Blythe & Bonnie - 1 month old

The girls are getting thier 'tween' feathers...Its been interesting to see how thier coloration has changed. They are about the size of a large quail right now and these two Ameracunas look like wild birds, almost "hawk like",  at least until they stand up...they have long greenish blue legs. I guess they fortell of the greenish blue eggs to come?
Luna and Rhonda were not cooperating so they missed thier photo shoot.

Ameracunas - Meet Blythe and Bonny

The Ameraucana was developed in the 70's by a few people who were trying to standardize the Araucana breed. The Ameraucana is easier to breed as there are no complications due to lethal genes. The best layers are the black and blue varieties. They are good layers and do not drop off in production sharply after their second year like many breeds.      

Chicken Breed Info: Dual Purpose Meat / Eggs     Comb: Pea          Broodiness: Average

Climate Tolerance: All

General Egg Info: Productivity:Medium       Size: Medium      Color: Blue/Green

Mixed Ameracuna flock

Ameracuna eggs

Rhode Island Red - Meet Rhonda

The Rhode Island Red is the State Bird of Rhode Island. The breed was developed in the mid 1840's to withstand the harsh New England winters and be a very hardy bird who produced hens with excellent large egg yields Chicken Breed Info:

Purpose: Dual Purpose   Comb: Rose   Broodiness: Average   Climate Tolerance: Cold

General Egg Info:  Productivity: High   Size: Large Color: Brown

The red should be a deep, dark Mahogany or Rust color, the darker the better. Some birds can be so dark as to appear black from a distance, both sexes have black tails with a "beetle" green sheen.

RIR hen

Andalusian - Meet Fanny

The breed was developed in the Spanish province of  Andalusia. This Mediterranean, close-feathered breed was produced by crossing a black bird with one of its white “sports” (a genetic mutation that produces a different color). It was first shown at the Crystal Palace in 1851. The Andlausian Blue chick we got, Fanny is mostly silver and will likely be what is called a "splash" as shown in picture below to the left which is mostly white with some black lacing instead of a true blue.

When you cross two blues you will get some whites and some blacks and plashed. Because of this true blues relatively rare except amongst poultry enthusiasts and small backyard flock owners interested in preserving heritage breeds.

Here is a "splash"

Here is a "blue".

Hierloom Tomaotes from Seed

Peep Show...

Weather has been very springy. No frost but have had some light hail...the bird bath has not frozen over in about 12 days and we've had generous helpings of rain.

Back in early February, we adopted Molly ( our black Polish chicken ) out to another chicken home because she was being picked on. Last week we lost Penny....one of our Buff Orps...we think she had a run in with a bird of prey or a cat, unfortunate but not unusual. Anyway, we had a couple of  holes to fill and chick season is coming to an end and so we went to see what was available.  Got two Ameracuna's ( easter egger's) .......and a Rhode Island Red and a Blue Andalusian. The little girls are so cute and being in a larger clutch, they should do well when turned out together in a few months with the older ones. We originally had 5, we now have 7 in our flock which will ensure plenty of eggs to use and plenty to share. it will be about 9-11 months before these girls produce thier first eggs.  Here are a couple pics of the new peeps.

Two left are Ameracuna's ( Bonny and Blythe) and they will lay blue or green eggs  ,  the RIR center ( Rhonda) is a brown layer like the other big girls and the white one is the Blue Andalusian ( Fanny) and she'll lay white or yellow eggs .

Blythe and Bonnie