Twelve Days Of Chickens... Carmen

~Between now and Christmas Harry and I will be posting views and insights about each chicken in our flock (2 people X  6 chickens =12 posts) !

Polish Crested, One Day Old

Carmen Miranda is our buff Polish Crested…the one with the big up-sweep of feathers. On first view of the flock her looks and personality make her stand out from the rest. Even as newly hatched chick she already had her crest going…like a little beanie of yellow fuzz. As a chick she was skittish and would let the others pick on her and steal her treats. I had to make sure she got her share of everything, including attention. 

 When the flock went from brooder/coop-et to their hen house, Carmen seemed to pick up a little more self-confidence. She also had a best friend, Julie Newmar, and that helped a lot. They were both the smallest in the flock and still are. They buddy-ed up a lot! While it was hot she and Julie would roost, comfortably, at one end of the coop while the other four squashed themselves together -no matter how hot they were. They also are the ones that would rather go after bugs and worms rather than grass.

 She also gained more confidence when we clipped some of her crest feathers. They were hanging down in her eyes and blocking part of her view. I had no idea you could clip PC's crest feathers!  It's a day-to-day learning process for new chicken keepers. I held Carmen while Harry very carefully clipped just a few feathers, about halfway down. We used a very small but sharp pair of sewing scissors to do it. She didn't seemed to mind at all!  We realized how much happier she was with her view no longer blocked and wished we'd done it a lot sooner. She was bouncy, perky and looked so relieved to have a better view of the world! So yes, if you have PC's and they're not for show, you can clip their crest feathers.

Please stop the wind NOW!

She has recently become more aggressive toward the other chickens - not in a mean way though. She has become less 'ADD' and more focused on what's going on around her (she's close to laying age which could be a factor in the aggressiveness). If they're getting treats she makes sure she gets over and gets her share. Climbing over and under the others to get the goodies…really funny. When they are free-ranging I've seen her fly halfway across the yard to beat the others to something yummy. She also occasionally pecks (not very often) at someone if they're invading her space. She's the smallest of the flock, she started molting last and finally has most of her new feathers growing in.

Seuss-ical

 She has always been quite animated with her bobbing head and unique walk and stance…very 'Dr. Seuss-ical'. - I can see how Dr. Seuss might have studied the PC's characteristics and  movements to get ideas for some of his characters!

Carmen is just the sweetest and most unique of our flock!



Liz-