mes animals -- chickies & piggies!

these are the potbelly pigs. we haven't decided on names yet! [a month or two later we did--in the pic its Grumpus to the left & Hoggle to the right, with Tom in the background] at first we thought they were both males and the one was just gay, but turns out his humping was not in vain! so there will be baby piggies running around in a few months.....[see the post on gay pigs--they are both males]

the black chicken is Gobo (remember the Fraggles?). he is a black polish crested. he is rather young right now, but when he matures he will have long tail feathers & an even bigger tuft! in the sunlight his black feathers sparkle blue & purple. we want to get him a lady-friend. [he is dead now, killed by our neighbor's bird-hunting dog]

below Gobo is a photo of Madeleine, a rhode island red.....our most wonderful layer. we've had her the longest, except for Holly, who is the victim of a Chicken Holocaust that we rescued (to keep company with some younger chicks who ended up getting killed by hawks or something). <<see a previous post of mine>> in the picture of Tom you can see Holly in the background. she is just a white leghorn, raised for meat. our least healthy chicken, through the fault of the commercial poultry industry.

the bottom pics show the silkies! their feathers are spineless, so they are very fuzzy & whispy. they lay very small eggs. for some reason they arranged by color for these photos. the white hens we got first--Wakaba & Kenshin. the orange/buff ones are Sayonara (the rooster) & Taki. The grey hen on the left is Miki, and the grey hen on the right is Suki. Suki has some real feathers, so she is a mix, probably with a cochin. [see post in september for "her" new pics--she is really a he] typically the rooster & the white hens hang out, since they are all mature.....baby silkies in the making? [sure enough--see sept. posts] silkies are an asian/oriental breed, so they all got japanese names.

did you know that female chicks look like their father & male chicks look like their mother?

we also recently got 5 silkie peeps--only 3 weeks old & adorable!!!! some are mixes actually, but they will be black, white, splash (whitish with grey-blue splotches), & partridge. also recently we got some young guineas, which are crazy looking birds from Africa. they haven't quite matured into crazy-looking yet, but they are definitely getting the loud annoying call typical of this breed. they eat ticks though, & warn you of intruders (by making a big commotion!). these guys are even harder to get photos of then the big silkies. they keep running under the chicken house!

click on a pic to enlarge it....unless your internet connection is prehistoric like mine.

if I get better pics I'll post 'em. Enjoy for now!