Brian, good, hee, hee, so that little Banty dude has still got some spunk, good for him, yeah!!!! This one that is the Banty cross is certainly much larger than all the rest, and slightly more nosey, squaky and friendly. I was looking at them in great detail last night.
I will take up more close up pictures. Don't ask me why, but having this new stock within my chicken flock has absolutely enthralled me, it has intrigued me beyond what you could imagine, and....I can hardly wait until they grow up so I can take pictures of their growth progress. It is very, very cool, I am so hoping that there is a rooster in the crowd, of which I am sure there will be.
I have done some very interesting comparisons with the cocklings and henlings (hee, hee, what is a young female called anyways, is it a "poulet'?). I have noticed that about the age of just over a month, I will have to look at the pictures I took of the 34 that we just moved to the chickenyard, that the waddles and combs are very noticeable on the cocklings, even at this age. The pictures I took will tell the tale of the age, and I will retrieve them to show this, so I may modify this post later, or just go now and get the pictures from my desktop to here..... OK, got the pictures, these chicks were incubated and born on August 7 last, so they are almost 2 months old now. The picture was taken on September 18, so that would make them, let's see, August 7 to September 18 -- looking at calendar, OK, they were 6 weeks old. Very clearly by that age, the gender is easily seen, as you will see by the pictures. Look closely.....
My observation last night with the four little black chicks was that two of them had bare legs, they were slightly larger than the other two and two of the black chicks has some feathers on their legs, that was very interesting, I will get some pictures of that progress too.
The only breed of chickens that I have in my chickenyard are Antonio, the Rhode Island Red rooster (well, actually, he isn't here anymore, he left when the other ducks and chickens went for a trip last week), and the other rooster is Roquefort, whom is a Columbian Rock (I think, he looks just like the picture in the Rochester hatchery catalogue) and Creakity Creek, which is that rose comb Banty, of which specific breed, I have no clue. The hens are all daughters of these two roosters, that were bred with the Sex-sal-links that we originally purchased. Ooops, I told a whopper...we also had an Australorpe cross, (no longer here) and two white hens that lay brown eggs, no clue their breed. But definitely no Wyandotte genes here. So that is what the chicks that you see in the picture are. Interesting.
Next year I would love to get some Barred Rocks, I think they are lovely birds, and also some Silver Laced Wyandottes too. Pretty birds. I think that hatching eggs may become available around February, as the activity of the rooster gets stronger.
Yesterday, a fellow came to purchase some of my 4 month old layers, they have not began to lay yet, but will be of age soon. He bought all 10 that I had for $8.00 each. I mentioned to him that I had 20 more that were 2 months old, he told me when they came to 4 months of age, he would buy those too. That is good. I guess there is a market in my area for laying birds. I like that. It may generate enough money to pay for the food for all these critters that live with me, hee, hee. Beautiful, most wonderful day, love this groovin' life we all live, love and share. Cindi