Bossy Bessy

• Buff Brahma
• lays light brown small eggs
• won't lay in the nesting closet with all the other chickens
• lays in the garage in her own spot
• paid extra to make sure she was a girl (10 buckeroos)
• fiesty (even though every description I've read about this breed is they are super nice and sweet) I have to sneak up and catch her and she allows me to hold her nicely, but then when I put her down again...if any body part of mine is close to her she'll attack it..No it doesn't hurt.
• Marshmallow picks on her
• Bessy picks on Barry and Shirley Schroom

Mama

• Buff Orpington
• sweetest mock mother
• very very docile
• lays light brown eggs
• still mother to Barry when they are roosting he still tries to get under her wing

Marshmallow

• white silkie
• lays white eggs
• finally can tell she's a girl...late bloomer
• sweetest thing ever I hold her all the time and when I go feed them...she is always around my feet wanting to be near me
• is NOT on the bottom of pecking order somewhere near the bottom maybe like 3rd from the bottom
• just got done taking a dirt bath so she looks like a toasted marshmallow

Ruby

This is Ruby...She was a good girl. 

• brown speckled egg
• lethargic, not producing eggs, poop was not solid/almost watery
• almost 3 years old
• top of pecking order
• Red Star

Since I knew the signs, I was calling imediately around at avian vets (there aren't very many here) and the only that could see me right away was someone in Sandy, just past Ikea.  The tech that examined her first thought..."yep she's eggbound" then the dr. came in and examined her and said...nope she's not eggbound...But he offered to keep her overnight and to do xrays to see if she had swallowed something foreign.  But being the practical girl I am (I was attached to her though) I opted to just take her home and see what happened.   She became better and less lethargic but still not producing any eggs and was just somehow less.  She was like that for about a year.  Then in the summer of 2011 she started being sedentary and only moving to eat or drink...(thankfully she was still doing those things).  I started to notice that when she pooped it would stick to her backside.  We cleaned her several times and one time I noticed a big mass to one side of her bum behind her leg.  All of the symtoms when googled indicated that she had cancer and then when I felt that mass I was pretty sure she had it too.  So I  just tried to keep her comfortable.  But at the end she wouldn't even get up to go to her normal bed in the garage at night time when all the other chickens would.. she stayed in a nesting box in the outdoor closet.  I was worried because a predator could come and she would probably just let them eat her.  I couldn't stand to see her like that anymore so I did the only humanely thing I could think of...I had my son put her out of her misery.  Sad day.  But she wasn't in pain anymore.

Henrietta

She is one of the oldies but very goodies. She's over 3 but still laying strong. Popo doesn't much fancy her. He often is chasing her away from the food, but she just says..."um hello, I was here first" It doesn't bother her one bit. She runs from his pecks and then is right back in his face.

Shirley is a b...girl

Forever we thought this silkie was a boy, mainly because he didn't like to be held and all the other ladies LOVE to be held but I guess that's not always true. Today since I would like to know more about who lays which egg, I spent a considerable amount of time outside just watching and being apart of their daily morning ritual. This is what I saw...I've seen the white silkie messing around in the nest boxes closet for a couple days now but I haven't actually seen her lay, but I've never seen the brown silkie in there at all. Today I saw her talking like she wanted to lay and then went in a nesting box for about 1/2 hour to do her business. Afterward she did the obligatory clucking..."I just layed an egg!!" And actually she was quite calm about it so one of the cuckoo marans helped her out..."now this is how you do it" I went right in to gather her egg and there it was all warm. One egg I now know is hers...it's light brown and of course the smallest. And that she's a lady now. BTW I named her Shirley (even when she was a boy)in a round about way to remind me that she is a partridge (the partridge family...shirley jones...is that a stretch?) silkie.

Three of a kind

I don't have a name for these guys and actually they aren't all the same. I have 2 cuckoo marans and 1 barred rock. And I can't seem to tell the difference.