The thing that is hard to describe is how they vary and how they don't. You know how dalmation spots can vary but they never really look the same as the spots on most other kinds of dogs? It's a bit like that, if you look at enough chicks you eventually get a sense of what kinds of variation do happen and what kinds actually predict a different adult color.
For almost every breed of chicken,* the adult color is considered to be the one that matters, not the chick color, so there are some breeds that have widely variable chick colors. In the case of black chicks, they pretty reliably have black on their backs, and it is very common for them to have yellow or white on the belly and some other areas (a bit like a penguin), but there can be a lot of variation in how much is black and how much is lighter, even within the same breed.
*Of course the exception is for chickens that are supposed to be color-sexable at hatch. For them, the chick color is important.
I'm glad they are all doing so well! Hopefully that one Polish will settle down soonSame. So same. I want them to grow up faster for cuddles, too. The little Splash Polish (SO excited the two are Splash) that was being picked on by the gold laced accepted some more antibiotic ointment so I could go to bed resting easy. NONE of the other chicks are picking on it and the gold laced has been put in a little timeout with the toppie until we can supervise in the morning to see if the behavior improves. Fingers crossed. All of the other chicks are so very content. Soft peeping on occasion, wandering the brooder, pecking at the little sparkly stickers I put in there to try to distract any pecking behaviors (it was just the one Polish. Argh!), enjoying their little perch toys already, etc.
I'll be really excited to see how the varieties differ when we get our second order at the very end of June. I'm half tempted to add in a couple blue eggers though, as I know we got a few olive eggers from our first batch.
All in all, even in spite of the one chick having an attitude problem, I'm just overjoyed they all arrived happy and healthy. The variety still shocks me. I'm over the moon with them! Not a single one was lethargic more than a few minutes and perked up so fast with some food and electrolyte water. More than we could ask for! I'll be updating my flock page with these babies and probably poke back here in June to post what variety I get then as well. We're doing the 10 rare special and 10 top hat special to hatch June 25th. Gotta have more Polish, and hopefully some Spitzhauben too.
) to go with my silkies. Had to make sure the box was plenty warm in May… yepp. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
As we're keeping them to live long spoiled lives here, we were hoping for the variety to help us tell them apart a little better and to just have a nice little rainbow of chickens.
)
