Monday, March 21

Jere and Kristen invited us to come see their new peeps.

I understand that Ian, Jared, and Jesse helped choose the varieties: Giant White, Giant Black, Ameraucana, and Turken Naked Neck. The little yellow one was a gift and is a bantam.

Descriptions from the internet:

The Jersey White Giant Chicken is the more rare of the two Jersey Giant varieties (black and white.) Jersey Giants originated in New Jersey in the 1880s by crossing Black Javas, Dark Brahmas, and Black Langshans. The white variety came about by mutations within Black Jersey Giants, which then led to the selection of White Giants for their plumage.

Who knew turkeys and chickens could interbreed? This bird looks like a turkey due to its “naked neck”, but it’s all chicken! It was bred this way to be easier for cooks to pluck. Strangely, Turkens are said to fare very well in the cold despite their feather shortcomings and big combs (though these features do help them in the heat). They have an unusual look that some people don’t care for, but they are also calm, very friendly and one of the easiest chickens to tame. Relatively rare in North America, Naked Necks are very popular in Europe, especially France and Germany.

The Ameraucana is an American breed of domestic chicken developed in the United States in the 1970s. It derives from Araucana chickens brought from Chile and was bred to retain the blue-egg gene but eliminate the lethal alleles of the parent breed. The breed has both large fowl and bantam varieties.

A bantam (banties) is a small variety of poultry, especially chickens. Etymologically, the name bantam is derived from the city of Bantam – currently known as “Banten Province” or previously “Banten Residency” – once a major seaport, in Indonesia. European sailors restocking on live fowl for sea journeys found the small native breeds of chicken in Southeast Asia to be useful, and any such small poultry came to be known as a bantam.