Well July 30th was the 1 year anniversary of starting this blog, and it would have been pretty slick of me to actually write a blog post on July 30th, but I didn't. Enjoy this one on the one year and 2 day anniversary instead.
In the middle of June, I started to get a little suspicious that our grey Barred Rock (Wilma) was not going to be a good egg layer, because she was a he. I did a little research and found out that usually the grey barred rocks are roosters, along with all of the other signs (redder comb, larger comb and wattles, raggedy tail feathers instead of rounded ones). So we went back up the First Farms, LLC to exchange Wilma the Grey for a new Wilma.
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| Farewell Wilma the Grey |
A little back story. When EG and I went to choose the chickens, we wanted to get three different colorations so that it would be easier to tell them apart and just more fun aesthetically. I decided we would get one Buff Orpington and one black Barred Rock. EG wanted to get a white chicken, but we weren't sure what breed it was because it wasn't one of the kinds that they had ordered. I really liked the grey Barred Rocks, so that's what we got. Oops.
We went back to the farm at the end of June to pick out a new chicken. We still wanted to have three different colored chickens, and they still had some white ones, and we still didn't know what kind they were, and EG still wanted a white one. So that's what we brought home. After a little bit of research, we determined that it was a White Leghorn, which are also good egg layers. So Wilma the Grey went back to his home on the farm and we brought Wilma the White home to the city.
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| Hello Wilma the White |
The introduction was a little violent at first (they call it henpecking for a reason). We suspect that there was a battle for dominance while we were away getting the new chicken because there were feathers everywhere. For a few days, Betty showed her dominance by chasing Barbie and Wilma around the yard and pulling on Wilma's feathers. Wilma, however, did not give up. She stayed a few steps behind and followed the other two around the yard, until finally they accepted her.
She is a super sweet addition to our brood and she's proving to pull her weight. She's the first one to lay eggs! We found three smaller white eggs in the coop while cleaning it out today! Barbie should lay light brown eggs and Betty should lay dark brown eggs, so it must be Wilma.
