but glad I did now.  I can put my mind at ease knowing they will be just fine!. 

Bedding update:  

When I went to clean out the brooder after removing the ducks, it was needed.  Before that I had just been emptying their 16" X 16" water station (every third day) and putting fresh bedding on top every day...just a little, to cover any wet looking areas, which was pretty much the whole area.  I only cleaned out the whole thing once for the 3 1/2 weeks the ducks spent in there and they were in the garage and it was not horribly smelly.  But like I said, I did keep adding a fresh layer of bedding (pine shavings) on top daily.  AND without the watering station (I do have pics, just scroll back) it would have been SO bad and I would have been changing that bedding every day (not kidding).  In fact when they got older and drank more I could just hear the water dripping down into the water catch.  And there was a lot of it.  It was always over 1/2 full on the third day when it was time to empty it.  

Ducks at almost 4 weeks old. First night in their coop low 40's

Here they are at almost 4 weeks old (on Monday they will be 4 weeks) and last night was their first night in the new coop and it got down to low 40's and they were just fine.  There is also two large windows that are not closeable (yet).  I have to admit, I was a little worried but when I let them out early this morning they were very active and happy to get outside to their pool.  As you can see Phoebe is still with them and she is loving the free ranging.  Today it's pretty warm so they are all hanging out in the shade under their kiddie slide.  

Ducks at 2 1/2 weeks

I think only people who have ever owned ducks can really understand that, when someone asks if you replaced your ducks overnight you get what they are talking about now.  These things literally grow over night!  My husband come in one day and asked "what happened to the ducks?"  I got worried and said WHY, what's wrong?  He said, they just grew 2 inches while I was away at work. lol My plans today is to get the cochins out into their new home, then stir up bedding again.  The bigger they get, the more of a mess they make. 

My two LF Blue Cochin girls disappeared two days ago...looked all over for them.  Yesterday one of them showed up (she was in the shed because when I opened the door, there she was)  NOt sure where she was hiding, I thought I looked everywhere...guess I didn't.  Still missing one.  Then this morning, opened the door and there was the 2nd missing cochin.  I'm assuming they are broody together since they do everything else together.  They are like twins.  SO happy they didn't get ate though!  I was wondering what sort of predator was lurking.  We have never had one yet!  I believe it's because I have the two huge dogs (a boxer and a choc lab) who chase everything away. They only pred we have had to deal with so far is the neighbors dog who killed 12 of my chickens the first year we started with chickens. The neighbors were great about it, paid us for the chickens and we never seen their dog again in our yard.  We do see him running in their yard but he no longer comes over.    

My tough little hen.

Here is my tough little hen (blue bantam cochin) with two of her boys.  She is a sweet girl, her name is Kate (named after John and Kate because of her attitude lol)  She is even boss over my LF chickens who free range.  SHE eats/drinks first before all others! I'm almost scared to introduce the four others to their crew. 

My young bantam cochins

These four are getting adorable and they are the ones I have to find a new coop for.  They are kind of naughty though...have to work on handling them more.  The splash like to attack me when I put my hand in there LOL.  They are tiny yet but really filling out :D  Just love them!  Can't wait to get them outside with the other four (three roos and a hen)  I know that sounds like a lot of roos (and usually it IS way to much) but SHE is the boss and doesn't allow them to mate her often at all.  She looks really good and no bare spots and she has lived with them for almost three years now :D  She is tough little girl for sure.  

The Ducks and picture of my "bungalow" coop.

The ducks all of a sudden just grew up over night!  LOL  Just like I remember the 4 Pekin doing.  They are making more of a mess (seems like that happened right at two weeks).  Today the "new bedding" I put in was already looking quite messy (this was from the poo not because of the water) I stirred it up and were good to go again.  I figure I need to stir up the bedding every day now. Ducks poo IS 80 % water so it does wet the bedding pretty well after a few days.  It's time to open their brooder and give them more room which means I have to move the four cochin babies out.  Will have to do some thinking on that one.  I have the bungalow coup, I may move them there but it needs to be cleaned out (it's a coop I made inside my large coop above the nest boxes (no wasted space) and I totally made it myself :D  I needed help putting the doors on again (not very good at doors!)  Here is a picture of it: Of course its the small coop above the nest boxes.

