Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Chickie Update

My son is visiting from New York. He was kind enough to help pose chickens when asked. We're all about providing non-Manhattan-style experiences here.

These were the girls at the beginning of June. They were young teens at the time, and eager to do some scary things to the guest room carpet on the day they escaped from their dog crate/baby chick pen.

Front, left to right: Albertina, Lizzie, and Meg.
Hocky is at the rear in this photo. She didn't like having pictures taken of her beak.

Now they all live outside in a chicken coop, where sensible hens like to live. This is Albertina the Pecker, a Barred Rock. 


This is Lizzie, the Rhode Island Red.



 And this is the lovely and shy Meg, an Americauna. Meg has green legs that will probably match the green eggs she will eventually lay.


Some sad news: Meg's sister, Hocky, died a couple of weeks ago and was buried with full honors. She was a brave girl and lived her life to the best of her abilities. When she was around a month old, her beak began to show a deformity. It only got more severe as she got older--the beak was crossed and eating was a trial to her. She would peck with the top part of the beak and only occasionally would food get into the bottom part of her beak and down her throat. Hocky grew very tame, as we held her and tried to help get food into her eager mouth. As the others grew, Hocky stayed pretty small, although she never gave up trying to eat. She was lively and cheerful and friendly right to the end. One morning she simply didn't get up to greet us, because she had passed away during the night.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

RZ said: Ben makes an excellent chicken-holding hand model :)

Kate said...

RIP little chick. Makes me sad. The others grew quickly and beautifully!

charlotte g said...

tch. It's dangerous to name your chickens. I was so proud of my critter-sitting the week I kept my grandkids. The chickens had a tar[ to give them a bit of son,and we made sure their water was fresh every day. But my son and his wife went out to check on them Saturday after their vacation and one was dead, an apparent victim of the heat. This time, it wasn't one of the chickens with a name. Somehow, that made it marginally better!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

So nice to see pics and updates on your chickens. Your pullets are quite lovely and have grown big. It won't be long before they lay eggs. All of our Ameracaunas have had green legs, but they've given us many different colors of eggs, including: pink, blue, tan and yes, green eggs.

Awww, poor Hockey. Life is so unfair sometimes.

~Lisa

Ms. Becky said...

these are beautiful creatures - photogenic too! I'm sad reading about poor little Hocky, but it seems she lived a happy life for the time she was here. RIP little chickie. bless your heart for giving her a burial with full honors!

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

Oh, poor little chicken! Her sisters look rather robust, though. If you get green eggs, are you going to serve them with ham? Remember, though, in the book, BOTH the eggs and the ham were green! ugh! When I was a kid, I put green food coloring in my tomato soup, and try as hard as I might, was unable to actually swallow it. Amazing, isn't it, how conditioned we are to the "proper" color for things! (Of course, I DO know that you mean the shell will be green and not the insides...I'm not THAT much of a city girl!)