At Smyth Family Farm we raise 4 varieties of chickens; Whiting True Blue, Ancona, Red Star, and Americana. The girls lay eggs that are white, blue, green, and brown. We have quite a rainbow in the egg box each day.
Since the girls free range over 1,500 square feet, we sometimes find a bit of the rainbow hiding under a shrub. The girls have minds of their own, so we never know what they'll do from day to day.
Mabel was named by Teri's sister, Sue. Mabel is short for Mabelline, due to the markings near her eyes. Mabel is the "momma" of the group; always the one to be a little broody and keep her watchful eye on everyone's eggs.
​Mabel's is a sucker for old school Mowtown. Her favorite song is the Jackson 5 classic, "How Funky is your Chicken". We often see her doing the moonwalk as she hunts for worms in the garden. A few weeks ago we noticed a Michael Jackson poster pinned up in the coop. We're not sure which of the girls put it up, but odds are it was Mabel.
Mabel actually has two names. Little Josie wanted to name a chick after they were already named. She has since renamed Mabel to "Violet".
That's right campers! SFF has a new flock of baby chicks born St Patty's day 2023. We have German Bielefelder, Black Copper Maran, and Bantam Cochin. They are adorable and growing like crazy. The neighborhood kids are having a ball cuddling these little fuzz balls. Who doesn't love holding a baby chick?!
It was always difficult to distinguish our original two Red star hens, so one of the twins had to be named Mary Kate (sorry, no Ashley). Mary Kate is our dominant bad-ass girl. She is the most consistent egg layer, usually gifting us a perfect brown egg most every day. She is the only one that consistently laid through winter as well.
Mary Kate loves raisins. When we offer up a handful, she usually pecks up 70% of them before the other girls know what happened. She is a ninja raisin thief.
Mary Kate is a long time fan of Big bird, but she still holds on to her earliest chick-crush on Foghorn Leghorn. I guess she is a sucker for those fast talkers even though she knows he is no good for her. We can't talk her out of it. I guess she is allowed to make her own mistakes, but we hate seeing a young girl (she is only 2) get her heart trampled.
Beebee was named by our son, Andrew. She has changed most over the past 2 years. She started out mostly white, but after a few times molting she is changing her tune. We think she decided Blonde's really don't have more fun, so she is switching to Brunette.
Beebee's favorite movie is the 2000 claymation classic "Chicken Run". Beebee is a hopeless romantic, so the chicken love story sends tears running down her beak every time.