Thankful for Peeps!

Thanksgiving Day - and more little fuzzballs are popping out of their shells!  Looks like six already this morning.  This is in addition to over a dozen babies hatched out earlier this week. 

There are two breeder pens, one large pen with Cheeto and a mix of hens, from big full Sussex to smallest Confetti Aloha, in all shapes and sizes.  The second breeder pen had several larger, buff-colored hens, in with a pure Sussex rooster.  Here is the first batch of chicks:

Predictably, most of them either are bright yellow (like one rooster) or striped like a Sussex (the second rooster.)  Only time will tell if they all look similar as adults.  Or, will differences show up, as they grow?

This time, I'm trying a more scientific approach, and have tagged the legs of some with colored leg bands.

Buff Chick, tagged blue, left leg. 

Blue Left.

Striped chick, tagged red right leg.

Red Right.

Dark Buff or Tan chick, faint stripes, orange left.

Orange Left.

Buff Chick, tagged yellow, left leg.

Yellow Left.

  
I can for sure keep this up until early January; so we'll be able to track them up to six weeks. Beyond that I don't know, I'll be doing some traveling that month, and last thing I want is to be out of town when one of these bands starts to cut into a teeny leg!  (Chicks grow FAST.) 

So the bands may come off at that point, but I have sizes all the way to adulthood, so if there is a way to continue I'll try.  Will post growing pics as the feathers start to come in.