I had my first experience with backyard chickens beginning about three years ago when I bought four chicks for my kid’s birthday. I had an itch to have my own chickens and read everything that I could about raising chickens, from daily life to different breeds, my desire was insatiable. I decided on an Orpington, named Persephone, because I wanted a black chick because seeing their iridescent green plumage in the sun, was just gorgeous. My husband liked the look of the Golden Laced Wyondette (Athena). The proprietor of the chicken farm (Seas breeze Hens) recommended that we get an Easter Egger (Ostarra) since we had little kids, and a Splash Silkie (Hei Hei), because my children needed her. We ate food at a Greek restaurant nearby, that had murals of Greek Gods and Goddesses. This gave me the idea to name them after goddesses, hence their names, except of course Hei Hei, who is named after the foolish chicken in Moana.
We brought the chicks home and lovingly held them in our hands, letting them play in our hair, until their excrement became too stinky, which was pretty quickly. My favorite was Ostarra, the Easter Egger, she loved being held and was always inquisitive when I came to check on them. She would look up at me to see what I was doing, and this never changed over time. Chicks grow incredibly fast, and in just a few short weeks, they had enough feathers, albeit straggly, to go outside. Persephone, the Orpington had a much bigger comb and strong legs. I was told that this is how many Orpingtons look, but he did turn out to be a rooster. So we traded him for another hen. My daughter really wanted a striped chicken and had her eyes on the Barred Rock. I desperately wanted my black chick with iridescent feathers. This worked out because it is better to introduce two chickens together so they aren’t bullied, and have a friend.
With our original four pullets, Ostarra was the head honcho, and a very benevolent ruler, kind, in charge, and much bigger than the rest. The Barred Rock, Petra, started growing so quickly and was quite mean to the other girls so that she could move up in the pecking order. All of the chickens were scared of her and were wary to grab any food in front of her, for fear of getting pecked. Petra was the loudest chicken but also had the most personality. She would always come to help me garden and was great at catching worms. She wasn’t accustomed to being held, but would always come up to people asking for food. Her big personality definitely made her one of my favorites. She was also nicer to the Australorp, who I named Joanie after Joan of Arc because she was mild-mannered, but I knew would be a prolific layer. Joanie was not held from an early age and was always uncomfortable being held and would make awkward noises but she was incredibly soft and sweet. I would always give her special treats away from the other hens so that she wouldn’t be picked on. She was the biggest hen that we had, but she acted with the power of a bantam hen.
Athena was the first chicken to lay an egg, and she definitely made a production of it. She made lots of noises and was panting, and finally, after several hours she laid her egg, and looked at me as if to say, “what the hell just happened?-I hope that never happens again!” Golden Laced Wyandottes are incredibly beautiful, their lace patterning has golden feathers that are lined with that iridescent black. Beyond her beauty, she was a very boring hen and did not have much personality. She didn’t care to be held, and basically ignored people, and could care less about them. She was also the least prolific laying hen, needless to say, she was my least favorite.
Then there was Hei Hei. She was the cutest little docile thing in the world, and my children loved to set her on the outdoor table and pretend she was a little doll. She was definitely the meekest, and incredibly fun to watch run around the yard with all of her fluffy feathers. She laid tiny little eggs, that were great for pickling, but she almost always became broody after laying her clutch. I felt so badly for her because she would sit in the nesting box all day, in our hot summers, until I took her out to get some water. Then she would go right back in the box, even without eggs. I would feed her in the nesting box so that she could have some sustenance. I also made her a cardboard nesting box under the porch in our back yard, so she could stay cooler. I encouraged her to get out of the nesting box, but that is when the local hawk made eyes on her and didn’t leave her fluffy white feathers alone until he captured her for his dinner. We lost Hei Hei, and it was devastating for everyone, and we all cried ugly tears
We were back to four hens, and after a couple of years, they laid fewer and fewer eggs, but were still consuming a great deal of food, and were very picky. My children didn’t seem very interested in holding them anymore, and I was feeling overwhelmed with the constant feeding, watering and cleaning, and hoping that I had more time to do my own hobbies, like painting.
We had our first family gathering post-Covid, for Thanksgiving, and my cousin gave me three ceramic chickens from our grandmother that died of Covid early on in the pandemic. The very next week my neighbor came to my house crying, I finally got her to tell me what the matter was. She told me that she found two of my chickens dead in her yard, Athena and sweet Joanie. I went into my backyard and found Petra torn up, and lying lifeless on the ground. I found Ostara, the lone survivor in the tree above her coop, along with her feathers scattered around the coop, from her obvious traumatic struggle. We had no idea what had happened to the hens, my neighbor asked if a coyote jumped the fence? I thought that was highly unlikely during the day. Could it have been a hawk? – no it was very unlike a hawk to get three chickens in one day. We did have a small hole under the fence between our yards, but her dogs were locked inside the whole day – and have never been interested in the chickens. My neighbor discovered that the dog next door to her broke through their deteriorating fence, then went through the hole in between our yards, chased and killed one in my yard, and then ran after the others in her yard until ultimately getting all three. I was in shock for a while, and my children once again had to go through a period of mourning. We held Ostarrra a lot more, and she welcomed the cuddles, taking naps in our arms. She slept in the tree for the next couple of weeks, recovering from that horrible day.
I thought that she needed to find a new home, and Jon Klubnik, the owner of Tandem CloudTop just started his own little big farm (an even smaller version of The Littlest big Farm) last year. They are going to add honey bees and goats very soon. They said that they would be happy to take Ostarra in. But I thought we should wait a few days for them to get ready for her, and for us to heal. After she got back to normal, when the sun started setting, my husband said that she flew against the window on our back door, until he let her in, and she sat on the back of his chair watching football, while we were having a party with our neighbors. The next night, she did the same, at sunset, and we brought her in for some social time and cuddles, or extra treats. She comes in every evening for a couple of hours to socialize, and she is very sweet, preferring to be on our heads, but we usually hold her or set her on the back of the chair with a towel under her. She trills to show us her contentment.
After all of the time that we have had together with Ostarra my irrational brain and the insistence of my children has won out, and we decided to keep Ostarra and add a few more chicks to the flock so that Ostarra could once more have her own chicken family. I decided to get all Easter Eggers, because they really are the best chickens to keep. I will let you know about our new additions in the next post.