It is possible that I am over sharing about our chickens, but everywhere I go someone is asking about our chickens or telling me which of the new ones is their favorite, etc.  Our backyard chickens are fascinating to me and I think they are to a good number of you too.

You might remember that we were researching if our white Silkie chicken was a hen that had started acting like a rooster or if it was actually a rooster all this time.  Turns out that Zsa Zsa was actually a Zsa’ck and had been a rooster all this time.  Our city doesn’t allow roosters, so before the crowing annoyed any of our neighbors we took Zsa’ck to our breeder.  Zsa’ck is having a ton of fun in a pen with six Silkie girls.

We brought back two chickens to complete our backyard flock to five hens, the number we are allowed to have in our city.  City code compliance is a BIG part of having backyard chickens.  We picked up a Millie Fleur D’uccle (du-clay) also known as a Belgian Bearded D’uccle.  I wanted to name her ‘The Bearded Lady’ but we decided that Helga was a better name.  Helga van Cluckenhausen is her full name.  She is a bantam size bird, which means she is half the size of a normal chicken.  Her eggs are round and just a bit smaller than a ping pong ball. (Photo in gallery below.)

The other chicken we brought back is a bit of an experiment that our breeder’s daughter was working with.  She is a Silkie and Cochin mix.  She is black and her feathers shimmer with color in the sun.  She also has the softest feathers of any of the birds we own.  We named her Elvira. Unfortunately we think of the Oak Ridge Boys song every time we say her name.

So now we have Oreo the Americauna, Joan the Polish Crested, Susie the Cochin, Helga the Belgian Bearded D’uccle, and Elvira the Silkie/Cochin mix.  Both of the new birds are laying eggs and Oreo is as well.  Joan and Susie should start laying in July or August.  Below is a photo gallery of recent pics of our hens…