Thanks, everyone. For now, we have the two definite-cockerels in our baby coop (they'll eventually go to freezer camp) and the maybe-pullet (we've named it He-she) in with our pullets.
Here are a few more of the him/her:
I forgot to add that s/he's already bigger than my other chicks, too, which are probably at least two weeks older than her.
My neighbor's friend took in some chicks that had been hatched and raised by her daughter's class. After a few days, she discovered that a townhouse isn't exactly conducive to that idea, so I agreed to take them (with the warning that I wouldn't keep any roosters - we only live on 5 acres and I...
They definitely can, as we learned last night.
Our egg doors had them, and we thought that they'd be OK since they're on a flat overhang 3-4 feet off the ground.
Nope.
The raccoons somehow hung from the chicken wire below, held on to the overhang (probably with the shingles) and jimmied one...
My girls have been gorging on Cicadas lately.
It's so funny - I let them out and they *book it* over to a tree that they know will have a bunch.
Their eggs have been super colorful and flavorful.
Mmmm - cicada eggs! :D
Our 9-week-old Barred Rock tried his first 5:30am crow this morning.
Oh, my.
It sounded like three chickens dying.
Here's hoping he works on it quick like.
I observed something similar when my girls first encountered a wolf spider.
They were still very young - 2 months or so - and I'd put them out in the mobile run we'd constructed for them.
Then a wolf spider as big as my hand started to scurry through, and they morphed from feathery little...
Did you check their combs?
We have two Welsummer hens on different ends of the pecking order, and our top hen used to mercilessly harass the omega.
She'd even jump and attack as if she had spurs whenever I put everyone out in the big mobile run.
Jerk biddie.
Anyway, one day th clipped omega's...
I just saw this and ordered two:
http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Feed-and-Water-Supplies/Brooder-Bottle-Cap--p1298.aspx
Between only having 4 chicks and being too lazy to set ups a full-on nipple watering system for only a few weeks, this seemed like an ideal solution.
I recently moved on...
Google different crosses - some of them can look really neat!
There are some examples of Barred Rock x Speckled Sussex that kind of look like leopards :D
Here's a cool girl...
I'm fairly certain this is our little roo:
He keeps sitting on top of their waterer and watching over everything.
Have you ever had a chick express roo-like behaviors at 3-4 weeks?
Also, do you think we should name him Sir Reginald Cluckington or John Snow (because he looks like a crow)?
Our first from our EEs:
Our first from our Welsummers:
And here they are in our shipping crate-turned mobile run before we put a finer mesh wire along the bottom.
The Welsie with the messed up feathers survived a raccoon attack and heavy feather loss.