We have had the chicks for a little over 4 weeks now which makes them all between 5-7 weeks old and quickly outgrowing the bathtub. Thankfully Mike spent the better part of the weekend working on the coop.
Before we made the plunge we did all of our research and read a great book so that we could make an informed decision about where to get our chicks and how to raise them. We decided for multiple reasons that a hatchery didn't feel right to us so we found the breeds we were looking for with small local farmers.
Because of our decision to not go with a hatchery, we knew that there was a chance we would end up with a rooster. It's been a lot of fun these past few weeks watching the birds get bigger and watching for those tell tale signs that one (or all!) of our girls is actually a boy. It's still too early to tell for sure but I am fairly certain that Blanche is in fact a rooster.
Notice how much bigger and red her comb is? I'm slightly devastated because while we are spending a lot of time trying to socialize the chicks and get them to like us, Blanche is one of the few who "likes" us at this point. Mike is optimistic and thinks her friendliness is a sure sign she's not a rooster. I heard a suspicious noice when we had them out back this weekend but Mike is still holding out hope (read: in denial).
We haven't decided for sure what we're going to do with her, err him, if my suspicion is right. We're actually able to have a rooster but we don't want to be the neighbor with the annoying rooster. Maybe we'll get lucky and have a mute rooster?
There's always hope! My first roo was very friendly, but the second was so mean. You can tell a lot from the feet I think. Thicker= :(
ReplyDeleteI checked the feet and the two Buff's seem to have similar size feet. I'm going to hold out a little hope until I hear the tell tale sign.
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