Hatching my first clutch of chicks who are mixed!!

[Toucan_Sam]

Hello everyone, I’m a first time chicken owner and I got my very first hens a year ago. The great news is I managed to hatch my first batch of babies this month!! Now to provide some context, I have a mixed flock with 2 silkie Roos, one is black who’s a bit on the smaller side, I believe he might be mixed with bantam but we’re not sure. The other is white and the size of a standard chicken. For our hens we have golden laced wyandottes, austrolorps, white brahmas, golden bantams, and I THINK Rhode Island reds, I’m not entirely sure I just know they’re red haha. The broody mama that hatched the eggs was one of our bantams surprisingly! I’ll be posting pictures of the dads, the mama who hatched them, and chicks too of course! Some chicks are definitely obvious with who the parents belong to others not so much. Either way I’m super excited to see what they’ll look like when they’re older! It’s just so cool to think all these babies are mixed breeds. One thing I will point out they definitely came out with more silkie traits than I thought. I guess black skin and feathers might be a more dominant trait. Only one chick ended up with extra toes though! They’re only 3 days old so far so we’ll learn their genders and their adult color in the future.

 

[Toucan_Sam]

I’ll also try to get more pictures for you guys too so you can see the chicks better, especially as they get older to keep you guys posted. Sorry if the photos suck!

 

[Folly's place]

Chicks with a broody hen are the best! And getting photos? Moving targets, protective mama, just lots of pictures to get a couple of good ones...
Were these all from large eggs, or bantam sized and big? That helps know who's who. If you have large and small babies together, watch carefully, because hens don't count chicks, they rely on cries for help, and will expect everyone to keep up with the group. Once we had bantam and standard with with a hen, and the littles didn't do as well, they couldn't keep up with the bigger chicks.
Mary

 

[Toucan_Sam]

Chicks with a broody hen are the best! And getting photos? Moving targets, protective mama, just lots of pictures to get a couple of good ones...
Were these all from large eggs, or bantam sized and big? That helps know who's who. If you have large and small babies together, watch carefully, because hens don't count chicks, they rely on cries for help, and will expect everyone to keep up with the group. Once we had bantam and standard with with a hen, and the littles didn't do as well, they couldn't keep up with the bigger chicks.
Mary

There’s 3 black chicks, and 2 of the 3 are definitely bantam chicks, they came out of bantam eggs the rest came out of standard sized eggs. We just thought they’d both look like their mom but no they came out like our black roo. The bantam chicks were the first to be born the rest hatched a day later so out of all of them the little chicks have actually been the most energetic

 

[Folly's place]

Our bantam chicks hatched at 19 to 20 days this year with their broody mom, rather than 21 days like most of our standard chicks seem to hatch out. And they are so tiny and cute!
We had Belgian d'Uccles for a long time, but now have bantam EEs, who are a bit larger.
Fun!
Mary