TropicalChickies
Crowing
Hi BYC folks,
Here's Dusty, one of the new additions to my flock. She's an eight month old pullet I just bought from a neighbor a few kilometers up the road.
Dusty^
A little background on my chooks: We live in a very rural area of Ecuador, South America. Most people here (including us) farm sugar cane, bananas, cocoa beans and other "tropical crops." The climate is subtropical rainforest and the landscape a mix of humid jungle and farmed land. Practically everyone here keeps chickens, and while the gamecock keepers are particular about the breeding stock, no one else is, so all of the farmyard chickens running around the little villages are mixes of various domesticated breeds and interesting landrace varieties. The people call the mixtures "criollas" -- same thing people of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent are called.
For example, here's another one of Dusty with her pal Rusty. Rusty looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red, but she's very petite. Her eggs are cream colored with a bluish tint. Her feet are bluish as well.
Rusty (front) and Dusty (behind)
Dusty isn't laying yet. The locals here call her a "Chirapa" -- an indigenous Kichwa word for "tatters" or a "Rizada" -- meaning "frizzy" in Spanish. Her plumage is completely black with a green/blue beetle sheen. I think she's the most adorable ugly little hen ever.
I looked up all the breeds of black chickens and she looks mostly like a Cochin, but she's also very petite. They are eating very well in our farm, fed rations 2x a day and free roam all day for forage, so I suspect they will fill out.
So I'm asking just out of curiosity -- I'm pretty certain Dusty isn't a "pure" anything, but does anyone want to guess her possible origins?
Here's Dusty, one of the new additions to my flock. She's an eight month old pullet I just bought from a neighbor a few kilometers up the road.
Dusty^
A little background on my chooks: We live in a very rural area of Ecuador, South America. Most people here (including us) farm sugar cane, bananas, cocoa beans and other "tropical crops." The climate is subtropical rainforest and the landscape a mix of humid jungle and farmed land. Practically everyone here keeps chickens, and while the gamecock keepers are particular about the breeding stock, no one else is, so all of the farmyard chickens running around the little villages are mixes of various domesticated breeds and interesting landrace varieties. The people call the mixtures "criollas" -- same thing people of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent are called.
For example, here's another one of Dusty with her pal Rusty. Rusty looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red, but she's very petite. Her eggs are cream colored with a bluish tint. Her feet are bluish as well.
Rusty (front) and Dusty (behind)
Dusty isn't laying yet. The locals here call her a "Chirapa" -- an indigenous Kichwa word for "tatters" or a "Rizada" -- meaning "frizzy" in Spanish. Her plumage is completely black with a green/blue beetle sheen. I think she's the most adorable ugly little hen ever.
I looked up all the breeds of black chickens and she looks mostly like a Cochin, but she's also very petite. They are eating very well in our farm, fed rations 2x a day and free roam all day for forage, so I suspect they will fill out.
So I'm asking just out of curiosity -- I'm pretty certain Dusty isn't a "pure" anything, but does anyone want to guess her possible origins?