Chick Growth Record - Golden Buff & Barred Rock

[BgNH]

When I raised our first backyard flock I searched the internet for a pictorial history of chick growth. I recall that I was able to find only one and the pictures were of poor quality. We are starting our replacement flock this year and now I can't find any.

So, I decided to record week-by-week growth of this flock of Golden Buff and Barred Rock chicks, at least through the time where they are ready to join or replace the main flock. In my experience with introducing new birds to an existing flock, the size of the new birds is very important and so if we decide to keep the birds from the original flock the new birds will be of the same size as the adults.

The pictures and any related information will be posted and shared here.

 

[Cargo]

Great Idea.

 

[tweetysvoice]

I am keeping daily pictures (missed only two days) of my four to watch the growth. You can see it at http://jewelchicks.blogspot.com/ I thought it would be neat to see how much the wing feathers grew in just a day. the progress is amazing!
I have a Buff Orp, Barred Rock and 2 Delaware that I'm tracking.

 

[felidaet]

I was thinking about taking photos more often this year too. It will be too big of a project to do with 20 chicks but maybe I will just pick out 3 or 4 to take daily pictures and then take weekly pictures of everyone. Maybe I need to get some numbered chick leg bands so that I can keep track of them better.

 

[Dutch552]

This will be an awesome resource!

 

[BgNH]

Thanks all for the kind comments. I found another site providing chick growth history. This one is setup as a blog, with a day-by-day progression photographed in a much more artistic manner, including the use of a tiny studio.

Week six of my record goes up tomorrow.

 

[BgNH]

Quick update...

The now pullets are now at 17 weeks of age, and have been moved in with the prior flock of 4 hens. I will put together a last set of pictures at this age and post that, possibly along with a group shot.

Of the initial 16 chicks I have 11 pullets to add to my flock. With the coup extension that I did this year I can easily house ~20 chickens to I will be looking locally for a few more birds.

All are doing great. Since I "own" and maintain the domain where the web site is hosted and where these pictures are displayed, I will be leaving the record of their growth up on the web site indefinitely.

I hope this helps others out, especially those who are raising chicks for the first time. You can see in these pictures that there is a stage where the downy feathers are falling off and new feathers are coming in. It can be disconcerting for a first-timer to see the chicks in this interim condition, but its perfectly normal.

Cheers!

 

[jeness]

This will be my first time and this is EXACTLY what I was looking for...thank you!

 

[tweetr1979]

Just stumbled on this today - SOOOOO thankful for all your work getting the pictures. I am new to owning chickens and finally got my BR chicks yesterday. Was nice to have some insight as to when they get their feathers, how they look as they grow, etc.

Thank you