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Welcome! I created this site to share what we've done, talk about what we plan to do, and exchange ideas with other folks who are on the same path as us. Join us in the fun of living at Chickaree Hill Farm!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Spawn of Crazy Chicken!

Looking down into the brooder - you can see
Crazy Chicken in her time-out corner!
A quick story.  Last year when we ordered our first batch of 12 chicks, I ordered two Salmon Faverolles.  They are a bit different from most breeds of chickens because they have muffs on their cheeks, feathered legs, and 5 toes instead of 4.  They are also supposed to be pretty shy, docile, and easy to take care of.  Unfortunately, one of the babies arrived very weak and died a couple of days later.  The other one seemed fine at first, but after a few days, she started beating up on the other chicks!  Literally poking at their eyes, and she drew blood on one chick.  The recommended approach for a naughty chick is to isolate it within the brooder for a while - kind of a "time-out" corner!  Well, I tried that and it didn't work. I ended up trading her for another chick from a friend of mine who had a batch of chicks that were older. We thought that if she were with bigger chicks, she wouldn't be able to beat up on them (for one thing, they could fly and she couldn't!).  It worked and she kept the bird.  She still had a weird personality and they called her Sammy, the Crazy Chicken.

Fast-forward to this year ... I mentioned in a previous post that my favorite hen named Hickety went broody this spring and wanted to hatch out chicks.  We don't have a rooster so I got some fertilized eggs from this same friend ... and it looks like Crazy Chicken was the mom of one of our babies!  I was pretty excited this morning when I realized that ... I kept looking at this chicken and trying to figure out why she looked familiar to me ... then I realized that she looks just like a Salmon Faverolle!  She has the right coloring, the side muffs, the feathered legs, and yes, she has 5 toes!
This is a typical Salmon Faverolle
The pullet on the right is the Spawn of Crazy Chicken!
This was the best picture I could get of her because she kept running away ...

It's funny too, because this chicken is definitely "weird."  She hides a lot and won't let anyone near her ... same thing her mom did over at my friend's farm.  We decided to name her Hedwig because she kind of reminds me of the snowy owl from Harry Potter.

I'm also glad that we got one of Sammy's babies because she was killed by a fox a few weeks ago :-(.  My friend has a few of her babies too, so her memory will live on!

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