I resisted my husband's desire for our girls to have childhood chicken memories, as I didn't have any myself. But I enjoyed watching him convert the old Cowhaus speaker boxes into nesting boxes, and his open-air coop was perfect for our Florida weather. I love to research and the world of fancy poultry was revealed to me. It wasn't too difficult to find fancy chicks locally on Craigslist and the Talquin Electric newsletter, as well as a few production pullets from the feed store. Now I can't envision living without them. We don't get too many eggs from our fancy flock, since we chose them more for looks than for production, but the colorful ones we do get are delicious. In 2019, we are raising some assorted rare females and rainbow layer chicks to add to our 4 surviving hens and 1 rooster.
Vulture hocks, BTW, are stiff quill feathers growing in the thigh. A disqualification in most varieties, but standard for my favorites, the sultan and Belgian bearded d'Uccle.