Chickens Part Two

Come June 2023 we have our rooster Pikachu and our five hens. We knew we wanted to get more chickens, so, I bought 40 more birds…lol yes 40 more. There is a hatchery in Lebanon, Missouri called Cackle Hatchery and throughout spring and summer they go on the road in a chick truck. Lucky for me (Drew would disagree with the lucky part) they set up in our town! The downside is I’m usually at work, but my cousin is willing to help me out. So, she picked up 10 Easter eggers, 3 Rhode Island Whites, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Lavender Orpingtons, 8 Polishes, 5 Turken and 8 Guineas for me. Drew definitely thought I was crazy for getting so many, well to be honest he already knew I was crazy, but this added to his list of why.

 Our Easter eggers have a variety of colors and patterns. An Easter egger is just a crossbreed of a chicken that has the blue egg gene and a brown egg layer. Ours are part Americauna, they have feathers on their face that poof out a bit and they are pretty chill birds. The Rhode Islands are great egg layers which was our main reason for wanting them. The white variety was new to me, but both the red and white RI lay brown eggs and have high production all year round. We had only recently learned of the Orpington breed, and the lavender color is so pretty! Their eggs are a pale brown color, they have the softest feathers and are also mild tempered. Ours truly believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. We are constantly having to put them back inside the fence.

The Polishes are something I knew we would be getting at some point because I love how they look! They are smaller birds, but they have a big crest of feathers. The ones we chose were three different patterns. Four of them were splashes, two were gold laced and two silver laced. The eggs they lay are small and white. My favorite is probably the Turken or Naked-Neck. These birds are in the “so ridiculous they are cute category.” They have a little tuft of feathers on their head, a naked neck and feathers from the bottom of their neck to the tail feathers. Some versions of the breed are called Show Girl because it appears they are wearing a feather boa around their neck. They lay brown eggs and are very sweet, even our rooster Turken is calm and friendly. The Easter eggers, Rhode Islands and Orpingtons were guaranteed to be hens while the Polishes and Naked-necks were straight run. Straight run means their sex wasn’t determined before being sold. Thankfully we only ended up with three roosters out of this group.