Bunty is named after the hen in Chicken Run, who helped save the day by laying lots and lots of eggs. We hope our Bunty is true to her namesake!
Bunty, shown above at 2 weeks, is a Black Australorp. She looks VERY similar to Violet, who was labeled a Black Jersey Giant — so similar, in fact, that I am constantly trying to see differences in them. One such difference is their size. Violet is quite a bit larger than Bunty, who has not seen much of a noticeable growth spurt. I mentioned on Violet’s page that she was the smallest of the older three chicks, and very soon became one of the largest of all of them. But, how will I tell them apart when they are grown?
According the the information on these two breeds, they will probably remain strikingly similar in appearance. One obvious difference is supposed to be the color of the underside of their feet — Violet’s should be yellow and Bunty’s should remain pinkish-white. They are also supposed to be different sizes, with Violet reaching 11# at maturity.
But, at just 3-1/2 to 4 weeks old, Bunty looked remarkably like a Mini Violet.
At 5 weeks, Bunty remained one of the smallest (along with Cha Cha), her growth rate really not comparing much to Violet’s. This leads me to believe they really are different breeds of chickens, after all.
At six weeks old, Bunty has finally begun to catch up a bit with the rest of her clutchmates. She is always hungry, and loves the new nippler we have put in the brooder to replace the waterer — her bigger sisters are MUCH too big for it, and knocked it over every time they tried to roost on the top. She is still, however, deserving of her nickname, “Runty”, and remains the smallest of the chicks to date.
