Backyard Chickens

“Are you missing a chicken?” Tucker asked us the other morning.  He was calling from the lane, down by the “No Cars Please” sign. He had discovered a pile of brown feathers.

“I don’t think so,” was my reply but when I asked Nyel he said we were, indeed, missing a chicken.  The Americauna had not come the previous night when he called the chickens to lock them in. Oh oh!

But, she showed up later in the day looking none the worse for wear.  No missing feathers – not that we could tell.  She’s big and very fluffy – not sleek like some breeds.  Depending on where her feathers might have gone missing, it would be hard to tell.  Plus, she’s secretive – keeps her own counsel, you might say.  In fact, we aren’t even sure she’s a true Americauna.  That breed lays light blue eggs, presumably.  Hers are brown.  She won’t talk about it.

Americauna in Nest Box

She’s a large chicken, seven or eight pounds – considered “dual purpose” which means good for meat or for eggs.  We are only interested in the eggs and she’s rated ‘good’ in that department – medium-sized and three or four a week.  Americaunas are described as having “a muff and beards and are very hardy and sweet.”  Since her return, she’s spent almost all her waking hours in the nest box — but, she’s not laying.  Gone broody?  Maybe.  But she should be producing eggs to sit on.  She won’t talk about that either.

So, what was she doing away from the coop the night of August 17^th?  Whose feathers were those that were seen in the lane and reported by Tucker?  If they did not belong to her, did she perhaps have an altercation with a foreign chicken?  So far, there are no clear answers and no indictments to be made.  The Americauna seems, for now, beyond reproach.

We would feel more inclined to do a full investigation if it had been the Russian Orloff who had gone missing.  She, too, is a large chicken whose ancestors once went by the name ‘Chlianskaia’ and later they were simply known as ‘Russians.’ I’m not sure when or how Count Orloff-Techesmensky got into the act but he, apparently, was quite an enthusiast of that particular breed and introduced them to the European and American public.  By one name or other, they were being imported into the United States as early as 1875.

Russian Orloff – On Guard Duty?

Our Americauna and the Russian Orloff are good friends.  They hang out together when they are free-ranging in the backyard.  They enjoy dust baths together and are equally unfriendly to the newer members of the coop.  That they might be up to clandestine activities is always a possibility.  But the Orloff has not been missing from the coop, nor has she been engaged in any secretive behavior that we know of.  Not time, yet, to call for a Special Investigator.  But we are keeping an eye out for an interpreter.