Usher, This is Your Life

For the proud new owner of this roo, here is his life to date in photos:

The parents:
Kerfluffle, a bantam frizzle cochin hen. She is really small and pretty with yellow feet. She is black but not dark black, and her front frizzle feathers have somewhat of a dark brownish lacing pattern. Usher's the little black chick with her.
and
'Lil Jerry, a bantam white sultan. Sultans have every fancy trait a chicken can have -- crest, muffs, beard, feather feet, vulture hocks, and 5 toes.

I don't see the resemblance! He is so much bigger than the parents. Not as large as a standard, but definitely towered over all our other bantams.
His baby photos:
Just hatched on 3/28/2009:

Stretching its wings:

As an awkward young lad:

His age:


He seemed to have received the minimum of fancy-ness, but he is still quite striking. I love his black beard and the green sheen of his feathers. He has a mini-crest, a little muff and partially-feathered feet.

Overly Restrictive

Glad I live in the urban fringe outside the city limits...proposed City of Tallahassee ordinance revision bans all types of fowl, including all roosters and limits hens to 6 (in a predator-proof enclosure) inside city limits and under 5 acres (previously 1 acre). -- No chicks, free-ranging would be illegal on your property, and no sustain...ability. And why change the exemption from 1 to 5 acres?? 1-5 acres is PLENTY for a sustainable flock. The 6 chicken limit is appropriate, but the rest is too restrictive.

Proposed Ordinance Revision

Big Birds

11-11-2009 4-40-42 PM, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

Laverne and Shirley, our standard buff-laced Polish hens, are just soooo cool! We may try to hatch some of these next.

Too Many Roosters

It's inevitable that a small flock gets too many roosters. Fortunately our roos are bantams and gentle, but I think some of the more popular hens are getting a little worn out from all the attention. So we'll probably post a couple of them for free on Craigslist in the near future. Our little sultan who was part of the original half-dozen flock is a keeper, as is his lemon-blue d'Uccle offspring. One of the frizzle chicks may also be a roo...it's bigger than the other two and it's already growing a comb.

For giveaway:

While his parents are small, he is big for a bantam, but not as large as a standard. His momma is Kerfluffle the frizzle, so I wonder if he could pass that gene along.


This bearded gentleman is small and very much d'Uccle, except for the tiny bit of fluff behind his comb. Friendly with lovely feather feet.

Keepers:

I was really hoping this was a pullet, because I just love this lemon blue coloring. But he's just as beautiful as a little d'Uccle roo, and I just can't see parting with him.


Fancy Little Jerry will be with us as long as he's able. I picked him out as the runtiest of a straight-run dozen hoping to get a girl, but I got a really little roo with an effeminate crow.

Frizzle Babies!

I am in love with our little frizzle chicks born September 11.

It took a week or so to look frizzle. They looked pretty normal at hatching.

Lisa Marie mommied the two white ones, while the real momma Kerfluffle (below) looked after the black one.

We got her on Craigslist for $5!

Attack!

We'll miss this little silkie/sultan mix, the smallest roo. He was a cute chick, but he was kinda weird looking as a young cockerel. His deformed walnut comb seemed to take over his face. It was Halloween eve and I took the girls to my sister-in-law's church for trunk treating while Lee went to practice. It was dark by the time we got home and I forgot to close the gate. I hadn't needed to close the gate in a very long time since Lee usually does that before I get home from work.

This was the first time we've lost chickens with a mess of feathers left behind. Every other time it's just clean gone missing, picked off by a bird of prey, most likely. The next day the poor flock wouldn't even venture out of the coop for hours...they were so traumatized and their branch perches had fallen in a jumble. Whatever it was really freaked them out. Also missing is the black and white speckled d'Uccle pullet born in June. It was so skittish I never got a good picture of it except when I first posted about her and this one below that I took in August. She was pretty low on the pecking order, so I think she was probably closest to the ground when whatever attacked.

Funky-Shaped Egg

10-16-2009 10-38-1, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

That's a weird shaped one. Glad it didn't get stuck. Those light brown ones are cochin, the small white is d'Uccle, the larger white are bantam Polish, and the large brown is either standard australorp or orpington. There's got to be hidden nests somewhere, because only when we have to keep them cooped up do we get the right amount of eggs. Sometimes if we let them out late in the morning we'll get more in the nesting boxes.