I had been growing increasingly concerned about Bella. Something was off about her. She was erratic and aggressive, and something just seemed off. Then one day I noticed that she had tremendously large feet…In comparison I mean.
You see, Bella lives with Buffy and they’re about a month apart in age. But Bella was growing fast. Faster than any of the other pullets. And her comb…it was so full and red comparatively. (I know you guys know where this is going.) So Saturday I googled pictures of four-month old gold-laced Wyandotte. Sunday, I texted the breeder pics of my little friend….and Bella officially became Bill.
Sunday afternoon, we took Bella, I mean Bill back from whence she, I mean he came. Unfortunately the breeder had sold all of her Wyandotte and Partridge Rocks. In fact the breeder had nothing in the same age bracket. So I became the proud owner of a roughly 4 week old Rhode Island Red. You’ve got to roll with the punches, right?
Luckily, we just finished an expansion to our coop. In fact Buffy and Bella..I mean Bill, had just moved in. Enter, the guinea pig cage.
Our new Rhode Island Red is now Buffy’s new roommate, but she’s still too little to roam within the coop. She’ll be relegated to the guinea pig cage for a week or two until everyone’s acclimated.
So of our six little darlings, five of them were named after Harry Potter characters. Bella was in fact Bellatrix LaStrange-the whacked out psychotic witch (which actually kind of worked for him). So what did we name our new little Red? Well, here’s a hint. My girl has moved on from the Harry Potter series over the last few months. We’ve moved on to The Hunger Games…
Such the Like... 
Bella (I mean Bill) sure was beautiful (er..handsome) I origionally wanted to get a GLW but the feed store didn’t have any chicks in when I needed them, so we went with the SLW instead. I’m going to become addicted to variety I think. 🙂 How you like the Red, do you have any other Rhode Island Reds in your flock, or is this the first?
I’m with you on variety. There are so many neat varieties to pick from. So far so good with Catniss-she’s just little and cute right now. RIR is a breed I wouldn’t have picked on my own. They’re great layers, but I’ve been choosing for temperment as well and I don’t think they’re the most easy going group. It must be fate, though. So we’ll roll with it!
My favorite in our flock is Pretty Polly, a RIR who thinks she is a parot. She hoped up onto my shoulder as a baby and now still comes right over to me, and (I think) really likes being held and pet. She’s not the prettiest in the flock, but they’re all pretty young. GLWs look so amazing.
If you don’t have a rooster, they can be very helpful for a free range flock imo… in case your new chicken turns up other than a hen 😉
*anna
He would have been a looker too. Unfortunately we’re not in a place to free range right now. It’s on our list of goals.