Here’s our wonderful surprise boy, Little Richard, a cross between a Light brahma and buff orpington.
He still looks just about the same as he did 2 months ago. Now I’m curious about what colour he will be; any guesses? He has some black on the tail and the wings, but I’m wondering if the...
Well that makes sense, and would totally explain the “once they feather out” bit. Funnily enough, while I’d indeed expect gold chicks to be “yellow” and silver chicks to be white, this has blotches of both while I guess it’ll be unicolour🥳
I was told this mix should be easy to sex as soon as the chicks start feathering out. Can anyone confirm this, and if so, what should I be looking out for? It’s a light Brahma roo and a buff orpington hen
Here’s a 2-day old :)
Oh brilliant, thanks so much! I have 8 in total, 4 duckwings of different ages. Based on that, I think I can already tell 2 of the duckwings are male possibly 2 females. Any tips for sexing birchens and and BBRs?
I’d appreciate your expert view on whether sex of these two chicks. They’re just over 6 weeks.
Also, the rooster in the coop where these came from is a cream legbar; the hens are double-laced barnevelders and copper marans. Any guesses on the mum?
I’d love to read an update to this; I’m thinking of abandoning Bresse due to the noise (they are the loudest birds I’ve ever had and mature early). I didn’t dare to consider caponising them, but if it’s not too difficult, I might just consider it.
Never—not before today that is! Thing is, i find the taste of Bresse great and quite unique, so i was hoping to keep that. But I’ll read up on quail. Don’t know why i’ve never thought of them. (Must be the size, as i’d love to have ostriches one day lol)
It would be great if you could post an update down the line—I know it’ll be a while.
I now understand why the French caponise them. I just don’t have the heart, the guts or the skills.
That’s it, though; with them taking turns, it’s non-stop. I lock them up at the far end of our property for the night. I can’t hear my Brahma rooster from there, but the Bresse wake me up... and there’s 9 of them 🤦♀️
Indeed. I’m mainly contemplating this Orpington’s suitability for the job as she’s currently the only large hen we have that goes broody. But I’m thinking she can be our flock’s foster mum.
Thanks for the responses. Yes: in her own peculiar way she brought them up responsibly. But because she deviated so much from the guidelines (I mean couldn’t she just google it!?🤣), it seemed nuts.
But she’s also incredibly protective so my gut says separating her from the chicks would stress...
I’m wondering whether to let my “irresponsible” buff orpington mum hatch another nest.
4 weeks ago, she hatched “her” first 3 chicks (marans mixes). To my horror, she would allow her 3-day-old chicks to venture out while temperatures were near freezing. I spent the next 3 days practically...
That would be ideal, but knowing my luck, it’ll never happen: my last hatch was 90% male. So I end up frowning them out—bc breaking my eardrums in the process 😂