Sunday, July 15, 2012

Odd Bird! A Red Frizzle Cochin Bantam Chicken

This is one of the chicks that we bought back in February, well actually it came free in the order.  It is known as a Red Frizzle Cochin bantam.  Our friend Megan ordered the same kind and for some reason they sent a second one along so I decided to keep that one.  Randomly choosing this chick of the two we ended up with the hen and she ended up with a rooster.  Who I'm told at a very young age of 4 months is already crowing and quite randy, looking for love.  By chance we ended up with a hen.  Roosters, unless you are raising baby chicks, aren't good for much so we lucked out and I do feel badly for Megan as she is the one who really wanted that type of chicken.  At a day old there is really no way of telling the sex of this breed as they are too small and don't have sex specific characteristics as some breeds do so it really was luck.
It is quite small and when we introduced the new chicks to the old chick flock, merging the two the chickens were dumb enough to think the others were there all along because they didn't look any different.  Therefore there was no picking on the new girls.  This one however looks different, a lot different, with her curly feathers so it was obvious to them that she was a new girl and just like middle school girls they picked on the odd looking one.  Since then they seem to have eased up a bit.
Email me at erickancar@yahoo.com if you have any name ideas and we will consider them all.
My wife Sarah is holding her in these photos and this is as big as she will get, bantam chickens are small.


Love her "curly" feathers.  She has hair just like me.


Sunday, July 1, 2012

2 Become 1 or Trouble at the Henhouse

In the dark of night 2 flocks of chickens become 1.  In order to introduce my new chicks (now 4 months and fully grown) into the main flock I moved them from their stall into the main coop in complete darkness.  If they wake up and they (the new chickens) are already there this will allow the chickens to confusedly think the "impostors" were there all along.  Chickens are sedate and somewhat stupid at night so this works.  Otherwise they would probably kill the new ones.  Felt a bit like Fantastic Mr. Fox as I snatched them up one by one to move them.  Or perhaps Seal Team 6 (think stealth mode) as I worked by the light of my cell phone in complete darkness.  In and out in 10 minutes tops, moving 11 chickens.  The (almost?) full moon helped only a bit.
The morning ought to be interesting and loud in the coop because while they are more accepting of new blood they still know that something is slightly off.