Name the Chicken

Momma loves her babies!

Welcome to the grand opening of the new Penelope Silvers blog! PhilosBooks.com was my home for several years, but I’m going to kick off my shoes and rest here for awhile. More importantly, to kick off this momentous event (sans balloons or hors d’oeuvres), I’m sponsoring a contest!  A “Name the Chicken” Contest, to be precise. The top two names (by a vote) will receive this amazing book, “The City Homesteader,” to assist in a self-sustaining lifestyle–even if you live in the city!

Here’s the book description from Amazon:

“The City Homesteader is the handbook for the world of self-sufficient living. It’s about living tangibly in a virtual world. It’s about being resourceful, saving money, reducing consumption, and increasing self-reliance. Join the many who are raising backyard chickens in the city and tilling their side yards: tapping into natural energy, managing homes more efficiently, and getting back to the earth.

Explore the homesteading arts: gardening on small and large scales, raising dwarf fruit trees, sprouting grains, smoking meats and fish, grinding grains for flour, making cheese, making wine, cellaring, heating without fossil fuel, harvesting rainwater, composting, and much more.The City Homesteader provides all the basics, including how to find supplies and step-by-step instructions that make it easy to follow along. Original illustrations throughout help you create your very own homestead on any piece of earth.”

Why Chickens?

A little backstory. In 2013, my husband had a stroke and if that wasn’t enough, I had surgery for breast cancer–a year later–almost to the day. Due to these health crises, we had a decision to make. Our goal was to live as healthfully as possible, beginning with our own eggs. The tiny flock kicked off with 14 chickens, three died, and six chicks were recently added. Take note: when you purchase chicks from Rural King, you must guess as to the breed. Oh, and pray you don’t get a rooster (which happened to us in our first batch).

Our best estimate is that five are Black Australorps, but the speckled black and white may be a Barred Rock. Let me know if you have another guess. These little ones have now joined the ranks of Opal, Goldie, Tweetie, Jane, Puff, Patty, Lucky, Lady, Slick, Peach, and Peanut. In no particular order, they are Easter Eggers (blue or green eggs), Araucanas, Ameraucana, Welsummer, and a mutt (Puff). She’s our scrappy chicken and will push the limits every time.

As older sisters, they’ll probably pick on and peck the heck out of the newbies when they’re finally intermingled, but for now, glorious peace.

Name the New Chickens

Here’s what you do: Reply in the comments with your names, or tweet them to me at @Philosbooks with hashtag #chicknames and I’ll pick winners of the top two names on October 15. Each will receive their very own City Homesteader guide. In addition, I’ll publish your bio and pic on this blog (unless you’re very shy)! Best of luck to everyone.

By the way, they’ve grown considerably since this post. They are looking and acting more like teenagers every day.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6 (The Runt)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following is courtesy of My Pet Chicken Website here:

Australorp

Australorps are the Australian take on the Orpington breed. They are calm and friendly, and excellent layers of light brown eggs. The Australorp’s exceptionally soft, shiny black plumage has hints of green and purple in the sunlight. Peaceful and dignified, Australorps are an absolutely delightful bird which we highly recommend to anyone who wants a pet chicken that lays dependably.

 

PenelopeBTR2tiny

Penelope Silvers is founder of PhilosBooks.com,
where Independent Authors are introduced to the World!
She is a freelance writer, publisher, and radio host of
Penelope’s Book Chat on Blog Talk Radio.

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