Almost half grown

Chickens will start laying between 16 and 24 weeks.  Our big chicks are 9 weeks old, and the little chicks are 6 weeks old now.  Its amazing to watch how fast they grow and to try to figure out who their mothers are!  Mama hen, Salt, has decided her babies are big enough to be on their own.  She laid her first post-broody egg last week, and that night she slept up on the perch with the other hens and Fred again.  Leaving her babies in the nest alone.  Since that night, she and the chicks ignore each other completely.  She will chase them away from a yummy scrap of food instead of calling them over to share.  I didn't expect the transition to be so sudden!  But the chicks don't seem to mind.  They are big enough that they can't all fit in the nest at night.  They keep together in a group, just as the big chicks do.  Both groups forage around the yard separately.  Sometimes they mix together with the hens too, but they pretty much keep to their own age group.

The bigger chick on the left is Buffy from our first clutch of eggs.  The other chicks are from the second hatching.  They don't have names yet

6 of the 7 older chicks.  From left to right; Breech, Dorothy, Junior, Amelia, Flower, and Tiny.  So far we're certain that Breech was fathered by Dodger, the Americana rooster we didn't keep.  If she is female, she will be called an Easter Egger and her eggs will be blue, green, or pink!  I'm also pretty sure Amelia is a rooster.  No crowing yet, but her (his?) tail feathers are growing in long and curved and a brilliant blue/black