Under the Furry Crest

Mellow.
The definition of mellow in the dictionary is soft and rich, as sound, lights, or colors. There are more meanings but this is the one I'm focused on. Another good one would be: having the gentleness, wisdom, or tolerance often characteristic of maturity. And from the outside, these two definitions would perfectly describe the sound, look, and characteristics of dear little Mellow the Silkie. But ever since the baby chicks arrived, Mellow has started to show her true personality.

Isn't Mellow such a cutie, with that small poofy crest and her fluffy cheeks?

Now, let me explain. Today while Charcoal lay calmly on the ground basking in the sun, Mellow walked over to enjoy the warmth as well. As she came closer, her large, round, black eyes caught the sight of Charcoal. Mellow advanced, with snake-like grace. Her eyes and face no longer bore the look of childish innocence; the crest perched atop her head had somehow become smaller and narrower, and her neck stretched out high with authority. 

I have seen Mellow act like this towards the rest of the flock in the exact same way, and when she gets close enough (to her so called "offender") she lowers the wing on the same side as the flock member who she intends on attacking. It looked so similar to a rooster's mating dance, that the first time I saw her do that I almost believed she was a cockerel! One of the differences is that she doesn't extend her other wing and drag it on the ground.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture (mostly because Charcoal's head is in the way), but Mellow is pointing her right wing down towards Charcoal, intending on bumping her.

Here, Mellow is bumping Charcoal.

When Mellow got nearer to Charcoal's face, she turned and grabbed Charcoal's comb, twisting it. Poor Charcoal had no choice but to surrender to the punishment that she did not deserve. She stood there frozen for a few second then went off, and certainly far away from mean Mellow.

With her puffed up chest, Mellow tries to peck Charcoal's comb.

New Egger! (continuation of Idle Holi-days)

These past days, I've been finding more eggs than usual. . .

The only eggs used to be the tan-ish, tinted, small Mellow eggs.

However, now two chickens also joined the production line, accompanying lonely little Mellow.
First up was the mysterious white egg that appeared on the coop floor a bit cracked and caked with a layer of poop on the 20th of December. The next time a white egg was spotted was on the wet ground of the chicken enclosure.

I've been finding white eggs, especially on the ground.

Who was laying these mysterious white eggs?

Was it Spice?

No, she still hadn't squatted

Charcoal?

Most likely not, her comb was still small and petite sized.

Lime?

A few days ago when I had bent down to pet her, she had squatted for me. . . a possibility, but still there was a better answer.

. . . I was convinced that Lemon had laid the egg

Added to the suspicion were the giant red comb and wattles that Lemon carried. She had the biggest in the coop, Lemon also squatted for me a couple of times.

Finally it was unraveled, and I spotted Lemon one day in the nesting box. She stayed in there for a few minutes and then plopped off the box, there was no egg. Disappointed I walked away from the window. When I returned, a fresh white egg, just beaming lay on the ground. 

So, Lemon was the new egg layer.

Comparison of Mellow's egg (left) and Lemon's second egg (right). Lemon's bright white egg isn't very big, but slowly they will exceed Mellow's.

But a few days later, another egg was found. It was white as expected with a few blood stains. The only possibility was Lime, as she was the only other pullets who would squat for me.

Lemon caught being in the nesting box.

A desolate white egg was the result!

Idle Holi-days

For the holidays, a new Canon EOS was given to me as a present. Immediately, I started snapping pictures and playing with the menu. I also took the camera outside to visit the *chickers* <= not a misspelling error and get some crisp pictures of them.
*Chickers is just a little "nickname" I like to use instead of plain old and regular chickens, I also like to call them chickies.
 "Chick-chic-chickies!" I routinely call out to the flock when I head towards their enclosure. Without my calling, they notice the door swinging backward and begin pacing at the enclosure fence; waiting for me. And constantly as I am bombarded with a crowd of 4 chickens (Mellow is usually less exited about meeting humans), 1 or 2 little sneaky pullets will attempt to wiggle their way past me. Of course, I block them. And if by chance I have some table scraps to offer, their attention will be averted onto the food and I can peacefully and quickly slide through the crowd of chickens, without them noticing the escape route they could have taken advantage of. Anyways, here are some pictures I took of them during the holiday season.

"Run Lemon run!" Lemon managed to slip out while I was opening the gate door.

The chickers were also given some yogurt as a treat today. They happily crowded me and jumped at the cup, bawking while gulping down the delicious lumps of fruit and the strawberry flavored yogurt on the spoon.

Looking up expectantly.

Top and bottom: The flock enjoying a small spoon of strawberry yogurt.

At last when no more of the gooey yogurt was available. . .

