Hatch-Along - Hatching GS Barred / Blue Plymouth Rock Prize Eggs from Easter Hatch-along Natural Egg Photo contest

[Brookhavens]

If the theory of a small, concise dot is true then you have a little pullet there. Does this last chick have a dark swash along the front of her legs?

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Well, today was most of the chickies 1 Week Birthday!!!!

To celebrate, their adopted mother Li'l Girl took them on their first real outing in the BIG WORLD. She would have done it sooner, but the timing and the weather just hadn't been right until now.

Mama Li'l Girl showing the chicks the joys of dustbathing...



"Der's somefing on your beak, Mama..."



A line of li'l fluffy butts...

More li'l fluffies..



Later when scratching around, two brave chicks discovered a tasty treat! (please excuse the blurry pictures- they were moving fast!)

"Look! A Worm!!!"



"My Worm!!!"



"Come back here with my worm!!!"



These two little rascals proceeded to chase each other through the fence into the Big Chicken Run, scaring the watching person, where they fought over the worm, tore it in two pieces, ate it, and came back outside the fence to wipe their beaks in the grass and congratulate themselves.

All in all the chicks seemed to have a wonderful time on their first big outing and returned to their pen in the coop ready for a nice long nap under Momma.

 

[chickenpooplady]

So cute! Great pictures!

 

[Brookhavens]

Just love seeing pics of my fluffy, grandchicks!!!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Ok Brookhavens, so I am a little worried here.

I know the feather sexing does NOT work for all breeds, right? But we had been noticing with our Buff Orpingtons that we got from McMurray that the pullets wings grew MUCH faster than the cockerels, (we had ordered some of each and we knew which ones they were). Then, with this recent incubator hatch, some of the EE chicks grew wings very fast, but a few of them were MUCH slower, like the buff cockerels. I am talking a pronounced difference - where the girls have wings reaching to their bottom, and little tails sprouting, and the boys wings are barely 1/2 an inch long and NO tail whatsoever! I remembered that the EE pullets that we had ordered last year grew wings VERY fast, even faster than the Buffs, so I assumed that the slow featherers were boys. It was most obvious on the two "Mousie" twins - the cream colored EE chicks from the same EE hen and cockerel. One of them is feathering out fast, and the other is feathering slowly, and he has different colored wings too!

SO - all that to say, I REEEALLY hope the quick-feathering-girl thing does NOT hold true for the Blue Barred Rocks!!! Because out of the 8 chicks we hatched, ONE of them (looks like a Blue Barred) has nice little wings reaching to its rear end, and a tiny tail sprouting, and ALL SEVEN of the others have... NOTHING! Ok, teeny little wing feathers sprouting, but nothing compared to the other chick!!! PLEASE PLEASE tell me that you have noticed slow feathering chicks become pullets!!!

And if the rate of feathering out does not matter at all for this breed, then why such a pronounced difference in this one chick? Even that tiny chick with the spot on "her" head, that you thought was a pullet, has practically no wings at all yet!

Hoping there is some explanation!

 

[Brookhavens]

Heritage breeds mature very slowly. Some of yours are 1/2 heritage and others 3/4. So yes they will feather slower. I have 2 GSBR boys who are almost 2 months old and they still have chick down across their backs and all over the head. The 2 chicks my Momma hen hatched out are 6 weeks old and they just started feathering out about 2 weeks ago. Not all breeds feather fast either. It has to be in their genetic make up. I hatched out 1 buff orpington chick from a breeder and felt bad for it being a loner and ended up buying a buff chick from our feed store the same age. The feed store chick developed feathers a week before my chick even started showing signs of feathering. I think hatchery birds have been in bred so much that different qualities have been bred out of them.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

So you don't think the rate of feathering has anything to do with what sex they are? At least in this breed?

 

[Brookhavens]

So you don't think the rate of feathering has anything to do with what sex they are? At least in this breed?

Not on these guys.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Phew! That is a huge relief!

Ok, I will be patient and wait for other sexing traits to appear - larger combs, attitude, feathering patterns, crowing... hopefully I won't have to wait until one of them lays an egg!

 

[Brookhavens]

One of the chicks my Momma hen hatched started showing redness in the comb at about 3-4 weeks. Once the feathering does start the barred males have more white stripes than the females.