It was a couple weeks ago that we realized Macho was in fact a boy. A rooster. After settling into this new reality for a bit, we all wondered how in the world we had thought he was a hen for this long? Look at him! Does he look like a hen to you?
Well, I guess we were looking at him through glasses of firm belief in the poultry industry's 95% guarantee that the chicks from which Macho was pulled were females. The others----the more exotic chickens we have, four of them----were "straight run" which means they could be either sex. Well, with the fact that our only rooster comes from the sexed lot of chickens and that we don't have any roosters in the straight run mix leads me to wonder about the accuracy of sexing chicks!
Some of our chickens are more pet-like than others. This one is Pi. I wish you could feel her because she's so soft and fluffy-----kind of like petting one of those feather dusters! The kids have a particular affinity for Pi. She really is as sweet as a chicken can be!
Both Pi and our Silky, Fancy Feet, cannot fly very well. Their feathers and their wing shape are not conducive to flying upwards. That's to our advantage but not to theirs because they cannot reach their roosts to nestle in with the rest of their flock for the night. My kids decided to make Pi and Fancy Feet handicap ramps in the chicken coop. Now they can climb up to the upper roosts with the rest of the flock using those ramps. As you can see in this photo, Pi and Fancy Feet are resting on the middle roost----my kids were gone this evening but I documented their chicken's achievement so they could see the success of their ramps!
We're still waiting for a couple chicken milestones: Macho's first crow and our first egg. Macho could crow anytime now and surely it will be a surprise when he does! We don't expect eggs until the end of July. We're very anxious for that chicken milestone---not so sure about the crowing! To be continued...
