# Showing off some of the flock



## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Today I took some pics of individual chicks. We "think" we know what most of them are, but are open other opinions and correction.

First a couple of group shots under the watchful eye of Supervisor Pooh.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is Doc. We think he may be a Silver Duckwing Bantam.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

What did the flock have to say about the new supervisor? 

Mine weren't happy the first time one of the dogs came into the coop with me, I think they all let out a squawk. The second time none of them payed any attention.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

These two roos are Tango and Hei Hei. They are named after Disney characters, by our grandchildren. They are Golden Duckwing Phoenix's. Hey Hey is about 1/3 larger than Tango, but they are the same age.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This little guy is Boots. We're not sure, but think he may be a Cochin.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This gal doesn't have a name yet, but she is one of my frequent lap sitters. She's a Speckled Sussex.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is the infamous Houdini. She, we think, definitely marches to her own drumbeat. She's a Buff Silkie, but even in that she's different, she's a shade lighter colored than our other two buffs.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is Velvet. She's a Brown Leghorn. She is actually our only full grown bird. She is one of only two that we had left from last year. We were going to re-home her with our daughter, but she's special to my wife, so we gave it a try. After spending about two weeks in a crate inside the coop with everyone else, when we turned her out a couple of days ago, she fit in just fine. There were a couple of very brief chest bumps with a couple of the bigger chicks, but other than that, no problems at all.

P.S. For those counting, she puts us at 100 even.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is one of our Golden Duckwing Phoenix hens.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

A couple of our Easter Eggers. The first one is Lacy. My wife loves her color. We though she was a light colored Salmon Favorelle until we noticed that she doesn't have feathered feet.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Here are one each of our Gold and Silver Laced Wyandottes.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is Bob Ross, named by the grandchildren. We believe he is our only Polish roo.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

One of the Light Brahmas and a couple of Salmon Favorelles.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

One of the Dark Brahmas.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I think you're right about the one being a Cochin. The body shape is right.

Houdini has some awesome wings. 

I think you're gold laced Wyandotte might be a little boy. 

Was Lacy that color as a chick?


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

We aren't sure but we think this little girl is a Partridge Cochin Bantam.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

This is my newest girlfriend, Sugar. She is the one I mentioned a couple of nights ago. I posted a youtube video that you can check out to hear her sweet little cooing, purring, or what ever it is.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

robin416 said:


> What did the flock have to say about the new supervisor?


Pooh has been in and around them from the day we brought them home. Knowing that he is forever my shadow, I started letting him in the brooder pen when I was tending to them from the get-go. They don't mind him a bit,


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Was Lacy that color as a chick?


Yes, she has always been lighter colored. It wasn't until a week or so ago that I realized she didn't have feathered feet, just never really paid attention to them.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Sugar just might be a little boy. See how the head feathers sort of swoop back? Does peep look like it's all legs when it walks away from you? That's usually a boy.

I know so little about EE's but someone somewhere mentioned that they can be a totally different color as adults. I would have chosen Lacy too as a chick with that coloring. 

I think you're right on the partridge being a Cochin.

I don't know why I never had any light Brahmas, that color patterning has always been one of my favorites. 

BTW, how many bantams did you get?


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

robin416 said:


> BTW, how many bantams did you get?


Well... Bantams, we have 4. But if your counting small birds, we have 7 Silkies, 6 Polish, and 4 Phoenix. I don't think some folks count Polish and Phoenix as bantams, but they are smaller than the full size girls. Maybe they're mid-size birds, or maybe they're just slow growers.

We also have 4 Jersey Giants, but at this stage, we are having a real hard time distinguishing them from the Australorps.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

robin416 said:


> I think you're gold laced Wyandotte might be a little boy.


I'm not disputing your opinion at all. But, what features lead you to think it might be a roo? Trying to learn.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

As you know, I'm the worst when it comes to sexing most birds. But one of the things I remember NM saying is the thickness of the legs is an indicator. That one bird seems to have legs double the thickness of the other. Of course it could have been a fluke of how the pic was taken but sometimes I remember what I've been told.

There are bantam Polish and large fowl Polish. The Silkies are bantams. There are no large fowl Silkies in the states. Phoenix come in both large and bantam so you probably have the bantams. 

Someone said JGs are very slow maturing, maybe the way to tell is if the Australorps are bigger than the lookalikes at this age.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Thanks, I'll try to look and compare the legs within the same breed, see if I can tell a difference.

Both our Polish and Phoenix are supposed to be the full size version, but I don't think they're as big as say, an Oprington. Like I said, maybe they're kind of a mid-sized bird.

I did a little looking and found that the Jersey's Australorps are very similar, especially at this age, except for the bottoms of the feet. The Giants are yellow and Australorps are pinkish white. Still doesn't help allot, they won't hold their feet up long enough for me to look.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Put the supervisor to work getting them to pick their feet up. That's what you pay him for. 

