Since we keep our chickens primarily as pets, for eggs, and as yard candy, we have always kept a mixed flock of both bantams (small) and standard size chickens, in many different breeds.  They all live together in one big flock and for the most part get along very well, aside from some minor and fleeting squabbles here and there, all perfectly normal in flocks of chickens no matter what breeds and types they are comprised of.  

We have anywhere from 28-40 chickens, the number has waxed and waned over the years as new hatches and deaths naturally occur.  We try and keep a large rooster for the big girls and a bantam roo for the banty girls–large breed roos, though perfectly attentive and solicitous towards all the hens, have, uh…a logistical problem when it comes to fertilizing bantam hens.  In particular our current Head Roo, a very fluffy Giant Cochin named Weedcat, absolutely swamps the tiny Belgian d’Uccle hens in feathers when he tries to mate them, which leads to no end of confusion for all.  So we have Bloop, a bantam MilleFleur Belgian d’Uccle roo for the bantam girls.  The chickens, for their part, tend to divide into two main groups–standards and bantams–so it all works out.

When you have a flock of mixed ages, pretty much the older hens will be higher in the pecking order than the younger birds will, no matter what their breed and size are.  The really old ladies who are no longer in lay are the grand old dames, and can be VERY dignified and take unintentional affronts from clueless, bumbling youngsters VERY seriously.

However, since all of the chickens run together in a traditional barnyard arrangement and are not cooped according to breed, the chicks we hatch from our flock are a wonderful mix–we call them our chocolate box chickens, we never know what we are going to get!  Since a lot of the hens lay eggs distinctive to their breed as far as color and size, and we know which roo tends to favor which hens, we can usually safely divine who was mama and who was daddy.  But still, the hatch is always kind of a crap shoot!

So here are some pictures of our chickens so you’ll know who the heck I’m talking about when you read the blog, starting with our current flock first.  I’ve tried to arrange it with the roosters first, then the hens in ascending pecking order, down to the youngsters.  The lower gallery holds pictures of the chickens we’ve had in the past.

Meet My Flock!

What Kind Of Chickens Do We Keep?

Velvet Sparrow

OUR PAST FLOCK

These birds are no longer with us, but are pictured and mentioned on this site.

OUR CURRENT FLOCK

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