. . . the chickens looked at me. Not long after did they resume their usual constant whining and pulling of the pants.

Charcoal and Spice closely examine the black fabric, deciding which fold to tug first.

To be continued. . .

Next Post:
New Egger! (continuation of Idle Holi-days)

Maturing Into Hens. . .

After Thanksgiving, the chicks had big changes in their physical appearance. Lemon had the greatest of all; she got tomato-red and bigger wattles and a comb that flops over to the side  like an adult Leghorn's, she had also increased in body size, and is now about the size on a full grown hen.

Top and bottom: Lemon and her proud big red wattles and comb.

Lime my other White Leghorn on the other hand was still her small slim size, with big bulgy eyes of curiosity, or as some would say, cuteness (I would note deviousness), only a little bit of growth in size of her comb and wattles were most noticeable but they were now as red as Lemon's.

Lime in her dazed stare. A couple of ways to distinguish Lime and Lemon from each other is their size; Lemon is much bigger than Lime, I have also noticed that Lemon's eyes are farther spaced from her beak. Lime's eyes are kept close to her beak, creating an appearance of cuteness and curiosity.

The comb and wattles have also gotten larger in size and redder in Spice as well, the only ones in the flock who had not changed were Charcoal and Mellow. Mellow of course, had already reached adulthood and was frequently every week, laying eggs in the coop. She would presumably look the same in her lifetime, a small dark brown figure running with mad sprint in a hobbled fashion across the yard to catch up with the flock. Charcoal still had the same personality rank, and physical appearance though a tiny bit of her facial parts had become flushed in a vermilion hue; the tips of her comb still bore the same coral color, with lighter yellowish tints.

Spice's comb has now started forming a rounder circle with longer points, and in her holy authority it also appears to resemble a crown.

And again. . . the great! The terrible! And the vigilant Lemon strikes back! Terrifying the soles out of my boots.

The eccentric little buggers peck away at my boots, and ooooo! Their favorite, jeans. . .
* Lemon (left), Charcoal (middle), and Lime (right).

Pumpkin Feast

The pumpkins that had been sitting in the front of my front steps had started rot and become soft and squishy. It would be a waste to just throw away the 2 pumpkins (one big,the other tiny), so over the weekend I decided to give the flock a taste, my old rangers liked squash so I figured that the new girls would like pumpkin as well. I set the heavy carrot-orange round pumpkins in the chick's enclosure before letting them out.

When I finally opened the coop door, the pullets hastily pushed each other aside, trying to get out first. First to hop out was Lime, who made a hysterical performance of flying out of the coop, spastically flapping about, then circling about a full 360 degree turn, and ending with a run at full throttle towards the enclosure door. This was probably Lime's idea of fun; all that replied to her actions were my held in giggling, and the consistent and impatient moaning and groanings of the chickens, who were waiting in the doorway. Next was Lemon, who also made an interesting contribution to prove the excellence in the performance of flight in chickens. Charcoal was the loudest of all. Squawking like a pigeon that had had it's tail feathers stepped on, she landed too far and quickly corrected the direction in her flying and followed the rest of the flock, who were already making their way to their chicken enclosure.

Then a bit farther past the doorway stood. . . the pumpkins!

They sat there. . . waiting for them. . .just waiting. . . . .
And as their eyes laid upon them, the chickens gasped, "they're back! . . ."

- Exert from The Ones Who Watched, Stalked, and Haunt Us (In the view of the chickens)

*Note:* The title above is not a real document

Peering at the strange twisted inside of the pumpkin, Lemon fights between temptation and reason.

Soon, more of the flock comes to help. With long stretched out suspicious eyes, wary of the unmoving orange irregular sphere and the flattened sidekick on the left laying in an unwise position, the chickens march onward..

They find it wise to keep an extra eye on the big on especially.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In approximately 30 minutes. . .

The entire flock catches on to the purpose of the pumpkins and begin their feast.

Before:

After (the next day):

You can see that there is a great difference in the pumpkin in the next day it was left out, the pullets apparently love eating pumpkin. 

On the second day, the pumpkin was frozen and when hit,was as hard as a rock. Here in this picture you can see the  moisture in the squash has turned into ice crystals embedded in the long strands of fiber.

Cockerels at the Feedstore

The two metal wire cages, containing 4 mix breed cockerels and 1 lavender Cochin bantam.

