Currently, I have five chickens: Minerva (an Easter Egger hen who lays blue eggs), Beaker (a Golden Polish hen who lays white eggs), Louise (a Brown Leghorn hen who lays white eggs), Shadow (an Olive Egger hen who lays green eggs), and Hildegarde (a Silver-Laced Wyandotte hen who lays brown eggs.) Here’s a photo of them in my garden, from left to right: Minerva (looking grumpy), Beaker (with the fluffy head feathers), Louise (hiding behind Shadow by the gate, with her tail sticking up), Shadow (hiding behind a pole), and Hildegarde (watching the camera suspiciously).
Below that is a photo of Shadow and Hildegarde’s eggs in their nest box too.
Researching how to take care of my own chickens inspired me to write the Unusual Chickens stories. And observing them every day gave me even more ideas! Like, what would that bossy, grumpy chicken do if she had a superpower? Or that chicken who likes to grab slugs and run off into the corner to eat them before the other chickens can grab them? Or the chicken who got scared by a dog and hid under a bush, and was so quiet and so still I couldn’t find her for four hours?
Chicken Videos
Want to see what my (usual) chickens look like? Here are a few short videos:
Click to watch my chickens Raven, Louise, and Minerva dustbathing on a sunny day.
You can see they are keeping an eye on my camera!
Click to see a very short video of Ada pecking at an apple on a tree in my backyard.
Note: the apples have socks on them to protect them from apple maggots. The maggots can’t get through the socks to reach the apples. But Ada learned how to pull them off… Ada is a very smart chicken, although she doesn’t always do what she’s supposed to!
