Saturday, April 11, 2009

What's in a Name

As I mentioned in a previous blog, most chicken 'experts' advise you not to name your chickens. By naming them you become more attached to them and there is a good chance that you will not be able to butcher them if you are raising them for meat. Our girls are layers and we plan to keep them around for a long time so we felt that this rule did not apply to us.

Here is how we came up with the names you see in the above photo.

Mr. Darcy Chick is the name I gave to a chick that our cat Mr. Darcy bonded with when we first brought her home. This is not a very pretty, feminine name, but it is the one that sticks in my head.

Paula's friends came up with Elvis for the black and white bird with fringes on her feet. She looks like Elvis in his later years when he dressed in white and wore bell bottoms.

Polly is the name I gave to the White Leghorn (the only chicken in our flock that will lay white eggs) that Paula picked up at Concord Feed. She had stopped by the store to buy organic chicken feed and when she got outside she called to tell me how proud she was for not succumbing to the temptation to buy another cute chick. When I broke the news to her that my day old White Leghorn had just died, Paula turned around, marched right back into the store, and got a replacement. So, I named this bird Polly after Paula.

Liz is named after Paula's friend Liz Marsh. As you can see from the photo below, Liz looks just like 'her' chicken.


Paula had a coffee and tea tasting event at her house about a month ago. She asked her friends to come up with names for the chicks that she was babysitting at the time. Someone suggested 'Salt n' Peppa'. So, a black and white bird was 'christened' with that name.

Paula likes the sound of Amelia Bedelia, the name of the main character in a series of children's books, so I named one chicken Amelia and another one Bedelia.

Frederika was named after the gentleman (Fred) that I met at Concord Feed a few weekends ago. He gave us tar paper, nails, and shingles for the hen house. I promised I would name a chick after him.

Finally, Dave has a quirky sense of humor. He insisted that we name the two Production Reds Shake and Bake.

1 comment:

  1. Great catching up on the Birds and the Bees! I love it. Glad you are enjoying them and spreading your joy, fun and accomplishemnts! Makes me wish I had some too! Elvis is my favorite!

    Have a most blessed Easter!
    Love, Mary Kay

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