Here is what bedding looked like on cleaning day.

As you can see only the top of the bedding was wet...more then 1/2 of the shavings underneath were dry.  I still removed all and put fresh in...they are two weeks tomorrow so we have two more weeks in the brooder and then they move out to their permanent home. It was VERY hot today and I did not LIKE cleaning this out but it had to be done. Plus had to get a lot of other regular daily chicken chores done.  They are happy now and clean :D  I was trying to just skim the top of the bedding off but it was NOT working well for me lol.  It was so packed down from the ducks it was all coming in big clumps. 

The ducks had their heat lamp off all day today (and will keep it off tonight (only suppose to get down to 65 and it will stay even warmer then that in the garage overnight) it was in the upper 80's and they were panting.  They prefer cooler weather like I do!  We tried having them swim in a little foot soak tub but they were having none of that! They did enjoy eating some grass though.    You can tell that they do not have their oils yet (being hatched in an incubator they won't yet) the water soaked them and did not run off. If they are hatched by mom then they can go in the water on day one. 

My new chick. Got a picture.

This is our new bantam Ameraucana Lavender.  I sure hope it's a girl :D  The hen just let me take her out from under her :D  The other two eggs have not hatched yet.  I have another AM Lav and a Partridge bantam wyandotte egg under her yet.  Hope they hatch soon!  If they don't hatch by tomorrow I will candle them to see what's going on.  This little one is pretty calm. The other hen is due to hatch hers soon (within the week) as well and she  is laying on five eggs.   

Escape artist and a video (not related)

Updated my blog just a little bit, don't worry, the picture will be smaller (just can't change it here at work). 

Yesterday when getting home from work I seen one of the lil crew chicks (an EE) out in the yard with the big birds.  She must have pushed on her door hard enough to squeeze through it (and I shamefully admit to leaving the hook off the latch).  She was sitting on top of the wood pile anxiously waiting for me to "save" her.  Poor thing had all of her tail feathers pulled out by the big girls.  Not sure how long she was out there but sure glad she made it!  She looked very happy to see me. All I thought about was finding the purple spray and applying it to her poor raw rump so the others wouldn't bother her bare area (NOTE:  it was NOT bleeding...if it were I would have kept her out until healed) and didn't even think to take a picture of her sitting so peacefully on the wood pile...what a great picture that would have made! :(  I grabbed her up quickly, treated her, and got her back in by her lil crew who she was VERY happy to see!

Just wanted to share my video of the lil crew just a few days old when they went to their larger brooder.  They loved it! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QKlcdMK7hw

One baby has hatched!

Do you see the empty shell to your left? I didn't want to bother her so waited a few hours and went back, lifted the wing, and there it was... A beautiful bantam lavender ameraucana. :)  will try to get picture tomorrow. Two eggs left to hatch.

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A couple of my pens

This used to be a huge work shed which was turned into my chicken house (I have four of them now).  And I added the walls/doors myself (not bad for a girl huh?)  I had a little help with the doors (attaching them) but otherwise I did it myself.  I was pretty proud of them!  This is two pens and the other area to the left has my pens for my pairs.  You can kind of see one in the back under the window (it's pretty long).  It also has a wood stove for cold winter nights and very large windows.  I LOVE my chicken shed :D  The white basket is a make shift nest for my lone Ameraucana girl who was being picked on (she used it once)  Now not sure if she just stopped laying in frustration, or if she found a new spot outside.  

I finally counted my chickens and here is what the results are:

60 total chickens

12 of those are bantams 

8 chicks (still in shell about to hatch)

13 ducks

For a total of 81 peeps

My limit (for my own sanity is 100)  I cannot go over that number. If I do go over that, then it's no longer "fun" for me, then it turns into work.  I like 80 even better :D  50 would be a GREAT number to stick at really.  But don't plan on getting rid of any (except possibly those two "maybe" roosters I have in the lil crew. OR any new roos that hatch out from the eggies. I'm at my roo limit of a dozen.  And still not sure on three of the bantam cochins I have...they are still very young yet.  None of them are really looking promising.  I sure hope I don't end up with 4 roos!  If I do I guess I have 7 bantam roos running around the yard and hope everyone gets along!