One Tiny Green Egg Today!

I have been remiss in keeping this blog updated regarding the chicken population at our house.  The last time I posted about chickens, I believe, was last September, when we had our lovely Victoria, the big white hen, our little Mary, the little white banty, James the bad rooster who ran back and forth between our house and our neighbors, and James' two babies, the Things.

About a month after that post, I think, we lost our little Mary to a raccoon.  We finally figured out that the old bathtub we were using to water the sheep and goats was attracting the raccoons, and then the chickens were easy prey.  One day we found a pile of little black and white feathers that was all that was left of sweet little Mary.  So that left us with only one hen, Victoria.

We looked on Craigslist and found someone in Nehalem with 2 little Old English Game Hens for sale, and decided to try them.  A day trip to Nehalem and we brought home these 2 tiny little red hens.  They are smaller than banties, and as cute and sweet as they can be.  We named them Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.  But we can't tell them apart, so we just call them The Princesses. It's really hard to get good pictures of them, but here is one sort of:    

These little hens turned out to be the sweetest little things ever.  They are super friendly.  They follow Rich around all day.  They are right there when we are digging in the garden so they can get worms.  They lay little tiny white eggs.

Bad chickens in the house: Victoria, The Princesses, and The Things.

Then the Things turned into roosters, and started following in their father's footsteps, literally, so we had 3 roosters running back and forth between our house and the neighbors.  Ridiculous!  We found a farm in Oregon City that took in stray roosters, and one day Rich loaded them all up in the car and took them to their new home.  We haven't missed them for even one second!

Then, we decided we would get some new babies in the spring.  Before we left for Panama we put in an order to pick up when we got back.  We got 10 baby chicks of assorted sizes and colors on March 10.
We lost 2 babies - one died one of the first nights, not sure why.  Another one was lame and we thought she might make it, but she didn't.  So that left us with eight, after two weeks.  The feed store had some Cuckoo Marans, which we had wanted but were not available at the hatchery, so we got two of those, hens for sure.  Then when they all got bigger and were out running around in the yard, one got killed by a dog that was passing by with it's completely irresponsible owner.  Rich hit the dog in the head with a brick, so hopefully did some damage.  That left us with 9 new ones and the 3 older ones.  Then 2 of the babies turned into roosters - Alfonso and Gonzalo, formerly Leticia and Maria Mercedes.  Alfonso Leticia was really obnoxious, and we found a new home for him on Craigslist.  Maria Mercedes Gonzalo is actually quite a nice little rooster who is actually learning to do his job of keeping track of his hens.

So we have zillions (it seems) of little chickens running around.  Everywhere we look there are chickens!

From left, Sophia, Margrita, Irene, and Gonzalo's tail.

Irene, Sophia, Raven, Gonzalo, and a Princess in the front.

Gonzalo, Margrita, Sophia, and a tiny bit of Irene

Raven, Irene, Sophia, Gonzalo and Tua

We have:

1 Red Auracana named Sophia.  She looks like Elizabeth that we lost last year.

2 Cuckoo Marans, name Juana La Loca and Tua La Loca

2 white banties, one yellowish named Margrita, and one mostly just white, named Irene.

One black banty with red feathers on her neck, named Raven.  She is a special little pet.

One grey banty with red feathers on her neck, named Christina.

Gonzalo the Rooster

Victoria

The 2 Princesses.

Victoria lays nice big brown eggs.

The Princesses lay cute little white eggs.

And today, Irene or Margrita laid a little tiny green egg.  At least we think it was one of them, because Rich thinks he remembers seeing one of them in the chicken coop nesting and cackling with the rooster fussing over her.  

More to come, we hope!