This is the rest of the hen story. This post will focus on our new girls. The three new hens are all from an Araucana enthusiast Anne of Willow Hill Araucana Farm in Bellingham, Washington. Anne was kind enough to entrust us with "Quetzal", "Survivor" and "Polly". These girls came with their names, except for Polly, who was previously known as "No Name".

Anne maintains a website built to celebrate and promote the Rumpless, Tufted Modern Araucana chicken. To check out more of Anne’s birds click here. (Believe me it's worth the click!)

"Survivor" is a 1-year-old White Splash Araucana hen. She was a winter hatchling. The story goes that one snowy, frigid day in January, she and 3 of her siblings got lost in the snow. When Anne found them, she was the only one left alive. Survivor is a prolific layer. We just love her, she is, however, the most difficult to get back into the coop in the late afternoon. She is very fond of my son Kahana.


"Polly Pullet" a.k.a. "No Name" is a 6-month old Silver/Black Mottled Araucana hen. She is part rumpless (has several downward-pointing tail feathers in the back). When we welcomed Polly to our farm she was a pullet -- a non-laying female. Since her arrival she has graduated to a hen. She is a great layer leaving an egg a day, even with the days getting shorter. Polly has nice willow legs (the proper color for most varieties of Araucana). Polly is the fastest girl we have. She can really run.


"Quetzal" is a 3-1/2 year old Black-Breasted-Red Araucana hen. Quetzal is amazing and loves to cuddle with her human friends. She is a beautiful girl with gorgeous ear tufts. Her beak is very slightly crooked and needs to be trimmed with a nail clipper every once in a while. The matriarch of the bunch of our new girls, she has a calm disposition, but likes to boss the others around!


Here are a couple of photos of our coop, as adapted for our misty Northwest winters!