After researching breeds of chickens that would fare well in our humid PA summers and cold winters, I settled onto the fluffy butt of the Buff Orpington. This heavy breed is known for a docile personality, however we did not find this to be the case in our young birds. In the early months, they were adorable and the epitome of cute yellow chickeny goodness. However as they progressed to living outdoors, both the pullets and the cockerels had some attitude which included pecking and asserting their dominance towards the humans.

As they grew into their adult size they seemed to definitely become more calm and actually sought out some interaction from us in a very rewarding way. By rewarding I mean they laid us lovely light brown eggs, allowed our daughter to handle them and stopped pecking at us when we entered. It’s possible that chickens are able to communicate about our intentions and they understood that the aggressive cockerel was sent to freezer camp early on and they hoped to avoid this fate.