My Hen Babies

Can you tell that I'm getting a lot of joy out of my chickens? Now that it is summer we have been spending 90% of the day in our backyard playing and watching the chickens forage for bugs. My backyard has the best pest control that it has ever had! Problem is, now my front yard needs their help, but I can't let them up there.

But since none of my pictures have really showcased the chickens yet, I decided to do a little photoshoot. I'm trying to learn simple editing in photoshop, so I thought that they would be a good start.

I'm really worried that my favorite chicken, Snowball (this little white frizzle bantam) is a rooster. There hasn't been any crowing, but her comb and wattle are much more developed than the others. It is possible for a hen to develop the comb and wattle early on, but it isn't super common. The other problem is that I'm not totally sure how old she is. We thought that she was 6 weeks when we got her, but she could be older. I think she acts like a hen, but I'll be devastated if she is a rooster and I have to get rid of her.

 This is Bulbasaur. She is a Speckled Sussex. 250 eggs/yr. She is the smart and fast one. She was the most skiddish until I decided to start trying to train them and started sitting in their coop area with sunflower seeds. She was the first to start eating out of my hand and is now the first to run up to me.

 Butterfree is a Buff Orpington. She should turn out to be my biggest. She is still pretty shy. around 180 eggs/yr

 Eagle is a funny chicken. She acts like such a baby, chirping all the time if another of her small friends are not around. She is still so tiny. But although she runs away quickly from the other chickens, she is not afraid to be the first into the coop with the big girls, jumping all over them to get her spot on the roost. Her fluff on her head makes it so that she can't see very well, so she is actually quite easy to catch. Possibly 200 eggs/yr.

 Hei Hei McChicken is the one chicken I let Eric name. Have you seen Moana? Luckily she doesn't act like the Hei Hei from the movie. I believe she is our Red Sex-link. I've been told she will be a great layer. I think that means around 200/yr. She is curious but still doesn't like being touched.

 Jigglypuff is friendly and slow. So she is easy to catch. I've seen a lot of these chickens, so I didn't think they were that pretty, but now that I have one, I love to look at her feathers. She is a Barred Rock and should do 250-280/yr.

 Lacee is a Silver Laced Wyandotte. She is FAST! Definitely my hardest to catch. I can only catch her if her head is in the food container and she can't see me. I'll expect 200 eggs/yr from her.

 Miss Frizzle I think is my Black Sex-link. She has the most personality of my hens and was the first and only one to jump out of the coop to try to get a head start on scavenging for bugs in the yard. She did it two days in a row, so she got her wing clipped. She should do 250 eggs/yr.

 Pidgeotto is my Rhode Island Red. She is by far my biggest chicken and has been from the beginning. Although she may be a week older than the others. I would have thought they would have evened out in size by now though. She still will not come and eat seeds out of my hand though. 260 eggs/yr.

 My beloved Snowball. Since she is a frizzle, they didn't specify what breed she came from. I think she looks like a White Leghorn, But I'll never know. She is my fiesty sweetheart. SO easy to catch and so fluffy to pet.

 Spider got her name changed from Greeny just this week. Oliver chose the new name only because I thought Greeny wasn't that cool. Not much of an improvement with the new name. She is an Austalorp. 250 eggs/yr.

It has been 12 weeks (March 17) since I bought the older ones, so they are between 12-13 weeks old. And almost 3 weeks (May 23rd) since I got the babies, so they could be anywhere from 7-9 weeks old. They could start laying as early as early as 16 weeks, but are more likely to start laying closer to 20 weeks.