Free as a Bird: Sussex

Showing posts with label Sussex. Show all posts

Monday, October 6, 2014

Hit the Spot

So this is my next installment of the chicken's personalities. Speckles is this weeks lucky participant.
Such a cute little chick! Well, I have never seen a chick that is not cute, but still!

She is very curious. Not overly curious like Piper; Piper is in a curiosity level all her own. Still, very curious.

Here she is pecking her own toe. Did she not know what it was?

Speckles also loves chasing bugs. I have seen her run from one end of the pen to the other. Always watching the bug she was running after.

Speckles is sweet. Not the most friendly, but very friendly none the less. She might not be the first to come over to see me. However, when she does, she stays on my lap. Sometimes until I have to lift her off.

Speaking of picking her up, she doesn't mind it at all. I can just lift her and she doesn't complain at all. I have never had a chicken been so calm about this.

All this is beside the fact that she is gorgeous! Speckles is a great little chicken that I am loving having in my flock!

Monday, August 11, 2014

The Penny, Piper, Poppy Problem

Once I ordered the chicks and I could stop obsessing about what breeds to get, I had find something else to obsess about. The chicks' names was what I settled on. A lot of thinking went into some of the names and here are the reasons for them.

Sleepy (Penny):

Sleepy's original name, Penny, was about her coloring (when she grew up). She is a Double Laced Barnevelder so she will grow up to be a shiny black and brown.

However, when we got her she was falling asleep on her feet. I wasn't able to identify to identify her breed right away, so we started calling her Sleepy as a name place holder. And well... the name stuck!

Nutmeg:
Nutmeg's name is also about her grown-up coloring. She is a Welsummer so she will be varying shades of brown.

Raven:

This name has two reasons. The first is the obvious. Color. She is an Australorp, so entirely black.

The second reason comes from a movie. "X-Men: Days of Future Past" to be exact. I saw it close to the time I got the chicks and I loved Jennifer Lawrence's character, Raven.
Before I saw the movie I was going to name this chick Poppy. A black body and a red comb, the same colors as the flower.
This brings up the Penny, Piper, Poppy Problem. I loved these three names, but I didn't want so many names starting with the letter "P". As I said before, I ended up ruling out Poppy for Raven. I think it suites her better anyway!

Daisy:

Our Orpington's name, Daisy, comes from a illustrated children's book. The book is Jan Brett's, Daisy Comes Home. Jan Brett one of my favorite authors. This particular book follows a brave hen in China, whose name is, you guessed it, Daisy. It is an adorable book with amazing illustrations and I am glad I can remember it through my Daisy.
I thought the chicken in the book looked most like an Orpington, so that is why this chick got this name.

Olive:

Olive is the same breed as my late Hazel. This name is in remembrance of her. Both green names, both red birds.

Olive

Hazel

Piper:

This name came from a book. The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan. I loved one of the characters, Piper. Also, for some reason the name suites her puffy cheeks.

Lizzie:

This is yet another book name. This comes from the Gregor The Overlander series by Suzanne Collins. Lizzie is the main character's sister and reminds me of myself in some ways.

Speckles:

This name is color, color, color. She is a Speckled Sussex. Speckled. Her feathers are going to be dark brown with white tips.

This is where Speckles stepped on my camera. (Sigh).

Hope to see you next week! Bye!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Arrival

The chicks are here! We got the call at 10:10 am on Tuesday. (I was very impressed by this because they hatched on Monday and had to come from Ohio to New Hampshire.) We ran over to the post office as soon as we could and picked them up at 10:30.