Chicken characters

I've still got a bunch of great photos to share with you from our 2010 chicken waterer photo contest.  The pictures in this post are birds who struck me as true characters.  For example, Linda Vanderhoef emailed me the photo on the left with a quick note: "This is Peanut.  She almost died but is doing fine."

Meanwhile, David Tough sent me a photo of his "Aussie chooks."  He wrote, "Herewith my first offering - our Maurice with one of his ISA Brown harem."

Richard Brackett sent in the photo on the left showing his darling Chickadee.

But the most personable chicken we saw, without contest, was Dave Creighton's rooster, Mr. Spitz.  Dave explained that his silkie rooster regularly exercises by swimming in the family pool.  "I put him in one day with my stepdaughter and he tried to flap his way out.  He has been in several time after that and does a small amount of paddling around and I take him out.  The pool is high and he can't be loose because of our Husky pup, so I have become the lifeguard. We live in northern Vermont and soon Mr. Spitz will be cooped up for the winter unless he can learn to skate......"

I did my best to discover whether Mr. Spitz enjoys these workouts, but it was really hard to tell.  David replied to my question with another anecdote:  "He went for what might be his last swim of the year today....  He flaps some and then settles in for the rest of the time.  He just floats and looks around, paddles some and when he comes to me I take him out."

The take-home message?  Clearly, our customers love their chickens.  We're glad to be able to provide homemade chicken waterers that are good enough even for Peanut.