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I now have 5 chicks that were born Friday.  One is black and the others are welsummers. 

love the black chick in the family  ;D

This really made me feel good inside, alls right with the world feeling, Thank you for sharing it,smashing !! XX Jeannine

Aren't they beautiful?  Is mum a hybrid? 

They are so cute, we'd love to have chickens.

Mum is a Welsummer hen but the eggs were not hers. 

The black one is my favourite so I am hoping he or she will turn out to be female so I can keep her.  This is a picture of the black one's mother.

awww brilliant!  Wish mine would hatch chicks!

Ahhh, they're gorgeous.  :) :) :)

aawwww, i love baby chicks :)

So beautiful!  :) :) :)

Chicks have really grown now but unfortunately the four Welsummer ones are definitely cockerels.   :(   The black one I now think is a hen.   

The trouble is it is not so easy to get rid of cockerels.   :-\

I've been advised to get some chooks to clear my second lottie of weeds but I don't want hundreds of eggs (can't eat them all and wouldn't be able to give them away to many as a lot of the other plotholders have layers).

Would cockerals fight if I kept more than one together?  if so, would they do this even if there were no hens around?

You could eat them... they don't look so bad once they are plucked you know!

The chicks are beauiful, i'm hoping my one chick is a hen.

Quote from: SnooziSuzi on July 05, 2007, 20:55:39
I've been advised to get some chooks to clear my second lottie of weeds but I don't want hundreds of eggs (can't eat them all and wouldn't be able to give them away to many as a lot of the other plotholders have layers).

Would cockerals fight if I kept more than one together?  if so, would they do this even if there were no hens around?

If the cockerels are brothers I don't think they would fight if there are no hens around but they do spar up to each other when young to establish a pecking order. 

The problem with cockrels is that they are lazy and don't clear the ground as much as the hens do.  Why not get yourself some older hens that only lay occasionally?  Older hens generally stop laying during the winter months but you could freeze any surplus eggs.  Eggs have to be scrambled and then have salt or sugar added.

If you don't want masses of eggs, are there eating varieties which don't lay as many?

Hope the black one turns out to be a pullet for you ..
What was the cockerel runinng with the hens the eggs came off?..
Can't you run the Welsumers on ? They will make a decent table bird come Christmas..
Snoozie for clearing your grass get a few geese far  better at cleaing grass
than hens .Lot less trouble to care for too...

Very efficient grass cutters, a few massive eggs when they do lay, and good eating though there's not a lot of meat on a bird.

When I first got lottie if I could have got hold of a couple of pigs they could have ate,dug and manured it for me. Thats what I thought as I strugled to clear it.

Quote from: growmore on July 06, 2007, 09:41:14
Hope the black one turns out to be a pullet for you ..
What was the cockerel runinng with the hens the eggs came off?..
Can't you run the Welsumers on ? They will make a decent table bird come Christmas..
Snoozie for clearing your grass get a few geese far better at cleaing grass
than hens .Lot less trouble to care for too...

Growmore, I have just seen your reply to my post; sorry to be so late in answering.  The cockerel, Wellington, is also a Welsummers.  I will take a picture of him later and post it on here.  He is so handsome.

I would not have the heart to kill my own birds for food.   They are lovely birds and are now in with the rest of the flock.  They get put in their place though by the older hens but Wellington doesn't seem bothered about them.