BIRD OF THE MONTH ~ TINA SMERCZYNSKI ~ OUR POLISH HEN ~

The Polish Chicken is certainly a show stopper when anyone comes to look at our chickens.  Not only are her looks unique, but her name is a bit misleading.  She is a European breed, but she did not originate in Poland...her breed actually came from the Netherlands.  The Polish Chicken seems to be a friendly bird, but she does act a bit crazy due to her impaired sight line.  I'd be a bit frenzied too if I couldn't see something that I could hear heading in my direction.

After careful thought and consideration we named this beautiful bird after two different people.  TINA is a wonderful waitress at a local restaurant in downtown Beverly.  She is an awesome person who happens to be Polish, and who can sing "Happy Birthday" in MANY different languages!  Our bird's last name comes from another family friend who also shares our same love for chickens!  "MR SMUZ" loves to talk "chicken" with my mom and ME!

Our "Tina Smerczynski" is a wild and crazy bird...Her beautiful head piece  makes it very difficult for her to see things...so she sometimes runs around like her tail feathers are on fire!

One day my mom walked into the coop and she went to fly out the chicken door...she missed and flew into the side of the coop...AWKWARD!

                   TINA SMERCZYNSKI ~ BIRD OF THE MONTH OCTOBER 2012

Maybe we need a bigger COOP ~ MAY 2012?

Knowing that our desire was growing for more types of poultry, we thought that we may need to get a bigger coop.  With that being said, we talked to Dan over at Agway, and he was able to upgrade us to a bigger coop.

 My mom used Raglan's dog crate to hold the chickens while they made the swap...

Big Bird and all her friends seemed to enjoy their afternoon out on the lawn.  At this point we did not have the chicken run built, so this was really their first time scratching at the back lawn.  It was a great idea except for when my mom thought she would introduce Raglan to the chicks.  Since they were safe inside the crate, my mom brought Raglan down to see them...Within seconds the chickens were squawking and flapping around, the dog was barking... and ... then ... "POOF" the baby bantams flapped their way right outside the crate!  My mom FREAKED OUT!  Luckily my sister was home and she came down and helped collected the runaway chicks!

So my mom cleaned out the smaller coop...

...then, Dan and his men from Agway delivered the larger coop. It really doesn't look any different, but it is longer, wider, and taller.  My mom was really getting tired of hitting her head on the pitched ceiling in the smaller coop.

Here is the view from the front...

...and from the side...my dad even let him drive over the lawn!

This is the backside view.

In with the BIG...

out with the SMALL!