Cherwill, sorry to hear you haven't been feeling yourself.
Cute chicks Sharol but I've no clue about gender yet. I would guess that in another week or two the gender on the BR's will start to show via the feathering. The males will have wider white stripes while the females will have wider black stripes. I usually find they are really obvious when you actually see them, especially when you have more than one as you can make a comparison (unless they are all the same gender, of course).
Danz, I had a broody chick just like you describe. It was the little cockerel I hatched from your eggs when my hen went broody last December. Because it was so cold in his first few weeks of life, I had a hard time keeping water unfrozen in the little broody pen he and his mom were in, so four times a day I carried a chick waterer out from the house and he would get so excited to see me coming. After their time in the pen, when I started letting them out with the flock, he seemed to remember that and remained very friendly towards me. His mother parented him until he was about 12 weeks old but once she finally turned him loose, he attached himself to me instead and would follow me around everywhere I went. He was so friendly that even if I was carrying something in one hand, I could bend down and pick him up with the other and he seemed to really enjoy being picked up and carried around, chattering away to me the whole time. Eventually of course he grew too old and debonair to be picked up and carried around like a baby but he remains friendly to this day.
And, as of today, he is now my head BR rooster. I had kept one that I had hatched from my eggs that looked halfway promising as a chick, so I decided to let him grow out and see how well he turned out. I thought it would be good to have two roosters as a backup, and liked that the two of them were not siblings. Unfortunately, "my" rooster did not grow up to be a great example of the breed. His barring was spectacular, but he got his father's legs which were not straight - they were extremely knock-kneed. I would have put up with that but his body type also wasn't that good. I was sad to do it because he was always a very respectful rooster to me and good to the hens but - he didn't have the genetics I want to pass onto offspring. I've had 5 roosters - 2 BR's and 3 NH's - and for the first time ever, started seeing signs that the hens were being over-mated. As we go into molt and winter, I won't be doing any more hatching until spring, so I decided I really don't need to feed that number of roosters for the next few months, especially one who doesn't even have the genetics I am looking for. So, last night I grabbed him off the roost and have just put him into the crockpot a few minutes ago. That leaves LB (the BR rooster from you, so named because I always called him my "Little Buddy" and when he grew too big to be called "Little" any more, I shortened it to LB) as my only BR rooster so I sure hope nothing happens to him. I am really happy with how he has turned out. He is a little knock-kneed but not as severely as the other one, his body type is good and his comb is spectacular.
My next decision is to cull one of the 3 NH's. I don't mind having two so I have a back up but three is one more than I need. I thought it would be an easy decision. I have Paul, my head rooster, whom I got from Deerfield. He is a spectacular German NH. The other two are his sons, so are half German, half American NH and it is quite a different look. One of them was a great example of a NH from quite young, while his brother had a wee necklace (not desirable in a cockerel). However he lost the necklace as he matured and is now just as good an example of the breed as his brother. It sounds simple right? Keep Paul and one of his sons. The problem is, Paul has developed enormously swollen feet. I need to take pictures and post and see if anyone has any ideas what is causing it. I would love to find a cure and be able to keep him but if I can't, I half think I need to cull him because DH says he thinks it is now painful for him to walk. I don't want him suffering so I will cull if necessary but it will be one of the harder things I ever do. He was a mature rooster when Deerfield got him, and she had him a few months, and now I've had him about 18 months. I have no idea how old he is but he is probably the oldest bird in my flock and is spectacular.
I had an early start. The alarm went of at 3:30am for a meeting DH had to attend. We had coffee and then after he went to the meeting, I went back to sleep, but I'm still dragging and feeling the effects of the early morning. Later today I'll try to get pics of Paul's feet and see if anyone has any suggestions.
I had to clip my hens' wings today 
I was chasing them off my neighbors fence .. their dogs will kill my poor hens 
