Pullets are growing up,





Watch out, this is Henzilla, the attack hen, seriously this hen acts almost like a rooster and attacks me on occasion, she is just not quite as dangerous in her attacks, but nonetheless, this is annoying. This is one of my Golden Laced Wyandottes that I got on May 12 of this year, so they are almost 6 months old.

A rainbow of eggs, from left to right these eggs are from Jersey Giant, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, mixed breed, California White and the two dark brown ones are from Whitney my Welsummer chick. the other Wellies aren't laying yet, so will see about their egg colors.

Hen in molt, they sure look pitiful

same hen from the front

2 Black Jersey Giants, the left one is in molt, the brownish colored feathers are old, the black green shiny ones are new

this one is starting to look more like a normal chicken again, but some of the feathers still have to grow completely out

Buffy hasn't really started much with molting yet

Chica's sister

Chica is my smaller Buff Orpington hen, I think her eyesight is getting worse, it seems like she can still see distant things okay, but has trouble with seeing things nearby like when she tries to eat. She has always had some problems with coordinating her beak and eating small items, but it seems to be getting worse. When I give her something to eat, she will act like eating about 2 inches away from the food then slowly lower her beak continuing that motion until she actually touches the food, once she knows how far away it is than she seems to have less trouble. When she was a tiny chick she already had trouble when I gave them some cooked spaghetti, she was the only one who kept missing the noodles when she pecked at it. Back then I figured she was just clumsy, but now I know this started very early. For now I bring her in overnight so she can eat in peace after running around all day and then in the morning before she goes outside.

This is Miss Daisy the mystery pullet from last fall. She is a rather flighty but smart bird, she lays a beautiful smooth green egg almost every single day, even while going through molt.

one of my Golden Laced Wyandottes, they are very pretty birds

size comparison, on the left is the Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet and to the right the same age a Wyandotte pullet

I have put up more shade cloth to protect the hens from our cold winter winds, unfortunately our winds do not always come from the same direction, sometimes it blows hard from the North, sometimes from the South, and sometimes it starts out from the South, then stops and 30 minutes later the wind blows from the North. I have gone to bed with wind blowing from the North and I closed and opened windows for the animals accordingly, then in the middle of the night I wake up and now the wind blows from the opposite site, so I have to go out, close the windows and open those that are on the other end.

my pretty little Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet, I haven't really given her a name, but she is definetely unique.

here is Sam, one of my Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, she loves the chickens and here she enjoyes laying in the soft straw near the chickens

the Hamburg pullet and a Welsummer pullet checking out the crate, they haven't started laying yet since the days are getting so short they may not start until the spring

here she is again

and again from the other side

Whitney or "Whitty" as I usually call her, is my 6 month old pullet that I had to hand raise because she had such trouble eating on her own. She has grown up around the dogs, so she likes to hang out near them. Since she has no buddies with the hens and sometimes they peck on her, she seems to have figured out if she sticks near the dogs, the other hens won't bother her, now that is smart.

here she is right next to Sam

sticking close to Sam, who doesn't mind, she is quite intrigued with Whitney

this is another one of the Welsummer pullets, she has a weird looking comb, so I have not trouble knowing which one she is. Their feathers are actually quite pretty, I didn't realize they are such pretty birds when I got them, I really was mostly interested in their dark eggs

one of the Welsummer pullets checking out the crushed egg shells

one of my Buckeye pullets

my two Buckeyes, they like to hang out together, they seem to be a much more sedate bird than most of my others

the two Buckeyes again

A Golden Laced Wyandotte

another picture of her

the new water station for the winter, in the summer it's imperative to keep water cool, so I have water bowls that keep water cool, now with the winter coming the concern is to keep the water from freezing overnight, so I brought out the cooler who insulates the water pretty good and I also have a heated bucket for them that also keeps the water from freezing. I plan on leaving the heated bucket out overnight so the hens can get a drink when they get up before I come out, then I will bring this blue cooler with me with some lukewarm water from the house. I do have another cooler that will replace the last of the big black bowls that I use in the summer.

