Chick's Day Out

Finnie

Crowing
Premium Feather Member
9 Years
Oct 27, 2014
3,254
4,520
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Just north of Indianapolis
Today seemed like a good day to introduce my (nearly) 8 week old Lavender Ameraucana chicks to the outdoors. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, but they are predicting a ton of rain and I didn't want them to get too damp. This is their first time outside. I've been acclimating them to outdoor temperatures lately by leaving the garage door open during the day and closing it at night. They haven't had their brooder lamp turned on for over a week now, except for one night that it went down into the teens.

I plan to bring them in this evening, and then wait for another dry day in the 30s for them to play outside in their "playpen" again. I thought they would be freaked out in the strange environment, but they seem to have taken to it just fine. They drew the attention of the big hens at first, and then they were ignored for the most part.

Here are some pics:










Does anybody know at what age this breed starts to look like a male or a female? Any differences I am seeing so far are very subtle, and I think just have to do with age. Like some of them started getting a longer tail before the others, but now they all seem to be catching up to each other. One of them has started to grow muffs on its cheeks.

There is one that I am convinced is a rooster because he is always the one perching on top of things, or coming forward to look at me whenever I am near the brooder. It's like he's the ring leader, and decided to put himself in charge from the very beginning. (They were two weeks old when I got them.)

He's wearing the green leg band, so I have named him "Mr. Green Jeans". If he is a rooster, I hope he's the best one, because I will have to sell off any extra roosters, and I'm hoping I can keep this one.
 

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