this is samantha (the black/white one) and dixie (the red)
they are friends.
i've had samantha since she was a baby. let me explain.
every year a nearby elementary school hatches baby chickens for all the kindergarden classes. and we watch them over the weekend every year. one year a new teacher didn't know how to work an incubator and got 4 baby chicks stuck in eggs. 'mantha (our nickname for samantha) was one of them. i had to help her out.
we were deciding what to name him/her. one of my mom's friend's daughters was saying "see em" fast, and it sounded like sam. the name stuck.
then she was very social. she loved to sit on shoulders. she came to the school often to say hi.
then she was a hen! we were happy because we'd get eggs and no noise! but we had no intentions to keep her until we were like "let's just do it"
then came dixie.
she was my aunt's boss' chicken. she was raised indoors with another chicken, but was not very social. but her boss could not keep her because she would "peck the grandkids" or something. so we got her and her and samantha are best friends.
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Then there was camilla and Chikira.
this was back in may 2013. we had decided to keep 2 chickens from the kindergarden flock. we HAD to take camilla, because she was being VERY AGGRESSIVE to baby chickens (making beaks bleed) and we don't want that near kindergardeners. and we fell in love with chikira, and we were caught in the voice craze so her name stuck. we thought they were hens, but they were roos.
here in our city, roosters are illegal and can result in a fine. so we we knew they had to go. we kept them for another 2 days, then they crowed at 5:00 AM. then we drove them to the humane society.
i still have a picture of baby chikira on my wall, or as i would call her now, Chickuille o' neal. her and her brother Cameron are happy now.
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Disabled chickens. every year, we get one from the Kindergarden class flock.
i remember 3. Maurice, Nora, and PJ. pj and nora died of their insides not being developed, and maurice had his neck snapped by one of our dogs.
but we help them and keep them for longer because a kindergardener would kill a disabled chick. and it's kind of tradition.
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Here is Maggie and Lucy, my two 6 week old silkies.
(maggie on top, lucy on bottom)
maggie seems to be the most hen-like. but lucy has an issue with her leg.
maggie seems to be a hen! i compared her to an image of another pullet and the resemblance was uncanny!