We've had our chicks for close to 2 weeks now, and we've gotten to know them a lot better. Each one has her own personality and individual markings that help us tell them apart. We thought we would instill some Southern charm on our chicks, so we've named them Bernice, Viola, Oneita, Grace, Helen, and Mary Lou. Allow me to introduce you to...
Grace (front) and Oneita (back):
These are our two Silver-Laced Wyandottes. Grace is very shy and is still warming up to us. She will eat out of your hand, but she's very nervous when you try to pick her up. Oneita is quite the opposite, though. She runs straight to your hand instead of away from it and she loves being picked up and held. She loves to lay down in my hand and I bet she could stay there all day if I would let her. When I try to set her back down, she backs up onto my arm and lays down again. (She's my favorite so far, but don't tell the other girls!)
Viola (top left) & Bernice (top right):
These little yellow Amber Links look sweet, but they are really feisty and have big personalities! Viola has a dark spot on the top of her head, which you can see in this picture because she's leaning down on the left. This picture is also very representative of their personalities because Viola and Bernice both think they're top bird! As soon as you take the screen off the top of the brooder, they hop up to the side and perch. They have the biggest wings and the most gusto, so they are the best jumpers and balancers so far.
Mary Lou:
Mary Lou is our only Dark Brahma and I like to call her Fuzzy Foot. Her wispy fuzz will turn into fabulous feather boots when she's full grown. Mary Lou, like Grace, is quite shy. She will eat out of your hand occasionally, but usually when I stick my hand down into the brooder, the other chicks come running and she just tries to hide behind the waterer. I've almost given up on trying to pick her up because she turns into a nervous wreck. What a chicken! Apparently this type of chicken is known to have a less sociable personality, so I expect her to be a quiet beauty rather than a bossy, in-your-face gal like Viola and Bernice.
Helen (back):
Helen would not cooperate when I was trying to get pictures, so this is the best one I have of her so far, but it gives a great view of the comb forming on the top of her beak. Helen is our only Partridge Rock and she has more red in her fuzzy feathers than the other girls. She likes perching on the side of the brooder, but she's not a strong enough jumper yet to get up there by herself.
If you compare these pictures to the originals I posted last week, you can see that the girls have definitely gotten bigger. When we got them, they were just tiny little poof-balls. Now they're a little scraggly looking, but that's because their adult feathers are starting to come in.
You can see on Bernice here that she's got some new feathers on her neck and on her back, and her tail feathers and her wings are longer. The girls are still chicks now, but they will be pullets in a few weeks when they have most of their adult feathers but are still not fully grown. I've heard that pullets are pretty silly looking, but I guess that's true of most teenagers... (did I just insult my teenage self?).
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