Color Tagged for Identification and Excitement Galore

A couple of days ago, the color bands that I ordered came in so that I could tell the chicklets apart. Ten colors: black, brown, white, red, orange, yellow, pink, green, blue & purple. I banded the nine Russian Orloffs and did not bother with Becky-buckeye. I picked up #10 (10/16") size and I have #11 already which they will need in a couple more months. I put the bands all on the right legs so that I know which leg to look for. 

It was a rather eventful day. We turned the coop and moved the pen to new grass. Instead of a "paddock" system, we are thinking we can just keep turning this every week to 10 days until we come to a complete circle and hopefully, the grass/weeds will be back in full growth by the time we get back around to starting point.  Photos below will show that the ground is pretty beat up after almost three weeks in the same location.  We kept it there way too long, so we will see what it looks like in a month. 

Point made here is that we truly have pasture grass for the chickens; not lawn grass. So they get the real pasture effect. I was a bit shocked to learn that some stores are selling "pasture fed" chicken eggs for over $7.00 per dozen!!!  Granted, the stores need to make a profit on the deal and I'm guessing that the farmers are getting about 35% to 50% of that price.  

Anyways, after the move, a friend stopped by for a chat, and his dog did fine around the chicklets for about 15 minutes, but the moment the dog thought he had a chance to get to the chicks, he lunged and barked, freaking the chicklets. One of the chicks hurt her wing, but no blood or sustaining injury there.  One had a gouge in her comb right between her eyes that was bleeding a little. I doctored that with baking powder to stop the blood and keep it from smelling or looking like blood.... Chickens LOVE to peck on bloody things ;( I proceeded to use the new colored bands to help me identify and check over all the chicks to ensure that they were okay and that no one else was bleeding. In the photos below, the one with the black ankle bracelet, near the middle of the pens, is the one who was bleeding.  The third photo shows some of the ankle bracelets with blue arrows pointing at them. Aside from the major freak'n scare, the chicklets seem to be loving their fresh grass experience. What I found funny was that Becky Buckeye is over at the food pellets trough, while all the rest were more than happy to be in their new grass!

When that occurred, I was in the process of setting up a temporary pen for the hens by attaching it to their pen/coop's opening so that they could venture out into some fresh grass before we move their coop tomorrow. The grass was a bit tall, but they stamped most of it down in no time at all. The tall grass had gone to seed, and they were taking advantage of eating that fresh seed right off the stalks of grass. I would normally not just let them out in a pen like this without being close by to chase off any predators or dogs. I was outside working on the yard/garden so.... they got to explore a little. The hawks were out in full force today, so I added a mesh over the top of the makeshift pen for a little added protection since those guys are stealth! In the photos, you will see that one of the hens is finally starting to show her spangles. :) It's a slow process before they finally spangle.

The True Two Months ~ Russian Orloffs @ nine weeks

The chicks are eating, poohing, drinking and sleeping machines now. They like to play and take great pleasure at pecking on my clothing while I interact with them in their pen. The nice thing about having a pen and coop that we can move is that they get some fresh greens and new territory to keep them from getting bored.  Development wise, the feathers are pretty solid now, their legs are deeper yellow, longer and more sturdy than a few weeks ago.  I think we got a good bunch with this group. However, the one mystery chicken is actually a Buckeye. Yep!  Noisy, trilling, adventurous Bucky, the Buckeye. I'm fairly certain that she's a she, now that we have it figured out. She's bigger than all the rest, for now. But the Orloffs are always a slow developing group of birds, so they will catch up with Bucky soon enough. The muffs and beards are fully developed now, and their combs are starting to get the pink on.

Here are some of their photos.

A Buckeye? Isn't that a basketball team?

After a lot of mulling, scratching my whiskers and thinking, I've come to the conclusion that we have a mutt, and not an Orloff rooster. Actually, after looking through thousands of photos online, I think the one strange looking chickidee is actually a Buckeye.  Now, it may still be a rooster, but I'm 99.1% certain that it is not Orloff. The Orloff will have more head feathers, ear muffs and a beard by now, just like the pullets.  If Buckeye is a hen, we will keep her or sell her.  If Buckeye is a rooster, we will eat him or sell him.  Enough said.

Warm Cloudy Day - Eight Point Five Weeks

I did not get any photos on the 21st, which would have been eight weeks for the chicklets.  One of the older chickens died suddenly on that date. None of the other chickens are exhibiting any symptoms of being ill, so we are not certain what was going on. However, now we are only getting one egg per day, so obviously, there's stress involved for the remaining original three.

I decided to take photos today of the young'ns while the weather was warm, but not too windy or too wet. Most of the girls are still quite friendly and the potential rooster was in the mix today. Got some great shots of the crew at eight and one-half weeks.

The chicks don't look that much different from last week (7 weeks) to this week. They are about the same heights and featherings. But, looking back to six weeks of age, there's a lot of difference in appearance over that two weeks.  Their faces are looking so much more fierce... but they are not fierce at all.  Loving little cluck clucks. We are going to try to band them now (leg bands) to tell them apart.  While I can kind of tell some of them apart, it is getting more and more difficult. With the exception of the possible rooster. That one still looks much different than the rest. There is more coloring in the tail feathers.  Regardless of whether this one is a rooster, or not, it will be the dominant one.  The first five photos are the potential rooster.  Photo number six has the potential rooster's feathers in the forefront and the coloring is distinct from the pullets' tail feathers.