Does someone want to rewrite this poem to include green and blue eggs? (For more about how pigment is added to egg shells, read this post.)

Today is brought to you by the letter D.

I don’t have any Dorkings, but I do have a Delaware.

D is for Delaware
So placid and calm
Big light brown eggs she lays
that fit in my palm

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It’s no surprise that C is for Cochin. These cards were printed in England, where in the late 1800s there was something of a mania over them. Cochins remind me of fussy Victorian ladies in overblown finery. I always imagine that Cochins are nattering away in an upper crust British accent, like on Downton Abbey. (My friends in the UK can let me know which chickens they think walk with a wild west swagger!)

What would you have used for C? Campine? Cornish Rock? More poems, please!

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In all of my years of chicken keeping, I’ve only kept two types of bantams – silkies and white leghorns. Any Sebright owners out there? Does the poem ring true?

Note the typo – lav instead of lay.

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It’s that time of year when we have a zillion things to do – shopping, cooking, tidying for guests, preparing for travel… not to mention work and school and mundane tasks like laundry… I’m currently working on some serious FAQs and posts, about worms, bloody pecking spats, and the like, but really, who wants to focus on that right now? Tomorrow I’ll be cooking latkes for 18, and later in the week I’ll be making homemade horse treats for all 13 horses at the stable (Shhh! don’t tell them. It’s a surprise!)

So, I’ve decided to do a light-hearted series to bring us through the New Years.

At the turn of the last century, before tobacco was evil, cigarette companies put beautifully lithographed cards into their packets, rather like baseball cards in today’s packages of gum. To encourage collecting and sales, they did series. I have the complete set of poultry cards. Let’s go through the alphabet! Today we’ll begin with the letter A.

The best bit of these cards are the poems on the back.

I’ve never owned an Ancona hen. Have you? Tell me about her.