Wednesday 22 February 2012

Well I'll be a Monkey's Uncle!

I have THREE, roosters!!!  It's true!  I was minding my own business, washing the dishes, peering up towards the henhouse a few days ago and I see a white silky chicken on top of the young Ameraucana!!!  I thought, "that's odd." Then it hit me, maybe one of those fluffy white silkies is a rooster!  There hadn't been much egg production from all them young ones so that would certainly explain it.  So before it got too dark, I ventured up through the snow, camera in hand, and sure enough (well, as sure as I can be), I sized up the two white silkies, and it had higher, spikier tail feathers, and a different shaped body compared to the other silkie!  No wonder there is such a racket in the henhouse all the time!  Three roosters throwing their weight around trying to impress the ladies.  I did take several pictures but when I tried to download them to this blog, they disappeared and photos that were taken three years ago and I guess put on my computer, miraculously showed up on my camera again!  If I tried to do that, I'd never be able to.

So it's mid winter and the chickens are all surviving.  I only get to see them about every three days. The door is open a crack since the weather warmed up slightly so they can get in and out during the day, but they tend to stay inside.  I'm only getting about 2-3 eggs a day out of 8 layers but I don't want to force them to lay with artificial light.  Maybe when spring comes, I'll invest in two more chicks to add to my brood.  The oldest hens are now going on their fourth summer so egg production might not be that great this year.  We'll have to see.

I'll try and get the photos of the silkie rooster to post soon.