The Critters

Gertie and Flo just hanging out!

The Urban Flock

Huck and Banjo Boy began their backyard flock with 4 six-week old pullets– Dory, Maybelle, Alice, and LeMerle– that they purchased from an heirloom chicken breeder/hobby farmer. A few months later they rescued  Gertie and Flo (shown in the photo to the left) from an inner city coop for a grand total of 6 hens. For various reasons, they are now down to 3– which is actually a very comfortable number of hens for a small family. The other chooks are dearly missed.

Gertie and Flo (left) are two Brown Leghorn hens. At first Huck and Banjo Boy were concerned about integrating them into their flock, as chickens are very particular about their pecking orders, but a careful introduction helped guarantee that the new girls would be accepted into the merry gang.

Leghorns, an Italian breed, are much flightier than the  other birds, but still have very people-friendly personalities. Their white earlobes indicate that they lay white eggs. To this day Huck doesn’t know which is Flo and which is Gertie…. so they are known simply as  Flertie.

That little black fluffball in the photo to the right is Dory, a Black Cochin. Cochin is a breed that comes originally from China and is known for its abundant fluff and feathered toes! Cochins are more of an ornamental breed and are not known for their great egg-production… but she is loved all the same.

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Chickens to be remembered:

Maybell, below,  was a Buff Bantam Brahma and one of the original four purchased back in August. Brahmas are a breed descended from an Indian jungle fowl known for, among other things, their feathery toes. Bantams are miniature chickens, which only grow to about 1/2 the size of standard-size chickens. She was named for Maybell Carter because she is very vocal, often cooing and singing. If Huck and Banjo Boy were to do it all over again- they would not intermix a bantam breed with their larger hens. Although many wise chicken folk insisted the hens would “sort things out” themselves…. she was always the runt and always picked on.

Alice struts her stuff!

Alice was an Amber Sex Link. (tip: don’t google  “Amber Sex Link” without including “chicken” in there somewhere.) Amber Sex Links, so named because the color genes are linked to the sex of the chick,  are also known as Amber Stars. They are a cross between a White Leghorn and a Rhode Island Red and are white-bodied with Amber-flecked wings and breasts. Alice was very friendly and curious. If the back door was left open, she’d be in the house in a heart beat looking for feed! She was also a heavy layer— one egg every day- and sometimes two! She passed away very suddenly– possibly a chicken heart attack, which is actually a common chicken fatality.

Lastly, there was LeMerle, a black Australorp that looked something like this:

Black Australorp

But  she ended up being a he and started crowing up a storm!  Sadly, as friendly as he was, a rooster in an urban setting is hard to manage… and illegal. He has been reassigned to the freezer.

Huck dreams of the day when she can have another rooster! And another Black Australorp, definitely.

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Other Critters:

Purrl Sue eats pancakes. Actually, no. She doesn't. She just wishes she did.

Purrl Sue , until recently, was the only non-winged critter at the Homestead. She is about 11 yrs old and came to live with Huck and B-Boy from Maypop Farm.  She likes pawing at visitors for attention, sitting in the window sills, and climbing inside cardboard boxes.

Wilber the Beagle strikes a gallant pose.

Every homestead needs a hound dog, right? Well… last but not least in our cast of characters is Wilber the noble beagle!  He was adopted from Beagle Rescue of Southern Maryland and is about 4 years old. In spite of being mistreated in the past, he is a true sweet-heart and is more than ready for the dog’s life he deserves with Huck and Banjo Boy. He likes running  in the backyard, playing with his toy rabbit, jumping in piles of clean laundry, and riding in the car.