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I'm not sure. I am knew to them, but they sure are characters. Too cute. I have heard that they are about the size of a robin? Someone here will know..quailady, Shelley, some of the ones that have been here to help for quite a while. But they are fun! My guess, as fast as they are growing, they will about double the size now? Plus, I've heard that they may start laying around the age of 6 weeks. Not 6 months, but weeks!
At 3 weeks they are about 3/4 of full size, they don't get much bigger. They are about the size of a sparrow at full grown. The sparrows flying around outside (stealing feed from my pigeons' pen
) have no trouble flying through 1" chicken wire and neither do the buttons. I've not seen a robin that was able to do that.
Personally, I've never had one start laying at 6 weeks, it's always been at least 8 weeks but usually 10-12 weeks.
If you are wondering on colors, #1 in your hand is a tuxedo silver (if you ever need to rehome you'd better contact me first!); #2 is a blueface (looks to be male if that's his booty pic); #3 is probably splash; #4 is a golden pearl hen; and #5 looks like a wild hen.
For your last question I will give you an example. Say you have a pair of cinnamon bluefaces. If they are pure CB, you could hatch CB, Cinnamon, or Blueface. Most likely, though, they would have hidden colors in their gene pool. Case in point: My first buttons came from a breeder in AK. I had a silver hen (bibbed), a silver pearl hen, 2 silver redbreasted males, 1 silver male, some cinnamon bluefaces, golden pearls, wilds, and redbreasteds. From these birds I hatched several whites, at least 2 in every hatch. Not one white bird in my flock, but the breeder my birds came from had a white male in one of her (colony) pens. So even though none of mine were white, they had white hidden and passed it on. Just think of Buttons like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get!
Thank you Shelley and ugo...
I would really like to keep the silver and the blue face, but, if they are the same sex, can't do it. So, that means the silver better be a little girl. Guess I have to wait the 5 weeks for that color to sex. If not a hen, I think I like the golden pearl. Will post pictures again next weekend..they change so much. They should be real close to their final size by then. I knew they were small, but didn't know that small. And that's ok, they will be indoors. I thought my canary was messy. Someone warned me about that.
And, really? A sparrow? Will have to let hubby know that we may be adding more wire around the cage. I'm thinking some small galvanized wire. So far keeping their wings clipped has helped.
I like that>> buttons being like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get. May try hatching some eggs in the future. Have to hope they get along. I know the female needs a few good hiding places. And now, won't expect them to lay for a while. That is still pretty quick, 10 or 12 weeks.
Thanks for being patient with a newbie. They are cute, even my hubby likes them, and my kids and grand kids get a kick out of them. They know they aren't to hold, like my canary. Just fun to watch, and listen to. I love the sounds they make now...I can actually hear them better. Their voices are so small.
