Meet the Flockers!! Part 2

 Most of the chickens in this batch are no longer with us.  Just want to get that out of the way before I continue. 

In our first batch of eight, we had two Marans and 6 Easter Eggers. Three of the EEs were reddish brown, so I named them Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon, after the three backup singers in Little Shop of Horrors....who in turn were named after the girl groups from the doo-wop era.  Crystal and Chiffon are above, eying up a blackberry.

Not sure which this one is

 Crystal and Chiffon again, and I still don't know which is which.

Crystal is no longer with us.  She disappeared one day.  We went looking for her, not knowing she'd found a nice, dark place to lay an egg and couldn't get out.  It is heartbreaking, but we walked by her for days and she never made a peep.  We eventually found her when it was too late.  It was a lesson I had to learn, though.  One, when you have livestock eventually you are going to get deadstock.  Two, these animals are domesticated, not wild, and they do depend on you (like a dog would) for safety and keeping.  I still feel bad about Crystal. 

 

 Larry and Ronnie.  Ronnie used to be known as (you guessed it) Ronnette, but turned into Ronnie when it became obvious that he was not a she.  Ronnie was beautiful.

Eagle was also gorgeous.  I mean, LOOK at that rooster!  Wowzers, baby. 

The problem with having chickens is that the hen-to-rooster ratio has to be like 10:1.  20:1 is better.  Too Many Roosters has become a mantra of mine....especially at work, but that is for another post.  (It has actually become a joke with the women in the hallway I work in, we say "Too many roosters" and when someone asks how our day is going).  We wound up de-roostering by taking them to....our local wild animal rescue.  Because, you know, chickens are wild animals who deserve a second chance.  Or the tiger likes to eat live food.  Either one works. 

Meet the Flockers!! Part 1

I thought it might be fun to introduce the chickens one at a time. We currently have an even dozen: 8 girls and 4 boys. We have gotten chickens in three batches:

1. The first 8, which consisted of 6 "Easter Eggers" and two Marans
2. A batch of 5 Jersey Giants we found on Craigslist, and
3. 2 more we came home with from Virginia, a buff Cochin and a buff Orp
   

This is Larry, the EE rooster we named after my dad. He's a decent rooster, not too aggressive but he will bite and while you can pick him up, he doesn't like it. My father is enamored with him and asks about him constantly. He even has several pictures saved on his computer and he uses them as desktops.


Honey, above, is a wheaten Marans whose comb is so long if flops over. She was the Hen Of Choice (HOC) at first, and was extremely timid. Recently she's gotten a bit more assertive. With the comb-over (hahaha!), she also looks pretty stupid for some reason and we made fun of her horribly, as in "Mama asked 'Brains or comb?' and I said "COMB!!'"

Peaches, who is a small EE hen with peach colored feathers only on her "chin" or muff. She's a quiet thing and doesn't seem to have much personality.

This is Daisy, the buff Orpington. We got Daisy in Virginia at about 6 weeks old, along with Tubby (below) and attempted to bring them home in the same Rubbermaid tub. Tubby beat up on Daisy, and we were concerned about permanent damage, hence the picture above. 5 hours on my lap, the FedEx driver almost drove off the road when he looked down and saw a woman with a chicken on her lap! So, the obvious name to me was (Driving) Miss Daisy.

Flash forward 6 months only to find out Daisy is a dude. So, Duke? It won't matter soon enough....

Tubby, aka The Fat Chick is about 2ish, full grown, and by far my favorite (don't tell the rest). She is just SO impressive in size and, uh, proportion. When she hops down off the roost you can feel and hear the THUD. If you hold her long enough she will fall asleep in your arms. I LOVE to watch her run, she looks so silly!

I had read that Cochins were fairly docile, but she uses her size almost as a battering ram, charging a group of the others if they look like she has food and scattering them, then digging in herself.....over and over. She also has a deep voice and she seems to bitch constantly, it is really easy to stereotype her into "fat human"