Cock-a-doodle DON'T

Oh dear! Last week we discovered for sure something we had been suspecting for several months now. Even though there was no crowing, strutting or other rooster-like behaviours we thought one of the chicken was not what it seemed.

One of our girls in the coop was actually a BOY!!!

Andy, formerly known as Andi

We live in a metropolitan area so we are strictly not allowed to keep a rooster under our local government laws. One complaint from the neighbours about a crowing rooster would have put our entire flock at risk, as the ranger may have demanded we get rid of all our girls. Remember Andi and Lucia? Well Andi turned out to be Andy and so we telephoned the breeder to requested that we exchange him for another her.

We were very lucky that the breeder accepted that she had mistakenly sold us a cockerel (young rooster) instead of the pullet (young hen) we had requested so she agreed to give us and exchange chicken. As a bonus she was coming down near our house last Friday to bring her daughter to a cheer-leading competition so he provided a pick up/delivery service.

It was pot luck for the new chicken, by this I mean the breeder brought us a chicken that (based on her knowledge of our flock) should work in with our other girls. Being winter there is not too much choice for point of lay chickens in Perth - especially as our summer was so hot, many breeders have not hatched new chickens for more than 2 months.

Puffle has features of all the other chickens in our flock.

The new chicken has been called Puffle. She is part Polish and Rhode Island Red (and some other stuff I think) but she is a pullet which means we should soon be getting eggs from her. Eggs is not something Andy was ever going to give us. Puffle has the same colour legs as Lucia, a lavender tail like Toetoe, light coloured body feathers like Itchy, dark coloured neck feathers like Scratchy and a puffy helmet of black feathers like Vegemite. She was in with a heap of Roosters at the breeder so she is a bit skittish but I am sure she will calm down. Feeding Mealworm snacks by hand is how we tamed all the other chickens and I am sure it will work on this one too.