Bianca's brood

Bianca, Reggie, and one of their little ones.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it here before or not, but our silkie hen, Bianca, finally set and hatched a batch of her own eggs. She ended up with 6 cute little white fluffballs.

When the chicks were just a few days old, I picked up a group of "heavy breed pullets" from the feed store and snuck them under our broody hen. So our tiny, little bantam gal has been raising 11 chicks, half of which are quickly getting to be bigger than her.

The last time I visited the feed store, I fell for these adorable little Dorking chicks. We are still trying to settle on a breed of chicken to raise as meat birds. We are trying to move away from the creepy super fast growing commercial birds. These little Dorkings have a very cool history and a good reputation for being easy going, good layers, and pretty fast growers.

At first Bianca was less than impressed with the new additions and all the older chicks were terrified of them.

But after a while, everyone seemed to settle down and get along pretty well. Unfortunately, when we went out the next morning, the smaller of the two Dorkings had gotten excluded from the group and was near death. I guess she just got chilled over night even though our night temps this time of year are just short of sweltering. The other chick is robust and active and doing just fine.

Here are some of the "heavy breed pullets." Can any of you chicken folks out there can give me a clue as to their breed? I'm pretty sure the little striped black one not seen in this pic is a Barred Rock.