Chicken Update - chicks, pullets, cockerels, and orbs!

Here are some of the chickens.  This is another "meet the chickens" post.

Our flock has grown by leaps and bounds this year.  Its a lively place out there in the chicken pen.  We actually have 2 pens now; the chickens can go thru the second coop to access the second pen.  Yes, there's 2 coops available for everyone, too.  The second coop and pen normally are used as an infirmary area or chick area, but right now there's no one sick and no babies that need to be separate.

In the below pic are:  Front - gold laced wyandotte pullet named Ruffles, behind her is Doritos, a Red Sex Link pullet.  To the left and behind is Little Red, a Rhode Island Red pullet (the Reject chick).  Standing in the crowd with tall necks are 2 brothers - cockerels, sons of Muffin the rooster.  The yellow boy is the son of Pennie, the shelter hen (or the house hen, as she prefers to be known), and the boy on the right is Big Bird, son of Big Bonnie the shelter hen.

Here's Big Bird below watching my camera.  To his left is another one of the chicks - he's one of the ones I got from the farmer's market.  I think it's a boy so I'm not going to name him.  Sorry, buddy.  Directly in the background is the rooster, Muffin, the baby daddy to 4 of the chicks (Big Bird, the 2 all-black girls, and the yellow son of Pennie).

 

Here's Doritos below.   I'll let you in on a secret.  I have 3 pullets named Doritos, 4 named Pringles, and 2 named Ruffles.  I can't tell the birds apart so they were named based on their breed.

This photo below just shows how big Big Bird is compared to Little Red.   They were walking side by side.  Little Red was a reject as a chick but she fits in very well with the chicks now.

Look below at all the Pringle's tails in the air!  The 3 white leghorns on the right are Pringles.  They are some egg-laying machines.  They are so hyper and scared.  They are our least-friendly birds, always dashing here and there.  But they lay large white eggs every day.  We like them because of their eggs. 

To their left are Dottie (left most white hen) and Zoner (another white hen).  Zoner's pretty old, and is still as stupid as they come - she's one of our original chicks.  Dottie is small and a tough little bird.  Dottie is the daughter of Muffin the Americauna and a white leghorn hen.  Muffin is there in the photo, too.  You can't miss his big black and green tail.

Here's an upclose shot of the 2 Ruffles and a Pringles.  Pringles is having a conversation with the Ruffles.  The Ruffles are our prettiest birds, but they aren't our favs.  They lay medium to small light brown eggs, and they don't lay every day like the Pringles and the Doritos.  They are not friendly at all, and hate to be held. 

Here's a Pringles cruising around with her white tail held high.  The brown and grey pullet to her right is named Pickles, to honor my friend Genny's bird named Pickle.  My Pickles is a beautiful pullet - I'll have to get better shots of her in the future.  The picture below doesn't do her justice.  She came from the farmer's market as a day old chick, and she sadly ended up being one of the Reject Chicks, which makes her one of my favorites.  She is red and grey and is most likely an Americauna mix.

 This blog post is ending on an eerie note.  I was taking the below shot of Big Bonnie (and she looks terrible - she's molting!) - but notice all the circles in the photo.  They are what people refer to as orbs.  I often get orbs in my photos and have to work at cutting them out or not using the photos with orbs on the blog because they are distracting.  Are orbs ghosts or just dust?  I get orbs when I photograph outside or inside, in any weather.  It's funny how many orbs are in the shot below.  I must have a lot of ghosts or dust around here.  It is a historic old farmhouse, I wouldn't be surprised if there's ghosts and I know there's dust.  I just thought I'd throw in this photo to show you what I deal with when I'm setting up blog photos.  I'm curious on your thoughts about the orbs, too!