We have five chicken breeds:
- Buff Orpington - As chicks, they are buff colored. As adults, their coloring will be much the same, but taking on a richer buttered-popcorn hue. Eventually, we came to refer to the collective of Buff Orpington hens as the Blondies.
- New Hampshire - As chicks, they are buff colored and difficult to immediately distinguish from the Buff Orpingtons. As adults, they will take on a honey-colored plumage. The collective of New Hampshire hens is now known as the Honeys.
- Rhode Island Red - As chicks, they are copper-colored. As adults, their coloring will be much the same, but taking on a more vibrant burnt red. The collective of Rhode Island Red hens is now known as the Pennies.
- Barred Plymouth Rock - As chicks, they are black with a dappling of lighter color. As adults, they take on a distinctive salt-and-pepper striped plumage. Because we only have three Barred Rock hens, we haven't named that collective. One of them emerged darker-hued, with a deep voice reminiscent of Bea Arthur; we call her Maude. When they were young pullets, the other two would follow Maude around like Larry's brother Darrell and his other brother Darrell, so we now call them both Darla.
- Black Australorp - As chicks, they are difficult to distinguish from the Barred Rocks chicks. As adults, their feathers will be all black and in the sunlight will reveal a beautiful patina. As young pullets, Ben began calling one of the hens Virginia, or Ginny for short. I soon noticed he was calling a different one Ginny each time he visited the chicken yard, so we soon began to refer to them collectively as the Ginnies.
