Summer in the Garden Goes ZOOM, Part III: CHICKENS

I got one additional chicken, this one a young laying hen; now, we have a total of six. She was advertised as a Black Copper Maran, but I am pretty sure that she’s a mixed breed; she hasn’t got the feathery feet and chocolate-brown eggs of a true Maran.  She’s very sweet, though, and has given us a light-beige egg every single day. Meet Jeanette.

When we got the Ameraucana peeps, the guy who sold them to us examined them carefully and did his best to give us only hens, but it’s really hard to tell until you get to about three to four months.  After a while, it becomes really, really obvious.

Left: Hen Butt.  Right: Rooster Butt.

Taco is fascinated with the chickens.

This posture is the beginning of a crow.  I tried to catch one of them doing it on video, but didn’t manage it… it was always a very quick “Cawwwwerrrk.”  Almost more of a honk than a crow, or like you would imagine if a rooster cleared its throat.

But this is where it becomes really, really obvious.  Like teenage boys, the young cockerels are flooded with aggressive, restless hormones, and they have to figure things out.  I LOVE the little stare-off at the start!