Hot Chicks - Update!

Our three chicks are in rude health. The mother hen started squawking at dawn and pacing up and down at the front of the nursery cage so we threw her out to re-join the flock. Her offspring don't seem to mind and have even bonded better with us now - hopping out of the cage to sit on our hands.



We suspect that the father was our frizzle/Plymouth barred rock rooster who was dominant within the flock but the chicks have definitely picked up traits from their silkie mother as well.

This rooster-to-be is displaying a proud single comb and barred frizzle feathers. Apparently it's best to breed frizzle chickens from a frizzle male and a smooth female - that was lucky then!



But this wannabe cockerel has a rose comb and an obscene number of feathered toes - both features of a silkie - but not the proper feathers.



And this little hen (we hope!) has a vaulted skull, another feature of silkies.

The vaulted skull is a result in a hole in the bone structure of the skull causing the brain to protrude beneath a layer of tissue and (thankfully in our case but not always) feathers. A big problem for human babies (who suffer from spina bifida) but not too much of an issue for chickens. Nevertheless, maybe we should dose our hens up on folic acid. Biologically and genetically interesting as it is, it does make me feel a bit uncomfortable about human interference in breeding.