feeding station protected form wind coming from the Southwest, I also covered many of my structures with plastic sheeting to make sure they provide protection from the rain

feeding station protected from Northerly winds, also covered with plastic

One of my California Whites, I am still waiting for them to get some black spots

This was really funny, I have pretty bad eye sight, so I saw this bug and think I can get a good shot of a chicken catching a bug, I was really disappointed that the chicken didn't seem to see the bug until I noticed why she wasn't interested, the bug has been dead and the smart chickie wasn't going to eat that dead old bug

Whitney out and about, she has integrated herself pretty well into the rest of the flock, she still sleeps inside our house in the foyer, I want to make sure she has an opportunity to eat as much as she wants in the mornings and evenings, she is the only one of my Welsummers who is laying at this time and she lays an egg now almost every day. It's amazing how much more she eats now that she lays eggs. And she knew when she needed extra calcium, never touched the crushed egg shells until after she laid her first egg.

here she is again, all 4 of my Welsummers look so much alike, I am learning to keep them apart by the way their comb is shaped. I paint some of Whitney's feathers with nail polish so she is easier to spot

Two of my 3 month old Welsummer chicks to the right, on the left is my Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet, she is a week older than the Wellies, but look how small she is. She is a really high-strung bird, very flighty, easily panicked and she squawks like none of the others do.

This is Whitney, she is a 'sister" to the Welsummers above, but due to the fact that she has diffiulty eating on her own, I have handfed her most of her food ever since she was 3 weeks old. She and her sisters do this thing where their feathers stand up when they are not sure of something. Whitney has just started to go outside more often since our temperatures have been cooler in the mornings so she is a bit anxious about stepping ouside in the picture above. She is funny as once outside she usually scampers along wherever I go.

The chicks are going through a molt right now, so look a little frazzled.

Here Whitney meets Callie who is a 5 month old California White pullet. Callie is territorial and wants to check out the stranger on the other side of the fence.

10 day old chicks in their enriched cage,



the chicks are now about 10 days old, this is one of the 2 Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks

they still have a lot of fuzz

I had to move the chicks into a large dog crate in the house because it was too hot in the garage during the day.

normally I put hay in their crates when they are in the garage, but that makes cleanup a lot harder, so since they are indoors I am just giving them clumps of fresh grass and weeds

this is one of the little Welsummer chicks, the grass seeds seen in front of this chick keep them rather busy as the expertly peck away at them. Don't know how much of it all they are eating

this is the little Silver Spangled Hamburg chick, she is already a week older than the others and this last week she really grew a lot

so cute

those pictures were taken in the morning before I cleaned out their area, so there is quite a bit of poop laying around. I take everything out twice a day, at this age, that keeps things pretty well under control and it helps to monitor closely for any problems like coccidiosis. The chicks are on medicated starter food, but it is still important to pay close attention to catch any problems early on. I am finding that old towels work best for me as they can be easily gathered and taken outside to get rid of all the debris, then they go into the washer and are washed with bleach.

what a funny looking chick, I hope it's a hen and not a rooster

3 of the 4 Welsummer chicks checking out the grass

I had to put out flat bowls for their food because one, or maybe even two of the chicks seemed to have trouble with the feeders I normally use, they could not figure out to eat the food out of the holes and instead kept pecking at the few crumbs collecting on the rims, thus they weren't getting enough food.

one week size difference

the Hamburg has much longer legs at this point, in a few weeks the age difference won't be noticable anymore

The Wyandottes are both larger than the Welsummers also, even when they are the same age

it always amazes me how quickly their feathers are growing

group picture, the 4 Welsummers on the right, the 2 Wyandottes on the left

I've purposely put in the towels in a crumpled up fashion so the ground is uneven to help the chicks' feet get proper exercise for their growing little feet. I think it's also good brain exercise to negotiate uneven terrain.

view of the corner of their "habitat" which at this point is a 2 x 4 foot large wire dog crate. I just used a large sheet and tied it up a foot from the ground to keep the chicks from squeezing through the wire of the crate. I think in another week they should be too big to fit through the openings and then I can remove the sheet so they can see the outside world at eye level. It's supposed to be in the 90s next weekend again, so I will put them outside during the day for more exercise and fresh air.

