Here is what has been going on. Phoenix is a sweet little guy! He's getting so big. His feathers are coming in on his wings and his little tail stubs are growing fast. He has lots of barring coming out. What a sweatheart! We kept trying to mingle him with Grun, but she seemed less and less interested in him. Last evening, while out in the garden, he spent the evening hanging out with his people. He enjoyed afew worms we offered him and trying to steal our seeds as we were planting them. It's obvious he has bonded with his humans and I hope we can still get him back in the chick fold in the near future. Also hoping this will guarantee and wonderfully sweet rooster! His father left me with a bunch of scabs last night and honestly, thinking of him making the best batch of Wedding Soup ever has me ready for his demise....
Speaking of the chick fold....today was 21 days since we gave Grun the 4 eggs we bought. One got crushed about half way through developing, but the other 3 not only made it to the end...we got to hear all 3 cheeping as the chicks were getting ready to pip! How exciting! We had 2 eggs pipped last evening and by this morning, all 3 chicks were hatched! I got a quick glimpse before work, but one was still wet so we tried not to disturb them too much. I doubt we will know the sexes for quite afew weeks at this point. Makes it hard to come up with names, but also, really hoping we don't get any more roosters! I'm thinking Sid Vicious if our Frizzle gets Frizzled! (only 3 out of 4 with the gene will actually get frizzled feathers, statistically speaking) We will know as soon as some feathers start coming in!
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| Early morning just hatched! |
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| We have a black chick and a gray chick... |
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| Big Brother Phoenix @15 days old. You can really see how his comb is enlarging! BOY! OH BOY!!! Still hoping that the 3 new chicks end up hens or we are in T R O U B L E!!! The third chick here is black with a chestnut brown head! |
Here's a first look at Mama and babies! Took this video on their first afternoon. I came home from work and found 2 of the peepers hanging out. The third is tucked way under Grun. GRUN AND BABIES
Grun seems to be handling motherhood great so far! These little chicks are super active. When I got home and found the 2 chicks out in front of Grun, they took one look at me and ran for cover....under Grun! It was super cute. Definitely will want to handle them as much as possible so they don't fear us! As I sit and look at this picture of Phoenix....it's very obvious to me that he is a rooster. I will definitely refer to this picture as time goes on and we try to sex the 3 new chicks! I did contact the breeder to let her know our chicks hatched and sent her pics of each. She said she has mostly hatched the brown headed kind and is about 50/50 for males vs females. Then she referred to incubation temperature having something to do with male vs female. I will have to research that one. I thought sex would be determined at fertilization like it is with other animals and would not be dependent on other factors such as incubation heat. Definitely something to look into!
Coming soon....the demise of Lila. Now that we now we have one male, and has bonded with us, we are ready to say goodbye! Yes, Phoenix loves his humans! He follows us outside and does not bother with any of the chickens. We walked away from him in the garden and he ran peeping his distress call all the way down the yard to us. :) Hopefully he will stay so nice. Lila's replacement is in the house. We will be seriously considering the transition from pet to stock pot. He's so mean to me, that even the kids are now saying Lila will make a good pot of soup. Glad they get this. Yes we love them and they are like pets, but at some point, they will become supper if they are mean or old. We may let afew live to retirement age, but if we always make room for new chicks, there will be a never ending supply of eggs and meat!
Happy birthday cluckers! Now we need some names!!!!!
Malissa
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