Born: Born 16th September 2007

Gender: Still waiting to see! Primrose does appear to be developing physically quicker than the other chicks. Specifically, his/her comb and wattle is more pronounced and s/he is generally a larger chick.

Breed: Primrose presents us with the same parenting mystery as Amber. Both chicks are really step siblings, as Tiger is their father, but because all of our hens lay the same coloured eggs - brown, identifying their mothers has been difficult. Unless we see the hen lay the brown egg, we don't know who laid it. We don’t think that this will affect their psychological well being too much and we don't anticipate request for DNA testing any time soon!

Appearance: As a new chick, Primrose had the most exquisite markings with a browny/yellow plumage and black and brown stripes down his/her back. Surrounding the eyes, s/he had thick mascara like patterns in an Amy Winehouse - like fashion. As s/he is growing up, these unique markings have lessened and she now display a more general brown and dark yellow colouring – still gorgeous, obviously!

Personality: We are starting to see, unfortunately, some cockerel-like displays of dominance towards the other chicks from Primrose – fortunately, they’re not reciprocated so hopefully, the others are female. In view of the differences in appearances already outlined, we are coming to the conclusion that Primrose may well be a cockerel. In the long line of Rocky, Tiger.....and Primrose! Doesn't quite have that testosterone charged ring to it somehow, does it?

Favourite Food: Bread, bread and more bread!

Habits: At bedtime, Primrose seems to think that the other two chicks are her mother. She can always be found with her head under their wings and her bottom sticking out of their sleeping box. Another typically male behaviour!

Naughtiest Moments: As a young chick, Primrose would hop underneath the chair in our conservatory and perch on a little shelf where we couldn't reach her. We had to resort to bread bribery to get her out! This would usually be after she had managed to leave a poo parcel behind!

When we first introduced the chicks to our older birds, Primrose certainly overcame her anxiety in a race for the bread on offer. Undeterred by her much smaller stature, there was no holding her back - until a timely placed attack from Chocky reminded Primrose her of her lowly place in the pecking order.

Update:

Primrose did indeed turn out to be a cockerel, as you can see from the updated pictures below, at 12 weeks, looking very much like his father Tiger.

Here is Primrose the cockerel at 24 weeks and looking much grander now.

You can hear his first attempt at crowing in the video below:

Check out our chicken discussion forum to see how all three of our baby chicks turned out.

Sadly we have had to let our cockerel Primrose go. When he got to about 24 weeks Tiger his father was becoming intolerant and started to bully him. In our experience you cannot have more than one cockerel and it was becoming only a matter of time before Primrose was injured.

A nice local couple with lovely facilities who really look after their chickens needed a cockerel to keep the hens in line so we let him go and have the kind offer to visit and see how he is doing in the future.

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