Chicken Portraits

Here's some shots of our chickens looking more grown up...


We haven't named them as we know they might end up as coq au vin or chicken drumsticks. And others might be given away or sold as we adjust the numbers or the variety in our flock.

But they do have labels - so clockwise, from top left, this is how we know and recognise them:

• The darker little hen (first generation)
• The little little hen (second generation - vaulted skull, yellow feet)
• The other rooster (second generation - smooth barred feathers)
• The big grey chicken (first generation - a hen but we weren't too sure to start with)
  
• The rooster (second generation - frizzled barred feathers)

The first generation hens are now about 15 months old and they've been laying since last September and their egg production will probably slow down for winter very soon.

The second generation, two roosters and one hen, are now nearly seven months old and we're expecting that the little hen will lay from this coming September.

One rooster will have to go - probably the other rooster as we want to keep breeding the frizzle feathers. We can't keep both as they'll start being competitive soon, making them noisy and aggressive. I think I've found someone at work who's ready to stock her new lifestyle block so he should have a good home. Failing that, our builder is amused to think that he might have to put roosters down on his site safety assessment.