Animal Avenue Introduction Tour

For Wilson Family Farm Fall Festival (Sept-Nov)2022

Hello! My name is Gracie.

Welcome to our home!

I am your Animal Avenue guide for today.

I am in Pen 5, but we will start in order from the beginning, starting with Pen 1!

The Pens are labeled with bright orange numbers from 1 through 6.

There are also signs on each Pen with more information about each of the animals, as well as a list of their names.

As a reminder, please do not feed or touch any of the animals, but if you have any questions please let Farmer Kelly know!

So….let us begin! Hooray!

Pen 1

This is home to the Icelandic chickens.

There are 2 roosters (male) and 5 hens (female).

They belong to Wilson Family Farm.

One of the hens in this pen decided to sit on 6 eggs earlier this Spring, and there were 6 baby chicks! What fun! They were so tiny and cute, but not for long! Every week when I looked over, they seemed to have grown inches!!

One of the chicks, Sunny – he is the beautiful orange rooster in this pen – became sick and had to be by himself for a while in the little brown chicken coop – our hospital – under the close care of Farmer Kelly. After a few weeks he was completely well and rejoined his family.

My best friend Enola and I wonder why these chickens become extremely excited over little things  but then this gets everyone else excited too: the turkeys gobble, the other hens cackle, the pheasants chirp, and the roosters all crow at once! Then everyone wonders who started it and why they were all making such a fuss in the first place!

Then everyone seems to forget it all and go peck at a bug.

Loki and Sunny are the roosters,  and the hens are Cleopatra (Patty), Daisy, Minnie, Clarabelle, and Poppy.

Patty is my favorite hen because she is close to my age and has beautiful eyes, like the queen Cleopatra.

Can you find Patty by looking for her beautiful eyes? She stands out like a queen.

Loki is the white rooster and is usually guilty of starting all the excitement. Farmer Kelly sometimes scratches his head, but knows it is in their nature to be a little high-strung. Loki is in charge, but tall Rooster Sunny may soon outgrow him!

Can you guess Sunny’s color and pick him out from the rest?

Pen 2

This is home to some of my fellow chicks (now chickens) that I grew up with in Farmer Kelly’s garage during the cold months. We are all the same age.

There are 12 of them and they are all best friends…that is, until they decide to argue and squabble about who is being too greedy gobbling all the food! All of the chickens here at my house laugh and laugh because they make so much noise and get so excited over food! They act like they are starving every day and see who can eat the most the fastest! They make us cackle with laughter!

They are wonderfully friendly and curious, and love to hang out with Farmer Kelly when they are allowed to roam free outside their pens (“free range”). They follow him around like the “Pied Piper” for chickens.

All of the hens lay eggs nearly every day. There are 4 white Leghorn hens and guess what they love to do the most? You guessed it….EAT (and eat)! They will even perform tricks for food: clover is a favorite.

Their names are Blue, Betty, Bonnie, and Bella.

They lay large white eggs daily and are know for their egg-laying abilities.

Farmer Kelly keeps a watchful eye because they love to escape their pen and run if he has his back turned. They are quite clever.

And they are fast runners! It is funny to watch him chase them, and he never catches them! BUT they will come back to the pen if enticed with…guess what??

FOOD!!

Next are the black and white speckled hens: the Dominiques.

They are curious, friendly, and also love to eat!  But they are not as crazy about food like those white Leghorns! The hens’ names are Olive, Cocoa, Cora, Flora, and Dora!

There are 3 roosters: Trooper, Notelle, and Frodo. They are all very nice roosters.

Trooper is the rooster in charge, and Notelle and Frodo do not seem to mind.

His crow is a little different from all of the roosters in the other pens – maybe you will get to hear him while you are here!

These chickens historically have been around a long time (not as long as the dinosaurs!) and are the oldest breed in America. They lay brown eggs nearly every day. Some of them are molting (losing feathers) and this is normal. They are still beautiful!

Pen 3:

Welcome to the pheasant pen!

There is one male named Ronin, and one female, named Rose.

Rose has been with us for a season and survived a predator attack. She was very brave.

Ronin came to us from Nebraska via the U.S Postal Service. He was a small thing at the time and very nervous. He paced all the time.

Believe it or not, he looked just like Rose when he first arrived.

Over the past few weeks to months, he has matured into one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! Like a butterfly!

What colors are the most bright and brilliant? Do you know why he is so brilliant with color?

Of course! To impress Rose.

He has developed that beautiful bengal-striped cape, and has started fanning this out to impress Rose.

