The Hens
The OGs. We purchased six chickens from Orde Farm in Hollis, NH in April 2019. The sole goal of having chickens at the time was to reduce the number of ticks in our yard. Having eggs was simply a bonus. We started with no knowledge at all. We purchased a coop from Tractor Supply after we brought the original group home. I had, at least, purchased a brooder heater and used an old plastic bin. They quickly moved to a dog crate lined with plastic hardware cloth. We built a chicken wire run that still stands (amazingly!) to this day. Sadly, many of the OG have passed on. All of the Rhode Island Reds (RIR) did not last long. The last to go was Marge who made it to 3.5 years. Cuckoo and Shadow are New Hampshire Reds (NHR) that are still going strong.
Cuckoo - One of the OG 6 and leader of the flock from the beginning. Some of the boys flee in fear of her! She keeps everyone in line and chats up a storm. While she wants to be near you, she doesn't want you to hold her. Cuckoo is a New Hampshire Red and lays large brown eggs.
Shadow - Number 2 in line from the old guard. She is a New Hampshire Red who will talk your ear off too. She is slightly more approachable than her sister and will drop down to let you pet her. As she has grown older she has ceased wanting to be touched. She wants attention, though, and ill peck your legs if you aren't paying attention to her.
Round two of chicks! Who knew that I would love chickens!! I always enjoyed watching birds outside, but strongly believe that all birds should be free to roam their natural habitat. These birds have no natural habitat to speak of anymore, as they have been bred for centuries. As you can see, these girls, and the original OG, were out around our yard every day. They have a little over an acre and half. There is always a risk of them being "taken" by a predator, but they are unhappy being confined to a run. THey do an excellent job of keeping the ticks in check. They don't get out from their enclosure these days, but they still have over 1/4 an acre to roam.
We ordered theses girls from Murray McMurray Hatchery in Spring 2019. There were two Buff Orpingtons, two Americaunas, and two Silver Leghorns. McMurray is a production hatchery, so none of the girls are show quality.
Cheeto (the Queen)
Cheeto is a Buff Orpington. She was the leader of this pack. She is independent, sweet, and huggable. After her first molt, she liked being held less. She is still independent and will not bow down to the boys. She lays large light brown eggs.
Brick
Brick is so named because of her habit of eating poop as a chick. You have to be dumb as a brick to do it. She remains slightly duller than a tack, but is a sweet bird. She has never loved being held She is supposed to be a Buff Orpington, but we are fairly convinced a leghorn escaped and bred with her mother. SHe has the body structure of a leghorn and is nowhere near as bulky as our other Orpingtons.
CeCe
CeCe is one of two original Americaunas. We chose her, and her sister Bonnie, because they lay blue eggs. The egg colors are much closer to green than blue, but that isn't surprising.
Cece is a gentle bird who always lets you hold her and pet her. She is a master of escape and is able to regularly evade her enclosure. We let her be as she is a survivor and able to hide well.
Blue
Blue is a silver leghorn that was named after the velociraptor from Jurrasic Park. She is fierce and independent. She wants nothing to do with people, unless there is food involved. She is the only full-size layer we have that lays white eggs. Her eggs tend to be on the medium side. It appears that she may be done laying, as we haven't had white medium eggs in a while.
The third group was smaller. There were four birds that survived (the Dorkings died as chicks). These girls were ordered along with a group of meat birds.
Betty
Betty is a New Jersey Giant. These birds are supposed to be in the 10-13 pounds. She did not get the message. While she is a nice enough bird, she is hardly docile and friendly. She is also only around seven pounds. She is molting hard, out of season, and look awful. She had to spend time in our garage due to an injury and became friendlier during that time.
Kuma
Kuma is Betty's sister. She is much larger at about 8.5 pounds. She is not friendly, either. She isn't mean, just terrified of humans without food. She also does not come close to standard. She, and Betty, lay extra large to jumbo light brown eggs.
Taki
Taki is one of two Speckled Sussex Rooster's. She and Habi (who was taken by a predator), were named for their spicy attitudes. Taki loves to peck at you to get your attention. She will sit with you if you are there for a while. She is in the middle of the flock, pecking order wise. Taki lays large light brown eggs.
There was less time between the third group and the next...and a lot more to the order! I had seen a cute male BB Red Game bantam on the McMurray site and desperately wanted him. Unfortunately, he could only be shipped with an order of 15 or more bantams. So, I ordered him and a random shipment of 15 bantams. Bantams are never sexed as they are so tiny to begin with. Needless to say, my BB Red Game was a girl, She was sweet and itty bitty! She was also easily picked off by a hawk.
I also ordered from a different hatchery this time, My Pet Chicken (MPC). After learning that Dorking chicks don't do well in shipping, we ordered from My Pet Chicken as they are much closer to us. In general, we find that the birds from MPC are much closer to standard than McMurray.
Lady Cluckles (left) & Dame Judy (right)
Ruby
specs
Fez (top)
Stormy Sky
Bernie (Bernadette)
Named by my mother in honor of her confirmation saint. She is loud, flighty, and wants nothing to do with us. She lays small white eggs. She is a black Japanese Bantam.
Buddy
Buddy is named after Buddy the Elf...I don't know why. She is also flighty and goes broody frequently. She is a Cochin Bantam.
