Introducing the new hens
We’ve added four new chickens to our established flock of four ex-battery hens, two weeks ago but I’ve only just had the chance to upload any photos of them. The new girls are only babies—I estimate around 14 weeks old, though they were mis-sold, perhaps not knowingly, as 17 weeks old—and three of them are pure breeds, two Cuckoo Marans (the black-and-white stripey ones) and one Buff Orpington (the yellow one that looks like an Easter chick). The fourth is a Buff Orpington/Cuckoo Maran cross, with apparently the front end evidencing the former and the back end the latter.
Although the overall shape of the cross-breed bird is that of a Buff Orpington, she has an uncharacteristic black beak and what colour eggs she will produce when she starts is anyone’s guess. Marans produce dark chocolate-brown eggs, Orpingtons brown, so chances are she will be producing brown eggs in one shade or another. The Marans won’t start laying until September at the earliest, the Orpingtons not until at least January as, while they are destined to become enormous adults, they are relatively slow to mature.
Their names are Dietrich and Hepburn (the Marans) and Buttercup and Gypsy Rose (the Orpingtons). We have another two pure breeds on order, presents for David for his birthday, called Lavender Araucanas. I’ve no idea when they will be ready, but I will be posting pics of them as they’re very strange-looking but rather beautiful as well and they are famous for producing blue eggs.
Buttercup (note: she will get a comb—the big bit on top of the head—when she’s all grown up, although not all chicken breeds have them).
Dietrich looks feisty and flighty because she is—although she squeals whenever an adult hen comes near, as do all the babies (for good reason)! We’ve also been worried Dietrich might be a cockerel, but it’s looking increasingly likely she is, indeed, a she. Phew!
tags: buff orpingtons, chickens, chicks, cuckoo marans, hens, poultry
6 comments on “Introducing the new hens”
June 24th, 2008 at 1:27 am
It was a real pain getting WordPress to upload the photos for this entry. The uploader just wouldn’t work (not for the first time), and then when I uploaded the pics via FTP to the correct directory, the media browser built into WordPress refused to ’see’ them in there. Most annoying. In the end I decided enough was enough, and downloaded a wonderful Firefox plugin called ScribeFire (formerly Performancing), which is a blog posting tool.
Needless to say, it did the job or you wouldn’t have seen the pics. But the much-vaunted WP 2.5 media uploader/browser is soooo buggy. x
June 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Gorgeous birds! They are very lucky to have you two for their Daddies.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Ahhhh, so cute. Glad this is working out so well for you.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Howard » They are, aren’t they? People are so used to seeing standard birds, most folks have no idea there’s so many different looks and colours and breeds. A lot of hassle until they get settled in, though!
Jami » Thank you. You’re right, they’ll be as spoiled and cared for as the rest of our extensive menagerie. Which now, of course, numbers over 10,000 if you include the bees (and by end of season, probably in the region of 60,000 plus!).
x
June 25th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Soooo glad to hear that Dietrich is almost certainly definitely a she, I know you were a ‘bit’ worried about that
Lovely photos of the girls
June 25th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Beautifu1 » Yeah, it’s still an ‘almost certainly’ though… which I guess isn’t a certainly at all, more of a pretty good likelihood…
have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment. Registration is quick and easy. Just click here to get yourself a free account.