Updated 02/04/25
I'm going to share my life story (as it relates to chickens). Warning, I'm extremely long winded when I write... this will take a while...
The OG-19
I started my flock in the spring of 2019 with 5 chicks from Tractor Supply and a coop from Amazon. My husband built a run for the ladies when they moved outside. We started with Miso & Buffy (ISA Browns), Maleficent (SLW), & Wren & Peggy (RIRs). We lost Peggy after a battle with water belly. I said goodbye to Miso after a tumor grew inside her. I lost Buffy after her body just began shutting down to a variety of reproductive issues. Miso and Buffy are the reason I will not purchase production breeds again. They were the sweetest girls, but to lose them so young was heartbreaking. Miso was a character. There was something different about her from day 1. I thought she just took after her "chicken mama" and was an introvert, but we determined eventually that she was blind in one eye. Miso was the most adaptable creature ever! She learned to "anchor herself" to things visually. She seldom went out in the open to the middle of the yard, but instead would skirt the fence, keeping it on her sighted side, to get around. It was clever, but it also meant that she took the longest route possible 50% of the time. No worries though, she was the fastest chicken in the flock! We called her Speed Racer. Another trick Miso learned was that she had to spin in circles to find the rest of her treat. For example, if you gave her a big piece of food and she shook her head to tear off a bite, she'd lose the remainder of the food when it flung outside of her line of sight. It took her about a year, but she figured out the food was still there even though she couldn't see it. So before she would dart off to steal another chicken's treat, she would do a quick 360 spin to check to make sure she ate all of her own treat. She was a sight to see. She was the bottom of the pecking order but she was so tenacious when it came to food that it didn't matter. As far as the other chickens were concerned, Miso was highly unpredictable. She'd careen into them while darting about for food. So the rest of the flock developed a certain level of respect for her. And when they shared food or water from a bowl, the other girls would never peck her on her blind side. Her counterpart, Buffy the Vampire Layer, was much gentler and calmer than Miso. She was the chicken that was always up in your business and just wanted to be where the people were.. We'd leave the rest of the flock in the yard and let Buffy out to take a walk with us and the dog and cat. She loved assisting with yard work and made sure to leave no grub or worm or bug behind. She would impatiently stand next to large rocks or paving stones, waiting for someone to lift it so she could look for worms.
Captions: Miso (L) & Buffy the Vampire Layer (R). Miso has the pretty lacing on her butt. That head tilt was her signature look.
Peggy and Wren McCormack (Footloose) were the RIRs. Wren was the smallest hen in the OG19 flock. Naturally, that meant Wren was top of the pecking order. The Reds were always more elusive than the "Browns" and the dragon. They just seemed more independent and less inclined to want human interaction. Wren is still that way to this day. She'd be perfectly content to not ever have to have humans in her life. She often can't even be coaxed with treats. Peggy was the same way until she developed water belly (ascites). Poor girl balloooned up and became uncomfortable. We probably waited too long to treat her because we were scared, but it came down to quality of life so we gave it a go and we drained her. She felt worlds better! From that point on, every few weeks, Peggy would seek me out for a draining. She would come find me and just give me a look. She learned very quickly that - although she didn't like what we were doing to her - she felt better afterward. It was remarkable, and a level of understanding (intelligence) I've rarely seen in an animal. We lost Peggy in 2022.
Caption: 1) Wren McCormack, 2) Wren (L) and Peggy (R) 3) One of "The Reds" and my dog Jasper.
Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) is my first Wyandotte and the reason I have a love/hate relationship with this breed. She was given this name after I determined she was a dragon and not in fact a chicken. Maleficent enjoys being around people, but does not want to be touched. This is very unfortunate because she is the softest chicken ever! Maleficent is also extremely strong compared to the other chickens- a trait that seems to be common amongst wynadottes. Her wings are phenomenally strong, and she can break out of any grasp and will take your head off with an aggressive flap! To this day, it takes 3 points of contact to carry that hen. Hubs won't even try! The only thing she hates more than physical human contact is snow. So... in the wintertime, she will stand at the edge of the run and wait until I pick her up and carry her over the snow. Then I can set her on the garage or driveway and she'll happily hang out until she wants back in. Then she stands at the edge of the run and stares at the coop until I carry her back. Maleficent is also a miracle chicken. In 2022 she injured her leg and could barely walk. A few days later, she injured the other one and could not walk at all. She lived in the house for several months and I acted as her legs for her. Eventually she recovered, and now she gets around *almost* as good as new. She just has an extra fancy fluffy butt waddle.
