Like many SE Portlanders, my sister and I enjoy keeping backyard chickens. The City encourages the keeping of hens as part of sustainable living. Hens eat pests and kitchen scraps, provide rich manure so useful in gardening, and, of course, they lay delicious eggs! Here in Portland, you can keep three hens without a permit -- more, with a permit. We went for the permit and a larger flock.
Recently, we lost several hens to egg-binding. And we re-homed Dorothy Lamour because she had begun to crow like a rooster. (Read The Further Adventures of Dorothy the Transgendered Chicken here.) So this Spring, we got some new babies, mostly heritage breeds that are rather uncommon (we like to support the continuation of heritage breeds and find them at this local business, The Urban Farm Store). Without further ado, I shall make introductions below the orange squiggle!
And all the little girls say, "Peep, peep, peep!" Wish I could do a sound track...
Please meet (from left to right) Ginger Rogers, Audrey Hepburn, Carol Lombard, and Mae West.
Ginger Rogers is an Americauna. She will lay blue or green eggs when she is older. This is not an uncommon chicken but how we love the colored eggs!
Audrey Hepburn is a Welsummer, an uncommon breed originating in the Netherlands. She will lay dark brown eggs when she grows up. Chocolate colored eggs, oh yeah!
Carol Lombard is a Belgian Brabanter, a rare breed here in the U.S. Her eggs will be white.
Mae West is a Delaware, like our recently deceased Marilyn Monroe was. Marilyn was a lovely, sweet bird of and we are sure Mae will be, too. Her eggs will be light brown. The Delaware is an endangered breed.
Does anyone else around the kitchen table keep hens? Got any baby pictures to share? Please come in, be comfortable, and share your day, your weekend plans, and recipes!
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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