With the wild weather continuing today, I thought it would be a good time to do an update on Trixy’s chicks. They are now nearly seven weeks old and fully feathered. The millefleur chicks I have been able to sex for three weeks – one boy and one girl. I am so pleased that the girl is the chick which hatched in my hand. She still has a slightly more yellow head than her brother. But the other three have me stumped.
The partridge trio are interesting. Two are about the same size, with the smaller one being the one who needed extra help to hatch. But by colouring, two are the same and one of the big ones is much darker. The one thing I have been increasingly certain of, all three were the sex. All their combs, wattles and tails looked the same. As I have no idea what these birds look like fully grown, I sent a message to the breeder asking for help. He quickly replied with amazing news – all three of the partridge chicks were girls! Quite simply, our best hatch rate and ratio of boys to girls ever! According to the breeder, some years are better than others for girls which might explain why we got four girls this year. It might also explain why Steve (who specialises in hatching cockerels) has managed to hatch a good number of girls this year! Over time, it should even out to 50/50 of each.
My colleague is off on holiday this week but I will offer some of the girls to her as I know they will be loved and cared for. As much as I would love to keep them all, I know I can’t. I am planning on keeping at least one of the girls. On second thoughts, maybe two…
Tomorrow’s forecast is that the morning and most of the afternoon will be dry. This means I can finally finish off the weeding and get in some winter crops before the rain closes on again! The other priority is to sort out the willow. The wind has completely destroyed the top sections of the screen and arch. These areas will need a severe pruning and extra weaving to try and get it back into shape!
The Good Life Crewe 
Leave a Reply