Saturday, July 25, 2009

I'm so blue...

The BBS babies are growing like weeds! They are really starting to fill out and show their true colors.
This little one is suspiciously roo-ish looking. He/she is a dark blue and is quite lovely. I would love to have a blue roo, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Blue chickens have "lacing" on the edge of each feather. You can really see that from the back.
The fun of blue coloring is the wide variety of blue tinting. Both of these chickens are blue.
To make life more fun, you also get what's called "splash" coloring when mixing blue and black genes. It is called splash because there are these random splashes of color throughout. This baby is even lovelier in person. This is the chicken I accidentally smushed in the coop door. She is doing much, much better and is finally walking without a limp. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the name "Alas poor Yorrick" is likely to stick. My sister has been calling her "Tiny Tim". Oh well... God bless us everyone.
This is the second splash baby. She is as yet unnamed (since she may be a he). This one has smaller splash markings.
For comparison, a blue and a splash next to each other.
This grumpy face is a black chicken. Black, blue and splash can all interbreed and you still get "pure" colors. Chicken color genetics are weird.
As the black chickens get bigger they start showing a green sheen to their feathers. It doesn't show up great in photos. In reality is is absolutely stunning. They look like a stained glass window with green and blue and lavender peeking through.

They are very curious birds!

1 comment:

Nancy M. said...

Gorgeous chickens! I finally got me some blue and splash and I love them! So pretty!