Meet the Flockers

Naming the chickens

It was worse than choosing names for our children, seriously what are sensible names to come up with to name the chooks? We were scratching around for ages before we finally settled on Betty, Patti, Gladys and Mary, discounted names were Nandos, Tikka and Korma, all deemed completely inappropriate.

My favourite go-to facebook poultry pages news feed is stuffed full of puntastic names for people's prized chickens; Hen Solo, Princess Layer, Henrietta, Cluck Norris, Russell Crowe and one of my favourites Yolko Ono.

Betty was my choice, named after my former boss's wife. Liz is her proper name but Alan used to affectionately call her "Betty hen". When the chooks first arrived the finest looking chicken was obviously given her regal name. She is one of the top chicks in the pecking order,  we affectionately know her as big, bad Betty. She absolutely loves her grub and looks a picture careering up the garden, with wings flapping to be first in line to get food. 

So the other top-ranking bird was named Patti Boulaye, which matches her character, which is a bit of a bully. Mary has a regal bearing, named after Mary of Guelders, who was the queen consort of Scotland by marriage to King James II of Scotland.  Lastly, there is Gladys, well she is an unassuming chook but she's a smart one, affectionately know as Glad-wise. How can we tell them apart, well they have plastic rings around one of their legs coloured coded, so no mix-ups. 

Betty is red

Patti is yellow, 

Mary is purple 

Gladys is green.