9 week 4 day Chick Update

The remaining chicks that were given to me by my coworker are starting to integrate a little - with supervision - with my almost 9 month old Buff Orpingtons. Today I thought it would be interesting to weigh them and do a little comparing, considering I have different breeds and genders, and here's what I came up with.

Amelia is a pullet, one I am very concerned about. She is the white Cornish Cross that I have decided to keep as a layer, which can be a challenge health-wise. On the 14th of January she weighed 6 lbs and today she weighed in at 7.5 lbs. Not great, as she's gained Turtle's entire weight in the last two weeks, but I am making sure she's getting as much exercise as I can in this weather as well as limiting her feed. Instead of providing a feeder for her area, I'm throwing the feed on the ground so she has to look for it a little and walk around. I weighed one of my Orpingtons to compare and the largest one I have weighs 5.5 lbs. So she is 2 lbs more than my full grown chicken. It's not looking good, but I plan to give her as good a life as possible.

Amelia with the other ladies that hatched the same day she did.

Amelia keeping Mike out of the little coop.

Then to the smallest of the chicks, Turtle. Despite a rough start, she's going strong and starting to get some of the beautiful color Rhode Island Red's are known for. She's still high strung and kind of hilarious, but eating well and growing. She weighed in this morning at 1.4 lbs. My Doberman, Elly, has decided that she likes Turtle and this scares Turtle to death.It's hilarious, but we have to make sure no one (Turtle) has a heart attack. If I had a creature 70 times my size trying to play with me, I might be concerned for my safety as well.

Here is a blurry picture of the little monster, as getting her to sit still is pretty much impossible.

Managed to get a non-blurry picture of Turtle. She was not happy about it.

My roo, Rufus (previously Rubeus, but it turns out that saying that is more difficult than I would have thought) is a gorgeous boy. I'm very much looking forward to him being grown. The teal color on his feathers is already stunning. He's just now getting to the point where he is bigger than our Australorp hen of the same age.He weighed in this morning at 2.3 lbs.

Rufus standing tall and looking beautiful.

His feather color is starting to come in. Just gorgeous.

Pearl is my beautiful Australorp hen. She weighs 1.9 lbs, just slightly less than Rufus and is looking more hen-like next to him now. Her feet are a light pink/cream color, so it's clear she is an Australorp and not a Jersey Giant. That's a little bit of a bummer, but she's beautiful and I'll one day get a JG hen and they'll be fast friends. :-)

Rufus on the left and Pearl on the right. She's just slightly shorter and less poofy than he is.

Pearl's feet. She definitely does not have that Jersey Giant orange.

Here is Bonnie, my Barred Plymouth Rock. Poor thing doesn't get as much attention as the others. She's well-behaved, nothing quirky about her, has grown well and is healthy. She's so beautiful. My husband particularly liked the barred color when we were deciding which of the chicks to keep.She weighs in at 2 lbs. She's doing well and will be a good layer, I know it!

Bonnie spends a lot of time hanging out with Amelia.

It is fascinating the role that breed plays in a chicks growth and health. I'm enjoying learning more about it and am making the venture into hatching my first set of eggs soon! I can't wait!