Over the decade , my husband Jae and I have raised approximately two dozenbreedsand varieties of chicken . We ’ve raisedbantamsand with child bird , show birdsand level , inheritance razz and hybrid . Most of the breeds we kindle were cautiously choose after a great deal of research : online , in reference books , and by speaking to other domestic fowl Farmer . Sometimes , however , acquiring a new breed was an instant case . We either figure a breed at a show and just had to have it or we were call in by our local farm - provision memory board to deliver chicks who were faring ill .
This final quartet of breeds explores unexpected addition that made their mode into our flocks .
Rhode Island Red
A trio of two - week - oldRhode Island Red(RIR ) chicks joined our farm after I received a call from our farm - supply store . The three babies were the last peeps from that finicky hatchery shipment , and the new arrivals were physically attacking these older hatchlings .
The poor piddling things were Blu Koted and miserable when I pluck them up . They spent the first Clarence Shepard Day Jr. cower together in the corner of their incubator , not even approaching the confluent or water boy . It took a lot of TLC to get them to eventually experience safe enough to start search their novel home .
By the end of their 2d week with us , you ’d never have known they ’d been strong-arm . away from our Orpingtons , I ’ve never seen such a genuinely happy breed of wench . The RIRs were cheerfully chatty and actively played with each other . We had to give them little boxes in which they played pelt and seek and catch a wink together .
As they grow older , the RIRs retained their full - natured dispositions . They were almost doglike with their affection . The terzetto eventually proclaimed themselves to be two frier and a cockerel , which run to a little brokenheartedness for me because we did not have room for another rooster .
Fortunately I observe a nearby 4 - enthalpy family try a showmanship bird for their daughter . Red Boy ( not a very original name , I have intercourse ) necessitate to the young lady friend very quickly when she and her parents came to see him . Within minutes , she was cuddling and cooing to him , and Red Boy never really attend back .
As for Lynn and Vanessa , the two RIR pullets , they eagerly merged with our Orpington flock , where they became the “ pop girls”—our Orps all want to be their champion . Helen and Vanessa became fertile layers , producing four to five wakeful - brown eggs per calendar week . Neither had any health or atmospheric condition issues , and they both live to be 7 years old .
supergroovie74/Adobe Stock
A small joy went out of the Orpington slew when these cheerful chickens passed on . I ’m not sure why we never got more RIRs , hold our very positive experience with them .
Golden Comet
Also known as a Cinnamon Queen or a Red Star , theGolden Cometis a stunning cinnamon - Au chicken and one of the most popular hybrid backyard birds in America . When we first get together Goldie , however , she was anything but beautiful .
I had once again gotten a call from our farm - provision fund that one of their older chicks needed rescuing . Jae and I grabbed a composition board box and channelize out , only to find this poor infant cowering on top of the stock tank ’s water boy , most of her down plucked out by the younger chicks .
Once home , we carefully treat Goldie ’s injuries , then set her inside a cozy brooder with a plush bunny for company . After a few 24-hour interval , Goldie made the move from the top of the water boy to the bunny girl . I know a moment of scare when I total across an empty brooder , only to find Goldie nestle safely under the bunny ’s branch .
Goldie ’s relationship with her bunny girl survive her intact life .
As an older pullet , she also get together our Orpington flock and , while she was sweet and got along with the other snort , there was always some hesitancy , as if she remembered the insult she sustained in her earliest days . Goldie ended up making two close Orpington friends , with whom she spend her 24-hour interval . At night , she slept in one of the nest box , snuggled up with her bunny .
Goldie was one of the best layers we ever had , producing between five and six tumid brown nut per workweek . She never exhibited any propensity towards broodiness and , interestingly , she never laid in the nestbox where her bunny survive . She was always sweet with us , even with my boy when they were preschoolers . If we had not specify ourselves as a heritage farm , I would not have minded birth more Golden Comets … as long as the chicks had pile of way so as not to pick on each other .
