A Sunday Tour

This is our chicken coop. It started out small, but has since grown in size to accommodate all of Countrychick's 4-H roosters and hens! There are 9 roosters in our bunch and 13 hens. All of the roosters are separated except two. The first year of a roosters life, they can be mixed in with other roosters their own age, but year two will bring a difference in behavior as they start to compete for the attention of their "girls." We had to add on to the coop in order to have plenty of room for all of the birds. Countrychick will not part with any of the roosters as she raised them all from chicks. When they arrived two years ago, they were sickly and we lost eighteen out of the thirty-four chicks that we had ordered. Countrychick spent a week sleeping on the floor of our spare bedroom watching over her little flock. Talk about dedication to her 4-H project! We do not eat any of our chickens....they are with us for the duration of their life. The hens reward us with fresh eggs and the roosters serenade us with their lovely crowing.....which by the way, usually starts around 4:30 a.m. every morning. We know each rooster by his crow and each and every one of our chickens has a name. So come with me on a little walk around the coop and I will introduce you to them all. This is Einstein. He was supposed to be a bantam white crested black polish, but ended up being a mid-size golden lace/black polish cross. He is a handsome little man. Countrychick used him as her 4-H showmanship bird last year and she won reserve grand champion. Einstein is not camera shy.

Hello Sugar Daddy. Sugar Daddy is camera shy and he is not very friendly to me. He likes Countrychick well enough, but he attacks my feet every time I go into his pen. Sugar Daddy is a bantam blue buff Cochin, but due to a recessive gene, he ended up being more white than blue. That is very common in blue varieties of poultry.

Below are Barney, Roxy and Laya. Barney is a silver duckwing Old English gamebird. He loves to strut his stuff and show off. Roxy and Laya were more interested in eating then photo taking, so all you see of them are their backsides. Roxy is a blue brassyback Old English game hen and Laya is a Golden Sebright. Sebrights only come in one size, bantam, which means there is no standard size breed of them. Laya is one of two Sebrights that we have.

Back off Azule! Azule likes to peck you when she gets the chance. She is a bantam blue Cochin. She was originally Sugar Daddy's mate, until he decided to beat her up. We fondly call her the "blue devil" chicken as she loves to sneak up, grab exposed skin and give it a good twist or peck.

Here you see Cricket getting a drink, Peanut strutting next to the food bowl and Mumble coming out from under the house. Cricket is our other Golden Sebright. She is very friendly and will fly up and sit on your shoulder while you are doing chores. Peanut is a ham! He loves Countrychick and gets very jealous when she pays attention to the other birds. He will follow her around like a little dog. Peanut was supposed to be a white blacktailed Japanese, but he ended up being an old English game bird cross. Mumble was so named because when he was a little chick, he looked just like Mumble off of the movie Happy Feet. Mumble is very shy and tends to avoid me, but he does like Countrychick. Mumble is a bantam Light Brahma.

This group is made up of our original twelve birds that we got five years ago. There are three bantam silkies...two white silkies, Simon and Little J and one black silkie, Millie. The two big black birds are Black Australorps. They are Pearl and Daisy. They give us lovely brown eggs. The mixed color bird is Coco and she is an Ameraucana. She give us lovely green eggs.

This is Luke. He is a Modern Game bird. They have very long legs and are used as exhibition show birds in the poultry world. I had to pick him up because when I went into the coop he kept attacking my shoes and hanging off of my pant legs. He and is counterpart, Bo, think they are very mean, but in all reality, they are sweet, harmless little fellas.

In this photo you can see Bo in front of Luke. Last year at the county fair, these two birds won grand champion and reserve champion in their division. The other two in this photo are Molly and Little Pretty Princess. Molly is a bantam white crested black polish and Little Pretty Princess is a blue modern game hen. She is very tiny and very sweet. She will even come to you when you call her name.

In this final group you will see Betty, Java and the tail feathers of Captain Morgan. Betty is a white crested blue polish and Java is a mottled java. The Java breed is one of the oldest breeds of poultry and the name comes from the Island of Java. Our Java is a beauty!!

And finally we have Captain Morgan. He is not very friendly and loves to attack. He is a beautiful boy, but he needs an attitude adjustment. As far as his breed.....well that is a mystery to us. I believe he has some Ameraucana in him, but the rest....well we just don't know.

Thank you for joining me on this Sunday tour of our coop. Now go enjoy your day!