I never thought I would have so much fun raising chickens. When I picked up my little chicklets on April 1st the entire dozen fit in a small cardboard box. Today, four months later, they are practically full grown hens and I couldn’t fit them in a box if my life depended on it.
The three golden pullets are nearly identical, *I* can’t tell them apart anyway. They are all named “HennyPenny”, aka. “The HPs”. There is one Barred Rock I’ve been calling “Dot” cause she’s so all-American, and the four Auracanas are names “Six through Nine”. That is the order in which they enter and exit the hen house. Interesting enough, that is also the order of their coloring, light to dark. Together they are my little Teen Girl Squad.
There is a lot of chitter chatter with my Girls. Every morning starts with a, “Ooo.. now are you going to give us some of that yummy chickie scratch? How about some grapes? Is that a bug, I just love eating bugs. I left you a pretty little egg in the box so you had better give me a nice treat. Did you see what Six did a second ago? She is so bossy…”
This morning Dot left me her second egg ever. It is small and freckled – just like her. It is also much lighter in color than the others. She is still working out the kinks of new motherhood… it had two yolks and the shell looks like old person skin; all wrinkled up around the top and bottom. She’ll figure it out in time, I have no doubt.
Art Farm Oregon 