Ruthie is now Rudy

People who buy chickens will sometimes have an option to pay extra for pullets, or hens.  A chick's sex can be determined with fairly good accuracy within a day of hatching. 

When we purchased our birds, I had the choice to select the sex on three of the four breeds.  The fourth group of chickens we ordered, the top hat special, was essentially five birds with fancy crests, randomly picked.  The option did not allow me to select the sex of the birds.  With this in mind, there was a possibility of getting 5 roosters.

Even before they arrived, our Top Hat Specials all got honorary names.  

Stevie was named by our daughter after a female Saddle Club book character, Stevie.  Fortunately, his name remains the same, as Stevie was the first to crow.

Amy was named after a good friend of mine.  The birds were shipped on her birthday, hence the honor.  And Amy can keep her name.  She clearly exhibits pullet qualities.

Her hair do is more rounded as are her feathers.  

Rosie is named after a chicken that my mother inherited when she bought a farmhouse.  As I have written before, my mother's Rosie was a lone chicken that occasionally laid an infertile egg, and then sat on it.  Our Rosie seems to have hair or crest issues.

She has a hard time drinking water without getting her feathers wet.  But below you can see her on a good hair day.

There may be a bit of an issue over on the right side of her head, but for the most part, she looks pretty good.


Annabeth may be a rooster, but we are not yet sure.  She behaves like a rooster, bossy, challenging many of the hens and occasionally giving Stevie a bit of trouble.  But until we hear a crow, we will continue to hope for the best. 

Here she is with Rosie.  Now that I look at the picture and see the waddles, I am pretty sure (read confident) that Annabeth will need a new name before long.  

Which leads me to the last but not least TOP HAT SPECIAL, Ruthie.  Ruthie has had a special place in this blog and in our flock.  From the start, she behaved differently, and looked unlike all the others.  On the day we picked them up at the PO, even the mail carrier commented on how different she was.

Although she acted bold, physically she had all the characteristics of a pullet.  Her crest was smooth, she was small - we thought she might be a bantam - and no apparent saddle feathers or pointy hackles.  

And of all the birds, her 12 weeks have been the most photographed.  But two weeks ago, Ruthie crowed.  Ruthie is now Rudy.  And see how the smooth crest changed overnight into the spiked punk rock look common to Polish roosters.


And now, here he is next to Annabeth

At this point, Rudy remains a non aggressive bird, and we hope that he stays that way.  At least he appears to be paying homage to the CEO of our flock. I know I began with this photo, but with that crest, and Rudy's stance, ending with it seems fitting.

Anne at Echo Mountain View Road chickens