Thursday, April 7, 2011

back to chickens

For those of you who stop by expecting to hear about chickens, food, or my family, stick around. The next few posts will be all about chickens.

In case you're just joining me, here's a recap of the initial purpose of this blog. Raising chickens on a city lot in the city.

I've had chickens (hens only, no roosters allowed in the city) for four years now. Some of my girls are four years old and still laying eggs.

Let's meet them.


Gidget. Feisty chicken extraordinaire. She's a banty Araucana or Easter Egger. She lays small, beautiful green eggs.

banty EE hen

She rules the roost. Gidget never thinks twice about bossing even the largest hens around the coop. She's as mean as a snake and as cruel as a cat.


Nelly. Our sweetest and smallest chicken. She's a banty buff sebright. A petite little thing. No fluffy butt here.

nelly

Nelly is as sweet as pie. Unlike Gidget, she never gets her feathers in a bind when a new coop mate moves in. She just carries on. She loves to wander into the kitchen uninvited or peek at me while perched on the windowsill. She was featured in the Backyard Chicken calendar. Miss January 2009. Although they're like night and day, Nelly and Gidget are BFFs.


Lucy and Ethel. Barred Rocks. These two are living up to their namesakes. Ethel is slightly larger than Lucy. I can't really tell them apart, but my daughter says she can. They both lay large brown eggs every day. One of them lays speckled eggs, although I have no idea which one.

barred rock hen

barred rock hen

Together these girls get themselves into more trouble than... well... Lucy and Ethel. You can read about a few of their antics here.


Wynonna. A golden-laced wyandotte and our most beautiful chicken. She's never laid an egg in the three years we've had her. We keep her around because she's a supermodel.

wynona

Here she is in oil...

52010CP-11

Painting by Bruce Anderson

Here she is in flight...


You might be thinking, “but chickens don’t fly.” Here’s proof they do. This shot of Wynonna was taken by my amazing animal photographer friend, Carli Davidson. You can see more of her work at carlidavidson.photoshelter.com.


Next: the coop

10 comments:

happygirl said...

I think your chickens are wonderful. Do you have a coop? Do they stay outside all winter? Here in the mid-Atlantic, we can have cold, snowy winters. Can they survive? What about predators? Do you have any where you live? We have loose dogs, cats and even the stray fox around here. See, I have LOTS of questions. I'm thinking I'd like to buy my chickens at the fair, all grown, instead of raising from chicks. I just need to know what I need and how to do it. Thanks.

Emily said...

Wow, what a cool flying chicken picture! I've never seen one like that.

Cindy said...

happygirl, whoa, slow down girl. Next post will be all about the coop in our backyard. Then I'll move on to all the other pertinent aspects of being a chicken farmer in the city. No worries, your questions will be answered in due time. ;-)

Don't run out and buy any chickens just yet. You can learn from my mistakes and be much better off.

Cindy said...

Jemm, Isn't that the coolest? I probably shouldn't tell a fellow chicken farmer what we had to do to get that shot. Let me just say Wynonna was thrown up in the air a lot during the shoot. She seems to have forgiven me now.

Jayme Goffin, The Coop Keeper said...

Three things I know for sure.
#1 I love your hair.
#2 I may have not owned that many jackets in the course of my entire life.
#3 Some of the prettiest chicken pictures I ever did see.

Cindy said...

Jayme, Thank you! I'm so excited that you stopped by I can barely contain myself! I love your blog! I love having you as my facebook friend! I love your videos! I love your accent! I love you!

Bruce Anderson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Our Juicy Life said...

I just made a comment, but realized Bruce was logged in, so I deleted it....

I just stopped by and was happy to see the chickens and the painting Bruce did of Wyonna. I miss having chickens, they were so fun (until Mr. Fox came for a visit). Maybe when we get a house here in France we'll get some more.

Cindy said...

Alisa, Thanks for stopping by! I love the chicken painting Bruce did! It's sitting on top of our mantel where everyone can see it. Not sure if you ever saw the original blog post I did about it. Here's a link to it: http://portlandpeeps.blogspot.com/2010/05/wonderful-gift.html

Susan said...

That one of Wynonna in flight is AMAZING! She IS a supermodel! Think you can get her any runway work?

My hens are 3 years old now. I'm down to 11 from a start of 15. They're laying pretty well right now, but it was a pretty barren winter. I had a Golden Comet who never laid an egg. We had to put her down because she was egg bound and very sickly. Poor Goldie.

I wanted to name two of my Rhodies Thelma and Louise, but the grandkids vetoed it. I ended up naming one of my EEs Louise, though.

My favorite breeds of the ones I have are Rhode Island Reds and the Buff Orps. Namely because they don't get poopy-butts. Their butt feathers always look pristine.

I've been having a tough time staying away from the chicks at Tractor Supply this spring. :)