The Nuggets are Growing Up!

The six little chicks that hatched a few weeks ago in the incubator have been growing well under "Mother Whisp" and her care.  The eggs were a mix of eggs from our grey and black silkie hens, Dazzle and Licorice, potentially fertilized by one of our three roosters (cream legbar, cream legbar-production red mix, or Icelandic-Isbar mix).  Six hatched on June 6 and 7th, and all have done well.

They spent their couple of weeks indoors with their adoptive "mom" because it was still pretty cold out and we were having frosts, and they needed to keep warm.

Eventually they went out to the coop with the "big birds" and they stayed in their own separated section in the coop for a while.  Here they were on June 18 shortly after being moved.

Now they're integrated into the whole flock but they are in the "awkward adolescent" phase where they just look a bit gawky and scraggly.  I am pretty sure that at least 1 is a rooster, but the other 5 remain suspiciously limited in the comb department, suggesting 5 hens, which would be a real stroke of luck.  We'll see.  Here they are a few days ago.  One of the darker ones is hiding behind Whisp on the right side, just behind her tail.

This little white one has an interesting patch of black feathers on her lower back.

You can see it in this picture as well.

None of them are Whisp's babies (she was already sitting on fake eggs when I started collecting, which means she wasn't laying because she was already broody).  Still, there's a solid white one.

One is almost completely black - probably Licorice's chick.  Licorice is a solid black silkie. The other dark ones are all mottled.

This one has a little bit of attitude!

Soon, they'll be on their way to laying eggs, if they're hens! They haven't got names yet - they seem to need to grow into those.  This one doesn't have much leg feathering, but the rest all do, and one has silkie toes as well.  It will be interesting to see how much silkie character they retain.  One thing I notice is that all of them seem to have a slight head crest of feathers, which must be a result of the silkie genetics.