Laura/Adobe Stock
Barred Plymouth Rock
Like the RIRs and Goldie the Golden Comet , ourBarred Plymouth Rockswere rescue from a local feed stock , where they were the last Barred Rocks amidst a ocean of Wyandotte chicks . Knowing they were with Wyandottes probably spurred us to recollect this chick quartette fleetly , as we had just trade off our Wyandotte muckle the previous class .
The Barred Rock babies were not scam in the way our other rescues had been . They were not hurt or missing any down . Instead , the Wyandotte gang was preventing the Barred Rocks from accessing the feeder and water boy , and the store only had so many brooders . domicile they came !
From the start , the Barred Rocks settled in happily , sleep chick - carpeting style and curiously investigating their incubator . They were very speculative birds from the get go , even as adults . If we set anything — a suet patty , a Cuban sandwich of Brassica oleracea , a block of seed — in their incubator or coop , the Barred Rocks would be the first ones to go up , even before our rooster . The Orpington hen would always wait for the all - clear from the Barred Rocks before inch nearer to whatever the closed book goody might be .
Dalton Overlin/Wirestock/Adobe Stock
Although they were never autocratic , they also were n’t excessively social with the other birds , opt to keep to themselves or hang out with us if we were outdoors . They laid an average of three to four large dark-brown eggs per hebdomad and occasionally go broody , though nowhere to the extent that the Orpingtons , Cochins and Silkies did .
They were endearing chicks , with their creamy head back breaker and smoky black frippery , and even more lovely as adult , with their hallmark black barring . They did n’t live past 4 years one-time , which might be a reflection on their being hatchery birds versus stock breeder doll . I ’d call them your canonic backyard chickens , good for bollock and with a decent inclination .
Serama
I fell in love with theSeramachicken breed ( visualize above ) the trice I set eyes on them . It was at a minuscule domestic fowl expo in Northern Michigan . I ’d made sure my show birds were settle in , then go to explore the rest of the show floor .
The Serama exhibitor — she was the only one — had a table off to one side of the residence hall , with cage more suited to canaries in size than to chickens . Inside each cage were the lilliputian chickens I ’d ever ensure , each complete perfection .
The Serama rooster had a proud , puffed chest ; upright posture ; downward wings ; and tiny exclusive combs . The hens displayed glistening eyes , teeny wattles and tidy tails .
Athok Fadhlin/stock.adobe.com
When the weekend was done , I cash in one’s chips home with a beautiful black and white yoke . Hunter and Oreo were the first of many Serama chicken fondly resurrect and hatched by us .
Purely ornamental , the Serama is the little have a go at it chicken breed , with adult males typically count in at less than a pound and adult females even less .
Because of their size of it , they are not inhuman hardy . We built heated brooders in our pole barn , where they cosily occur the insensate months . Seramas have a go at it being outside , however , so we also built them a chicken tractor within which they could safely enjoy the sunshine , grass and fresh gentle wind .
While ideal as exhibition bird , Seramas also make marvelous household pet . They rightfully fuck interact with their humanity , will happily spend hours light on their possessor ’s berm or on the back of a death chair or lounge , and can be contentedly housed in a parrot coop .
Our Serama crybaby always paired up as juvenile person and remained mated for life . The hen laid well , average approximately four eggs per hebdomad — but digest in intellect that four Serama eggs equal one declamatory stock chicken testis .
Serama biddy will go meditative , and it is a pleasure to view them set eggs and kick upstairs their untried , because Seramas are without a incertitude the chattiest breed in beingness . hen tend to keep a continual monologue going with their nut and dame .
Chicks think up at about 16 days , five days originally than other chicken breeds . The juveniles similarly become fully square and reach maturity ahead of other stock . I adored our Serama wad , despite the special allowances necessary because of their size and physique . And although my married man , Jae , deems them “ Laputan , ” Seramas rank in my top six chicken stock along with Orpingtons , Silkies , Cochins , Ameraucanas and Polish .
