Here’s a video clip of my
broody hen, Courtney, doing some interesting chicken behavior. Notice how she picks of bits of pine shavings and feathers and puts them on her back. I've seen
other hens engage in this behavior before and while I've not been able to
find a definitive answer as to why hens do this, some suggest that it’s for camouflage. In the wild, a nesting hen staying in one
location for an extended period of time would be a sitting duck (um….chicken)
for predators. By covering herself with
grass and other nearby material she better blends in with her
surroundings. Poor Courtney would have a
tough time blending in with her surroundings in the wild unless she was nesting
on a fluffy white rug, but she can rest assured that she’s very safe and secure
in the coop.
It is nineteen days and
counting until I pick up the babies that Courtney will be mothering. The babies are coming from Wick Place Farm, a small, charming farm in
southeastern Wisconsin that is home to alpacas, turkeys, bees, and several
breeds of chickens. The babies will be Cream Legbars, a
breed of chicken that is relatively rare in the US.
Cream Legbars have
silver-gray barred necks and bodies, salmon colored breasts, a half-comb in the
front of their heads and a unique cream and gray crest of feathers on the back
of their heads. Their eggs are sky
blue. One unique feature of Cream
Legbars is that they are autosexing – the male and females chicks can be
differentiated based on the pattern of their markings. They were developed at
Cambridge University from a variety of breeds, including Leghorns, Barred
Plymouth Rocks, and Auracanas and were introduced at the London Dairy Show in
1947. Greenfire Farms, the only legal
importer of Cream Legbars to the United States, brought the first breeding groups
to this country in 2010 and Wick Place Farm acquired their stock from Greenfire
Farms. These little guys will grow into
normal sized chickens, so they will rather quickly reach a point where they’re
bigger than their adopted mom. It will
be an interesting sight to see if they’re still trailing along behind her at
that point!
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