Caption: Maleficent loves to be around her people, as long as you didn't try to touch her! She once visited my classroom.
The Three Amigos of 2021
We went for 2 years as just a flock of five ladies. Then in 2021 we added 3 new chicks. We had a gold laced wyandotte, another silver laced, and an Australorp. I broke my rule about not wanting to have "duplicate" chickens that would be hard to tell apart.
It was fun to have chicks in the house again, but I also remembered what a PIA it was to have them indoors. Since our first flock of chickens included a dragon, it made sense that this flock would also be a mixed species batch, and so Duckie earned her name because she thought she was a duck. She even honked like a goose for a period of time in her adolesence. The SLW became Morticia aka Morty (Addams Family). Tooty Bell was named by my MIL. Duckie (The Land Before Time) grew to be the most gorgeous satiny-black chicken. She was gregarious, social, and quickly became the friendliest chicken in her clutch (meanwhile, those wyandottes decided to be feral chickens). However, Duckie did not have much interest in laying eggs. I was convinced she identified as a rooster (her friendliness was borderline confrontational). She finally laid her first egg around 10 months old, but never laid with an consistency. Tragically, Duckie was to be my first chicken loss. She was not even a year old, and I came home from work to find her deceased in the run.
This was the start of 2022 being a roller coaster year for the flock of Fluster Cluck Acres.
Caption: (L to R) The Three Amigos- Duckie the Australorp, Morticia the SLW, & Tooty Bell the GLW, Duckie in all her glory, and the duplicates (Morticia in the foreground, Maleficent in the rear).
2022- A Year of Loss and a Year of New, due to a Roo.
In February of 2022, we lost Duckie. We lost Peggy in March. In May, we had to say goodbye to Miso, and we lost Buffy in September. 2022 was a big year for us in chickens- dealing with our first natural loss and our first euthanasia. But the firsts weren't all bad. In the spring, I got a bunch of new chicks: Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Rhode Island Blue, Blue Rock, Red Orpington, Lavender Orpington, cream legbar, and speckled sussex. These chicks were an intersting batch to brood. My red orpington was growing like a weed, and my legbar didn't seem to grow at all, and the two of them naturally became BFFs. Keeping with our Wynadotte theme of strong female alternative characters, Hubs named the new wyandotte, Velma (Scooby Doo). The Blues became Chicory the Rhode Island Blue and Sigmund aka Siggy (What About Bob) the Blue Rock. The Red Orp started out as Lucinda (Krampus). The lavender was Pussy Willow becuase she looked and felt like a fuzzy pussy willow bud. The legbar... which turned out to be a sparrow, was appropriately named Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean). And the Sussex became Specs (Mind you that's not short for speckles, it's short for spectacles- Hubs makes glasses for a living).
Caption: The 2022 Clutch Kaleidoscope of Colors. Look closely at the second pic, and you'll see that we had to rename Lucinder to Lucifer.
Chicken Math at it’s finest!
Just like what happens every 10% of the time, Lucinda grew into Lucifer. And as if that wasn’t a clear enough sign that the universe wanted me to make more chickens, Velma went broody! And that’s how we ended up with the 2022 Christmas Clutch! Once hatched, it become clear that as much as Velma had enjoyed sitting on eggs, she had no interest in actally raising baby chickens. Indoors came the little buggers, and since we had 5 chicks in total, it seemed almost expected at this point that 4 of them would be roosters. We ended up keeping 2 birds: Charcoal, a cockerel who hatched out of Chicory's egg and Ash, the pullet who hatched out of Willow's egg.
So 2022 also turned out to be our first rooster, our first broody, our first hatch, our first time "making chickens," and our first incubator (bought as a "just in case" after reading about others' experiences on this forum. It was a great excuse!)
Caption: Velma the broody hen that was in denial that her eggs hatched pictured here with chick "Noel."
Caption: The Entire Adult flock (not pictured- the 5 December chicks in the brooder in the coop). You'll notice that "Lucinda" was renamed to "Lucifer" because SURPRISE! IT WAS A BOY! I made this "chart" for my mom who used to think she could memorize all the names and breeds of my chickens. She's since given up hope.
2023- Chicken Math Goes Exponential!
