Polly is a Barred Rock with speckled black and white feathers. Polly seems to be at the top of the pecking order. She was the first to lay an egg and now gives us an egg nearly every day. Polly lets us hold her and comes running when we call. Polly is our fourth Barred Rock over the years and all our BRs have been very tame and great layers.

Della is a Delaware hen. White with a little black around her neck and tail, she’s sweet, curious and quite tame. Della began laying at 21 weeks. Her eggs are light brown and small/medium in size. She is not easily ruffled by children or the dogs. She is making a great pet as she lets us hold her on our laps.

Anna is Polly’s look-alike. Both Barred Rocks, they look so similar it is hard to tell them apart. Anna has a distinct personalty, very curious, and is the tamest of all the hens. She follows us around, especially if we have something in our hands. She is very curious about everything. When my grandson visited, she followed him around pecking at the buttons on his pants. Anna began laying eggs at 23 weeks.

Easter Egger

Dixie Chick is an Ameraucana, or Easter Egger. She is a tall bird with beautiful bronze and gold feathers. She is a bit shy and runs if we reach for her. She lays beautiful, large green eggs. Dixie was a moderately early layer at about 25 weeks and lays about 4 big eggs a week.

François, or Franny, is the clown of the flock. She is a free spirit usually ranging away from the others. She would be at the bottom of pecking order except she is spunky and won’t take any nonsense from the others. Her breed is a Salmon Favorelles, developed in Northern France, thus the French name. She has feathers on her legs and an extra toe on each foot (typical of the breed).

Big Bertha, a Dark Brahma, is the biggest and shyest, of all the hens. She runs and squawks loudly if we try to pick her up. She is huge and will probably weigh 8 lbs. as an adult. Brahmas are known to be quite mellow, but at 24 weeks, Big Bertha is a bit of a “scaredy cat”! We’ll see if, over the years, we’ll be able to gain her trust and  pick her up and pet her.

Ameraucana hen named “Zelda” with muffs and beard.

One of our hens is an “Ameraucana” (note spelling). She’s black in color and has beautiful streaks of gold among her black feathers along with a blue-green iridescent cloak around her neck that reflects in the sunlight. The Ameraucana breed was derived from chickens brought from Chile in the 1970’s that bore the gene that produced blue-green eggs. These original chickens had no tail. You can tell the difference between the original Araucana and the Ameraucana by noting the tail, muffs, and beard on the Ameraucana. The Ameraucana has small, round, earlobes, or absent earlobes, and their small pea cobs are red.

When we bought our Amerauacana pullet, the breeder insisted she was an Amerauacana and not an Easter Egger. That got me thinking, “What is wrong with an Easter Egger?” Turns out nothing except they have no standard and therefore cannot be shown in poultry shows. According to My Pet Chicken,“Easter Eggers are not a breed per se, but a variety of chicken that does not conform to any breed standard but lays large to extra large eggs that vary in shade from blue to green to olive to aqua and sometimes even pinkish. Easter Eggers vary widely in color and conformation and are exceptionally friendly and hardy. Since they are usually quite friendly to children and humans in general, they are a great choice for a family flock. Most hatcheries mistakenly label their Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas or Araucanas (or various misspellings thereof). Easter Eggers do not qualify to be shown, since they do not conform to a breed standard.”

We love our blue-green eggs and will continue to keep an Ameraucana or Easter-Egger so we can enjoy these eggs of a unique color.

It’s early February and the hens are laying nearly every day. Green egg is  from an Ameraucana, large tan egg is from a Barred Rock, and medium egg is from a Buff Orpington.

Every afternoon I look forward to seeing what the three hens have laid for us. It is early February and they have finished their molting (moulting).They look clean and fresh and their personalities have changed from cranky to sweet.

Our weather has been warm this winter with sunny days in the 70’s. My apologies to those of you in the country that are still experiencing blizzards. In case you haven’t heard, we’re entering the worst drought in California’s history. If it doesn’t rain soon, we’ll surely have water rationing.

We usually don’t let the hens out to scratch for bugs and destroy the dirt garden paths until late afternoon. This way we can be certain they lay in their nest boxes, instead of in hidden nests among the shrubs. They are now each laying about 5 eggs a week. Thank you, Zelda, Roxanne, and Marigold for these beautiful eggs.

Queen Tulip 2009-2012

Tulip, the Ameraucana, also called an Easter Egger because she lays green eggs, has been sick for six months now and passed away yesterday afternoon. She had what is called egg yolk peritonitis, also called “internal laying”. It is something that backyard hen owners struggle with because our hens provide us with eggs but are also our pets and live longer than commercial egg producers so are susceptible to organ malfunction.

Egg peritonitis is the result of an egg yolk initially moving into the abdomen rather than being “captured” by the fimbrae at the top of the oviduct. In a normal egg cycle, the ovary releases a single ovum (yolk) which is picked up by the fimbrae at the top of the oviduct. Birds have only one oviduct. The egg passes down through the oviduct picking up albumin (egg white), the egg membrane, and then the egg shell, before being passed out through the cloaca. The cloaca also has the ureters from the kidneys and the rectum passing urine and feces through the same exit point.

We knew Tulip had problems when she began laying those huge rubber eggs (shell-less eggs) several months ago. She was treated with antibiotics but showed no improvement. Oh, it was hard to watch.

Husband Don and I made a “no vet” agreement when I got the chicks but I broke down and made an appointment to see one. We never got there. Because prognosis for this disease in chickens is poor, I pretty much knew that Tulip would be euthanized. There was the possibility that the vet might suggest major surgery to remove her “egg maker” but I don’t think I would have agreed to that.

Yesterday, she stayed inside the little coop until late morning, then joined the others who were scratching around in the garden. She stretched out on her side, absorbing the sun. When I locked the other hens back in the run, I put Tulip in a little crate in the garden shed with food and water. She lay down, and never got up. By nightfall, she was dead.

We buried Tulip near Rosie who passed away two winters ago. She is no longer in pain but Husband Don and I are sad. I didn’t sleep well last night. Our original flock of six is down to three. Three really wonderful hens that are now over three years old. There will be decisions to make but I’m not in the mood to make them. Loving and caring for animals is both joyful and heartbreaking. I’m experiencing the latter now.