Meet Ebony (peeking in on the left) and Tawny, young hens hatched this spring who joined our little flock today. Well, not quite joined, as they are in an enclosure within the chicken quarters to get acquainted with the other girls without the risk of getting attacked by the "home crowd." I am just thrilled to have my own frosted black Easter Egger, after falling in love with those at Rick's aunt and uncle's in Missouri! And she lays blue eggs. :-)
Tawny is beautiful, too, with the same kind of comb. Can someone tell me what kind of chicken she is?
Last Sabbath someone at our church told me someone else at our church was trying to give away a few of her hens. I called this week and got a little more information, then broached the subject with Rick. Lo and behold, the practical man who is holding the line strong on "no more sheep" said I could get the three hens the lady was offering! (Turns out she only wanted to give away two.) This after already agreeing to let me buy a Welsummer hen from Tammy at Wrensong (who is delivering our very own dark-egg layer to me at OFFF). That will make seven hens - a baker's half-dozen? What fun!
Apparently the squirrels have heard about the economic crisis our country is in, and are gorging themselves while the eating is good. Instead of English walnuts in and out of their green husks littering the ground under our tree, there's this:
I've never seen anything like it. I can only assume that they are saving some for winter as well; they certainly aren't leaving any for us! At least we'll have eggs....Off to tease fleeces at . . .
8 comments:
Tawny looks like a Gold Lace Wyandotte (spelling ???). If you want your egg supply to continue through the winter, you will need to rig up some sort of artificial lighting so the hens get about 12-14 hours per day of "sunlight"... We took a simple trouble lamp and hooked it up in the hen house using a lamp timer so we could adjust the hours that the lamp was on... Have Fun !!!
I agree with Dave - she's a Golden Laced Wyandotte. They must be very popular this year as you are the fourth farmer I have seen with hens like this (and only one of them was able to identify them correctly!) We ordered one in our latest batch of chicks, but am afraid she didn't make it as I don't see anything that colorful out there, and we did have two die...
Those are some pretty chicks, I'm simply blow away with their coloring.
Our squirrels are doing the same thing with our walnuts ... interesting.
She does look like a Golden Laced Wynandotte, but 'something' about her looks like an Ameracuana too--she couldn't be a mixed chickie breed, could she?
Congrats on your new flock members! I think seven will be a great number and you should have fresh eggs in abundance! Now, tell me---how can I get some of those gorgeous black frosted Ameracuanas?????
Tammy
She's definitely a golden laced Wyandotte. One of my favorites, I have 4 of them and 3 Silver laced. :)
Soon you will have 7.....and did you decide on a roo too?
Hi Michelle - my first thought was also Gold Laced Wyandotte - or some are using the term Gold Pencilled up this way. I also thought there might be a bit of mix in her as well - I was leaning towards Aurucana - or possibly even
some bantam because we have some bantams with the same markings.
I'll have to get the camera out and take some pictures of my hens and chicks and post them this weekend. Enjoy the eggs.
Once I had a breed to look up I did, and Tawny fits to the Gold-laced Wyandotte to a T. Thanks for your help, everyone! Another chicken post is coming.
And no, Tammy, no roo. :-)
Tawney looks like a GL Wyandotte but I think your Ebony is a true Ameraucana. She should lay blue eggs. If they are green or tan, she's an EE.
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