By Infomaniac on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 11:10 am:
If she was 3 years old when someone dumped her on us, then she should be 8 years old at the very least.
She looks like a Heinz breed. (57 varieties).
That's what we thought!
Info, she's a good looking bird, Heinz 57 or no.
Thank you for your post, Hannah. All our birds are technically "mutts" except for the (true) Araucana (potentially show-quality stock), Delaware , RIR and Ameraucana lines. Our Dakota Barred birds (super mutts) have this Ancient Hen in their ancestor list 5 or 6 generations ago. The fact that this old hen is healthy and so old speaks loudly of the strength of her constitution ... disease resistance, hardiness. We speculate that she is the oldest bird on the farm, but we have some pretty old birds. Whitie is 5 years old as are her broodmates, a couple of RIRs and a Delaware rooster (Superman ... don't let little boys name your birds....).
That's pretty neat. Superman is a good name if you have an especially virile rooster!
By Japman117201 on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 05:40 pm:
By Infomaniac on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 06:56 pm:
By HannahH on Saturday, January 12, 2002 - 12:08 am:
By Infomaniac on Saturday, January 12, 2002 - 02:46 pm:
Amazingly this old hen fussed at me awfully when she first arrived. Now she roosts in the rafters along side of the other old hens. It's funny how they seem to know who's who in the henhouse. Old Hen, Red Chicken and Whitie, all elderly matrons, always sit together.
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 04:49 am: