Chicks - Grow With Me - The second month

The chicks are now one month old an into their teenage years.

All I can say is that Araucana's are not as pretty as Pekins during this growth stage!

See what I mean?

Here's Penguin, with feathers sprouting out from everywhere. Pin feathers are visible on the head, back and neck. Just an overall scruffy appearance.

Buffy on the other hand, looks less scruffy and the fluffy bob of a tail is too cute! I believe at this stage that they like their dust baths to help the emerging feathers lose their wax casings. Don't hold me to this, but it is what I strongly believe as they dust bath as often as they can (nearly every day that we took them out).

 Close ups of the scruffy one. See the dark pin feathers emerging?

I found the best outdoor free ranging spot for the chicks. Our raised vegetable patch has netting around the sides (to stop the hens entering and eating it), we had sown some pumpkin seeds and the vines were growing everywhere. Beneath the large pumpkin leaves, it was the perfect playground for the chicks. They were protected from above, shaded from the sun and protected from wandering and too interested hens.  They absolutely loved their outside time. Just make sure that the weather is warm enough, we were in the middle of summer, so the chicks actually needed the shade!

All during this time we were trying to guess their gender. We were told that you could probably work out their gender at around 7 weeks for Pekins. We were getting a bit suspicious though, Buffy's comb developed a pinkish tinge to it

Buffy at 4 weeks and at 8 weeks

When Buffy was 7 weeks old, I posted up the below photo of Buffy to the Pekin breeders we got Buffy from, asking for their expertise in guessing the gender. Everyone in the post said Buffy was a girl "for sure".

Meanwhile, a few weeks and Penguin has gotten quite sophisticated looking. The pin feathers have unfurled on the head. The picture on the right looks like Penguin has whiskers. Again, not much clue to the gender at this age. The comb is slightly pink, but we really had nothing to compare to. Plus if you Google Araucana, you tend to get pictures of the American standard and not the Australian one. Oh well, the guessing continues...

They also grew enormously fast and we felt it was time that they got to see more of the hens. So far each time they have met a hen, she chases them away. So a simple chicken playpen was built. Using leftover wood from pallets for a frame, some irrigation piping screwed to the frame and bird netting just wire tied to the pipe was the playpen for the chicks. A box for shelter and their water and food, it wasn't long till Flopsy paid them a visit.

So we leave it here at exactly 2 months of age. It was cricket season, and they seemed quite interested in this photo.

The next month is a bit of a bombshell. Were the experts correct in guessing Buffy's gender? Will the hens accept the chicks as part of their flock? Tune in for the next post :)