So in 2023 I found myself with a rooster capable of producing fertile eggs, an incubator, and hatching fever. So I threw some eggs in the 'bator, and since I was already going to be raising babies, it seemed I might as well grab some sexed feed store chicks, too. I hatched 10 eggs (mostly my own mixes and a few BCMs from a local breeder) and purchased 11 chickes from feed stores. And since consistency is key, we maintained our 80% rooster hatching rate. We kept Flip Cup the BCM cockerel, Killians the RIR, Bandy Alexander the BYM from Spec's egg, and Grey Goose the lavender wyandotte.
Caption: The "Sobriety" Clutch including Flip Cup the BCM cockerel, Fosters the Australorp, Killians the RIR, Grey Goose the Lavender Wyandotte, and Brandy Alexander the Orpington x Speckled Sussex mix.
Next, I set some eggs to hatch on my birthday and it also coincided with when one of the feed stores was going to have Buckeyes, which were on my wishlist. But, before all that could happen, I stumbled upon some other cool chicks and had a clutch I named the Impulse Clutch. This group included the last unspoken for Chocolate Orp (the reason I acted impulsively), Barnevelders, Easter Eggers, and Noir Marans. From this group we retained the orpington, named Mole, a special little Barnevelder named Peanut Butter, a Noir Marans named Lucy, and an EE named Derby.
Caption: Some members of the "Impulse" Clutch including Lucy the Noir Marans, Derby the Easter Egger, and Mole the Chocolate Orpington.
So then along came the Birthday Clutch. This group was some of my own barnyard mixes (this time sired by Lucifer's son, Charcoal) and some buckeyes and cream creasted legbars from a feed store. From this group we retained Citronella the red, white, and blue cockerel (from Chicory's egg), Stevie Nicks (from Morticia's egg), and Nugget the buckeye. We also relocated Peanut Butter the Barnevelder from the Impulse Clutch to this clutch. Little PB was struggling and was not growing and gaining weight at the same rate as her peers. So we moved her in with a smaller group and younger chicks so she'd have less competition.
Caption: Peanut Butter (left) and a fellow barnevelder from her same age group. Notice the difference in size. Photo #2 shows the Warrior Clutch including PB the Barnie, Nugget the Buckeye, Citronella the cockerel, and Stevie Nicks in the background.
To be continued… next up... the Back to School Clutch.
I'm going to share my life story (as it relates to chickens). Warning, I'm extremely long winded when I write... this will take a while...
The OG-19
I started my flock in the spring of 2019 with 5 chicks from Tractor Supply and a coop from Amazon. My husband built a run for the ladies when they moved outside. We started with Miso & Buffy (ISA Browns), Maleficent (SLW), & Wren & Peggy (RIRs). We lost Peggy after a battle with water belly. I said goodbye to Miso after a tumor grew inside her. I lost Buffy after her body just began shutting down to a variety of reproductive issues. Miso and Buffy are the reason I will not purchase production breeds again. They were the sweetest girls, but to lose them so young was heartbreaking. Miso was a character. There was something different about her from day 1. I thought she just took after her "chicken mama" and was an introvert, but we determined eventually that she was blind in one eye. Miso was the most adaptable creature ever! She learned to "anchor herself" to things visually. She seldom went out in the open to the middle of the yard, but instead would skirt the fence, keeping it on her sighted side, to get around. It was clever, but it also meant that she took the longest route possible 50% of the time. No worries though, she was the fastest chicken in the flock! We called her Speed Racer. Another trick Miso learned was that she had to spin in circles to find the rest of her treat. For example, if you gave her a big piece of food and she shook her head to tear off a bite, she'd lose the remainder of the food when it flung outside of her line of sight. It took her about a year, but she figured out the food was still there even though she couldn't see it. So before she would dart off to steal another chicken's treat, she would do a quick 360 spin to check to make sure she ate all of her own treat. She was a sight to see. She was the bottom of the pecking order but she was so tenacious when it came to food that it didn't matter. As far as the other chickens were concerned, Miso was highly unpredictable. She'd careen into them while darting about for food. So the rest of the flock developed a certain level of respect for her. And when they shared food or water from a bowl, the other girls would never peck her on her blind side. Her counterpart, Buffy the Vampire Layer, was much gentler and calmer than Miso. She was the chicken that was always up in your business and just wanted to be where the people were.. We'd leave the rest of the flock in the yard and let Buffy out to take a walk with us and the dog and cat. She loved assisting with yard work and made sure to leave no grub or worm or bug behind. She would impatiently stand next to large rocks or paving stones, waiting for someone to lift it so she could look for worms.
