Hello to All from the funny farm.

[its hilly]

This could be a long one, apologies. Well someone (you know who Bramble) asked.. looking for winter quarters for my nags I found an unused barn and 1.5 acres to rent. The owner said I was welcome to keep some chooks there and donated 3 ex bats to set me off. Rosie, Clara and Hilly (after Edmund Hilary the explorer and mountaineer!) Sadly Rosie died at the start of winter, but to cheer me up I was given Tag a xbred cockeral who was very handsome and Kitty another x breed. Then the fox landed tears flowed, only Kitty survived. But Id just bought an incubator, so I raided the fridge for Hillys eggs (only one laying daily at the time) bought some off ebay and hatched 7 little thugs, sorry darlings. 4 are Hillys the rest are either pekin or orps pic 1 is the darkest of the 3 whatever (by colour they should be the orps but not sure as thet have feathered legs, or will these disappear as they get older?) 2 is def one of Hills, cockeral I think, with mystery at the back (the oter two have proper chiken tails and got them two weeks ago). 3 is Hillys, poss hen. 4 (hilly) ?hen?

[SarzWix]

Welcome to the Vine it's hilly and chooks
It's quite hilly where I live too, but not as hilly as you

[MaureenHall]

A big welcome from me too What a happy outcome to a sad story. It's lovely to see some off-spring of ex-batts, hopefully some of my girls will produce some for me later too

[NSB]

Brahmas have hairy feet and they are very big birds

[Bramble-Poultry]

the head shape reminds me of Brahma or Cochin - both of which have feathered feet and are both large birds. (cochins around 14lb) Do we know much about the original cockerels? If we now their make up we might be able to work out where the feathery feet come from.

The first picture (with the feet) has a lovely "blue" colour which is one attributed to cochin and Brahma - and also pekins - but these chicks look bigger than pekins anyways!

[HayleyB]

Welcome to the madvine, love the chooks

[Nicos]

Hello - and welcome to the Vine!

what lovely chooks...it'll be interesting to see the outcome

[frias]

Welcome to the vine 'it's hilly'.

[Lemon]

Loving the chookies!

Welcome Hilly!!

[its hilly]

Thanks for the hellos. Think the only way I'll know for sure is when they grow a bit bigger. Theyre 6 wks old at the mo. I know the odd 3 wernt Hillys because I checked the eggshells as everyone hatched and these 3 were from some I bought. Unfortunately I didnt mark them as to which were which. I know I had some silver partridge and some black Pekin and some others from a mixed pen of blue black n splash Orps. So the orps match the colours (1 blue/black 1blue and 1 splash) and grey legs, but the pekins match the feathery legs. Theyre great anyway so its only curiosity..lol..watch this space

[Bephlam]

Welcome the the Vine Hilly....the babies are gorgeous!!!

[Snadger]

Welcome to the vine hilly!

[CoraxAurata]

Orps really should not have feathered legs - at any age. They are almost certainly the pekins... very pretty wee birdies though!