Friday, October 9, 2009

Time to leave the nest, no really!

Before:

Remember this picture?

After:

My only white chick turned out to be Rico. A bit bigger than mom at only four months.

Sorry the picture is not better but it was hard to get them to stop moving, plus it was raining out and they are in the barn. Rico is off one of the red-sex links (Marlene) and Chico.

I think this is Edna(or maybe Tina Turner), she is Gracie and Chico's daughter. Edna and her sister Tina love me, they come up to me all the time and pick at what ever I am holding, or my boots, or my coat or my buttons. They more closely look like Silkie hens than they do Cochin hens. An odd thing but a good thing about all four of Gracie's chicks off of Chico, is that they are all good at flying. Even though Chico being a Silkie can't fly and Gracie being a Cochin is not that great at flying, their four kids being hybrids have no problems going over four foot gates like nothing was even there. I think this gives them a better chance against something like a fox if it got into the barn, if something bad like that happened, my poor Gracie would be the first to get eaten.

In the next clip you will see Gracie with all her chicks. She still calls them to food sometimes but lately I notice she attacks the roosters to drive them off, especially Rico. You will see Rico Rooster, Silver (silver necked rooster), Fern (all black rooster), Edna Chicken and Tina Turner the little hens, good luck telling them apart. Here I am letting them run around the barn, (sigh, I miss the cows).

All the boys have started crowing now. Fern showed signs of being a rooster since he was about three weeks old and yet he is the bottom of the rooster pack, he only started crowing a few days ago. Rico started crowing first but now does not crow that much. Silver crows a lot during the day like his Daddy Chico.

In this clip, Fern shows off his new pipes, Tina Turner makes her guess spot at the end of the clip.



Sorry this last clip comes out so dark when I post it.

6 comments:

Amri Valencia said...

They're growing up to be very pretty! I wish I could meet them! Oh well.

Tracey said...

I love the names! They've got a fantastic place to live, shame about the cows though....XXX

bubble said...

can't believe how big they have got lol! I too love their names. Edna/tina turner looks just like sally, my silkie cross with something. they are lovely!

xoxox

Nancy K. said...

I LOVE Gracie!
Then again, I love cochins! ;-)

I had a silkie cross hen named Janis Joplin and have a silkie cross rooster named Bruce Springstein. Poor Madonna (the Silkie) was killed by an unknown predator, last winter. The only one of my flock to ever be taken and (of course) my favorite hen. At least at that time.

Now, I've gotten "into" cochins.

I found your blog through Chicken Boys and am adding you to my Blog roll to make it easier to follow you.

Nancy

John Going Gently said...

great pics steve

nobody-but-us-chickens said...

Amri: Thankyou but I think hands down you have some of the nicest hens I have ever seen. The 'kids' (as I call them) are all quite small actually except Rico, compared to my big girls that is.

Tracey: They have a lot of room to run around now that they are on the farm.

Amy: I was thinking my girls looked like one of your girls, except the girls are very small and will not get much bigger being bantam cross with bantam.

Nancy K: I really like cochins now as well. Gracie makes me smile as if wearing an old hooped dress with the big bum in back. She has a lot of trouble with her feet however and I wonder if that is the breed or the fact that she lived in a cage before I got her.

John: Thankyou for the comment. I'm also thinking about runner ducks and that is from seeing them on your blog.