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.

Too Hot

7-3-2009 7-14-44 PM, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

These are the days of summer when I get lazy about the garden and haven't even bothered to photograph the flock. I even missed these chicks' birthday photo. These are from d'Uccle eggs that Janet Leigh was broody on when we returned from our Disney trip, born about a week before this photo. The dark one looks blue.

Lisa Marie is a Winner!

Of the Broody Hen Photo Contest on BackyardChickens.com. Too funny! When we first got her, we thought she was quite the ugly duckling. The penciling on her feathers had not yet appeared, and she just kinda looked like a bearded lady to us. She's blossomed into quite a hot momma! LOL

Heat Stroke?

Lee found one of the April 17 chicks behind the AC unit today. It did not appear to be foul play...intact and no ruffled feathers anywhere. It had been left out accidentally Friday night and was outside the coop door Saturday morning. Last I saw it was Saturday morning when it was resting underneath the lantana with the other chicks. I wonder if it was stressed out from being by itself all night and was just overcome by the heat. Poor thing. Sucks too that it was our only mille fleur colored chick. Now all the chicks we have are black and white.

No Crowing Yet

...from Kerfluffle's offspring, at least not yet at 12 weeks --

this is an ugly picture of it...I don't have a better one yet, at the moment. The chick has huge feet, so I've been thinking it's a roo, but it's pretty skittish.

All Cooped Up

So glad the whole flock survived being cooped up in the heat for a whole week while we were away on vacation. They were pretty pissed off not being able to free-range, and I'm glad the little chicks didn't appear picked on. The day we got back they stayed out much longer than they usually do and enjoyed their freedom til sundown.

The Kinetic Chicken

Contestants in the 40th annual Kinetic Grand Championship raced their people-powered kinetic sculpture, “The Kinetic Chicken,” across the beach in Manila, Calif., Saturday. The championship is a three-day, 42-mile race over land, sand, mud and water from Arcata to Ferndale. (Kimberly White/Reuters)

Possible Roos

At least 2 of the April 16 chicks are possible roos...
The largest, whitest d'Uccle/Sultan chick has a much larger comb than the others

and the silkie/Sultan has a good-sized walnut comb. Since it's an only chick, I have no other to compare it to except its mom, whose comb took a longer time to get as big.

The others' combs look like our d'Uccle hens at that age --

Morning Wake-Up

I woke up Saturday morning to this segment on CNN about backyard chickens! Yeah, the TV in the bedroom was left on most of the night...I'm terrible.

Hawks & Pinwheels

2 more little chicks lost...at least 1 to a hawk, based on the flock's run for cover for a long while after it's immediate disappearance, and the other one, well... I have no idea. It just went missing. As a hawk deterrent, we've decided to mount 8 Slinky Spinwheels along the inner fence line on some of the posts, hoping the reflective spinning may make a hawk think twice about making a fast food pit stop in our yard. There appears to be agreement among some on the BYC Forum that reflective devices could work, so hence the experiment. We'll see what happens. Those smart hawks may not care after a while, but who knows? I like the spinning.

Wendy

Cinco de Mayo was Wendy's last day. She had stopped laying and was limping a little, but only in the last few days had she stopped eating and just hung out in the coop instead of free ranging with the others. We're still new to this chicken adventure, so we didn't think too much of it, expecting her to recover. I was thinking it could be bumblefoot, but her foot did not appear swollen. As a Rhode Island Red, she was our only 'production hen', laying a large brown egg about every day. None of the other chickens appear to have any problems.

Janet Leigh is a Winner!

Of the Mutt Strutt online poultry show contest on BackyardChickens.com.
The prettiest of them all! LOL.
"#1 Unanimously most charming overall unique appearance, interesting feather pattern..."

Picked-Off!

Easter Egger x Sultan chicks, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

Lee heard that freaky clucking of chickens panicking this morning and found two of the March 28 chicks hiding under some pine straw. This little one was nowhere to be found. This weekend we could see a big hawk's nest with babies (we could hear) up high in a nearby tree. The likely predator. Again.

d'Uccle x Sultan chicks

d'Uccle x Sultan chicks, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

Here are the 3 that hatched yesterday morning. So adorable! The 2 on the right are the first ones that hatched, pictured in my earlier post.

Last 2 Chickies!

Here's the other two that hatched early yesterday evening.
I think this one is the silkie mix, pictured with the silkie mix momma Janet Leigh.

More chicks!

d'Uccle x Sultan chicks hatched this morning!, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

d'Uccle x Sultan chicks hatched this morning! 3 more to go! All have pipped and are chirping...can't wait to get home!

Chicks!

4-4-2009 3-31-27 PM, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

Born March 28. This flapping one is crested. One other is similar with no crest, both offspring of our standard wheaten Easter Egger Lisa. Another is black and all bantam...Kerfluffle's, we believe. All 3 are half Sultan bantam.

Chickens For The White House Garden?

In Anticipation of Chicks

Our Frizzle Kerfluffle has been broody on a dozen eggs, at least one each from we think all our hens except the newest ones. This weekend should be it...21 days! We've sectioned off part of the coop near the nesting boxes, and I think we're all ready.

Coop Freshmen

3-21-2009 11-39-11 AM, originally uploaded by KKerfluffle.

Our 5 1/2-week old girls on their first day free-ranging. The next day, Lee moved them to the main coop with the rest of the flock, where they are learning their place at the bottom of the pecking order.