The Tale of Puddin, a Sweet Rebel.

In November 2017 I hatched a batch of Easter Egger chicks on request. The customer wanted 10 and if you've ever hatched chicks before you'll know you need to incubate more eggs than you want chicks. I don't remember how many eggs I put in, but 15 hatched. My daughter was quite taken with one in particular, which had a little bit of a pompom on the top of its head. She was pretty pleased to discover that this one was still there after the customer had selected their 10.

Meanwhile, as these chicks were hatching, outside we had our bantam, Buffy, sitting on her first clutch of bantam eggs. This would be our first hen incubated eggs. Less than a week later they'd hatched and Buffy was proving herself to be a competent mamma, so I decided to see what she'd make of the other five standard sized chicks from our incubator hatch. I took one up and showed it to her. She looked curiously at it, but didn't seem fazed by it, so I put it in front of her and she gave it a little preen. Five more chicks were added to her brood that day.

But I digress. This is not a tale about Buffy, but one about that little pompom headed chick. Looking this cute attracts cuddles; unfortunately cuddles weren't very well received by her. They were to be avoided if at all possible!

As she grew, her little topknot grew too and her little roly poly, fluffy body prompted me to start calling her Puddin, which is against my policy as I try not to name chicks that we won't keep. This time I didn't worry too much since she didn't seem to be warming to us anyway. Perhaps it came from being sister to four brothers. It seems my customer chose well that day and took the lion’s share of female chicks.

Once the chicks got old enough to pick out the girls from the boys I put them up for sale. With the others being bantams, the people purchasing them weren't interested in a standard pullet, so she ended up hanging around a bit longer. Her hairdo grew some more and her bangs started to obscure her vision. I noticed her aim was off when eating, so I started to offer her food from my hand, to make sure she was getting enough. It seems this finally broke her aversion to me and she would jump up onto the ledge whenever I came into the run, ready for hand feeding. It was while feeding her one day that I realised that her beak had grown a bit crooked. Almost like it was crossing slightly, but not enough to inhibit her feeding. At this point I realised that I couldn't in all conscience sell her, so her fate was to stay with us.

She was terribly clumsy. Some days she'd try to jump on my shoulder and miss. It was rather unnerving having a large chicken shoot by your head! Something had to be done about those bangs.

Look Ma, no eyes!

However, she still had an aversion to being picked up, so I wasn't sure if it would stress her to have a hair cut. At someone's suggestion I went in at night, when she was sleepy and wrapped her snuggly in a towel while she sat surprisingly placidly for her trim.

Her vision obstructions cleared, she was less prone to being startled by people and chickens coming up on her, but still not terribly accurate with targeting food and while less so, she was still clumsy.

She is at the bottom of the pecking order, so even the bantams half her size boss her around and chase her off from what they consider to be their food or territory. It's not a surprise as she was the last one into the flock, but what is surprising is the way that she doesn't try to elevate her position when the latest group of chicks is in the run. Usually the lowest hen in the pecking order will take any chance to have someone below them in rank. So when the chicks come in they lord it over them. Puddin seems to be completely unaware that this is the done thing. When chicks first join the main flock they're usually terrified of everyone and run from anyone that comes near them. They quickly learn that Puddin is no threat, other than accidentally stepping on them or tripping over them. So it's not unusual to find them milling around her or snuggling up with her.

This was the first batch of chicks to arrive after Puddin.

If I fits, I sits!

This chicken is rebelling against chickenhood. Not only does she shun the traditions of pecking order, she refuses to lay in the nest boxes and instead lays underneath them. She's a skinny chicken dressed fat. Under all that floof she's as light as her araucana mother, but has looks the build of her solid light Sussex father.

That Sussex fluff!

~○♤○~

All, bar the first photo, courtesy of @izzydawn

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