He almost looks like an Egyptian pharaoh! (I wonder if Cleopatra in Pen 1 has noticed him!)

Soon he will start his mating dance! Maybe you will be lucky enough to see him dance!

Pen 4:

Those ugly chickens in Pen 4…oops, wait! Those aren’t ugly chickens!

Those are turkeys!

This pen holds a family: the father, mother, brother, and sister!

Their names are Ben, Betsy; the 2 children are George and Martha.

We think Betsy is somehow distantly related to the Leghorns in Pen 2 because she LOVES to eat!

And she doesn’t mind telling you she is STARVING!

Betsy is a dear soul and yes, loves food, but she also loves attention.

We think she has a crush on Farmer Kelly! She knocks everyone over in the pen (except Ben who she shoves aside) just to say hello to him when he arrives.

Ben likes to strut his stuff and puff up like a “blowfish”, especially when strangers are about. When he puffs his feathers they make a thumping noise.

You will probably hear it since you are a stranger visiting!

He is just naturally trying to protect and impress Betsy, his mate.

George and Martha were hatched this Spring and looked like baby chicks for a short while, then all of a sudden one morning I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.

What was a chick yesterday, was a turkey today!

They were flying all over the pen and enjoying themselves!

And they loved tucking under Betsy mama’s wings for an afternoon nap.

I bet Ben will gobble for you while you are here! You can’t miss it!

PEN 5:   WELCOME TO MY HOME!

I am in the section to your right with the little green house attached, and the small caged area around the house is our “run.”

I am a Creme Legbar hen.

I take care of the little green chicken house and have friends and family visit. Sometimes I have my best friend Enola over for tea. It is such great fun!

There are 9 of us in this section: 1 rooster and 8 hens!

All of the 4 Creme Legbar hens in the pen (including me!) lay eggs – they are such a beautiful blue color.

My sister Creme Legbar hens’ names are: Cinderella (Cindy), Jasmine, and Rapunzel (Zella). All of us have a nice tuft of pretty feathers on our heads! Mine is the biggest and that is how you can find me as we look very much alike!

In this section, there are also 4 Wyandotte hens and 1 Dorkin rooster. The Wyandottes are such beautiful big birds that almost look like eagles, and we are all excitedly waiting for them to lay chocolate- brown-colored eggs! My best friend Enola is one of them. Right now they are being stubborn!

The hens’ names are: Enola, Beauty, Talah (pronounced “tay-luh”) and Fala (pronounced

“fowl-uh”). They are named after a Native American Indian tribe from upstate New York.

The rooster’s name is Kurt. He has HUGE sharp spurs on his feet and has five toes on each foot just like his father! The spurs make him sound scary, but he is actually a very kind and gentle rooster and looks after all of the chickens in the farmyard. He loves reminding the other roosters that he is bigger and therefore in charge! (He’s LARGE and IN CHARGE!).

All of us girls think he crows the best too!

In the adjoining section are three beautiful roosters. And they know it!

Their names are: Inigo Mantoya (Inigo), Miracle Max (Max), and the Dread Pirate Roberts (Robbie)

The roosters love to crow and see who is the loudest. The hens just ignore them! But they are very beautiful to look at, and they know it by strutting their stuff!

Pen 6:  Across from me are more Icelandics. One section holds 2 Icelandic chickens: one rooster and one hen. The rooster is Thor, and the hen is Jane.

Jane lays cream-colored eggs nearly every day, and Thor likes to show off his beautiful colors.

Sometimes they get very excited and we are wondering what all the excitement is about! Then they get everyone in the chicken yard excited and there is a lot of noise!

The other section of cage 6 is a temporary home for 4 young Icelandic roosters. They are very handsome! They are about my age and are 4 of the 6 chicks born earlier this Spring. They love to run about and get into trouble. But Farmer Kelly makes them behave! They are learning to crow and sometimes it is funny to hear them try, but they are improving every week!

We need your help! These handsome boys do not yet have names – would you like to help us name them? The Leghorns thought we should name them Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, and Thing 4. Those SILLY Leghorns!

I bet you have some great name ideas for these roosters! Put your thinking caps on!

If you have a name idea,  write it on the slip of paper and drop it in the box, or you can let us know at the Wandering Poet Adventures booth under the pavilion.

We will draw the names on Halloween and post the 4 names the Roosters chose for themselves by posting them on the Wilson Family Farm website

(www.thewilsonfamilyfarm.com)  and the Wandering Poet Adventures website (scan the QR code  below) or http://www.wanderingpoetadventures.com).