Friday, August 8, 2008

As The Chicken Turns

When we last left our lovely flock two new chickens had joined. One was learning the meaning of pecking order and the other was enjoying immediate acceptance. Apparently there was more going on than just mistaken identity.

You see we thought the reason the others accepted the new Barred Rock was because they thought it was the missing bird that Chewy, our dog, had sent off to poultry heaven. Now we're thinking that it may be because she is really a he.


What do you think? Believe me it was no easy trick getting this picture. However, please note the large crest and floppier waddle than his more feminine kin.


He can certainly give you quite the evil eye but he seems to be a really rather docile bird. He has yet to crow but I'm worried it might happen any morning now.

We do have a contingency plan in place for him to go back to his original farm and trade him for a her. I'm putting it off it until we know absolutely, positively for sure though because Daughter gets so attached to all of the birds. She gets big sad eyes whenever I say we will have to relocate "Joseph" aka Josephine to his farm.

Boy am I a soft touch.

But really. We can't keep a rooster here in town. We value our good neighbors.

So what do you think? Have I got a rooster or a hen here? "Joseph" is the bird on the far right. Doesn't his comb look a.lot. bigger than his hen friend standing next to him?

Cockadoodledoo!

5 comments:

Robin Lambright said...

I'm far from a poultry expert, but the red comb on top of his/her head does look much bigger and more defined.

On a completely unrelated issue, I saw a chief actually cook a rooster comb the other day on Iron Chief. I have often felt very sorry for the judges at times, this particular dish was no exception. They may be wonderful head dressing for roosters but I wouldn't want to eat one.

I love hearing about your chickens.

Being a poultry idiot, don't you need a rooster if you want eggs???

Skoots1moM said...

she sure looks like a he...

Cyndy said...

(giggle)
Robin, to answer your question, No. You do not need a rooster to have laying hens. In fact, it is my understanding that if you want your hens to just lay eggs for consumption it's better not to have a rooster. Hens can go "broody" more easily with a rooster around. Meaning they want to keep and hatch their own brood.

Okay and the Iron Chef thing...that's just weird.

Laura said...

I don't know too much about chickens but Sesame Street did teach me a lot about identifing when one of these things is NOT like the others.

Ha, ha, ha...looks to me like you've got a rooster on your hands sis! ;-)

On the upside, you may not need an alarm clock again for a while.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...certainly looks different to the rest of the gals! Beautiful birds you have there! Mmmm mmm, I can taste those fresh eggs!

love, Tina :)