Wow, been a while since I got around to updating this. So, we didn't end up with just three or four chicks. We ended up with 30. It was for a big mess of reasons, like hatching heritage (shiny rare breed) eggs and buying day-olds to keep a lonely chick company. They're all growing up well and they're very pretty. We're going to sell most of them, and definitely all the mix breed roosters.
Godzilla, one of the hens (hopefully) that we really want to keep. She's silkie/polish and has neat two-color eyes, one brown and one black. Paired with her fuzzy feet and black flecks, we're all hoping she ends up a she. (We can't tell based on her comb at the moment.)
A gorgeous rooster that we're dreading to sell. He's just wonderful; pure black that shines blue, purple and green in the sunlight, with fluffy feet, a big head crest, and a little beard. Plus, he has the most gorgeous golden lacing on some of his neck, wing and rump feathers; it looks like gold leaf. He also has a very clear, almost eery crow, every part perfect and almost human sounding.
Another beautiful rooster that we wish we could keep. He has the prettiest back, fading from rich red to a fiery yellow. He looks like a phoenix. Plus he has the most glorious tail.
Twin Cream Legbar crosses, who found me very interesting as I was taking pictures. They also crowded around my feet. The one with fluffy cheeks is what we're calling an Easter Legger (Easter Egger/Cream Legbar cross) and we're keeping her.
Malone! Our first grey chicken, a very well bred Blue Maran. She was bought from a local breeder along with her brother (slightly less perfect, as he's missing feathery feet) and an adopted sister, who I'll get to next. Malone is growing up perfectly and will hopefully make for a gorgeous blue hen.
And this is Roxy, Malone's sister. You'll notice that Roxy looks a little funny. Poor girl had a rough start; we got her along with her two Maran siblings to keep one of our hens' lonely chick company, but the hen rejected her instantly and chased her away. We ended up raising her and Malone (who she's now inseparable from) alone, and just as soon as they started growing and settling in, we started to notice that Roxy's beak was starting to point a little bit the wrong way. It got rapidly worse until it is as it is now, where it seems to have stopped worsening... If only because I think her skull would break if it got any worse. We discovered that she has a very nasty case of Crossbeak, and further reading lead us to learn that many chicks with this problem end up starving to death, because they can't really peck to pick up their food. And, fittingly, Roxy was starving. She couldn't eat her food anymore, drinking was hard, and she was clearly not growing as quickly as she should have been. We were about to sell her as a Special Needs chicken when we started feeding her wet food.
Something clicked. That night when I picked her up, her crop was bulging with food. We started just wetting down all the food and she continued eating like crazy every day, spending more time at the waterer and feeder than other chickens but still making do. She can't preen and she can't eat from the ground like a normal chicken, but she's embraced her beak with aggressive passion, apparently; when I went out to feed them breakfast, she was waiting by the gate and running back and forth, and when I put down their food, she got right in the middle of it and starting throwing food down her throat with great gusto. Not even Batman, who eats like no tomorrow, eats like Roxy does. She doesn't even bother shying away from the grown hens like other chicks, she stands right in the middle of them and eats their food, totally focused and enjoying it.
We have great hopes for this bird.
) But my whole family learned just how much fun it is to watch those little chicks wander around. always entertaining. 
