Personality plus.

One of our neighbors had told us that the chickens would be very friendly and personable, but I just chalked that comment up to hopeful country story-telling. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Each chicken has developed her own personality, and I can't figure out if they're living up to the names we gave them, or if we just happened to give them names that suited their personalities to begin with. Or maybe both explanations are just my own version of hopeful country story-telling.

The chicken that my husband named after his mom (Audrey) looks to be the oldest chicken of them all. There's just something about her eyes that look more mature than the others. Audrey hasn't given us any eggs yet, and if she's more than a few years old, we won't be expecting any eggs from her, either. She's an elegant-looking chicken, one of the Araucana breed. She walks around the yards as if she owns the entire property, and she doesn't ever run to eat the bread and vegetables we scatter on the grass. She is definitely lady-like, subdued, controlled, just like my husband's mom was.

The other Araucana is named Henny Penny, and she is exactly like the Henny Penny of the children's books..... somewhat scattered, a little skittish and nervous. She has given us very pretty pale blue and pale green eggs, usually one egg every other day. If the weather is perfect for her (not too hot, not raining, not too breezy) then she will gift us with one egg every day.

The two Guinea Hens (as with the two above, these two were my husband's choices)... they are the most skittish of the flock. My husband named them Jeanie and Dottie-- Jeanie after an aunt of his, who is indeed the nervous type, and Dottie (because of all the dots on her gray feathers)-- she is somewhat "dotty," a British term for not quite all there. The Guinea hens haven't given us eggs yet, and we found out just a couple of days ago that they don't lay their eggs in the nesting boxes-- they will most likely plop their eggs down out in the yards or in the fields. I've looked around the grass near the house and the garage and the cottage, but I don't intend to go out into the pastures looking for their very small eggs. I think the Guinea hens believe they're chickens, because now they follow the chickens into the coop every night-- unlike the night that my husband and I chased them around the yard like Keystone Cops, trying to get them into the coop so they'd be safe after dark.

My red hen, Dolly, continues to be my favorite. She lets me pick her up, she lets me pet her, and she will look at me when I talk to her-- either she's truly listening to my voice, or she's just wondering when I'll shut up and feed her. Named after my aunt, Dolly always tidies up the nesting box she chooses to lay her egg in..... before she settles down, out goes a few strands of hay and grass that she doesn't like. Every day, since the third day we brought the chickens home, Dolly has given us a large brown-shelled egg. Dolly loves white bread, carrots, and corn-on-the-cob. Just like my Aunt Dolly, she will eat the inner part of the bread, not the crust. Saving the crust for the backyard birds was a habit of my Aunt's-- it satisfied her love of bread but eliminated some of the calories-- something she does to this day and she's 96 years old now. When I give my red-hen-Dolly bits of lettuce, she will take it out of my fingers and drop it at my feet, as if to say "Is that all you've got?" She is constantly looking for fresh corn and slivers of carrots.

The two smaller chickens, Edie and Jaye, are always together... they walk around the yard in tandem, they sleep curled up together-- face to face, as close as they can get. We laugh at Edie because she is always first on line when we bring food out to them. She will push the others out of the way, even though she's the smallest of the chickens. And Jaye will stand in the shade and groom herself, fluffing out her feathers and preening. If ever there was a chicken who would want a private vanity table and mirror, that would be Jaye-- named after my aunt who has the same attention to her personal grooming and beautification. No eggs yet from Edie and Jaye... they are both too young. Jaye-Bird has grown a lot since we've brought her home, but Edie isn't getting bigger as fast as I thought she would, given the amount of food she steals from the others.

I went to the thrift shop yesterday and bought more rolls of wallpaper. I've got quite a stash now in the storage closet by the coop. Yesterday's paper was pink with white dots, the day before was a green and burgundy floral pattern. I've been using a different roll of paper every day, so the chickens don't get used to one pattern and then freak-out when it's changed. And they do notice the paper...... Jaye-Bird was trying to peck the white dots out of the pink paper, and Dolly tried straightening up the asymmetrical flowers in the floral design.

When I came home from my errands yesterday afternoon, Edie and Jaye and the two Guinea hens were sitting on the porch steps. Dolly, Audrey and Henny Penny were resting in the shade underneath the bushes near the steps. As soon as I had parked my car in the garage and walked out into the courtyard, they all rushed over to me... "You're late! You're late! You missed lunch!! Where were you?!?" As soon as I got into the house, I got some bread for them and scattered it on the grass.... they stayed out of my way as I brought the grocery bags into the house, but after everything was unpacked, they were all on the porch steps, and Edie was on the porch close by the back door. Bread or no bread, they were waiting for their usual lunch-time treat of vegetables. I gave in, of course, and brought them some carrots, then walked to the coop to check the nesting boxes. Two perfect eggs were in the hay-- one brown, one pale green. Dolly and Henny Penny had been busy while I was shopping.

Chickens. Personality traits. Country story-telling. And little miracles every day in the nesting boxes... which still make me smile.