The littles are entering their “awkward teen years” stage where their down is almost gone and their feathers are starting to come in…patchy and rough-looking.
The Dominiques are still the biggest of the three breeds, and the feistiest…a couple of them actually approach my hand and try to peck me when I’m giving them fresh water, or hold a camera too close. They are also the only ones I’ve witnessed getting up on the roosting bars, the one (above) being quite high in the coop (as evidenced by the equal height of the heat lamp on the left). I think the others are capable but I just haven’t been lucky enough to see them roosting yet.
Here are a few more shots primarily focused on the Dominiques:
You can see the Salmon Faverolles in previous two photos, and a bit more here:
The Faverolles seem the most timid and are usually crowding behind the rest of the flock trying to hide in the very back corner of the coop.
The Wyandots are hard to get good pics of as they wrestle with the Faverolles for that back corner. They don’t seem to have changed much, yet, in terms of coloring from what their down looked like, though they are losing their down as well:
This last photo, especially, makes this one look almost like a Dominique, but she still has more down than the rest. In the close-up of the faces, you can see where the colors are changing more in those two Wyandots already.
Considering the attitude of the one or two Dominiques that come forward wanting to peck at me, I’m wondering if we might have one or two boys in the mix. In a couple of the photos, I think I see a larger comb forming on one or two of them, which may be another sign. My first flock of Araucanas/Easter Eggers were supposed to be all pullets (girls), but two of the six ended up being roos. In my second flock of ten pullets (six Buff Orpingtons and four Plymouth Barred Rocks), they were all girls. Out of the one remaining Amber Link pullet from the third flock, she’s definitely female. I figure I’m due for a mis-sexing and likely to see a roo or two now…which will be okay if the rest of the older gals accept them when the flocks are combined later on. We’ll see. It would be nice to let my broody Buff do some actual work instead of sitting on absolutely nothing for weeks on end!
Come back next week to see more progress on this flock’s growth.
PreppinWolf 