When I got new chicks this spring, I noticed an odd one that didn't look like any of the other 79 chicks. I figured she must be an Easter Egger because of her blue legs, but she didn't have the tufted feathers on her cheeks like the other Easter Eggers. When I first picked her up and held her, she didn't struggle and peep to be put down, nor did she settle into my hand and close her eyes like the others. Instead, she turned her head and very calmly looked me right in the eye. What was she thinking? What did she see? I saw a special little chick. I named her Grey Dove because she was a pale grey color and her movements and body shape reminded me of a dove. Later she developed a lovely gold overlay.
She is quite calm and friendly, and a great forager. So great, in fact, that she has discovered how to get up into the cherry tree in the chicken yard and then fly over the fence. She gets out in the morning and scratches her way all around the yard, (and we have a BIG yard), turning over the leaves to find delicious things. Then she enters the open back porch, settles herself in a sack of old straw and lays a big pale blue egg. After a short rest, she hops down and resumes her foraging, eventually wandering back to the chicken yard gate, where she calls to me in a funny croaky voice until I come out and open the gate for her. She usually gets out again in the late afternoon to make her rounds once more. The yolks from her eggs are bright golden due to her superior foraging skills.
What a super hen! I'm so glad she came to me, as I have really enjoyed getting to know her.
