3 Rocks and a Brahma

So, despite wanting to be surprised with the breeds of my girls, curiosity got the better of me.  I had an inkling that the black chicks (Gertrude, Phillipa, and Vera) were Barred Plymouth Rocks, and I've pretty much confirmed that.  Alberta was a bit trickier to figure out, and I had to enlist the help of other members of backyardchickens.com ("BYC") by posting pics on one of the forums.  Going from the list of breeds from which my batch was likely to come (see my earlier post), I just googled pics of the chicks to see which kind looked the most like her.  I thought that maybe she was a type of Ameraucana, but as a BYC member pointed out, they don't have feathered feet, and Alberta does.  So to make a long story short, Alberta's comb (a pea comb) coupled with her feathery feet makes it likely that she's a Brahma.  Of course, to be certain, I'll just have to wait and see!

So, anyway, here are some more developments in the world of the Naptown Chicks:

1.  The girls are starting to fly!  I had to rebuild their enclosure to make the walls higher.  Gertrude and Phillipa were flying up to the top of their feeder.  In the case of Phillipa, she flew to the top of a box of crickets that I had put on top of the feeder.

2.  Tails are cute!  The girls are starting to grow tail feathers - they're adorable!  You know how sometimes you look at a baby and you're struck with the realization that all of the tiny parts (fingers, toes, noses, etc.) are all just miniature versions of adult sized parts?  Well, that's how it is with these tail feathers.

3.  Feathers are a really cool way to cover a body!  Every time I see one of the girls open her wings, I see a new pattern on her feathers.  I don't know if it's a new feather, or just a pigmentation in an existing feather (although I'm leaning towards the latter, because there are hardly any feathers lying around their enclosure), but it is so cool!  I really notice it on Alberta because of her light coloring, but Vera, Phillipa, and Gertrude are starting to get lighter bands across their feathers.  Speaking of "light" coloring, Alberta is (as I said before, probably) a "light Brahma".  At first, I thought of this as akin to the opposite of dark (light = adjective), but the more I look at her, the more I think that Alberta is actually the color of light (light = noun).  Anyway, here are some cool feather pics:

4.  Chickens are definitely dinosaur cousins!  I'd never really looked at a chicken's feet before, but they are insanely awesome, and they look just what I imagine many-a dinosaur's feet look like.  They're scaly, but not, and the toes are super long and flexible and just generally neat.

5.  Everyone loves to cuddle.  Sweet dreams!