If we are connected on Facebook  then you know that my husband and I recently became chicken farmers. We inherited a small flock in November and have been enjoying the whole process of getting to know them .I confess that they really are more like pets than livestock to us. They’re a diverse flock. By that I mean we have three different breeds of chickens, all living together in harmony. They each have their own names and personalities. Allow me to introduce you.

This is Dan, a.k.a. Lieutenant Dan. He’s a Silkie, and the king of the flock. He joined our family back in January when some neighbor dogs broke into our coop and killed the previous two roosters. (Very sad.) Four of the girls follow him around constantly. We refer to them as Dan’s Harem.

Next is Frizzle. She got her name because her feathers are all wonky, like she is covered with cowlicks. Frizzle is not a breed of chicken, but a feathering trait. Any breed can have frizzles. Our girl is a Silkie, like Dan and three of her sisters. A funny thing about our flock is the way they tend each others’ eggs. All the hens lay eggs, but most of the time only one or two of the hens sit on them. We call those the nursery workers, and Frizzle is often the primary nursery worker. We have to pick her up physically and throw her out of the coop, or she will sit on those eggs until she starves to death. Literally. (Nobody ever said chickens were smart.)

Next, meet Fred. Her name is misleading – Fred is a Silkie hen, and she’s also periodically a nursery worker. She’s a beautiful chicken, and we think she looks like a cockatoo. Remember the TV show Baretta? Baretta had a white cockatoo named Fred, so Brad decided to name our chicken after that bird. The name fits. (I think Fred might be Brad’s favorite, but don’t tell the other girls.)

Next meet Doris. Uh…I think this is Doris. Or maybe it’s her sister, who looks just like her. We call her Not Doris. (Seriously.) As you can see they look nearly identical, though Doris has a very slight brownish tint to a couple of feathers on the top of her head. Doris (or maybe Not Doris) is the other main nursery worker, so we often find her and Frizzle huddled together in the coop, sitting on a clutch of eggs. Doris and Not Doris both love to be held and will follow us around the yard crying until we pick them up.

The littlest girls in our flock are Trixie and Dixie. They’re Dutch Bantam hens, and we can’t tell them apart at all. They were the first to acclimate to the move to our farm, and therefore the first to start laying eggs. Little bitty eggs. Trixie and Dixie are part of Dan’s harem. As you can see in this picture, they’re identical. They’re also very fast, and the most adventurous. (They’re pictured here with Doris and Not Doris, and Fred in the background.)

Finally, we have our big girls.  Jazzy and Cate are Wyandottes. They, too, look very similar, but Jazzy’s back is noticeably darker than Cate’s. They lay extra large brown eggs, and are the most devoted members of Dan’s harem. They’re named after two  characters in my “Murder in D Minor” mystery series. Confession: Jazzy is my favorite. She comes running when she sees me, and eats grain out of my hand. Watching her waddle-run toward me brings a smile to my face every time.

That’s our flock. They’re a never ending source of amusement and entertainment. And I think they must like us pretty well too, because they give us a daily supply of eggs!

Besides the chickens, we have Max (a barky Maltese who thinks he’s a guard dog) and Kit Cat (a barn kitty who leaves us gifts of dead mice and moles, and who thinks she’s a house dog.) And there you have the full complement of residents on Logan Farm.