I thought I might as well as share a funny story about one of our Blue Silkies named Elliott, whom we mistakenly thought she was a girl when we bought her from a breeder.
To start off, my family bought eight week old Elliott (originally Elenore II aka Ellie) from a lady up north last year in NH to replace one of our Silkies that got attack by a hawk. When we brought home Elliott that night we decided to put him in the chick pen with our eight week old Silkhorns who seemed to take a liking to him. Elliott was a bit shy and didn't really want to mingle with his new friends, so I tried putting him next to them to get him to interact. Well, it turns out two of our Silkhorns were roos, and when I put him down on the floor with them they diverged at him and well...you know what males do. The poor thing was freaked out and jumped into my hand when I went to pick him up. My parents thought it'd be best to keep Elliott in the house for a while until he was older, so we took out an old box and added some bedding, food and a waterer and put Elliott inside.
Elliott was quite a troublemaker as he stayed in our house. He'd fly out of the box each time we'd walk away from him, so we'd be sitting in the living room and all at one we'd see Elliott walk in and was like "Hey guys! What's up?". My dad put a wire mesh on top of the box to prevent him flying out, but he managed to get out somehow. My mother would take him out to get some exercise on occasion, and I tried to make him a diaper for him out of paper towel and tape. (Ha ha, I wish I had a picture of that. The Poor thing couldn't get up.)
He went in with the other chickens finally when he was a bit older, and he was fine with them.
This year, my brother noticed that Elliott at eight months old wasn't laying any eggs (we thought he was a girl at first). He started to believe Elliott wasn't a girl at all and thought he was a guy instead (He said he saw him crow one day when collecting the eggs). My parents and I didn't believe him...until one day when I was preparing to head to school I went to check on them, and all of a sudden I see Elliott standing high on his feet crowing away. I was so dumbstruck. I remember yelling at him, "No, Ellie! You are not a guy! You are a girl! Stop crowing and start laying!" LOL. My parents laughed at that.
And so, I changed Ellie's name to Elliott that day when he started crowing. My father bought two female Silkies three weeks later and decided to keep Elliott so that he'd be with the other hens while our other Silkie male, Snowball, would be with the Silkies so he can fertilize their eggs. A week later, right before we were going to separate the two males, my brother found Snowball with a bloody head right near his comb. I assume the two guys got into a fight, and Elliott won. (Snowball is two times the size of Elliott, and yet the little devil won. Snowball's very tame, so I suppose that is why he lost.) Because of the sudden accident, my father took Elliott out of the coup and brought him over to our neighbor (They own chickens too.)
This is where it gets funny.
About a day later, we get a whole bunch of calls from our neighbors down the street, and they asked us if we owned a black chicken. We said yes, and I guess what happened was Elliott escaped the neighbor's coop and was trying to make it's way home. My father goes over to one of our neighbors and tries to catch Elliott. Turns out Elliott is quite a fast runner, and that my father couldn't catch him. The ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD was chasing after Elliott for over an hour, and in the end my father was like "Forget it! Let him get eaten by a fox for all I care."
The next day a lady who lives across the street from my grandparents called us and asked my brother if he owned a black chicken and wondered if he could get him. So my brother and I drove over with our four wheelers to the lady's house, and there was Elliott walking about in her yard. My brother walks over to him and simply picks Elliott up. (I teased my dad that night, "You complain about catching a chicken when all that Anthony did to get him was picking him up." My bro is the Chicken Whisperer. LOL) Poor Elliott looked hungry (probably that was the reason why it was so easy for my brother to pick him up from the ground.) so we brought him home, gave him some food and water, and put him in a homemade wire mesh pen in our barn.
A guy my father knows owns a whole bunch of chickens and was interested in taking in Elliot, so Elliott was moved to another family, who to this day love him! They have kids, and the kids think he looks so cool. They made him his own pen to live in and they kids play with him a lot. All I know is that Elliott now lives with a loving family, and that I know he'll be in good hands in the near future when he gets older.
