...The chicken blog. Man. I am BORING.
Yes. Other events are transpiring in my life; it's just that, being a private person, there's only so much I am willing to blab about on the Interwebz. So, chickens it is.
Lookit my baby roo - all of 20 weeks old and such a pretty, laid-back boy! He only recently began crowing (seriously - maybe Sunday) and it's hilarious. Sort of a "whoooo who who who whoooooo" sound, all hoarse, like a teenage boy whose voice is changing.
He's a cross between Stonewall and...? I have Red Stars, Buff Orpingtons, Delawares, Black Australorps, Silver-Laced Wyandottes and Barred Rocks. Anyone want to venture a guess?
On a much sadder note, one of my Red Stars has been missing since Friday. I have no idea what took her (airborne raptor or ground-dwelling predator), but I miss her. I have been very vigilant - and very much a presence around the flock (much to Stonewall's annoyance) since then, but I can't babysit them all the time. They are now free-ranging part of the day and going into the run earlier; hopefully that will mitigate any further losses. :(
Here is Hazelnut, one of the other mixes from the April hatch. I had thought she was the result of a Stonewall X Barred Rock hen, but now I'm not so sure. She is barred, and Barred Plymouth Rock Roosters always pass along barring to offspring (dominant trait). However - the plot thickens: I'm not 100% sure Buddy
is a Barred Rock Rooster. I was looking at him the other day and he looks a bit like a Cuckoo Marans to me. Would a Barred Rock hen pass along the barring trait to offspring? I dunno.
Color me confused, but this girl is stocky, round and wide for her age (20 weeks); she's every bit as big as the full-grown hens, and I like her, even if I really have no idea how she came to be (genetically speaking). Oh, and she's laying little brown pullet eggs.
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