Thursday, October 23, 2008

Black Hen


Before the boys were born, and while they were too young to have an opinion, I bred several different breeds of 'fancy' purebred chickens. I was selective about which rooster I bred to which hen, in order to maintain the standard for that breed. A few years ago, the boys asked if we could take the incubator into their classrooms and hatch chicks. I thought that sounded like a wonderful project! Which breeds did they want to hatch? Mixed breeds! They just wanted to walk out, grab a bunch of eggs from random nests and see what came out. What came out was an amazingly colorful mix of chicks that were all different sizes since some of my chickens are bantams (miniatures) and some are full-sized. We have repeated that project each spring and the children LOVE it! And we've found that the mixed breed chickens are so beautiful and unique. Take this hen, for example. She displays some of the characteristics of a Silkie - the soft fuzz and crest, dark skin and rosecomb - and the beautiful black plumage of a Sumatra.

A special thanks to Hope, from Knoxville Daily Photo, who presented me with this award yesterday:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely chicken. It is amazing at the diversity. We went to our county fair several years ago and into the chicken barn to see what they had and we came away stunned at some of the birds and their feathers.

Tanya Breese said...

That's really cool! What a fun project for the kids and adults!
Congrats on your award :)

Small City Scenes said...

Great series on the chickens. We used to raise chickens and sell eggs. great fun. We had New Hamps and Cornish Cross and some Banties, the Banties made the best little mothers. MB

Halcyon said...

She is pretty. I didn't know there were so many types of hens. I learned something today!

alice said...

A beautiful award, you deserve it!
And thank you for answering me. I think French hens are not exactly the same because my mother was always right! ;-))

Webradio said...

She is very pretty !

Good projects yes !