Miyazaki Jidori heirloom hen chick Silky brooding hen mother.. The chick's sister was dead, looked a bit flattened, in the corner the other morning. This one seems to be doing ok though.. This hen chick hatched a few days, maybe a week, after the other one..

#宮崎地鶏 #地鶏雛 #MiazakiJidori #JidoriChick #JidoriHenChick #BackyardChickens #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏 #SilkyHen #

One morning 2 or 3 chicks made their way through the wire mesh and out of the cage and were out on their own. Lucky no cats were about. The hen was all anxious and pacing inside, probably disturbing her 2 peer hens in there brooding eggs. After a busy day it's easy to forget about adjusting the mesh overlaps so the chicks can't fit through the holes. You're just glad you remembered to close up the cages at all.. Eventually some sort of more sage-like system will have to come about, like a dog that can be trusted not to eat the chicks, or a nested fencing situation.

Now that I think of it, the egg-farmer that put his dog in the chicken cages at night probably only did it for big cages with 80 adult birds. I'll have to ask him. If Maron gets knocked up I'll have to be intensive about having the puppies hanging out with chicks a lot.. Maybe I can still train Maron to live with chicks??

#BackyardChickens #SilkyHen #JidoriChick #SilkyChick #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏雛

Chicks ❤️ love ❤️ maggots.

#SilkyChick #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick

A Taoist guy from China was telling me how Silkies are like Medicine and are worth so much more than other chickens (even heirloom varieties) that are just meat. I mentioned how much slower the Silkies are to mature and start laying eggs. And he said that's why they are so much better, like it had something to do with them being so much slower to mature. The smallest whitest chick in these photos is a Silky. The other two are Miyazaki Jidori heirloom chicks. The striped chick was hatched by the hen along with the Silky chick. The more yellowish plain chick was hatched in an incubator. The silky chick is noticeably less agile. I've seen the Silky tumble over it's own feet. The Silky eggs placed under the hen were from the hens in my yard and some of the eggs may be a bit in-bred by now... So I'm not sure how representative this Silky chick is for comparison with the Jidori Chicks from one flock.. But it's a start, I guess..

#SilkyChick #JiDoriChick #SilkyHen #SilkyChickens #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛

#SilkyChick #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick

#SilkyChick #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick

Silky hen with 3 chicks, 1 Jidori rooster, 1 Jidori hen, and 1 Silky. With Silkie it's hard to tell if they are a rooster or a hen until the get big and start practice fighting chest-bumping or awkawrdly start trying to crow. My guess through this first experience with Miyazaki Jidori heirloom birds is that the roosters have a brigher red background with a dark strip foreground from the start and the hens are plainer with only a lighter red background. That's my guess for now.

The plainer Jidori chick (probably a hen right?) was in a box all by her(?)self. I was nervous about leaving her in the box with the weeks-older turkey and silky chick. I tried it for a bit but the older silky was insistent about yanking on the new JiDori's feet as if they were tasty worms. To be save I had the new one in her(?) own box. but she was noisy when I came back for lunch. And it's a lot of work t make sure the heat lamps are working and there's a variety of food in 2 different boxes, and to think about how to time their adventures outside with the colder rainy weather. It's much better to leave all that to a brooding hen.. So I placed her next to the hen that's brooding the Jidori chick (rooster?) and Silky chick.. And it went well (KnockOnWood!!)...
#SilkyHen #JidoriChicks #JidoriChickRooster #JidoriChickHen #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick

This Silky hen was able to hatch one of 2 Jidori (Miyazaki Heirloom) eggs and a peer's Silky egg. She had started trying a week before I put Turkey eggs under her. Turkey eggs take a week longer than 3-week chicken eggs.. It seemed like she wouldn't give up till she got some chicks to raise so I put a local market's Jidori eggs under her. Just to be sure she had at least one chick after 3 more weeks' effort I grabbed the nearest 2 Silky eggs from the yard and put them under her too... If I had been 100% certain the Jidori eggs were viable all 4 eggs would have been Jidori eggs, but it will be interesting to have this Silky chick always with the Jidori chicks for easy comparison. The Jidori chicks start out from bigger eggs and seem to be bigger (comparitvely) all the time..

#SilkyChick #JidoriChick #SilkyHen #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雛 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛 #MiyazakiJidori #MiyazakiJidoriChick

#SilkyHen and #JidoriChick , #JiDoriChickRooster
#烏骨鶏雌鳥 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏

Miyazaki Jidori Heirloom chick under Silky Hen..
I moved them to a bigger box with another broody hen when I saw that other hens and kept laying their eggs with this hen. She should have under her only 2 Jidori eggs and 2 Silky eggs from nearby. She has like 10 eggs under her. Maybe she'll share some with the other broody hen in the box..
Since the incubator seems to have let the other 7 Jidori eggs die I have even greater hopes for another Silky Hen with 4 Jidori eggs under her. I'll need to get a good incubator by March so I can get more serious with Turkeys.. Then again, it might be better to just rely on the Silky Hens.. It's a lot less work, might be better for the birds socially too... Conflicted!! It is fascinating to see them up close in the house though.. Fun with the kids to get hem used to being in hands too... Conflicted!!

#SilkyHen #JidoriChicke #烏骨鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鶏 #烏骨鶏雌鳥 #地鶏雛 #宮崎地鶏 #宮崎地鶏雛