The Teenagers

After the very disappointing episode of the chicks in May of this year, I quietly decided to try my luck once more without reporting on my every move thinking it might be a bad omen.

I am very pleased to say that I have succeeded ...finally!

I have four beautiful chicks whom of which have now reached their teenage era. I have three Dorking's, one of which is a definitely a cockerel due to its stocky legs and mature head comb for its age. The other two I believe are hens along with one baby buff orpington chick, namely buffy! It's very hard to tell the sex of a chicken at this age though. You only really get to know when they're much older and those tell tale cockerel neck feathers come through.

They are now five weeks old and basically look like mini chickens (no more chick fluff and have full featherage). I have been advised to keep them on chick crumbs for five months. They seem to love the stuff and get very excited when its feeding time in the morning.

I am using the maternity ward to get them used to the outside life, grass and bugs. It's quite a challenge getting them in and out though as the Dorking's are really flighty and will escape in just a flap. I have to keep an eye open for Toby cat as I know he would pounce on them in a heartbeat!