May Chicks

I'm still hatching chicks, and probably will hatch a few at a time for another month or two. It all depends on what hens are laying. Here are recent photos of the chicks that hatched earlier this year.

Barred OE cockerel

Dominique Bantams, 2 pullets, 3 cockerels

Can you tell the difference between the Barred Old English and the Dominique Bantams? They are all a color called "cuckoo." Barred OE are not really barred, which is a precise feather pattern, with definite black and white stripes. Cuckoo is more random. The OE have a traditional single comb. Dominiques have a rose comb. It takes longer for the rose comb to form, the DB chicks still look like they have no comb at all. The OE has gray legs, the DBs have bright yellow legs.

White OE and OE crosses

In this photo, the babies that seem gray are 3/4 white OE and 1/4 Dominique Bantam. Their mothers are the two "Spot" hens. The really white ones are 100% OE. Those 2 cockerels have been crowing for a couple of weeks, even though they're tiny little things.

There are also some Ancona babies, I didn't get a good picture of them, they move too darned fast.

It's always a challenge to house babies long enough to tell which are show quality and which can be sold. I don't have enough room to keep them all (nor would I want to). I'd like to have about 6 birds that I can show when the season starts this fall. So far there are several that have potential.