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| Bubblebeak is often the center of attention. |
I grew up raising, breeding and showing chickens. They are my favorite domestic animal. It was hard for me throughout college and vet school to NOT have pet chickens. So when I finally moved to a city that would allow me to have chickens, I immediately adopted some of my dad's cull laying hens. Bubblebeak was one of these chickens.
She is a laying hybrid "breed" called a Red Star. The guy who bought her (as a day-old chick) had all his chicks "de-beaked". Bubblebeak's debeaking was not performed correctly which left her with a mass of tissue on her lower beak. While it does not appear to hurt her too much, she cannot beak hard things or dig around in the ground well. She does also need a deep food dish otherwise her bubble gets all red/abraded and appears to hurt.
Go to this link to learn more about debeaking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debeaking
Being true to her genes, Bubblebeak was the most aggressive hen when I first introduced her to the 3 other chickens I had at the time. She immediately ran all over the chicken yard, beating EVERYONE up. Took a while before she felt comfortable that everyone knew she was the alpha-hen.
After 4 years of intensive laying, Bubbebeak molted and never grew her feathers back. Fall came and she STILL was naked (but laying of course). This is typical of many laying breeds, especially Red Stars. They have been bred so intensively that their ovaries are on hyper-drive!! Their bodies give up on all other processess (ie feather production, immune system, bone strength,e tc) in order to produce eggs. The first snow came and still she was naked.
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| Bubblebeak helps me with the garden clean-up |
Time for retirement! I put a hormone implant into Bubblebeak that would stop her laying. Within a month, Bubblebeak had a GORGEOUS coat of new feathers:) She now rocks her glamourous duds in the Chicken Tractor with Henri (her best friend) and Lady (friend from my dad's flock) and the newest addition to the tractor, (insert name here...need to think of one yet...)
This page has some great information about Red Stars:
http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/red-star-chickens.html
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| Chicken Tractor |
