Chick Progress

This is a picture-heavy post, but just for interest's sake, I've matched up the pictures of the chicks today with their day 1 pictures.  Some of them are quite firmly in the awkward adolescent stage at which they have lost their fluffy cuteness and have progressed into semi-feathered semi-cuteness, with a touch of teenage angst.  There are some major size differences (which is expected based on the egg sizes they hatched from) and some clear roosters showing up.  I'll give my best guesses here.  I put a mini hand sanitizer bottle in the pictures today for scale.  It's the little travel size.  I realized, looking at the pictures, that I've had it for more than 8 years now, since it's from Walgreens (we don't have Walgreens in Canada) and has no French on the label.  Thus, I must have brought it with me from Iowa!  Amazing how these things are found in the back of the drawer as needed!

Three of the current brood were hatched later than the rest and are still quite small.  They are easy to identify.  It is a bit early to guess on gender but these 3 might be hens if I'm lucky.

Cinnamon Chipmunk, Day 1 (far left)

Day 14, Best Guess: hen

Chocolate Chipmunk, far right, Day 1:

Day 14, best guess: hen

Solid black with white chin, middle, Day 1:

Day 14, best guess: hen

There is a wee bit of brown speckling on some feathers.

Chocolate Chick, Day 1:

Day 25, best guess: hen 

She's a little darker than I expected but has a lovely ring of golden neck feathers.  Her feet and legs darkened a lot.

Day 1: Black with a white eye marking

Day 25: Best guess: hen
She has some white wing feathers and more speckling than I would have expected on her underside.

I think she might have cheek muff feathers, which means she has a bit of Ameraucana in her. I think her mom is one of my Ameraucana bantams.

Day 1, yellow and greyish chick with light beak, back striping:

Day 25:  Biggest bird, very mixed feathers and patterns.  Quite interesting.  Best guess: roo
Definitely at an awkward stage!

Day 1: Pale coloured chick, light beak

Day 25:  Seriously?!  Best guess: Roo
This bird really surprised me with the extent of dark colour in the feathers, including on the head.  I thought it was going to be nearly solid white at hatch time.  It's also very large now.  The slight pink tone to the comb area makes me think it's a rooster.  Darn it!  A pretty bird.

Day 1: Chipmunk with gold tones


Day 25, best guess: roo
This is a really beautifully feathered bird with great colour, but the comb screams roo.  Possible head crest feathers too.  Grumble...

Day 1: Chipmunk chick

Day 25: Interesting!  Best guess: hmmm..... 

Honestly, I'm not sure.  There's a bit of comb swelling, but no pinkish tone yet.  Might be a hen.  Really neat feather patterns and interesting colours.  Quite a stocky bird. 

Day 25:  Sorry, this bird missed its chick pic!  I'm sure it's a rooster though.

Day 1:  Tiny black chick with feathered legs
This one was the smallest of the batch.

Day 25:  Head crest!  Best guess: roo
This one has some grey tones in the feathering and quite a head crest forming.  It has silkie toes, which explains the head crest.

 I'm not sure if it's a roo, but I suspect...

Day 1:  Solid black, including beak

Day 25:  Smallest one (of the initial batch), best guess: hen
I'm not entirely sure, but she acts like a hen and has no comb swelling.  Silkie toes.

Day 1:  Last one!  Black with white shading, dark beak mark

Day 25, best guess: roo
Interesting head feathering.  Again, it has the look of the lacing on my Ameraucana bantam, so I think that's the mom.  No silkie toes.

I just love barnyard mix birds.  They're fun to hatch because you really have no idea what you're going to get.  The feathering is always a bit of a surprise.  I am happy with this set of hatchlings and hope to have some lovely hens.  The extra roosters will unfortunately be for soup stock, but they'll live their first year happily digging in the dirt. So far it looks like 5 roosters for sure, which if that number holds, 8 hens would be quite lucky out of 13 birds.  I'm sure others will declare themselves though!