Chicken update - Big Bird and Unnamed Black and Blue Chick

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted about my wonderful chickens.  They are doing fine and the chicks have grown up.  I'd like to introduce you to some of them in a few chicken posts.

Right in the center of this photo is Big Bonnie, one of the shelter hens.  She's molting and looks rough.  She's still huge.  She's one fat hen.  She's not the most athletic bird, but she walks around fine now.  She lays a huge egg every day.  If you've seen my blog you know Bonnie and her sad story and how she ended up in an animal shelter before we rescued her.

Well, here's her biological son, Big Bird.

Big Bird is the son of Big Bonnie and Muffin, the only adult rooster we have now.  Muffin is an Ameracauna rooster.  Big Bird is very friendly and loves to "talk" and chatter.

He is going to be a large rooster.  He seems to be very smart and attentive, like his father, but he gets beat up by all the chickens who are older than him.  He's still a baby and prefers to hang out with the other babies from his clutch.

In the below photo is Candie, a Cuckoo Maran hen.  She's the black spotted hen who's molting and looks terrible.  To the right of her is a pure black pullet who is Candie's biological daughter.  Candie's the mom, Muffin is dad.  This pullet has a sister who is also from Candie and Muffin who looks similar but not exactly like her.  This black pullet is beautiful because she has a blue sheen to her feathers, she has no "muff" (feathers around her face like Americauna's have), and she has no comb!!!

Note:  also in the below photo is a white leghorn pullet named Pringles (on the left) and Little Red, the Rhode Island Red pullet who was part of the Reject Chick group.  Remember the Reject chicks?  What a mess that ordeal was!

The below photo has a red sex link pullet (named Doritos), Pringles the white leghorn, Candie with her naked molting look, and the blue/black daughter pullet on the right who I need to name still.

Isn't the blue black pullet beautiful?  It's hard to believe she's half Cuckoo Maran and half Americauna. 

I have a secret to tell about her, too.  When she was a chick inside the egg, she couldn't hatch.  She tried and tried to peck out, she cracked the shell, but after a couple days she was too tired and gave up.  In the beginning she was peeping, but after a few days she gave up and was quiet.  I read everything online that said to let her be, let her die, she wasn't meant to survive, she was too weak to live, etc etc.  However, I couldn't let a living creature just die, so I helped her out of her shell.  I cracked little pieces off around where she started to crack it.  She moved a little in the beginning, but after a few hours she stopped moving again.  By the end of that day she appeared to be dead.  So I opened up the remainder of the shell and let her loose.  She just laid there like a dead baby for a few hours, but she was still alive.  I put her under the mama hen's wings with the other chicks and checked on her often, and after a while she came around and started moving.  She was weaker than the others for her first few days, but then she became healthy and active and was fine.  She seems perfect now, you'd never know she had a rough start to life. 

Her sister is pure black but with a bronze glow to the feathers, and the sister has a muff.  The sister also has no comb!

I welcome recommendations for names!

Ok, that's it for today's post.  I'll introduce more of the chicks and pullets in future posts.  Everyone seems to have a story and I'll tell you about them all!