Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Ahhh... the awkward adolescent phase

Well... we have hit the pitiful stage of growth. Feathers are sprouting everywhere!




Genetics are a funny thing. The white boys look identical until you look at the tiny combs growing in. One boy got a rosecomb from mom (the SLW) and one got a single comb from dad (the buff orp). Interesting, no?
The white boys are turning out to be quite pretty. The black smudges are fun.

Fingers crossed that the buff is a girl (even if she does look a little pitiful right now).
She has black laced neck feathers growing in.
Won't she be an interesting looking chicken when she grows up?
For scale, that's Vixen the mille fleur next to her. Vixen is impossibly tiny!

All four are ranging further and further from mama Fifi. They are now sleeping up next to the roost. It's still pretty cold, so they do still cuddle up with Fifi. It won't be long before they are to big for that! All four can fly really well and seem to like fluttering about. The big chickens have finally accepted the little upstarts and generally just ignore them (unless there are treats involved!). The cold doesn't seem to bother any of the chickens. The just fluff up and roost all crammed up next to each other. That's a good thing as the lows are in single digits this week!

5 comments:

Karen said...

Gotta love that fugly stage! My youngest babies are about 2 weeks old now and I turned them loose with the others. The 3-month old chicks started to harrass them and had to deal with the flying ninja broody mama - complete with sound effects - I laughed so hard! I have another broody sitting on 4 eggs now - never a dull moment!

City Girl said...

I know what you mean. Shorty the silkie has now gone broody. I've given her 7 eggs to see what she can do. I plan to order some BBS ameraucana eggs come spring and I want to see who will make the best mama.
The flying ninja thing is hysterical. Don't mess with mama!
:)

Dani said...

They're so funny looking at this stage!

City Girl said...

Bless their little hearts. They are pitiful looking for a while. I noticed tonight that their head and neck feathers are growing in (a good thing as it's in the single digits here!). All three of the big chicks have black speckled heads! It's too cute!

Dare said...

At least they don't get zits. There were times, when I was a teenager, that I would have been happy to sprout feathers!