Woodpeck Peck (named by my then-two-year-old son) is a silver laced Wyandotte hen hatched in June of 2020. She was a last-minute add on to the order of week-old chicks we bought at the local feedmill, so that Moriah would have friends and so that each member of our household would have their own chick. 

Woodpeck Peck is very brave. She’s an eager explorer, and a meal worm afficianodo, but she doesn’t like being petted or held. She has a special bond with our Easter Egger, Buckbeak. 

Brownie hatched in 2014, and we believe she’s a black sex link hen. Just like people, chickens all have their own unique personalities, and not all of them are friendly. Brownie is a dominant hen, at the top of the pecking order. She can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but if she didn’t do it, someone else would. 

Brownie is noisy, and bossy, and demands respect from her flockmates. She was fiercly protective of Moriah’s developing egg, though, whenever broody Boudica would leave the nest. 

Buckbeak is an Easter Egger who hatched in June of 2020. I know that much for sure. Easter Eggers are sort of the mutts of the chicken world, but they’re known for laying unusal colored eggs. Buckbeak was two weeks old when we bought her as a pullet from the local feedmill.

In September of last year, someone in an online chicken group pointed out to me that Buckbeak was a cockerel. We hadn’t heard any crowing, but we saw pointy saddle feathers which are usually the trademark of a rooster. I suddenly noticed he had spur nubs as well. We made our peace with the fact we had a rooster, and that we wouldn’t be seeing any blue or green eggs.

More time passed, and Buckbeak still never crowed. Then, on New Year’s Eve 2020, my daughter discovered a blue egg in the Slytherin nesting box. All our other chickens are brown egg layers, and coop cam footage the following day confirmed the news I still can’t believe: Buckbeak is a HEN (or a mosaic gynandromorph)!

Julia is a Rhode Island Red hen, hatched in June of 2020. We bought her (at about a week old) at the local feed mill on the day Moriah hatched. She was a yellow chick, and my daughter named her Lemon, but she revised the name later as Julia started to turn red. 

Julia is petite, and a little reserved around humans, but she’s one of the friendliest babies we raised.  

Oreo is a barred Plymouth Rock, hatched in June of 2020. We bought her at the local feed mill when she was about a week old, so that Moriah wouldn’t grow up alone.

Oreo has been a ton of fun from the very start. She’s a bold and friendly chicken who enjoys hugs, and is curious about the world around her. She was the first of our new additions to lay an egg, and she kept it up for a nine-egg streak.

Moriah is barnyard mix hen who hatched in a homemade incubator, right before our eyes on June 17, 2020. She has a few black feathers along her neck and chest, and some subtle, golden brown coloring on her back.

Our chicken-keeping journey came full circle in December, when Moriah laid her first egg. Gryffindor is her preferred nesting box, which is fitting considering she’s ‘The Chick who Lived.’

Boudica, the tiniest chicken we’ve ever seen, is a Black Breasted Red Old English Game bantam. She hatched in November of 2018. What she lacks in size, she makes up for in attitude. 

Boudica doesn’t pick on anyone, but she speaks her mind to the other chickens and to me. Her favorite thing to do is to go broody, and several times last year she sat on unfertilized eggs hoping they would hatch. We ended up getting her a fertilized egg in May 2020, which is what led to our second installment of chickens. 

Pecan is a dark cornish hen, hatched in November of 2018. She is tiny, but mighty. Made almost entirely of muscle, Pecan isn’t a lap chicken, but she isn’t unfriendly either. She gets along with the others from her original flock, but she’s still working out the dynamics with the new ladies we added in June. 

While she doesn’t like being petted and won’t eat from my hand, she’s been known to follow us around the yard like a puppy. 

Cinderella is a bantam Cochin hen who hatched in November of 2018. Her feathers are all black, and they cover her tiny little feet like slippers. 

She’s a polite chicken, never pecking at anyone, and always mindful of who’s around her at the feeder and waterer. Cinderella is the only one of our bantams who will eat from our hands, and her pecks are so much sweeter and gentler than the big chickens.’ 

Pumpkin hatched in the spring of 2017, and I still don’t know what type of chicken she is. She’s pretty, with golden feathers in the front and lavender towards her tail.

Pumpkin is shy and skittish. She doesn’t enjoy hugs or eating treats from my hand. Her hobbies include dust bathing, and napping in the Hufflepuff nesting box, then singing the egg song on her way out, despite having not laid an egg.