Phill98 thank you for your interest. Yes those are one and the same birds. Only three chicks made it this season due to the cats but then I did not really encourage my broodies to sit. No the rooster does not have silkie feathers as far as I know. I do check the birds for problems but otherwise I am negligent of serious observations. I have thoughts of decreasing my flock instead of increase but I have become so used to them it has become hard. Several of them are quite old but still lay and that adds to the problem.
Did I tell you that my son's name is Philip ? How about a name for my rooster ?
Phill98 thank you for your interest. Yes those are one and the same birds. Only three chicks made it this season due to the cats but then I did not really encourage my broodies to sit. No the rooster does not have silkie feathers as far as I know. I do check the birds for problems but otherwise I am negligent of serious observations. I have thoughts of decreasing my flock instead of increase but I have become so used to them it has become hard. Several of them are quite old but still lay and that adds to the problem.
Did I tell you that my son's name is Philip ? How about a name for my rooster ?
Phill98 thank you for your interest. Yes those are one and the same birds. Only three chicks made it this season due to the cats but then I did not really encourage my broodies to sit. No the rooster does not have silkie feathers as far as I know. I do check the birds for problems but otherwise I am negligent of serious observations. I have thoughts of decreasing my flock instead of increase but I have become so used to them it has become hard. Several of them are quite old but still lay and that adds to the problem.
Did I tell you that my son's name is Philip ? How about a name for my rooster ?
If I remember right, you said that pullet was crowing. Is she still doing that?
I think that you are lucky that only three of them survived. If there were more, you would have to decrease even more. And the ones that survived are beautiful.
How big your flock is?
I'm a bit late for the rooster's name, but I like the one that was chosen.
I didn't know that. My name is Filip, it's pronounced just like Philip.
Oh and about old, but laying hens.. I really don't know what to say about it. I like to have them because they usually start laying later in spring after moult, when young ones tend to go broody, so egg production is always good.
Oh and grandma's four out of five pullets that hatched this year started laying. First eggs are in the home made noodles!
Amazingly I managed to get all of the incubator chicks weighed and photographed yesterday for their 8-week weigh-in, and got all of the photos cropped, so.....time to share! I'll start with the boys, as most of my chicks are boys.
This is Blaze. He's sweet, but small compared to most of the other boys, and his muff is bigger than what I'm going for, so he'll be a cull.
Next is Chance, who looks A LOT like his daddy but seems nicer. Still a larger muff than I'd like, but I'm keeping an eye on him for other reason.
And now Dutch, who was supposed to be Duchesse. LOVE the feathering, and now that his growth rate is suddenly kicking into high gear he's got my attention. He's also on the watch list.
And here's my massively dense Ozzy. He's now even surpassed in size and weight my biggest Fast Five hatch cockerel that's a week older. I don't like the comb flopping over, but his body is solid muscle. And luckily his personality is friendly, though not affectionate, with no signs of aggression towards me so far.
I already posted a photo of this guy, Pepper, in another post, but I'll put him here too. He weighs more than Ozzy, but his body is leaner. He's VERY friendly and would gladly accompany me anywhere if I allowed him to.
Ramses - beautiful, but again smaller and less "dense" than I would like.
Raymond - I really love his feathering right now, and he's developing the body shape and density I'm looking for, but now as quickly as Ozzy.
And finally, Taz, who was supposed to be Tess. He's probably the most nervous bird in the chick pen and shares the strongest personality traits with daddy, but he's also got the highest growth rate since hatch. I'm watching him, but not favoring him.
And I almost forgot...This is Lance, who was supposed to be Lacey. He's had a very sudden growth spurt that has me now appreciating more than just his feathering.
And now the girls....and one chick that keeps me guessing about gender. This grouping is much, much smaller.
Fezz - She's a bit nervous for my taste, but very alert and hardy with a good growth rate.
Princess - very sweet, okay growth rate, but she comes from one of my best green egg layers.
Weesie - *Sigh* Where do I begin with this one. Her name came from the cold she caught early on...or other respiratory illness...that appears to have stunted her growth. She doesn't show any additional signs of respiratory problems, and illness never spread through the flock, but she's so small! In fact, she's smaller than my Silkie/Bielefelder girls, weighing in at only 17.57 ounces at 8 weeks while the rest of her flock comes in around 26 ounces. Her growth rate has accelerate these past couple weeks, but everything about her is so tiny compared to the others...almost bantam-like. "Petite" doesn't begin to describe her. I'm debating whether to just cull her, or watch her development for the sake of learning.
And finally....This is Ruby...or Rudy. One day I think it's a female, and the next a male. Fast feathering and flightiness told me female, but then the comb and wattles became much larger and I though male. A weight of 27.55 ounces is much smaller than the boys, but larger than the girls. I guess Ruby will tell me by either crowing or laying an egg.
