Ended 2024 Valentine's Day Contest Series—Some Poultry Are Red, Some Are Blue, But Let's Not Forget, They Can Be Barred Too!

[Canadian Wind]

Entry #4

Blue Atipico Muscovy hen. Please excuse the tatty feathers, it's been a long winter and I couldn't find a good pic of her from last summer.

 

[fuzzi]

Pretty! I love her name

Cute! You also have an adorable kitty.

Thanks!

That's one of my "ferals". They show up, I feed, trap, neuter, and release them. They stick around, so I have no rodent issues, and no kittens, either.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Entry # 1

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Blue Barred mixed hen, sitting on her hidden nest.

Entry #2

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Same Blue hen, after being relocated, with two of her newly hatched chicks.

She’s a sneaky one! I love that photo of the little chick peeking out.

Entry #3

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Lilac Barred Muscovy duckling. I love this pose, she looks so dainty and sweet!

Entry #4

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Blue Atipico Muscovy hen. Please excuse the tatty feathers, it's been a long winter and I couldn't find a good pic of her from last summer.

Lovely ducks!

Thanks!

That's one of my "ferals". They show up, I feed, trap, neuter, and release them. They stick around, so I have no rodent issues, and no kittens, either.

What a wonderful idea.

 

[Canbrn]

 

[ChasingChooks]

My Cuckoo Maran, Esmerelda.

 

[Potato and Eilonwy]

My photogenic flighty Barred Rock Charlie!
I am jealous my pictures are lower quality than the rest

 

[ChasingChooks]

View attachment 3744784
My photogenic flighty Barred Rock Charlie!
I am jealous my pictures are lower quality than the rest

Same, mine looked fine before I uploaded it... now it's a bit fuzzier.

 

[GregTenn]

Born in the first week of an especially cold March, one of five chicks to an Easter Egger Momma... Matilda as we came to call her was like most chicks, dependent on Momma hen for heat and nourishment. This was Mamma's first brood. She cared for them all very well and had them all out and about in the pen within a week or so. It was cute to watch all of them run and play and then get tucked under Momma when they got scared or cold.

Although they didn’t have distinctive markings at that age, other than color, their personalities stood out. Some were brave and took off to outlying parts so small they escaped through breaks in the chicken wire, others however stayed pretty close. Unknown to us we had a raccoon family nearby and started losing the escaped wondering chicks until we discovered the problem and trapped the raccoons and moved them away.

The only chick left was Matilda, we call her Tildy she had stayed closer to Momma and was safe. She was acting a bit off for a while, my guess is she was having chicken loss grief. Suddenly she had no siblings to cuddle with. We were unhappy as well of course. After about another month or so Momma started ignoring her, it was time for her to be on her own, she seemed out of sorts that's when we named her. Tildy pretty much kept to herself until another brood came along, she stayed as close as the hen would let her but didn’t bond with the new chicks.

She has become a precocious chicken, not wanting to associate with the others, running from them, and waiting until they were busy somewhere else to get food or water, after a month or so she started being even more distant and didn’t want to go in the coup at night, She had found out she could fly a bit and would fly up on the enclosure and sleep there instead of going into the coup. We tried chasing her and keeping her contained, but she wouldn’t have it. She is living her way!

She is about 8 months old now and has a distinctive gold color around her neck and greenish-blue feathers distinctive to Easter eggers, she is beautiful. Although she still likes to live outside the pen on most days, she does come in at night now. She has become a tad more comfortable and has begun to lay beautiful chocolate-colored eggs. We are so happy she has survived she gives us joy to see her doing so well we love her… We look forward to seeing what she is going to do every day.

 

[GregTenn]

 

[GregTenn]

General Lee