Silkies Make Great Pets

Natasha departing the porch of the original chicken house.

Natasha as a young lady in at rare quick paceNatasha was a "silkie". A silkie's feathers don't bind together like regular feathers, they're sort of frayed and therefore fur-like. They are very soft like a kitten, small, have pom poms on their heads, fuzzy feet and lay cute silly little eggs. They can't fly because their feathers don't work and they really can hardly see with all that fur on their face. She reminded me of a Russian princess so I contacted my favorite Russian professor and asked for name suggestions. Natasha (actually named for a Countess rather than a Princess) was very happy and very sweet, but I thought she was a little dumb until I trimmed around her face - exposing her eyes - and with sight, she became noticeably less ditsy! She was always the most vulnerable and one day when I had her out of her cage, I came home to find a hawk eating her.

Word spread quickly among my friends. People would walk cautiously up to me and express their condolences. I even received a very sappy sympathy card in the mail.

Yes, it was very sad, but the life of a chicken mother is not always as carefree as it appears. To appease my guilt I decided that it's better to have a short happy life than a long miserable one and I was glad I allowed her to take the dust baths in my garden that she so loved and were ultimately her demise.

Other Birds About Town...

The Emus in front of the Vice Chancellor's house on University Avenue

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a pair of emus wandered the Sewanee campus at their leisure. It was a cold and foggy winter and the rumor was that an emu farmer (but not one who owns a bike shop) set them free when emu meat did not turn out to bring the riches promised. To the town's delight, it was like living in Dr. Suess land for a while - which is not a bad way to live.

You know what I'd REALLY like???...

PEACOCKS!!! beautiful, elegant, graceful birds
Peafowl are not livestock and not prohibited in my lease. They are about the most spectacular bird you will ever see. However, not only are they not proportionally right for my yard (I'd need a much larger, grander place), but they are quite loud - especially during mating season. And while I wouldn't mind the call of a large bird - I understand that many would. Nevertheless, just imaging for a moment - peacocks in the quadrangle...

These pictures, incidentally, were taken at a motel outside of Apalachicola, FL owned by the sweet German mother of a Sewanee graduate. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34194-d1023974-r14473601-Sportsman_s_Lodge_Motel_Marina-Eastpoint_Florida.html

Remember those two emu who wandered the campus about ten years ago?

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.