We needed a rooster for our Buff Orpington ‘chicks’. And so, I posted on a North Idaho Chickens Facebook page “ISO” a rooster. Within a few days we had, Manolito, a Black Orpinton Lavender split, Manny for short. He is only a month older than the hens, so they are all ‘maturing’ together. His feathers have an iridescence to them and gives them some really pretty green color, I’m looking forward to what the chicks will look like!

It’s a long story how we got to calling him Manolito, but it seems to fit him. The name comes from the late ’60’s western show ‘High Chaparral’, it was a popular network show at that time.

The ‘chicks’ seem to like him alright, he even calmed a couple of the dominant hens  down and they are no longer ruling over the other hens.

So far I’ve only named one of the hens, the smallest one, I call her Peaches. Which one is the smallest, is a guessing game. Sometimes they can all seem small or big, it’s weird, they all look alike to me most of the time. I just call whatever one gets out, Peaches. They pretty much just come to me, thinking I’m going to give them food, but they can be cagey for no particular reason, then I have to play a game to get them to come back.

 

The hens really are all different sizes!

I didn’t realize that I had not posted since we got our last chickens. They were “re-homed”. Sadly, the move seemed to cause them to have issues. The rooster started pecking the head of the smallest/weakest chicken and when I removed her, he started in with the next smallest. Finally I took him out of the coop and let him fend for himself. He did fine. Then the hens one by one started eating their own eggs.

I decided to start over with a different breed and all new chicks this past Spring. So far so good!