Buffy is another chicken that came to us somewhat by accident.
Buffy
I'd hatched a mixture of purebred fertile eggs. They were supposed to be just barnevelders, but the seller’s hens had gone broody so she didn't have enough and we ended up with australorp, speckled Sussex and wyandotte too. Of those three extra breeds we only got one female from each, so I had a load of purebred roosters and decided to see if there were any interested buyers.
I got an interesting call from a lady interested in the speckled Sussex boys. She was incredibly chatty and asked if there was a particular breed I was looking for. I wasn't planning on any more hens at the time, but she weedled out of me the fact that I wanted a blue egg layer at some point. It seemed that would be perfect as she had an araucana hen and would I like to trade?! I found myself reluctantly agreeing and the deal was struck. Then I spent the next few days worrying, because I try to avoid bringing adult hens into the flock for fear of what they might bring with them.
D-Day came and this hyperactive lady came with a stumpy little araucana bantam assuring us that she was flighty, a pain to catch, didn't like being handled and would escape at the first opportunity! The lady adored the speckled Sussex boys and paid us for the second one as well, even though I thought we were doing a straight swap. Once the human whirlwind had left, I tried to gather my thoughts together and figure out what to do with this little araucana bantam. She hadn't mentioned it was a bantam on the phone and I only had large fowl at this point. With the warnings of her being flighty going round my head and worrying that she'd get pummelled by my big girls I was, at least, relieved we had finished the first enclosed run and that the flock in there didn't have our big rooster Roast, who could have flattened her.
Our flocks are fairly gentle so, as it happened, it only took her about a week to settle in and we discovered she was actually quite a sweet natured little thing. As long as you approached her slowly you could pick her up and give her a cuddle. She did bring a nice dose of roundworm and lice with her, but the flock was due for some treatment now that we'd blocked the wild birds from coming into the run and wouldn't have them bringing these parasites so much.
Buffy's head may only just reach the back of our big australorp, but she's still her boss!
These days, despite her diminutive size, Buffy isn't at the bottom of the pecking order and will boss hens around who are twice her size! She tends towards being broody and will lay only so many green/blue eggs before she goes into hatch mode and sits on them. So this year she has finally had the chance to become a mamma and hatch some eggs. She even took on five extra incubator hatched ones which you can read about here.
Motherhood comes naturally to her!
We recently let her out into the main run with her babies. The rest of the flock didn't really bother the chicks, but Buffy tried to take them all on anyway and I ended up having to rescue her from beneath the three top hens! Don't worry, she was unharmed! They are all still running together as a flock and the rooster, Zeus, breaks up the fights before they get out of hand now.
This post was inspired by @sirknight’s Daily Celestial Challenge
You can also read about:
Ginger the Golden Legbar
@minismallholding/daily-celestial-challenge-tuesday-animalkingdom-meet-ginger-the-golden-legbar
and Roast the Urban Rooster
@minismallholding/daily-celestial-challenge-tuesday-animalkingdom-meet-roast-the-urban-rooster