Captions: Miso (L) & Buffy the Vampire Layer (R). Miso has the pretty lacing on her butt. That head tilt was her signature look.
Peggy and Wren McCormack (Footloose) were the RIRs. Wren was the smallest hen in the OG19 flock. Naturally, that meant Wren was top of the pecking order. The Reds were always more elusive than the "Browns" and the dragon. They just seemed more independent and less inclined to want human interaction. Wren is still that way to this day. She'd be perfectly content to not ever have to have humans in her life. She often can't even be coaxed with treats. Peggy was the same way until she developed water belly (ascites). Poor girl balloooned up and became uncomfortable. We probably waited too long to treat her because we were scared, but it came down to quality of life so we gave it a go and we drained her. She felt worlds better! From that point on, every few weeks, Peggy would seek me out for a draining. She would come find me and just give me a look. She learned very quickly that - although she didn't like what we were doing to her - she felt better afterward. It was remarkable, and a level of understanding (intelligence) I've rarely seen in an animal. We lost Peggy in 2022.
Caption: 1) Wren McCormack, 2) Wren (L) and Peggy (R) 3) One of "The Reds" and my dog Jasper.
Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) is my first Wyandotte and the reason I have a love/hate relationship with this breed. She was given this name after I determined she was a dragon and not in fact a chicken. Maleficent enjoys being around people, but does not want to be touched. This is very unfortunate because she is the softest chicken ever! Maleficent is also extremely strong compared to the other chickens- a trait that seems to be common amongst wynadottes. Her wings are phenomenally strong, and she can break out of any grasp and will take your head off with an aggressive flap! To this day, it takes 3 points of contact to carry that hen. Hubs won't even try! The only thing she hates more than physical human contact is snow. So... in the wintertime, she will stand at the edge of the run and wait until I pick her up and carry her over the snow. Then I can set her on the garage or driveway and she'll happily hang out until she wants back in. Then she stands at the edge of the run and stares at the coop until I carry her back. Maleficent is also a miracle chicken. In 2022 she injured her leg and could barely walk. A few days later, she injured the other one and could not walk at all. She lived in the house for several months and I acted as her legs for her. Eventually she recovered, and now she gets around *almost* as good as new. She just has an extra fancy fluffy butt waddle.
Caption: Maleficent loves to be around her people, as long as you didn't try to touch her! She once visited my classroom.
The Three Amigos of 2021
We went for 2 years as just a flock of five ladies. Then in 2021 we added 3 new chicks. We had a gold laced wyandotte, another silver laced, and an Australorp. I broke my rule about not wanting to have "duplicate" chickens that would be hard to tell apart.
It was fun to have chicks in the house again, but I also remembered what a PIA it was to have them indoors. Since our first flock of chickens included a dragon, it made sense that this flock would also be a mixed species batch, and so Duckie earned her name because she thought she was a duck. She even honked like a goose for a period of time in her adolesence. The SLW became Morticia aka Morty (Addams Family). Tooty Bell was named by my MIL. Duckie (The Land Before Time) grew to be the most gorgeous satiny-black chicken. She was gregarious, social, and quickly became the friendliest chicken in her clutch (meanwhile, those wyandottes decided to be feral chickens). However, Duckie did not have much interest in laying eggs. I was convinced she identified as a rooster (her friendliness was borderline confrontational). She finally laid her first egg around 10 months old, but never laid with an consistency. Tragically, Duckie was to be my first chicken loss. She was not even a year old, and I came home from work to find her deceased in the run.
This was the start of 2022 being a roller coaster year for the flock of Fluster Cluck Acres.Caption: (L to R) The Three Amigos- Duckie the Australorp, Morticia the SLW, & Tooty Bell the GLW, Duckie in all her glory, and the duplicates (Morticia in the foreground, Maleficent in the rear).
2022- A Year of Loss and a Year of New, due to a Roo.
