There have always been chickens in my life - as early as I can remember we had a coop in the back yard and we had chickens on and off throughout my childhood.
I can't remember a breed stealing my heart though. In fact, if you asked me what kinds of chickens I've owned I can tell you that I remember having white ones as a kid and that's about it! More recently I ordered Rhode Island Red's from a breeder and instead of getting only Rhode Island's I was supplied a mix - it turned out to be a good thing as the Buffs are in my opinion a nicer chicken and much hardier. I really like the Barred Rocks although my biggest bully is one... The roo that my mom still has is a gentle giant and looks after his ladies like gold!
And that brings me up to today. Quite by accident I decided to add some Pekin Bantams (incidentally the only true bantam breed - meaning they have no full size variety) to my latest order. I actually thought I was getting polish bantams until they arrived and were quite clearly not... Oh boy I didn't realise what a treat I was in for!!! They arrived much older than the other chicks and the breeder suggested I take two pairs as they're not hardy and she was worried I might lose one in transit (they travelled about 600km by courier service)
These little bundles of feathers are the most interactive chickens we've had by a long way. They're naturally tame and not even the slightest bit scared of the boxer which meant that the other chicks were also safe as the bantams took it upon themselves to teach said boxer a thing or two about confident chickens... Initially I was really nervous as the boxer is the queen of the house and was trained to chase ducks and geese off the jetty (they make more poop that is reasonable and the patient husband banned them...) but these little guys jumped all over her when I turned my back on afternoon and I haven't had to worry about interactions since :)
We just skipped town for a week for a river trip and left the farmyard in the capable hands of an old friend who would have chickens if his space and schedule allowed. We came home to three pekin bantam chicks - the cutest little bundles of fluff you can imagine (think feathered feet - still all fluff). 4 hatched while we were away but we lost one to one of the roo's before anyone realised they'd hatched :(
Fast forward to this morning and we've got two more chicks (the eggs were set quite far apart so I'm anticipating a couple more to come - the hens are still sitting on another 5 or so eggs)
Since we had to remove the chicks from the hens because of the set times it's given us a ton of time to play with the babies... They grow so fast and are providing so much entertainment! I decided to try and get some photos before they start to move too fast. I'm pretty chuffed with the results :)
