Chickens

Blue-- Ameraucana Cross (Possibly California White)

Blue is from one of the eggs we hatched in the incubator 6 or so years ago. She has the pale feathers and pale brown eggs so we believe she is from Cloud and our sweetest rooster Jack who was Ameraucana. We have three of his daughters and we think we know who their mothers were.

Bonnie -- Blue Wyandotte

We went through a phase of wanting Blue hens so we bought some of different breeds and that's when Bonnie and Nicole came to live here. I never saw Blue Wyandottes before but their nice. Nicole refused to stop being broody and we had to find her another home but Bonnie is hanging out with the girls and seems to have found her place in the pack.

Veronica-- Blue Jersey Giant

This last summer we went thru a phase of wanting blue types of chickens and here is one of the girls we found. She is a good layer and pretty calm and dosile. I always thought Jersy Giants would be bigger. Maybe she isn't a prime example of one.

Taylor -- Black Copper Maran

The quest for Black Copper Marans! Last year I met a gal at one of the Homesteading Fairs that had a Black Copper Maran rooster in town who needed to get him out of there. Well I convinced her to let us take him and one hen to start a breeding pair. They got their own coop built and she started laying and boom! BUMBLEFOOT! So to the vet we went and they opened it and bandaged it and then antibiotics so no keeping eggs, and by now Swift the rooster had become a 25# MENACE. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and MEAN! So he had to go away and we got Lil S***. So she started laying again and we tried to have Annabelle set on the eggs but they didn't hatch. Then another round of Bumblefoot and a surgery I performed and she was so sick and weak and on antibiotics for 3 weeks we didn't keep any eggs. She is finally healthy and now shes not laying. We were able to get another hen though so when they start back up we will try hatching them in the incubator and pray for some success.

Pamela-- naked neck or turkin

We bought this girl while Gary's sister Pamela was here. She wanted a hen of her own and named her Pamala. Naked necks are bred to be butcher chicken. They reduced the amounts of feathers to make them easier to pluck.

Ginny -- the Guinea

When we couldn't find a chick we found a keet. She hatched alone and needed a family or at least a mom. Then we found her sister and Annabelle raised her with the chicks just fine. Guineas are HUGE mouths that let you know any time there is something strange going on around the coop. Its nice to know we can hear something going on out there. They go off even if it's just us out there. Funny birds.

Jimmy -- the Guinea

We got a couple more guinea keets to try to make Butterscotch stop brooding and it worked. But one keet disappeared and we think the snakes got it. The other grew up and by a month old Butterscotch was done mothering the little nut. We called him Jimmy hoping he was a he. He is definately bonded to Ginny and now his horn and waddles are larger than hers a good sign since he is at least a month younger and still smaller body than her. We discovered that Guinea Fowl make two different sounds. The hen makes a "buck - wheat" or two sylable sound and the male only makes a single sylable sound "kack" But he can make the sound in rapid fire mode making it into a full song and she can imitate his noise but he can't make her "whant - whant" sound as I call it.