Flock on the March

You know the old saying: “Walks like a duck, talks like a duck, is a duck.” But at our house it’s a rooster. The missing part, so far, is the talking – or in this case the cock-a-doodle-doing. Otherwise: highly suspicious.

Ever since we added those four pullets (all said to be hens, you betcha!) to our flock (of two), I’ve wondered. The four new ‘girls’ were Red Stars which, apparently, is a variety that can look a lot like Rhode Island Reds. The operable word in the previous sentence is ‘can.’

They are a ‘sex-link’ chicken meaning they’re bred specifically so that males and females are different colors when they hatch. That makes it easy for backyard chicken raisers such as ourselves to choose egg-layers only – no bossy roosters. Female Red Stars mature with feathers that are reddish brown with flecks of white throughout. The males are all white with nice yellow skin. Supposedly.

Keeping the Coop in Sight

We waited until our local supplier had some pullet-aged chickens, just to be sure. The last time we got little yellow peeps – six of them – four turned out to be roosters. Mean roosters. They were not sex-link chickens so we were definitely taking our chances and, as with the lottery and casino slot machines, ‘lucky’ was not our middle name. So, this time we took precautions: sex-link plus wait until their big girl feathers come in. What could go wrong?

We’ve kept the entire flock inside their run for the last five or six weeks waiting for our newly planted strip of lawn to establish itself and, to tell the truth, I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to the individual ‘girls.’ In fact, unless I am relieving Farmer Nyel of his feeding and watering and locking-up duties, I seldom see the flock, coop-bound as they are behind some large rhododendrons. I have, however, expressed intermittent concern about one of those new ‘girls.’   (Oh.  And did I mention that these hybrid Red Stars can revert back to their genetic origins — as in maybe the color doesn’t mean much by the second or third generation.  And just where are these four on their family tree, anyway?)

Standing Guard

Yesterday we decided that the recalcitrant grass is not going to do much growing this season, so we let the girls free-range for the day. Or tried to. The two older Ameraucanas headed straight for the newly planted lettuce (of course!) but the four youngest were hesitant to leave their enclosure. When I used some scratch to entice them beyond the open gate, the biggest one lost no time in doing a lot of wing-flapping and traffic-directing trying to keep the others from going on a full-blown Explore.

“That one’s behaving a lot like a rooster,” said Farmer Nyel. I agreed. (And haven’t I been saying for some time now that he’s bigger-with-surprisingly-large-comb-and-wattles-and-now-his-tail-feathers-are-beginning-to-lengthen-and-flop-over? And did you get the part about no-one-ever-listens-to-me?)  “When the crowing begins we’ll know for sure.”

Any day now.