Lavender Pekin Chicks

They're here! And they're gorgeous... omg they are so tiny though!!! They are literally less than half the size of my std wyandotte chicks at hatch!

Unfortunately the fellow who incubated them worked it out with my DH so that they met up in the city after work and he carried them home on the train. Now they were in a little box with warm water tubes but it was a long day without food or water and by the time they arrived several hours later they were cold and stressed. One little bub is very listless, one has a pooey bum both of which I'm quite worried about if they'll rally.

This is one of the Lavender babies... darker fellow and doing well.

This little one is also lavender but much ligher in down colour, the lavender shows most strongly on his back. This little one has a pooey bum and is a bit weak atm.

This little one will probably be lavender columbian, columbian split lav. or wheaten split lav. White down with a smidge of darker colour on his back and you can just barely see some greyish colour in the wing feather buds blood feathers. This is the smallest and also the weakest baby atm... :-(

And this is the surprise chick... white down. It's the biggest and pushiest of the lot and since he doesn't match any of the colour possibilities we'd expected we'll just have to wait and see what it turns out as!

Torture! Pain! Agony!

I have to wait till Friday to pick up my little pekin bubs. The good news is there are four total, one more hatched. Ahh... soooooooooooooo excited!!!!!! Waiting till Friday is going to kill me though! LOL

More surprises!

I got an e-mail from the fellow incubating my lavender pekin eggs and three hatched - maybe more by now. Of the eggs possible colours were lavender or possibly black, blue or mottle split lavenders. Of the eggs hatched so far there is two lavenders and one which apparently has white down!

Now down colour is different from adult colour but we know what chicks from each colour look like. From the split colours I mentioned you'd expect the down to be darkish blacky-blues with yellow splotches. So I am absolutely dying of curiousity!

Introducing Mr. Ambrose Aylesbury

After meeting up with Jacquie the other day I found out she had extra drakes, which I happen to have a shortage having no boys at all. So we rung her and arranged for this lovely chap to come live with us. I hope the girls will be suitably impressed with his ducky good looks and curly tail feathers. ;-)

We went to the Gardening & Rare Plants Expo in Silvan today and came away with a nice selection of pretty plants, catalogues and contacts for when the garden is ready to plant. I missed the talk the Rhododendron Society was holding but found out one of *the* foremost experts in identifying them is literally just around the corner from us!

Tim, who runs Tribe of Honk poultry stud also is part of Drewitt's Rare Bulbs and was doing a chook talk as well. So besides the gorgeous time enjoying the plants it also ended up a mini-BYP get together as Jacquie (Kirribindi) was there and to my surprise Broken Bird also had come to pick up some geese! When BB went to pick up his geese, we were also invited back to Tim's. His geese are so gorgeous... I love the Chinese of course but also am taken with the Embden and Saddlebacks. We also saw this little chook and isn't he just the neatest looking little guy???

He's a Silkie X roo - little crest, big silkie comb although red, feathering down his legs, a nice beard, beautiful colors in his wings and lacing on his blue and absolutely tame as could be. He probably sat in my hand getting a pet for a good half hour and would have probably sat there all day had I not handed him back! LOL

Now as I'd mentioned to Tim, I have plenty of grass for when I get geese. This photo of a few of my guys outside their nightshed - just to give an idea! LOL

And pics of my girls to show off how they've shaped up. The top one is Penny, who is now all grown up and filled out.

And one of her daughters who is now 16 weeks old and starting to look like a chook instead of a gawky feathered raptor. ;-)

Surprise... take deux!

Well a bit more from us... the 'other broody' I'd let sit on a clutch of her eggs to stay broody has hatched out three little bubs today and maybe more to come.

Found the camera - here's the pics! Waiting to see if any more eggs will hatch.

Now I'm just dying to hear about my pekin babies... any day now!

My little chicks are officially teetering out of cute chickdom and into gawky teenagerhood... You can probably get an idea of males and females in this pic fairly well. The ones with only a little feathers on their wings are boys, the ones with more feathers everywhere are girls. They are growing like weeds and eatting like horses!

After the chooks only being "my" thing, I began to sucker my husband into this by purchasing him a RIR chick which he named Milly after he'd admired one at a show. Over the next few auctions he told me he liked a type and colour he'd seen, "pretty ones, with blue and cream and funny little faces and boots" he reckoned were the breed he'd want if he were to get one. Last weekend we went to the B.M. sale intending to buy some nice black or partridge silkies as my b-day prezzie and while unfortunately I didn't end up buying, DH found a pair of "those pretty ones" (known to the rest of chook-dom as Belgian d'Uccle bantams) which he was told were decent breeding quality and were nicely matched up to each others faults and of a good line (Carolyn Shannon) and so for the princely sum of $35 he is the proud owner of a pair of d'Uccle porcelaines.


They are vigorous little things... haven't missed a beat in breeding or laying - sir rooster 'did the deed' shortly after being placed in the quarantine cage and she has laid an egg a day since arriving! O_O

Just got the news from John who is incubating my lav pekin eggs, five of the dozen are fertile, plus the two he put in which will possibly be black/lav, wheaten/lav or col./lav splits. Very nice to hear!

Meanwhile Ms. Wyandotte Banty is still sitting tight on her clutch and the Wyandotte chicks are growing like proverbial weeds having sprouted most of their wing feathers and half their breast feathers. Looks like we've got a good number of GIRLS mixed in with those boys! Yippie! I was half expecting because of the heat they'd all be BOYS! LOL Need to get pictures of the little guys!

Non-chook related, I decided to scan and put up some of my (non-chook) sketches at http://sketchymemories.blogspot.com/ Not many up at the moment, I have heaps more I will scan in as time (and toddler) allows.

Birds of a Feather

The little chick is a partridge wyandotte baby, nestled up with his foster mum who is a Silkie X.