A heavy heart

[Annabel]

Hi, can anyone offer their opinions on my two chicks here (still only 3.5weeks but differences started showing up week 1). Certain I have a boy and a girl here but be interested to hear what others think too.

thanks

photos1-3 Pippin

photos 4-6 Merry

[Daphne]

Well yes, on the face of it, he is definitely a boy and she is most probably a girl.  However, one thing that sometimes trips one up is slow comb development.  I know I referred to her as a girl in the other post, but looking closely, the only other thing that might be slightly doubtful is her slow tail development, but that could be down to her illness.  What variety are they?  Others might have more direct experience of the breed, or are they cross breeds?

[gardengirl+]

I would say Pippin is a boy picture 1-3 and merry a girls they look so cute still - so much bigger than before - will they be large chickens

[Annabel]

They are Black Copper Marans (mother) and Cream Legbar (dad).  Merry when she was born was the bigger one and that stayed the same until week 2 when Pippin then had a massive growth spurt (but Merry was also ill).  Pippin's legs are huge (almost as chunky as the adult hens) and Merry's are very dainty (at least half the width of Pippin's).

55 minutes ago, gardengirl+ said:

I would say Pippin is a boy picture 1-3 and merry a girls they look so cute still - so much bigger than before - will they be large chickens

They will be large fowl (my other four are too, so they'll be roughly all the same size)

Pippin squirms terribly if you try to hold him and sends out alarm calls (but happy to sit on my shoulder strangely).  Merry will happily be carried.  They have been handled the same amount (which is a few times a day) since they were born.

[gardengirl+]

will be interesting to see them when bigger to their colour - I guess the maran is more dominant black colour

nice how they have different ways