My special breeds

I began talking to friends about having to get rid of "the girls". It turns out that you can't mix crested ornamentals in with regular chickens. Other birds will pluck at their crests and harm them. My birds are small also, and can not be mixed with average size chickens. They have been hand raised and treated as pets so it's not unlikely that they would not survive in a farm setting. While my birds do lay eggs which I gladly eat, the breeds are not raised for their eggs and meat so they're a hard sell to anyone who wants them for anything but pets.

Antoinette, who I've had for the longest, is a Frizzle. http://www.thefrizzlesocietyofgreatbritain.co.uk/index.php. She is all black and has a crest (feathers that stand up on her head). A frizzle's feathers start growing normally and then bend up and back making her look like a boa. I named her shortly after seeing the movie Marie Antoinette because she is VERY fancy and clearly the queen. She LOVES me. She makes a gentle, soulful moaning sound - nothing like you'd imagine would come from a chicken. If I were going to rename her, I'd look towards Billy Holiday as an influence.

Antoinette goes broody about every 3 weeks in warm months. That means she spends 21 days in her house sitting on a "nest" and trying to hatch imaginary eggs. Imaginary, because she doesn't lay while she's broody and I collect any eggs she lays prior to it. If she were to sit on actual eggs, they wouldn't hatch because there is no rooster fertilizing them.

Chloe is a Bearded Buff Laced Polish. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/2/2-2/Terry_Beebe.hml She's only about 10 weeks old. I bought her and her 2 "sisters" when they were 3 weeks old and had to keep them indoors under a light for several weeks because a Polish chicken is the ULTIMATE ornamental in my book and it was worth the effort! I believe her "sisters" are roosters, although they have not crowed yet, and they now belong to the only other person I know who raises pet chickens. They are visiting until improvements are made to their home. It is very difficult to sex chicks so it's hard to know what you'll get. It was certainly worth raising 3 to get one hen. They are too young to utter more than gentle "peeps".

Chloe is yellowish/tanish and will have a very large crest on her head. I affectionately refer to her as my "dumb blond" because it's hard for her to see so she's rather skittish and often goes in the opposite direction of the others. I trimmed her "hair" yesterday, so that has helped. I took her name from Greek Mythology. She was so sweet and loving and always fell asleep on me as soon as I picked her up when she was new. Chloe means "green shoot" in Greek and it just seemed to suit her.

Elisa is a Blue Bantam Cochin. She is short & stocky and has furry feet. She lays little eggs. She's fussier than the other two, waddling around like you'd image a busy body hen in a cartoon. She cracks me up. She cackles a bit, but again, only one neighbor has told me they've heard her and she's much more quiet than a dog. She also purrs - seriously, like a happy cat. None of the chickens make any noise at night. My daughter Lauren named Elisa - she's her favorite.