By popular demand, I took some shots of the birds having their snacks. At left is a very brave Goldilocks (well, one of the Goldilocks, there are three Golden-Laced Wyandottes) attempting to steal a mouthful of molasses- and nutritional-yeast laced mashed potatoes from a much larger girl.
This act of bald courage makes me think this must be Rebel Goldilocks (rather than Goldilocks II or III). Rebel Goldilocks is the pullet that kept insisting on laying her precious brown egg all the way off in an empty cardboard box in the barn rather than in the nests with the other girls last fall.
It's always something of a feeding frenzy. There's a lot of running around with some bit food in your mouth, most likely clucking over your good fortune, potentially dropping your morsel or having it rudely stolen from you, and running back to the pan (while complaining loudly about your bad luck) for yet another tidbit and repeating the entire process.
Yes, it seems as though it would be far more efficient just to stand there and eat your tasty snack, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
This is Buffy. She's the only Buff Orpington we got in a really fascinating mix "egg-layers:" White Orpingtons and floppy-combed White Leghorns, the smaller Laced and Penciled Wyandottes, the white-speckled black Anconas and funny little Silver Spangled Hamburgs.
Next to them Ms. Buffy stands out like a real Grande Dame, both because of her bushy blonde feathers and her big build.
In May 2005 this odd little guy arrived with all the other chicks (that year I'd gotten Silver-Laced Wyandottes and Black Jersey Giants). If you order 25 peeps from the Murray McMurray Hatchery, they send you a "free rare chick." He was soon dubbed Odo, since his species (his breed, rather) was (and remains) a mystery.
And here he is now. He's separated from the girls at the moment, because last year's hens pulled all (yep, every single one) of his lovely tail feathers out, poor fellow. So he's a bit lonely, except for a nice little nest of mice living under the heater that keeps his waterer from freezing.
He was a bit shy about having his picture taken, but aren't those handsome feathers growing back in nicely?
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10 comments:
Oh he's a cutie. Those other hens are mean to him!
He looks like a Banti, or more properly, Bantum Rooster. My grandparents gave us pastel-tinted chicks one Easter (ok because we lived on a 10 acre farm on the edge of town). They grew up to be Banti hens and a rooster.
i wish i could carry lil' chicks around with me all day in my pockets.
Very interesting about the rare chick - he grew up to be a handsome fellow! Glad he's getting his feathers back now ;o) The mice sound cute too! (in the chickenhouse, they do...)
Okay, I cannot look at the grown chickens for reasons that sound completely unreasonable even to me - but the chicks are adorable.
Flashback to childhood on the farm! Eeek!!
He looks an awful lot like our Icelandic rooster - I'll have to send you a pic sometime and you can see for yourself!
Nice to meet the rest of the clan!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, your little rare chick whose pic you posted is an Americuana rooster. The hens of this breed lay colored eggs, usually a light green or blue color. I have 4 americuana chicks (supposed to be 4 hens, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed), and they're identical to the one in your pics
thx, anon! i'm hoping there's a chance some of his offspring will lay colored eggs. americauna eggs are so beautiful!
we have some 4-mo old pullets that should begin laying soon (as well as some month-old chicks) so i should know before long.
thanks so much!
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