OMG I want one or ten! Very cute.

I had chickens when I was a child. I love how they cluck and bawk so contentedly. Yours are very good mommies and very beautiful babies! I went to Tractor Supply just to hold them this spring!
Thanks for sharing!
kasha77

Those are sooooooooo cute! Are these the hens you rescued from Key West, and are the chicks from these hens, i.e., they laid the eggs or some other? At first I thought EEs, but see the egg shells are white.

Oh my Gosh!!! They are adorable!!!
I would love to get a coop going again.
Congrats on your new babies!!!

Karen

Thanks. Yes these are the Key West hens. There are 4 hens all together and 2 of the hens went broody and hatched chicks at the same time! Ohhh I hope they don't do this all spring and summer lol.
They now have 17 chicks between them. I found one had died while hatching and another still pipping its egg and the mother was already off the nest with all the other babies. I put that egg in the incubator and it hatched last night. The chick is alive but very weak. I hope it makes it.

The two mommies have been sharing the chicks. They had them out in the run yesterday digging for worms and showing them what to eat. It was so cute. The other two hens were also digging and calling the chicks. The roo stood over looking proud. They must still have thier wild instincts and are kinda raising the chicks as a group/flock.

Eloise, yes they are all thier own chicks. They have a lot of genetic diversity so some are more yellowish and some stripey partridge looking. The hens lay a small white egg. They are really good layers, they haven't really skipped days laying since I got them. It just takes 2 of thier small eggs to equal one large egg for a recipe lol. They are a small breed almost small as a bantam and very good at foraging and watching out for predators. My hens are still pretty wild. The roo is a little more tame.

I hatched some of thier previous eggs in my incubator and those babies are very tame (like to fly up on you to be petted) and learned to fly at 2 weeks. They can fly from the ground to the top of the shed lol.
Daddy Roo (Captain Morgan)
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/sultry_jasmine_nights/Chickens/KWRoo.jpg[/IMG]

Grrr here is the daddy Captain Morgan (Hit the wrong link LOL)
{{gwi:467057}}

He's a beauty. What kind of chicken rescue is in Key West? I'm used to seeing all the chickens and cats running around the island but didn't realize that there was a rescue group.

I have a question about egg laying. Do your hens slow down in the winter? My neighbor's hens barely lay any eggs during the winter, even with the heat lamps going.

Captain Morgan is Beautiful!! I love the little chicklets..I would love to be able to raise them again!!! Congrats!!!

Kylie

It is the Key West Wildlife Center that has the rescued KW chickens. They really mostly recieve them from people who think they are pests for whatever reason and then they relocate them to individual rescue groups/farms farther inland. The kw chickens came from spain and Cuba and then KW for the last 175 yrs. They are really part of the culture there. Since there are so many people there now and the chickens have thrived without very many predators, now there is an overpopulation. Many people want to save this breed so thus the rescue groups.
Here is the link to the Key West Wildlife Center scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page.
If you gooogle key west chickens you can find alot more interesting information about them.
I know of a reputable source who will ship chicks, eggs, etc all over the US. She even drove 100 up to NC lol. You will get an authentic certificate signed by the mayor of keywest from her as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: KW wildlife center

Some breeds lay better throughout the winter than others. These guys did well with thier egg laying all winter. Some people do provide additional UV or florescent lighting with success.
Leghorns, golden comets (or any red type sexlinks), rhode island reds, barred rocks all do pretty good egglaying through the winter. There are others but those are the ones that I have had experience with.
My very best layers all winter were the Leghorn, golden comet, and my KW hens. It also helps to give them additional protein during the winter months.

Oh I loved this thread! What fun to have chickens, a gorgeous rooster, and what more fun to have "chicklets"! (LOL) I've thought many times I'd like to raise hens just to have wonderful fresh eggs. There's so much wildlife around here though I'm afraid I"d have a real battle against coyotes, foxes and raccoons. How does that work out for you?

Yes, it seems like everything loves to eat chicken lol. We have fox, owls, hawks, Bald Eagles, racoons, opossums,bobcat, occasional blk bear, snakes etc. Also, nieghbor's dogs can be possible predators. It is important to provide a secure coop and covered run. Locking them up for the night in the coop is probably one of the safest things to do. Chickens are practically blind at night and won't even try to escape then. I free range mine mostly when I am home to watch them otherwise they stay in the runs. I have only lost one hen to a predator and it was because she got out and was locked out for the night and we couldn't find her. The next day all I found was a trail of feathers in the woods. I think an owl got her. She was white and probably showed up good at night under the moonlight.