Between you and me, I am very loath to start naming these chickens in case any of them (the tiniest, possibly?) are male. There is talk that the head shape is an indicator and that if the legs are thicker they are male but at this early stage it's still tricky to work out.
The breeder we bought the last two from is convinced that they are both girls but I have a nagging feeling that the baby is going to start crowing further down the line. That will be a great shame if I call her what I want to - Mrs. Bun.
Lunar, the lavender (so called because she glows like a new moon) is almost definitely female but she has several weeks more growth than the other two. That leaves our new gold laced, our Shakira mini-me, who is clearly going to be Luke's little darling (he has a soft spot for these beauties). He calls her Poppy.
Our original Lola*, a blue laced hen we bought five years ago turned out to be a hermaphrodite! She didn't have spurs or could crow but she had the comb and wattle plus the shape and colouring of a cockerel. It was such a shame because she/he tried hard to fit in with the rest but they knew the difference and used to cluck noisily and angrily when Lola copied them and sat in the nesting box for hours, producing nothing but a warm patch of wood shavings. As Luke happily suggested we call her Lola I reminded him of the lyrics of The Kink's song of the same name but we never really expected to get a male, masquerading as a female.
So, if the baby of our brood turns out to be Mr.Bun instead I shall be very sad; after all, whilst we can take it back we'll have grown attached to it and so will the other birds. Fingers crossed that my hunch is wrong and we have three little ladies.
Having come home from a day's work to find the little chicks in the run I've had a chance to have a look at them in daylight. I'm sure I can see the beginnings of spurs on the teeniest, two little light dots that will continue to grow. I'm goign to take a photo and send it onto the breeders for their take on it.
*Amendment, I seem to have confused my chicken names...., Luke tells me that it was Coco who turned out to be the hermaphrodite and when we returned it to the breeder we tgot Lola as a substitute along with Sweetie - who was my favourite hen for her tenacious attitude in such a teeny bundle of feathers. (I still think it should have been Lola though as the story makes more sense!)
The breeder we bought the last two from is convinced that they are both girls but I have a nagging feeling that the baby is going to start crowing further down the line. That will be a great shame if I call her what I want to - Mrs. Bun.
Lunar, the lavender (so called because she glows like a new moon) is almost definitely female but she has several weeks more growth than the other two. That leaves our new gold laced, our Shakira mini-me, who is clearly going to be Luke's little darling (he has a soft spot for these beauties). He calls her Poppy.
Our original Lola*, a blue laced hen we bought five years ago turned out to be a hermaphrodite! She didn't have spurs or could crow but she had the comb and wattle plus the shape and colouring of a cockerel. It was such a shame because she/he tried hard to fit in with the rest but they knew the difference and used to cluck noisily and angrily when Lola copied them and sat in the nesting box for hours, producing nothing but a warm patch of wood shavings. As Luke happily suggested we call her Lola I reminded him of the lyrics of The Kink's song of the same name but we never really expected to get a male, masquerading as a female.
So, if the baby of our brood turns out to be Mr.Bun instead I shall be very sad; after all, whilst we can take it back we'll have grown attached to it and so will the other birds. Fingers crossed that my hunch is wrong and we have three little ladies.
Having come home from a day's work to find the little chicks in the run I've had a chance to have a look at them in daylight. I'm sure I can see the beginnings of spurs on the teeniest, two little light dots that will continue to grow. I'm goign to take a photo and send it onto the breeders for their take on it.
*Amendment, I seem to have confused my chicken names...., Luke tells me that it was Coco who turned out to be the hermaphrodite and when we returned it to the breeder we tgot Lola as a substitute along with Sweetie - who was my favourite hen for her tenacious attitude in such a teeny bundle of feathers. (I still think it should have been Lola though as the story makes more sense!)
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