In February of 2022, we lost Duckie. We lost Peggy in March. In May, we had to say goodbye to Miso, and we lost Buffy in September. 2022 was a big year for us in chickens- dealing with our first natural loss and our first euthanasia. But the firsts weren't all bad. In the spring, I got a bunch of new chicks: Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Rhode Island Blue, Blue Rock, Red Orpington, Lavender Orpington, cream legbar, and speckled sussex. These chicks were an intersting batch to brood. My red orpington was growing like a weed, and my legbar didn't seem to grow at all, and the two of them naturally became BFFs. Keeping with our Wynadotte theme of strong female alternative characters, Hubs named the new wyandotte, Velma (Scooby Doo). The Blues became Chicory the Rhode Island Blue and Sigmund aka Siggy (What About Bob) the Blue Rock. The Red Orp started out as Lucinda (Krampus). The lavender was Pussy Willow becuase she looked and felt like a fuzzy pussy willow bud. The legbar... which turned out to be a sparrow, was appropriately named Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean). And the Sussex became Specs (Mind you that's not short for speckles, it's short for spectacles- Hubs makes glasses for a living).
Caption: The 2022 Clutch Kaleidoscope of Colors. Look closely at the second pic, and you'll see that we had to rename Lucinder to Lucifer.
Chicken Math at it’s finest!
Just like what happens every 10% of the time, Lucinda grew into Lucifer. And as if that wasn’t a clear enough sign that the universe wanted me to make more chickens, Velma went broody! And that’s how we ended up with the 2022 Christmas Clutch! Once hatched, it become clear that as much as Velma had enjoyed sitting on eggs, she had no interest in actally raising baby chickens. Indoors came the little buggers, and since we had 5 chicks in total, it seemed almost expected at this point that 4 of them would be roosters. We ended up keeping 2 birds: Charcoal, a cockerel who hatched out of Chicory's egg and Ash, the pullet who hatched out of Willow's egg.
So 2022 also turned out to be our first rooster, our first broody, our first hatch, our first time "making chickens," and our first incubator (bought as a "just in case" after reading about others' experiences on this forum. It was a great excuse!)
Caption: Velma the broody hen that was in denial that her eggs hatched pictured here with chick "Noel."
Caption: The Entire Adult flock (not pictured- the 5 December chicks in the brooder in the coop). You'll notice that "Lucinda" was renamed to "Lucifer" because SURPRISE! IT WAS A BOY! I made this "chart" for my mom who used to think she could memorize all the names and breeds of my chickens. She's since given up hope.
2023- Chicken Math Goes Exponential!
So in 2023 I found myself with a rooster capable of producing fertile eggs, an incubator, and hatching fever. So I threw some eggs in the 'bator, and since I was already going to be raising babies, it seemed I might as well grab some sexed feed store chicks, too. I hatched 10 eggs (mostly my own mixes and a few BCMs from a local breeder) and purchased 11 chickes from feed stores. And since consistency is key, we maintained our 80% rooster hatching rate. We kept Flip Cup the BCM cockerel, Killians the RIR, Bandy Alexander the BYM from Spec's egg, and Grey Goose the lavender wyandotte.
Caption: The "Sobriety" Clutch including Flip Cup the BCM cockerel, Fosters the Australorp, Killians the RIR, Grey Goose the Lavender Wyandotte, and Brandy Alexander the Orpington x Speckled Sussex mix.
Next, I set some eggs to hatch on my birthday and it also coincided with when one of the feed stores was going to have Buckeyes, which were on my wishlist. But, before all that could happen, I stumbled upon some other cool chicks and had a clutch I named the Impulse Clutch. This group included the last unspoken for Chocolate Orp (the reason I acted impulsively), Barnevelders, Easter Eggers, and Noir Marans. From this group we retained the orpington, named Mole, a special little Barnevelder named Peanut Butter, a Noir Marans named Lucy, and an EE named Derby.
Caption: Some members of the "Impulse" Clutch including Lucy the Noir Marans, Derby the Easter Egger, and Mole the Chocolate Orpington.
So then along came the Birthday Clutch. This group was some of my own barnyard mixes (this time sired by Lucifer's son, Charcoal) and some buckeyes and cream creasted legbars from a feed store. From this group we retained Citronella the red, white, and blue cockerel (from Chicory's egg), Stevie Nicks (from Morticia's egg), and Nugget the buckeye. We also relocated Peanut Butter the Barnevelder from the Impulse Clutch to this clutch. Little PB was struggling and was not growing and gaining weight at the same rate as her peers. So we moved her in with a smaller group and younger chicks so she'd have less competition.
Caption: Peanut Butter (left) and a fellow barnevelder from her same age group. Notice the difference in size. Photo #2 shows the Warrior Clutch including PB the Barnie, Nugget the Buckeye, Citronella the cockerel, and Stevie Nicks in the background.
To be continued… next up... the Back to School Clutch.
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