A few days ago, I went to a feed-store called Benedict's Home and Garden to get some Blue Seal chicken feed. Before, I had bought a big bag of grower crumbles by the brand name of Poulin from a family owned feedstore, the chicks didn't appreciate it so I went out to get their regular grower pellets. When I arrived at Benedict's, I got two bags of feed, a small metal pet feeder bin, a small bag of grower feed, and a larger one of layer pellets for Mellow who had just started laying. Outside as I waited for the workers to bring out the feed, I noticed two wire cages stacked on top of each other. Usually they would contain production pullets that the store had grown themselves, but this time as I peered at the cages, I saw a couple of mix breed cockerels and notably a lavender Cochin rooster. This was quite unusual, because Benedict's did not sell Cochins, perhaps a customer had sold their rooster to them. I felt a bit sorry for the roos, because they were kept on uncomfortable and dirty metal wire, and at that particular day it was freezing , they were all standing, huddled for warmth.

The pretty little lavender Cochin.

Top and bottom: A young crossbreed rooster with the older Cochin.

Top and bottom: The 3 mixed breed cockerels on the bottom cage, they probably have some Barred Rock and Leghorn in their lineage from the feathering and earlobes. But they relatively look like an auto-sexing breed, like a Cream Legbar or Bielefelder. A hatchery quality Cream Legbar would be more agreeable but this feedstore only sells more common breeds like Rhode Island Reds (RIRs), Red Sex Links, and Buff Orpington, the leg colors of the cockerels are also not right (for a Cream Legbar).

Chickens at Common Ground

This weekend I visited Common Ground , a school, urban farm, and environmental education center; as quoted in their site, "It is a place where all members of the community – young and elementary-aged children, middle and high school students, the general public, and environmental practitioners – can find connections to the local environment, each other, and opportunities for learning and engagement."They keep a variety of chickens and other farm animals at Common Ground as well. I visit when I have time on the weekends (mostly to see the chickens), they also have Open Farm days on Saturdays.

The fenced area in which they keep their chickens in.

Top and bottom: The chickens' nesting boxes with 2 of them occupied for the moment.

A runaway turkey, in the end it was safely herded back into it's enclosure.

Here is the little Golden Sebright Rooster who was quite a cutie, strutting around proudly in his golden dragon scale mail armor.

Top and bottom: A Dark Cornish, one of the breeds that I am hoping to get in the future.

Submitting to the warmth of the sun.

Top and bottom: This beautiful Partridge Rock rooster was pretty careful when eating out of my fingers, and at least he didn't bite a chink out of my finger as the Golden Laced Wyandotte roo did!

Just for a hen and rooster comparison, this is one of the Partridge Rock hens at Common Ground.

Here is some info on Plymouth Rocks:

A Plymouth Rock is the name of the chicken breed, not a feathering type. The varieties that are accepted in the Standard are: barred, white, partridge, silver penciled, buff, columbian, blue, and black. But keep in mind that these colors are only correct in the United Kingdom, America, and Canada. Australia's Poultry Standard divides the barred variety into two separate colors, dark barred and light barred. I often see many people get confused and call the barred variety a Plymouth Rock, but the Plymouth Rock name is only a breed, not a color variety. The most widely recognized and popular variety of the Plymouth Rock is the barred variety. To learn more about Plymouth Rocks, you should go to the Backyard Poultry site and Newbould's Rocks.

A Black Star hen with stunningly colored breast feathers being reflected in the sunlight.

Top and bottom: And here we finally are! Is the little nincompoop that ripped a bit of skin off my thumb (it bled a little bit but the wound was just a little cut). I don't blame him, he probably just had bad accuracy and accidentally bit my finger a bit too hardly

When I had first arrived, the students had thrown in some leftover vegetables on the ground that some chickens were pecking at vigorously and trashing about. And since chickens didn't have hands to tear apart or hold on end of a leaf to rip a leaf into smaller pieces, it was very inconvenient to eat the leftover vegetables. Many of them had long lost interest in the limp figures on the ground. So when I held up a couple of small pieces of what I thought was lettuce, one little Black Star pullet walked up to me, gazing up at the delicious treat. As soon as she started feasting, other chickens caught attention of the event and joined.I also gave the turkeys some greens, they were most of the time ignored by little children visiting the poultry yard who were instead, fascinated by the vast majority of chickens.

"Food. . ." the Black Star pullet looked at the lettuce piece, with big, bulgy, dreamy looking eyes.

A floppy combed Blue Andalusian joins.

A curious Red Star enjoys some greens.

Top and bottom: A Golden Campine hen scrounging for some veggies on the ground.

A Partridge rock hanging around with a Dominique hen. Dominiques are commonly called Barred Rocks, the main difference is that a Dominique has a rose comb and Plymouth Rocks have single combs.

A bunch of hens standing around the dustbathing pits.

This Buff Orpington here is taking a dustbath, and while the sun shines down on her, she sunbaths as well.

A White-Crested Blue Polish.

A Splash Andalusian standing near one of the coop openings, hunched up from the cold.

This is a hatchery quality Light Brahma.