Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Meet the Crunchy Chickens

Well, I suppose it's about time that the Crunchy Chicken finally got some chickens. Saturday, my husband and I headed down south near Mt. Rainier to pick up some started pullets for our coop, which was finally finished last week. It was a long drive because of some nasty traffic, but it was well worth the trip in the end.

And, without further ado, here are our chickens.

Roxy, the black and white one, is a Plymouth Barred Rock. Sarah, is a White Orpington. They are both 7 months old and are laying every day.


Sarah makes an amazing amount of noise when Roxy is working her egg delivering magic in the nest. She's either announcing to the world that there's an egg on the way, or she's pissed because Roxy is hogging the nest box. Of course, there are two boxes, but that doesn't mean she can't squeeze on in there with her when Roxy is laying.


Roxy is the dominant bird and is definitely the more intelligent of the two. Sarah, bless her big, fluffy bottom is not too bright. Fortunately, Roxy leads the way, solving all the difficult problems, like how to handle the crust side of a butt of bread. No, Sarah, it's not a rock!


Chloe is finally coming out of her shell. She spent the first two days up in the coop on the roost. She's an Americauna / Rhode Island Red mix. So, she looks a little like each breed. She'll lay green eggs when she's gets around to it and will be productive like a RIR. She's only about 5 months old and is at the bottom of the pecking order.

I suspect when she gets bigger she'll be more bossy. She's not lumbersome like the other two. This girl is fast and actually tries to take flight when I'm trying to chicken wrangle her back into the coop. She's got this great little feathery cheek thing going on. Chloe, I like your beard.


Needless to say, the kids are ecstatic about the chickens and have spent hours watching Chicken TV. Except when Emma got pecked by Roxy when she had her cornered and was going in for some heavy petting. I think Roxy had better ideas about how to spend her free ranging time. Like searching for bugs.

Mangoes? Yes. Tomatoes? No. Salmon? Better than crack.

10 comments:

Green Bean said...

What fun! Congratulations. I think its great you went straight to pullet - you skipped the chick cuteness but also all the chick drama. Our barred rock is our dominant hen as well. I wouldn't count on Chloe working her way up the pecking order. My two at the bottom have always remained at the bottom. The big girls just won't let them move up. Enjoy the girls and all those delicious eggs!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

fun!! i hope to follow in your footsteps in the spring (if i can get my DH to build a coop). :)

Shannon said...

No tomatoes? Our chooks go CRAZY over anything red, painted toenails included. Silly chickens :) We went from 6 to 200 very quickly around here - they can be addictive!

Anonymous said...

When I 'grow up' I want to have chickens, too! That is, if we ever get out of this townhouse. How inspiring to see you do it! Ever since reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I've been interested in the idea of having my own chickens. :)

Greenpa said...

Huge fun. Our chickens and guineas are currently piggin out on smashed apples. They'll tackle whole ones that have dropped, but when I walk through the trees purposely stomping on a few, they go crazy.

Maria said...

That is great news! I hope you love your "ladies" as much as I love mine!

They are so fun!

Panamamama said...

They are so cute! I have 3 also and it's funny to see how the pecking order really works. All of mine look more like your red one- they told me they were a mix too (call them Sex Links) but think they are mostly RI red and Star.

Anonymous said...

It's ironic; I was looking on Mother Earth News for cheese recipes earlier today, and it led me to your blog. then, I was just looking for info to help identify my chickens - and lo and behold, you pop up again! We have 2 hens, 3 roosters, and 2 Guineas, and have just hatched out another 9. Love the chicks! Cute little buggers :)

Laura said...

At last! Congrats! Chickens loove protein and any meat products.

Anne Magee said...

I just got some new pullets, too. Mine are black sex link and are about 5 months old. They joined my 1 year old red sex link. It took me a while to get them coop trained... but after 3 days confined to the coop, they now put themselves inside to roost when the sun sets every day. And they seem to still be working out the pecking order... it's been 2 weeks! Mine love grapes, grape tomatoes, and any form of lettuce/greens.