Dorking Worries and Spring Cleaning

Ruby & Pearl

Uh oh. My two Silver Grey Dorking chicks are now 4 weeks old and wow, have they started to look less and less alike.

Ruby has started to feather out nicely, and is developing a beautiful rust colored chest which is exactly what the Silver Grey Dorking hens should have. She's petite and sweet and even cuddly!

And then there's my cutie pie, Pearl. Pearl is a different story. Pearl doesn't have any rust colored feathers at all. Instead she's growing beautiful black chest feathers, and the feathers on her head are growing whiter and whiter. Also, Pearl's comb is much larger than Ruby's almost nonexistent comb. And my Pearl has also started jumping at, and onto, the other two chicks in her box. Hmmmm.

I'm so bummed out because day by day, I'm getting more and more concerned that my little hen, Pearl, is actually.... a rooster.

--As chicks--
Ruby on the left, Pearl on the right

--Today--
Ruby on the left, Pearl on the right
They don't look like the same type of hen anymore, do they?
Well, they are the same breed of chicken, but I'm pretty sure one is a hen and one is a rooster.

--In the future--
On the left is a grown Silver Grey Dorking hen
On the right, is a grown Silver Grey Dorking Rooster

If my hunch is correct and Pearl turns out to be a rooster, that's a big problem for us because we're not allowed to have roosters in my town.

I know that the hatcheries boast a 90% accuracy of sexing day old chicks (which means determining whether the chicks will be hens or roosters). And that sounds like really good odds of receiving the hens you are hoping for....until you someday fall into the unlucky 10% that get inadvertently stuck with a rooster.

So, now what? Since I'm not legally allowed to have a rooster (and I don't really want one, even if I could), what do we do with Pearl? Well, first off, we wait. I may be jumping to conclusions. Maybe Pearl could be a hen who just may not have the classic Silver Grey Dorking colorings. Or maybe they will appear with time, like a late bloomer. I hope so! But I'm not feeling optimistic.

While my chicken store won't take the chick back, they are willing to try to help me re-home him if necessary. He is a pretty adorable and sweet chicken so far. Silly, friendly personality. And he's a heritage breed. The Silver Grey Dorking chickens have been traced all the way back to Ancient Rome. So, I'm hoping that someone out there will be excited to add him (if he is indeed a him) to their flock. If any of you reading this knows of anyone who might like to add a healthy rooster to their flock please let me know. Until then, I will still be holding out hope that Pearl is a girl despite the indicators that tell me otherwise. Time will tell.

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Now that the snow has officially melted (yes, it took til the end of April to finally melt all the snow) it was time to give our chicken coop its big spring cleaning. That entailed removing all of the bedding, scrubbing down and disinfecting the entire coop with a vinegar mixture, washing the poop boards, cleaning out the nest boxes, etc. And once all the cleaning work was done, we sprinkled a healthy dose of food grade diatomaceous earth all over and added fresh new bedding inside the coop and nest boxes. Lots of work, but everyone helped out and the girls were so excited about the fresh bedding to scratch around in.

--The Cleaning Crew--
So Glamorous! 

Happy hens in their freshly cleaned coop

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Our little chicks also got a spring upgrade! Jonathan and I were planning to build a bigger brooding situation for Mayzie and her chicks this weekend, when we stopped by our local farm store for some supplies and saw a very cute little coop. We looked at it and realized that it was exactly what we needed. So we crossed off the Home Depot trip on our to-do list and bought the coop instead. Done! So now Mayzie and the Welsummer chicks have a cute little coop and the two Silver Grey Dorking chicks and the Easter Egger chick have moved into the big wire dog crate brooder. They both fit into the same horse stall together which is perfect because I wanted to have them get acclimated to each other (through fencing). I'm hoping to combine the two families sooner than later, before they all get moved into the big coop with the grown hens in about a month. Everybody seems to be happy in their new digs.

--More room for all the babies--
Mayzie and her 2 babies are in the "Red Barn" coop
The 2 Silver Grey Dorking chicks and the 1 Easter Egger chick are in the crate on the right

Still can't get enough of this cuteness!

Hanging out ON mom

Great fencing makes great neighbors.
I take turns letting each group out separately in the horse stall to run around.
This helps them all get used to each other without any danger of fighting or injuries.
I'm hoping by next week I can let them all out together and their two groups can merge (peacefully) into one.

My teen chicks getting some exercise in the horse stall.
Matilda, Ruby & Pearl

A few of our older hens enjoying the spring grass in a hawk-safe way!
(Dog-safe, too!)