but on a positive note...(and can I tell you that I've been working on this post for a week and a half? a bit lame on the blog front these days.)

Our babies were 4 weeks old yesterday (last Tuesday)!  And - fingers crossed - appear to be healthy and growing and sprouting feathers like crazy.

Especially one exceptionally crazy acting and crazy looking member of the group.  I'll let you figure out which one that is (hint, it won't be hard)...

Here's Athena at day 2...

And at 4 weeks.  Athena's not big on standing still for the camera so despite many pictures I couldn't get any really good ones...
She's still the classic Easter chick - much smaller than the other two, and way behind in feather development.   According to the books she's supposed to be 50% bigger than the others when they are all full grown.  We'll see how that goes.  Notice the 5 toes and lightly feathered feet...

Artemis Francis at 2 days..

And now at 4 weeks...
Very elegant and beautiful in a quiet way - very much like her namesake Fran.  Even my sister agreed, when she was here for Easter, if Fran had been a chicken this is what she would have looked like (and Fran would get a big kick out of us imagining her as a chicken)...

Xena at 2 days...
And at 4 weeks...check out those head feathers.  That grow exponentially every day.  And I swear, given her behavior, are rooted directly in her brain.



Layla says her crazy head feathers are really soft and likes to rub her nose in them...
Here are a couple of pictures to show how dramatically different Athena is in her size and feather development compared to Xena and Artemis Francis.  It's hard to believe they all hatched on the same day.


When Athena gets tired she starts to push herself under the chests of the other two to get them to snuggle with her.  She even acts younger...

I'll have updates on the sick and injured big chicks soon.  I promise!

Comments

[Tricia Scott]

you and layla get the award for best chicken names ever. :)and i loved seeing the growth in xena's head feathers!