#chicken profiles

[palaeosinensis]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

Me: so let me introduce you to my entire chicken flock

[pantstomatch]

Chicken profile - Slow Tina

Slow Tina is a BANTAM COCHIN!  Cochin’s are one of the biggest chicken breeds, but being a bantam makes her TINY. She’s got fluffy, short feet and waddles when she tries to run, thus her name. We got her at the green dragon animal auction last spring, her head was completely bald but she’s finally grown it all back. She laid teeny tiny adorable white eggs for about a month and then stopped–her age is unknown, but she might be old enough to retire. She probably weighs about a pound. She has a fluffy butt and likes treats.

[pantstomatch]

Chicken profile - Peanut & Butter

Peanut and Butter are SICILIAN BUTTERCUPS!

Sicilian Buttercups are small and lovely - they’re named for their buttercup comb that looks like a crown. Peanut is our female. We got them both just about a year ago as babies. They were both supposed to be girls, but GUESS WHAT?

Butter turned out to be a beautiful rooster!  That makes... too many roosters for us, but he’s too pretty and well-mannered to get rid of.  He’s actually the poster boy for roosters - meaning most generic depictions of roosters are Sicilian Buttercups.

It’s hard to see in these pictures but they have cool GREEN LEGS, and white-green ears.

Peanut lays darling little white eggs. It took her nearly 11 months to start laying, but that’s okay, we love her anyway. Peanut is gold and speckled. She’s flighty, and doesn’t like being handled. She wants you to know that:

Butter is low man in the flock because he’s so mild-mannered, but he walks the walk. Look at that strut:

[pantstomatch]

Chicken profile - Bessie

I don't know, I’m super antsy and anxious about everything in the entire universe, so I’m gonna do random profiles of my chickens for your possible enjoyment. 

First up--Bessie!!

Bessie is a PRODUCTION RED. She’s our oldest chicken at approximately 3 years, but we’ve only had her for a little less than 1.  My friend got her for 3 bucks at a “cage free” chicken facility--eggery??--in amish country (do not actually know if this place was amish). She was not allowed IN the facility. She said how many she wanted and the dude in charge brought them out, but we know what “cage free” means in this environment. Instead of tiny changes, the building is sectioned into BIG cages. The birds’ beaks are cut and cauterized to stop them from pecking at each other. She was SKIN AND BONE when we got her. Shaggy feathers, completely confused as to how to be an actual chicken. She’d never seen grass before. She kept trying to sneak into the house by the back door. She didn't understand how to roost at night. She is, by far, our friendliest lady, lays HUGE pink eggs, and our pet sitter wanted to take her home with her.

She still looks fairly raggedy. That might just be a production red thing. But she’s plumped up and happy and that’s all that matters.

[pantstomatch]

Chicken profile - Olive

Olive is an PARTRIDGE OLIVE EGGER! She lays, you guessed it, olive colored eggs. Olive is one of 2 of our last remaining original chickens (we had 6, and chicken keeping has a steep curve). She’s the official mother of DJ’s babies, since DJ hatched HER eggs last August. She has a large crooked comb and went through a horrendous molt (the worst one any of ours went through this year) in December and is now her old lovely self again, full of fluff and laying beautiful eggs.  She’s got a poof on her head. I like it.