Surprise winter chicks! 🤣🤪🥰

[MixedFlock23]

Well, my young serama sisters (just weeks after their first pullet eggs were laid!) decided to have some chicks without my permission when I got sick in December. Sneaky girls. When I got sick, I only checked chicken food & water once daily (mornings) instead of also counting all my chickens and collecting eggs daily (night)… well, several days later when I was feeling well enough to go out again at night, Teeny (the frizzled serama) was sitting on 9 serama eggs under the nest boxes (her & Tiny are my only seramas)! I candled the eggs that day (12/14/21) & 7 were growing. (Day 3 or 4 along is my guess by the veins.) I let her keep them & 5 chicks hatched 12/31/21. One embryo stopped growing around a week in incubation & the other chick died from a ruptured yolk sac near hatch. All 5 are frizzled. Two light, two black, one brown. Some have dark Silkie like skin, others have light skin. They live in the house right now since it’s so cold outside. They are serama/Silkie showgirl mixes. (Plus whatever other genetics gave my frizzled serama her curly feather mix & crest) I didn’t even know our 6 month old cockerel was courting the ladies yet! Whoops!

All five are crested like mom & frizzled (one is actually frazzle, I think, but I’m fairly sure it’s a male & will become a soup). I didn’t intend to let my chickens breed at all, & I know not to bred two frizzles for this reason.

They are just over a month old now. I’m fairly confident that Brownie is a female; I’m pretty sure both Rascal & Mirabel are males, based on their large red (walnut?) combs. Peaches has no comb to speak of yet (like Brownie), but also is the largest and stands tall, so that one confuses me. Raya is the only one with a straight comb like momma and I’m hoping Raya is a female despite the red at the comb base. Both her mom & aunt (Teeny & Tiny) had combs fairly identical to Raya’s at 3 weeks old. I thought they were both boys for weeks.

What genders do you think they are?
I think it may take a while to know for sure since they are part Silkie (which may keep us guessing for over six months)… but maybe it will not be long since they are part serama (which are often easy to tell by 3-4 weeks old).

First pic compares day old chicks to 4.5 week old chicks. Both momma pullets are pictured as well (Teeny & Tiny).

Second pic is just of them at 4.5 weeks.
Third pic compares 3 weeks old to 4.5 weeks old. Fourth pic is the parents. Remaining photos are the same chick pics as in the collages but it’s easier to see details with the larger images.

Thanks!

 

[MixedFlock23]

I’ll update here with additional photos as the weeks go on (as I have with my other threads); others who like to guess genders early may enjoy the progression.

Also, their weights at 4.5 weeks old are:
Peaches 130 grams
Rascal 111g
Mirabel 94g
Brownie 115g
Raya 121g
I’m guessing this doesn’t matter now, but may be interesting to look back on later.

 

[MixedFlock23]

And… I’m changing my vote on Raya. No more hoping it’s a girl pinking up early like momma.

This morning I checked wattles… looks like 3 boys & 2 girls @33 days old (5 weeks old on Friday).

 

[Painted Calls]

A bit too young to be certain, but I'm fairly positive that Rascal, Mirabel, and Raya are cockerels.

Post updated pics in 2 more weeks.

 

[MixedFlock23]

A bit too young to be certain, but I'm fairly positive that Rascal, Mirabel, and Raya are cockerels.

Post updated pics in 2 more weeks.

Thank you!
More posts to come… I will try to wait 2 weeks. I made it like 12 hours between update posts so far though.
If somebody crows before then (our Ayam Cemani crowed at 5 weeks!), well, then I’ve gotta share that.

 

[MixedFlock23]

Okay, I know it’s been less than a week… but I’m only here sharing a 39 second video link, so that doesnt really count as a photo update, right?
For the last 3 days, Mirabel, Rascal, & Raya have been spurring. (Right when they hit 5 weeks old.)

 

[Chickeria]

Okay, I know it’s been less than a week… but I’m only here sharing a 39 second video link, so that doesnt really count as a photo update, right?
For the last 3 days, Mirabel, Rascal, & Raya have been spurring. (Right when they hit 5 weeks old.)

They are cute

 

[MixedFlock23]

It’s been two weeks!! Chicks are 6 weeks 4 days old now. Updated photos time!!

Only the three suspected cockerels keep challenging each other (chest bumps, facing off, jumping into each other & over each other, etc.). No crowing yet. They are all red in the wattles & combs. The other two have absolutely no red or pink or blushing at all, & no growth in the wattle or comb areas at all on Brownie or Peaches.

I think it’s safe to say Raya, Rascal, & Mirabel are my cockerels. I’ll move them to a grow out bachelor pen (the 40 sq ft chicken tractor w/coop) in another week or so when the frazzle has more feathers & temps are warmer. I’ll then move Teeny & the suspected pullets Brownie & Peaches into the coop in their kennel at first, then integrate them into the main flock. They have already moved from the house to the insulated shed.

Feel free to vote on genders if you haven’t already. I also updated their weights. They all grew by at least another 65% of their 4.5 week old weight. The bigger boys grew an additional 75-86% in weight. The little lad Mirabel only grew 65% more than his four week old weight, and is still the teeniest chick in the bunch… but is still exactly 72% the weight of Peaches (who was the largest chick at hatch), as he was two weeks ago, so he’s not failing to thrive—just teeny! Both suspected pullets’ weights increased another 65% as well.
(The boys need new names too!
Rayo? Roscoe? Miraboy? )

 

[Chickeria]

I voted - but I'm still a bit unsure. I, too think that Peaches and Brownie are girls and that Rascal is a boy, but I'm still kind of unsure about Mirabel and Raya (but I voted male). I find it still difficult because they are mixes and can have features of different breeds. But probably you are right and they are boys
So interesting what a wide weight-span they do have! Mirabel seems to be in the range of mini-Seramas!
(...Why does Rascal need a new name - sorry I'm no native speaker - I always thought Rascal fits a boy ) Roscoe is cute
I would have suggested Ray, but then I realized that's already daddy's name
...so perhaps Raymond or Raymondo? And perhaps Abel for little Mirabel?

Your sweet little surprise babies

 

[MixedFlock23]

Rascal is a fine name for a boy. My childhood pet hamster was named Rascal. He was male. He lived to be four years old which is about double teddy bear hamster life expectancy, so it must be a good strong name too!

I like Abel for Mirabel! Great name!! Creative how you saw that in there. I think Mirabel is teeny due to the double frizzle genes. Our other frazzle Curly was about 2 pounds at 9 months old. Abel’s feathers still seem fragile to me like Curly’s were. Time will tell though!

Maybe Raya becomes Raymond too. (I really hope I’m wrong and Raya can be “her” name though! Both her mom & her aunt had red combs at three or four weeks old… but I don’t think their combs were as large.)

Rascal shall remain Rascal. (We started naming these chicks from animated movies except for Brownie & Rascal. Raya & the Last Dragon, Encanto (Mirabel), & Ice Age (Peaches). Prior chickens are/were Disney princesses and then color/pattern/breed names like Leggy the Leghorn, Splashy the Splash Maran, Whitey the white Silkie. We’ve also got Midnight, Twilight, & Starlight the black, partridge, and cream Silkies. We’ve named around 60 chicks since our first eggs hatched in 2016. (The only ones that didn’t get names were the Cornish rocks—they also didn’t get eaten but that is another story!) Chicken math is real! We started with one coop for 13… and have three coops & 27 birds now!