More new chicks and the 9 and 10 week old pullets,

nobody warned me when I got my first chicks 3 years ago that chickens are addictive, there are so many different breeds and color patterns, and I love to have many different breeds and colors when I go and spend time with my flock, most of my chickens have names, except for the ones I really can't keep apart like my 4 Black Jersey Giants.

So yesterday I got one more batch of baby chicks for this year, I had planned on getting 4 Welsummers which the feed story ordered for me, then I wanted to get one of the Silver Spangled Hamburg chicks because they look very special, but when I got to the feedstore with all the chicks still in the boxes they were shipped in, I found out they also had some Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks (silver too) so on impulse I got 2 of those, I would have really liked the silver variety too, but 7 was already more than I had planned on. So here are the newest additions:


3 little Welsummer chicks fresh out of the shipping box

A Welsummer chick, this is a breed that lays a fairly dark brown egg, we will know more what color these are laying in 5 months

One chick is missing in this picture, this is when I first set them down when I brought them back from the feedstore

they had no trouble figuring out how to drink water, they all immediately had a good drink, which was the first water they had in their lives, as the chicks that are shipped that way are packed up and shipped out soon after they hatch, they can survive 2 and up to 3 days without any food or water after they hatch, so that's when they are being shipped out. I have never ordered any myself as I would be really heartbroken if I would find dead ones in there, which can happen.

This is the little Silver Spangled Hamburg chick, she is already about a week old and she has the little poop balls on her toes which are very hard to get off, I have put some vaseline on them to soften them so I can get them off.

that's her again, this is a fairly small breed, this chick is a week old but the same size as the ones that were just hatched.

little Welsummer chick, they all look the same, so no names for them

little fluffball

here are Calli and Nicki the 10 week old California White pullets, they have moved outside now and enjoy their freedom, they are very beautiful with their slender bodies and long tails, they are good flyers too

such elegant little pullets

this is Barbie, she has beautiful markings and I still think she is a Delaware and she just has off colored legs,

she is the largest at 9 weeks of this batch, I am pretty sure at this point that she is a pullet and not a cockerel, I think by now she would have a larger comb if it was a he.

one of the Buckeye pullets, they are rather calm

Barbie in the foreground and the Buckeye in the back

here is the little group taking a drink, note the waterer, when they were little chicks they could barely reach over the rim, now I have it sitting up on a plastic box and actually this waterer is being moved to the new chicks now because this group can drink from the big chicken water bowls now. I still have them separated from the adult hens, but I am going to slowly start letting some of the big hens come and visit so they can get to know each other over the next week or two

Chicks 7 and 8 weeks old,

this group is ready to move out into the barn, I have oiled the perches, added fresh shavings and put up a heat lamp, just in case it gets cold, now I just need to barricade the door a bit so the goats can't get in when I open it. That way this group can have their own little area in the goat pen and can come in at night to their area without needing me to move them or the other chickens harrassing them. Then on May 12 I am going to get some Welsummer chicks from the feedstore and later this year some Marans, but they will already be older pullets if not already laying eggs.


Nicki and Calli are 8 weeks old now, the other 3 are 7 weeks old, there really isn't a noticable difference between any of them except that Barbie at 7 weeks old is bigger than the rest. But then I still don't know if she is a Delaware or not.

One of the Buckeye pullets

Here is Barbie with the green legs, she's got big legs too. I don't think she is a rooster. So if anybody knows what she is, I would like to hear it.

Barbie on the left and one of the California Whites to the right

Here is the other Buckeye, she still has a few downy fluff on her head

The Buckeyes are rather calm little girls, the have a nice chatter but not to the point of being annoying.

The California Whites have a nice slender body shape and very long tails, they are very pretty pullets, still waiting for them to get their black spots.

The combs and faces are starting to show a bit of red.