Baddy
Baddy
"Poor Baddy" is a common mantra in our house. My mother has taken a particular shine to this poor chicken. She is the smallest chicken we have. She is terrified of everyone and everything. She is a bantam White Frizzle Cochin. She cannot fly due to her feather structure. She is also mercilessly picked on by her fellow flock mates, landing her the lowest in the flock. At one point, she looked as if she was plucked and ready for the oven. She spent close to four months in our garage recovering. Since then, she has regrown her feathers and became very talkative with us when we visited. She still didn't want us to touch her, but she always chatted with us. She was recently moved out to her own little coop (our hospital ward), to acclimate to the flock. I don't know that she will ever be reintroduced. She was originally named Badmington because she looked like a shuttle cock.
These chicks were bought from Tractor Supply when a school hatching project went wrong. None of these ladies is particularly friendly, despite being coddled bu children.
Volcano (Cano)
Volcano is a Barnvelder who lays dark brown eggs. She isn't particularly friendly and is a little flighty.
S.L. (S&^% List)
SL is so named by my husband who could not get her in the run one day. She is much like her sister and is not friendly and flighty. She lays large dark brown eggs.
Midas
Midas is an Easter Egger who is not friendly. She is a screamer. If you need to grab her, she will pancacke but scream the whole time. She is a beautiful gold and black and lays blue/green eggs.
Dragon
Dragon is an Easter Egger that lays blue green eggs. She went broody and hatched five babies, three of which have survived. Her one daughter, Sheila, is further down the page. Dragon is a fierce, super protective mother...until the chicks are about 5 weeks old. Then she abandoned them. We cared for them until they were old enough to be on their own.
GG (Goth Gull)
GG is an Easter Egger that lays blue/green eggs. LIke the others in her group she is flighty, skittish, and not a cuddler.
Frodo
Frodo is one of two Silver Wyandottes that survived an outbreak of coccidia. (The other is a roo.) She is not very friendly and has a swollen leg that won't heal.
Spaz and Charlie (roo) weere hatched from eggs. They were the only two that grew to hatch out of 48 eggs. She is a lovely bird and doting mother. She isn't one to be cuddled, but she is friendly.
Spaz
Spaz is a Buff Orpington that was hatched from egg along with another Roo in May 2021. She is so named because she was flopping around after hatching as she couldn't get her legs. She is a sweet, enormous bird. She has also made a great mother, caring for a group of chicks in Spring 2022. She was doting and could be seen breaking their food up for them.
After the influx of birds from the last two orders, I am lucky to still have my husband. I was sure he would divorce or kill me! :) Thankfully, he tolerates my bird obsession. This is in spite of me ordering 50+ new chicks during a middle of the night spending spree in January. We were also suprised with one of my ladies going broody and hatching a clutch in April 2022. Ultimately, the orders didn't pan out the same. There were four shipments, two in the spring and two in the fall. The spring birds all died. The ones I had ordered were not available (mostly) due to bird flu hitting the hatchery. We ended up with 3 Dorkings from this group. THe rest of the birds didn't survive 48 hours. One of the fall set was a meat bird order. Four of my birds that had hatched that spring were sent to a summer camp in the lakes region to enjoy campers for the summer. All in all , it was a tough year for chickens.
The final fall group was supposed to be American Bresse, which are a very specialized meat breed with marbled meat. These are the sweetest, cuddliest, most lovable birds. Needless to say, they would not make it to the dinner table. This is likely good, as they are not true American Bresse. It looks like there is some silky in there. Needless to say, I will keep every one of them because they hang with me while in the run. We also acquired another Light Brahama an Ayam Cemani. The Brahma is very sweet and cuddly, and the Ayam Cemani is really nice and a moderate cuddler.
Dottie
Dottie is a White Australorp that had one giant black spoton her back when she was a chick. She has a few spots now, but the original spot has disappeared. She is fairly friendly and loves to roam.
Empress
Empress is another White Australorp. Named by my son who felt she was regal and wanted to name her. She now has a black dot on the top of her head as a "crown". She escapes daily and continues to challenge us to an egg hunt. You never know where they will be.
Barb
Barb (BARBARA!) is a Barred Rock. I felt we should have the quintessential barnyard chicken. Never again. She is mean to the other birds and not frienly towards us.
Echo
Echo is Barb's counterpart. She is supremely unfriendly and nasty to the other birds.
Siren (Screech Cheeks)
Siren, was so named as she never stopped "talking" or screeching and had huge fluffy cheeks. At one point she sounded like a fire alarm (thus the Siren Name). She is a sweet bird called a Blue Favaucana, a specialty breed from MPC. She lays blue eggs.
Delta
A light Brahma raised with Dorkings by Spaz. She isn't nearly as friendly as my other Brahmas, but she is still friendly and sweet. She spent a stint at summer camp this year.
River
A sweet dorking who visited camp with her sister's this summer.
Freya
The sceond friendliest dorking of this group, second to Merida the Brave who was killed. She enjoyed summer camp this summer.
Sheila
Sheila is the daughter of Charlie and Dragon. She screams a lot and is very skittish. She was sad when her brothers went to boy jail, but visits them through the fence daily.
Belle
An American Bresse raised with meat birds. She was so sweet we named her - the ultimate no-no for meat birds. She is now part of the regular flock.
The American Bresse. These were purcahsed to be meat birds. They are so sweet and kind that they have remained to be egg layers. They are still young and do not lay yet. In with them, we picked up a Light Brahma and an Ayam Cemani.
Ami
Foxy (Foxtrot)
Snuggles
Frankie