The Chick Camera

This is the last of our new chickens that we got from Nicole. There are 3 of these Buff Orpingtons. One is quite a bit older and is now our oldest and largest chicken, only beating Teresa by a hair in size though. She’s the one with the most red on her face, that’s Camellia. She’s very sweet and tolerant.

The younger ones are about the same age as our chickens, so around 10-14 weeks. The on in front is Cindy, you can spot her because of her whitish face. Behind her is Beth. Cindy is definitely the more adventerous and feisty of the two but neither is really. Orpingtons are well known for generally being mild mannered chickens.

We had to keep a close eye when we first brought them in. Because Orpingtons are so docile they tend to be picked on a lot. They are known to be good mothers and showed that off first thing when we blended them all together. You may notice Leda’s little head poking up, when we first put them all in the coop with our chickens they were all attacked. Minor pecking, we kept careful watch, but none the less the Orpingtons formed a little wall around the small chicks and stayed that way when our original chickens were around for a couple of days.

Things have calmed down now and our chickens are leaving them be. I had to discipline them a couple of times to make sure they know not to get out of hand. They are all more or less integrated now, though it’s clear the new girls are at the bottom of the pecking order.

This now sets the count of chickens to 15 (including our Roo Fred) and 8 different breeds:
2 Ameraucana, 1 Cochin, 1 Sicilian Buttercup, 3 Orpingtons, 3 Polish, 1 Frizzle, 2 Rhode Island Reds, and 2 Barred Rocks.