You could wait until they go to roost tonight and check their feet then. But in the morning you'll be guessing once again who was who. 

There are only bantam and large fowl. Even though Silkies are larger than Dutch or Old English they are still a bantam. There are size and weight requirements that are set for the two taking the breed into consideration.


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## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

TomC said:


> Thanks, I'll try to look and compare the legs within the same breed, see if I can tell a difference.
> 
> Both our Polish and Phoenix are supposed to be the full size version, but I don't think they're as big as say, an Oprington. Like I said, maybe they're kind of a mid-sized bird.
> 
> I did a little looking and found that the Jersey's Australorps are very similar, especially at this age, except for the bottoms of the feet. The Giants are yellow and Australorps are pinkish white. Still doesn't help allot, they won't hold their feet up long enough for me to look.


I have 2 "jersey giants", they were labeled as such at the feed store, turns out they are not and I have gone back and forth wondering if they are astrolorps or andalusians, I figured out that they are not andalusians because andalusians lay white eggs where mine lay brown. As for the color of their feet, mine have yellow which would indicate jersey giant but if such is the case, then mine are bantam JGs hahaha...my wyandottes are bigger than they are. (Yes I know there isn't ACTUALLY a bantam JG at this point in time, they are working on it but I think that is stupid because it would be an oxymoron and completely negate the point of a JG...wow, I'm thinking too much.
My point is, don't try to decide right now, JG's reach max height and weight between 18 months and 2 yrs, that's when you'll know.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

HaHa! Maybe you just picked the runts of the litter. HaHa! Well, I guess that blows that theory out of the water. I'm not real worried about it, just kind of interested. A lot like whether some of them are roos or hens, I probably won't be sure on a few of them until they start laying eggs... or not. Mostly, just trying to learn some of the different characteristics, I'm sure I'll never know them all. That way when someone comes to visit and asks, "What's that one?", I don't look like a complete idiot (I don't need any help in that area).

A Bantam JG??? I agree, makes no sense. The only reason to attempt such a thing would be if you just had a hobby of messing with DNA and genetics. But then, I could think of a thousand different things that would be more worthwhile.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If they don't know anything about chickens you could tell them anything that pops into your head.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Yes... I guess I could do that.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Robin really got me to thinking. She asked me how many bantams I had. I knew that I had bought four from the feed store tub labeled "Mixed Bantams" the day after we made the trip to the hatchery where we got all the others. Today, I was looking for all of them to make sure I had pics of them, I could only find three. I knew that I not lost any of the bantam chicks, so where could it be. I had my wife to dig out the catalog from the hatchery, we had scribbled down how many of each breed we were "supposed" to have gotten when we were there. Turns out we only bought 3 Gold Duckwing Phoenix. But, I have 4, 2 roos and 2 hens. Although, Tango is a good bit smaller than Hei Hei. So I looked through the catalog some more, and sure enough, there are GDP Bantams. So I guess, Tango is my 4th, lost, bantam. Which I am very happy about. When we bought the GDP's we were hoping to get a roo, because we really liked the coloring and long tail feathers. One of the problems we may soon be facing is having to thin out the roos. And, one of the considerations is the problem of a full sized roo trying to breed a bantam hen. So, if it comes down to it, we can re-home Hei Hei and keep Tango and still have the colors and tail of a Gold Duckwing Phoenix rooster.

Cool!

Thanks Robin!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I kept having to reread what you said. You said four bantams, you have more than four bantams but you were talking only about the Phoenix? 

We talked about this in passing once already about dividing the coop off to protect the bantams from the large fowl roosters.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Not including the Silkies, I bought 4 bantams. What i think are the silver duckwing, the partridge cochin, the black cochin, and now the gold duckwing phoenix. I was only finding the first three until I realized that I had only bought 3 full size GDP's and that the reason one of the roos was smaller then the other was he was my missing 4th bantam.


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## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Actually, I'm thinking of building another, a bit smaller and portable, coop and dividing it into sections. The larger main section would be for the bantams and Silkies and then several small sections for individual roosters. I may still divide the present coop as a temporary fix, but I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to do it. I don't want to take up too much of my already limited square footage, but still provide enough for the smaller guys. It's a conundrum that I'm still trying to work out in my head.


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## Thomas Lippert (May 10, 2020)

All my clucks in a row


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I see one watching to see what you're up to. There's always one in the group that keeps a wary eye out.


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## Thomas Lippert (May 10, 2020)

Yeah shes named Tex. The big non black one is little Julio. The rest are the four hens women of the bawkopolis


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I just realized there's two of them giving you the eye. I didn't see the one earlier.

What is the one hunkered down on the roost? It looks grey just seeing the head.


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## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

I see the gray one you are talking about, almost missed it myself, I do however find the look on the black one next to it's face hilarious though..."wth are YOU doing on this roost, you don't belong here"


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