Posted by on Jun 5, 2013 in Backyard Brood, Blog, Featured Post | 31 comments

You’re a feisty one, Ptera! We knew this, of course, from day one when you arrived sporting punk rock eyeliner.

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So innocent-looking! Smaller than the rest, always sitting off in the corner those first few weeks, just keeping to yourself so quietly we worried you might be ill… little did we know you were laying in wait!

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Ahh! Pterattack! Just kidding, darling, that’s not fair. You’re not as scary as that, or as mean this, badass as it may be. But how can we ignore the comparisons when you’re playing a card from the velociraptor deck, throwing yourself at the brooder net to systematically test its weaknesses? And then your cleverness worked! Twice!

And now that you’re outside, we anticipate and fear the sky’s the limit. If anyone’s going to head off on an adventure, over and out, it will certainly be you. It’s a good thing you’re hyper-aware of overhead threats, sounding the alarm any time a shadow flies by, and that you’re probably highly capable of escape in the old-fashioned up-a-tree chicken method. (If you haven’t guessed already, Ptera—sounds like Tara—your given name is inspired by the Greek pteros, meaning “winged.”)

Yes, of all the girls your stance and guile do remind us the most that chickens and other modern-day birds very likely descended from dinosaurs.

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Cute, fuzzy, fluffy, soft, smartypants dinosaurs who catch and devour bugs mid-flight! Curious if this intrepid behavior runs in the Welsummer blood, we did a little research and discovered that Welsummers, while bred over a hundred years ago from a huge mix of European breeds, also bear a resemblance to red junglefowl, one of four junglefowl that originate in the wilds of Southeast Asia. All domesticated chickens probably descended from red junglefowl, but it seems to me you held onto a little more of that sleekness and cunning than most.

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And yet you’re always the first to calm down and sing a song, trilling a tune your sisters can snooze to. But if you’re not in the cuddle puddle, we know where to look… atop a doorframe (yes, this already happened!), atop the coop run (ditto), up a tree (not yet…). We’ll just need to look UP.

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