Sure Sign

June 27, 2020

Today I took some of our strawberries that bugs or other animals had tasted before we got to them, out to the chickens. Kylo our Rooster was intermittently crowing, when I got closer I heard an unmistakable echo. My husband described it as a teenage boy with his voice changing. Yep, the one we called rooster. He's a rooster! After several crows I went to tell our children. Sadly Rooster was done by then and they will have to wait to hear the evidence. It is actually nice to have a back up rooster and we are glad that he is coming in young and hopes he accepts Kylo's dominance so that they don't fight too much. We don't want either one to be hurt. We hope with 13 hens there are enough to meet both their needs.

The past few nights my husband has noted 1-3 of the young hens joining Kylo on the top bars in the coop. The rest of the young ones stay with Rooster down low. It will be interesting to watch the dynamics as time goes on.

Looking back

From when we moved the chicks out to the coop

Poor ugly teenage chick, so much better looking now. This is one we call Ostrich now. She is much better looking.

Chickens

June 19, 2020

I know others don't share our love for chickens but we really do enjoy our feathered friends.

Our chicks have grown and look a lot different from when they were little balls of fluff. We have tried to identify the breeds.
Here are our best guesses, and the names we have given them. We tend to mostly name those of the same breed the same or very similar names.

The one in the front I think might be a Speckled Sussex (though not as speckled as some images I have seen that is my best guess)

We named one Rooster and the other two of this breed Ostrich.

One was more dominate, and seemed more interested in checking us out. Generally acting more like our Rooster than any of our hens.

The other two, at least one, twice when we moved them into the smaller outside coop, was afraid of us and when we would open the door, it would stick its head in the slats of the pallet walls or in the hay to hide from us. Apparently unaware we could see the rest of her clearly. 

On the left is what we think is a Speckled Sussex, and the right a Black laced, Red Wyandotte. We named her Emu because she is a bit bigger than the others.

Center Front, we think is one of two Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. We call them Pigeon because of the grey color.  My Sweetheart really likes the coloring on this one. I really like Emu.

We have three of these, We believe they are Cuckoo Marans, possibly French Cuckoo Marans.

We just call them all Cuckoo

Does that mean we have three French Hens ???

I failed to get a picture of one that is similar to the Cuckoo Marans, but more black. 

We call her Crow.