Silkies!

Need I say more? And my neighbor gave me two! Sooo cute. I mean, really. I am sorely tempted to buy a couple of chicken diapers, plunk them on the little sweeties and bring them in the house. But I have a feeling DH would be severely annoyed by such a move on my part, so they're staying in the coop, but man. Such cuddly little things!

I Should Just Call This...

...The chicken blog. Man. I am BORING.

Yes. Other events are transpiring in my life; it's just that, being a private person, there's only so much I am willing to blab about on the Interwebz. So, chickens it is.

Lookit my baby roo - all of 20 weeks old and such a pretty, laid-back boy! He only recently began crowing (seriously - maybe Sunday) and it's hilarious. Sort of a "whoooo who who who whoooooo" sound, all hoarse, like a teenage boy whose voice is changing.

He's a cross between Stonewall and...? I have Red Stars, Buff Orpingtons, Delawares, Black Australorps, Silver-Laced Wyandottes and Barred Rocks. Anyone want to venture a guess?

On a much sadder note, one of my Red Stars has been missing since Friday. I have no idea what took her (airborne raptor or ground-dwelling predator), but I miss her. I have been very vigilant - and very much a presence around the flock (much to Stonewall's annoyance) since then, but I can't babysit them all the time. They are now free-ranging part of the day and going into the run earlier; hopefully that will mitigate any further losses. :(

Here is Hazelnut, one of the other mixes from the April hatch. I had thought she was the result of a Stonewall X Barred Rock hen, but now I'm not so sure. She is barred, and Barred Plymouth Rock Roosters always pass along barring to offspring (dominant trait). However - the plot thickens: I'm not 100% sure Buddy is a Barred Rock Rooster. I was looking at him the other day and he looks a bit like a Cuckoo Marans to me. Would a Barred Rock hen pass along the barring trait to offspring? I dunno.

Color me confused, but this girl is stocky, round and wide for her age (20 weeks); she's every bit as big as the full-grown hens, and I like her, even if I really have no idea how she came to be (genetically speaking). Oh, and she's laying little brown pullet eggs.

Posers

The latest batch of baby chicks are now three weeks old and furiously feathering out; the one on the right bears a resemblance to a couple of the chicks born in April who are now closing in on 19 weeks old. It will be interesting to see if she will be jet black like the others (except for the Barred Rock mix, who is a nice big girl with an ambiguous barring pattern, and the young roo, who is resplendent in his emerging suit of blue-green iridescence with bronze hackle and saddle feathers). These babies are also growing up in the coop and doing very well. I think next year I may buy hatching eggs from people who raise the breeds I want and let a broody raise them. It makes life so much easier.

Update 9/18/2012: The yellow chick is now five weeks old - and is bigger than any five-week-old chick I have seen thus far. He or she (not sure at this point - but leaning toward this one being a roo) has feathered out quickly and has a very different feathering pattern than the other chick. I'm very interested to see how this one continues to develop.