Meet The Chickens

                                                                   Samantha

                                                  

Samantha is a Buff Cochin.  She has been silly since when she was a baby chick.  When I picked her up for the first time, she twitched her feet.  We got her from my friend's neighbor.  He had two boys and three girl chickens.  He showed us the three girls and we held each one but Samantha was the sweetest.  Samantha is broody right now.  That means she is sitting on a nest trying to hatch eggs.  Every time I go in the coop she puffs up and squawks at me like I'm trying to eat her. When I take her out of the nest she puffs up like a turkey and runs all around the coop.

Here are some pictures of Samantha puffing up.

Samantha telling the flock who's boss.

I'm ignoring you

You can tell Samantha is definitely a Cochin because of her big, fluffy feet.  Do Cochin's feet need trimming?  She picks at her feet sometimes.



Suzzie The Rooster

Suzzie is our little rooster.  He is always curious.  We hatched him in my first grade classroom.  The first time I saw him as a little tiny chick he caught my eye and stared at me.  He just stared and stared and stared.  He's a weird little chicken.  He's about 8 inches tall.  He always carries his tail up high and his wings down low.  His crow isn't very loud but it is bigger than he is.  We were going to get rid of him but our neighbors begged us to keep him.

While I was in France he lost two of his toenails.  We just noticed.  Little black scabs are in their place.  Is that normal for chickens?  Will they grow back?

Suzzie with his flock.

Dancing for his hens.

Checking out his feet.

 Shy Valerie  

When we got Valerie the man had to catch her with a net.  We got her sister too.  They are both skittish. Sylvia, Valerie's sister, has warmed up to me.  When I get close to her she squats down and lets me pick her up.

Sylvia and Valerie

Relaxing in the shade on a hot spring day

Little Sunset

Sunset is a Serilkie (a Serama and Silkie mix).  She is very cute but don't let her looks fool you.  She is cranky like you can't believe!!  When you pick her up she makes little squealing noises.  She thinks she is a little princess. 

We were hatching chicks with our dear little chickens, Zozo and Katy.  After all the eggs had hatched but 2, the mothers got out of the nest and stopped brooding.  In the process, they knocked the eggs that had not hatched out of the nest and onto the floor.  We put the 2 eggs in an incubator.  Only one hatched and that was Sunset.

Sunset and Suzzie playing in the new grass