We’re a little more than two weeks into this adventure and the chicks are getting big fast. They’re at least twice their original size and look even bigger when they spread their wings or stand up tall. We added some height to the broader to prevent escapes as they like to stand on their new/bigger feeder and waterer. There’s lot of flitting about and sudo-flying across the broader. They confront each other and I suspect that is them literally figuring out the pecking order. It doesn’t appear that the rooster is aware of his role just yet as he acts much like the hens for now. Feathers are becoming more apparent on their bellies and tails.

Rooster comb

Rooster

The Leghorn and Buff Orpingtons, who looked very similar early on being as they were all yellow, are now starting to show their differences in color. The Leghorns are now mostly white with a little yellow and the Buffs are mostly still yellow.

Leghorn comb

Leghorn tail feathers

Barred Rock comb

Barred Rock toes and belly down/feather transition

We do have one Barred Rock that has had some sort of an issue that became apparent in week 2. We first noticed the other birds pecking her more than usual and it appeared that she was blind in her left eye. She’s always been a little smaller than the others. This past Sunday it was more apparent that she was struggling so we separated her and have watched her more closely. She appears to now be blind in both eyes and has a reddish patch on the left of her head around her ear/eye. She was walking in a circular path in only one direction yesterday but isn’t doing that today. We’ve done a lot of reading on this and are thinking about some things to try. The best guess we have is that its some kind of an ear infection. For now we dip her beak in her electrolyte/vitamin water. She doesn’t appear to eat when we’re around but she’s pooping so she’s eating something. Hopefully she ate a bit of the scrambled egg we gave her as its reported to be an excellent source of important vitamins for chicks.

Chick Hospital

They’re getting big