Silly me--when an acquaintance asked me to join in an order of Buff Orpington chicks I thought that's what we'd be getting--Buff Orpingtons. The chicks came and it's hard to imagine anything more adorable but...doubt began creeping in. I thought it was a little strange that our yellow chicks had chipmunk stripes, and when they began to get their grownup golden-brown feathers all four girls had white petticoats.
I wondered if maybe they were a Buff cross but I haven't seen my friend to ask more about the order so I wasn't sure.
This weekend I saw some familiar looking chicks as I was browsing on
Backyard Chickens.
Mystery solved. I have
Imposters Golden Comets (White Plymouth Rock crossed with a Hampshire rooster) not Buff Orpingtons. I'm not
unhappy that I have Golden Comets which are friendly, cold-hardy and spectacular egg-layers by all accounts, but I'm
not happy that I don't have the Buff Orpingtons I was counting on. Does that make any sense? Just color me Naive Novice Chicken Farmer. Meanwhile I'm reading up on Golden Comets as well as other sex-link (little girls are a different color from the boys making them easy to tell apart) breeds. At least I know they ARE chickens.
In other livestock news, I was adding new water to Lilypad Pond, sticking the hose between the rocks to flush debris into the filter and hoping to see one of our new little goldfish when I was unpleasantly surprised to find a garter snake slithering across the water. Although my two big strong men were right in the kitchen getting lunch and couldn't help but hear me screech, neither of them came to my aid. I had to beg my (unimpressed) sweetie to catch the snake and convince him to take it away. I pointed out that all our goldfish had disappeared as well as our frogs and that SOMEONE apparently liked our pond buffet. I guess it's time for another trip to PetSmart for another batch of goldfish (as soon as I'm satisfied the garter snake has moved on).
The good news is that our first water lily just bloomed!
I love your chicken stories. They are cute little things. They remind me of doves. The water lily is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe chicks are so cute...and your lily is beautiful. Nice photos. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWell, you still have your little buffy gals,right? I think the little chipmonk chickens are cute, of course, not as cute as the Buffs.
ReplyDeleteWe've got a good number of what I call mutt chickens around here. I won't let those mutt roosters within 8 feet of the Buffs.
I guess you best keep them separated, or you may end up with who knows what!
I love the HotBiggityBlog tag in your top left corner. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a mouse in our garage. I am not happy, hubby is not impressed. I told him he could dispose of it as he sees fit, I just don't want to know about it. meanwhile, holes are showing up in things out there...