This chicken (right) has the strongest passion to survive, than I have ever seen, compared to any of our other birds.  During the trying times of our Bobcat plague, we were forced to move chickens to different locations every few days in order to try to “fool” the cat and keep it from finding the chickens while we were constructing a Bobcat proof chicken house (the other housing was Coyote proof but we didn’t imagine a hungry Bobcat would be at our door).  Anyway, each evening, before we could catch this bird (which is not an easy task with any chicken), it would go to the highest branch of our tallest tree and sit at the outer most edge (where the branches were thinner and couldn’t hold the weight of a Bobcat) to roost for the night.  And, if we came out earlier to round the birds up, this chicken would just settle in earlier to avoid being caught and relocated by us.  Those were trying times but this girl prevailed and still lives to this day.  I have never slaughtered a chicken yet but, if it ever had to come to that, I don’t think I would have the heart to let this girl die anyway but naturally.  Furthermore, I couldn’t tell you what breed of chicken she is because she came with a batch of Araucana chicks but she didn’t grow up to look like the rest of them. 

(If you know her breed, I’d be curious to know)

 

Update:  a critter took this hen from us in Feb of ‘09.  She was with us from Oct ‘05— Feb ‘09.

 

Ferdie was given to me as a birthday present (with a batch of other ducklings) after I lost most of my first flock to the bobcat.  She is everyone’s favorite because of her “fluff” head.  She has been the only one to produce baby ducks.  Her first attempt at raising eggs to their hatch date was completed by a hen that took over sitting on her eggs.  Then, the next month, she hatched two of her own eggs. 

The hen and “her ducklings” went to another home (I didn’t have the room to house that many extra ducks in their night quarters).  I have a photo of the duck babies with their surrogate chicken mom below.  Notice the one with the “fluff” head like it’s mom!

       Ferdie in the pond

<————These pictures are of the same chicken.  This girl is so ugly when she molts.  The picture on top is before molting and the picture on the bottom is the same chicken during molting season.

I rec’d an update on this flock ———> about six months after they went to their new home.  I learned that the ducks have all grown up nicely and happily follow the father to the barn every day—if he is late, the ducks wait for him.  The chicken, named Oprah, layed two eggs but another hen took over sitting on them.  So, just as she took the ducklings in, another hen (a silkie) took her chicks in.  I guess that can be a common occurrence on the farm—it was new to me.  I was so happy to hear they are all doing well.

Summer, 2009  -  Baby chicks out foraging with mature hens after a rain.   Notice the garden cages—this is how you have a garden with pasture-raised chickens; otherwise, they will eat the garden, too!