To start off, my family bought eight week old Elliott (originally Elenore II aka Ellie) from a lady up north last year in NH to replace one of our Silkies that got attack by a hawk. When we brought home Elliott that night we decided to put him in the chick pen with our eight week old Silkhorns who seemed to take a liking to him. Elliott was a bit shy and didn't really want to mingle with his new friends, so I tried putting him next to them to get him to interact. Well, it turns out two of our Silkhorns were roos, and when I put him down on the floor with them they diverged at him and well...you know what males do. The poor thing was freaked out and jumped into my hand when I went to pick him up. My parents thought it'd be best to keep Elliott in the house for a while until he was older, so we took out an old box and added some bedding, food and a waterer and put Elliott inside.
Elliott was quite a troublemaker as he stayed in our house. He'd fly out of the box each time we'd walk away from him, so we'd be sitting in the living room and all at one we'd see Elliott walk in and was like "Hey guys! What's up?". My dad put a wire mesh on top of the box to prevent him flying out, but he managed to get out somehow. My mother would take him out to get some exercise on occasion, and I tried to make him a diaper for him out of paper towel and tape. (Ha ha, I wish I had a picture of that. The Poor thing couldn't get up.)
He went in with the other chickens finally when he was a bit older, and he was fine with them.
This year, my brother noticed that Elliott at eight months old wasn't laying any eggs (we thought he was a girl at first). He started to believe Elliott wasn't a girl at all and thought he was a guy instead (He said he saw him crow one day when collecting the eggs). My parents and I didn't believe him...until one day when I was preparing to head to school I went to check on them, and all of a sudden I see Elliott standing high on his feet crowing away. I was so dumbstruck. I remember yelling at him, "No, Ellie! You are not a guy! You are a girl! Stop crowing and start laying!" LOL. My parents laughed at that.
And so, I changed Ellie's name to Elliott that day when he started crowing. My father bought two female Silkies three weeks later and decided to keep Elliott so that he'd be with the other hens while our other Silkie male, Snowball, would be with the Silkies so he can fertilize their eggs. A week later, right before we were going to separate the two males, my brother found Snowball with a bloody head right near his comb. I assume the two guys got into a fight, and Elliott won. (Snowball is two times the size of Elliott, and yet the little devil won. Snowball's very tame, so I suppose that is why he lost.) Because of the sudden accident, my father took Elliott out of the coup and brought him over to our neighbor (They own chickens too.)
This is where it gets funny.
About a day later, we get a whole bunch of calls from our neighbors down the street, and they asked us if we owned a black chicken. We said yes, and I guess what happened was Elliott escaped the neighbor's coop and was trying to make it's way home. My father goes over to one of our neighbors and tries to catch Elliott. Turns out Elliott is quite a fast runner, and that my father couldn't catch him. The ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD was chasing after Elliott for over an hour, and in the end my father was like "Forget it! Let him get eaten by a fox for all I care."
The next day a lady who lives across the street from my grandparents called us and asked my brother if he owned a black chicken and wondered if he could get him. So my brother and I drove over with our four wheelers to the lady's house, and there was Elliott walking about in her yard. My brother walks over to him and simply picks Elliott up. (I teased my dad that night, "You complain about catching a chicken when all that Anthony did to get him was picking him up." My bro is the Chicken Whisperer. LOL) Poor Elliott looked hungry (probably that was the reason why it was so easy for my brother to pick him up from the ground.) so we brought him home, gave him some food and water, and put him in a homemade wire mesh pen in our barn.
A guy my father knows owns a whole bunch of chickens and was interested in taking in Elliot, so Elliott was moved to another family, who to this day love him! They have kids, and the kids think he looks so cool. They made him his own pen to live in and they kids play with him a lot. All I know is that Elliott now lives with a loving family, and that I know he'll be in good hands in the near future when he gets older.
