Four weeks ago I went to the feed store to get chicken feed and came home with two new chicks, Golden Laced Wyandottes. On the way home I realized I had not asked if they were sexed. I had to assume they weren’t, so there was a decent chance that at least one of them would be a cockerel. Oh well. We would deal with that when we started hearing crowing.
Two weeks ago the chicks I ordered from mypetchicken.com arrived at the post office, and I drove up to get them. Instead of the three I ordered (two Speckled Sussex and one Barred Rock) my little box contained four babies – two Speckleds and two Barred Rocks. Bonus! These were sexed (I paid extra) and had a 90% chance of being all females. The Goldies went into a larger plastic tub and the four new babies went into the small plastic tub.
As the Goldies got bigger we’ve been taking them out to the garden when we can so they can have a little more room. I thought they would want to practice flying since that’s what they seemed to be trying to do in their big box. But once they came in contact with ground they started scratching and pecking and stayed mostly focused on that. They did fly a little to get on top of the dog carrier we took them out in, but mostly they scratched and seemed to enjoy every minute,and as usual, Dax enjoyed watching them.
When the Goldies got to the point that I felt sorry for them in the box (they were just too big for it), we moved them to the porch. Since we wanted them to bond with the new ones, we took the babies, in the larger tub, out to the screened porch, too. Immediately the Goldies took a strong interest in the babies. First they jumped on top of the wire covering the tub and just looked down at them. Joan put strips of wood across it so they would have something to stand on besides wire. For a while they went from standing on top of the box to roosting on a plant stand next to it, occasionally jumping down to explore the porch and eat and drink.
Finally we decided to put them together. I put one of the Goldies inside the tub with the babies, and she showed no signs of wanting to peck at them so I added the other one. (We have high hopes that they are female at this point.) They ate and drank with the babies, and all six seemed happy to be together. Yesterday I took the babies out of the tub, put some straw in a corner of the porch, and let them all live together. Last night was a little chilly, and all six huddled in a wad to stay warm and sleep. This morning they were up and exploring the straw. A couple of the babies have wandered out onto the rest of the porch, but for the most part, they all six stay on the straw in a small area.
One of the babies seems to be still and sleep more than they others. I’m a little concerned that she may not make it. But so far they seem to have combined to be one small, happy flock together.
