Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What's in a Name?

I guess it comes from my background in planning events but I love a theme.  So when I was thinking of getting chickens, I was of course, looking for a theme to help me come up with names.  And The Spice Girls won out over the others.

My personal favorite was the "French Cuties" and the girls names would have been Sauté, Pâté, Poulet and Soufflé.  But others didn't see the humor in that like I did.  And I'm not sure it would have mattered.  Because you wind up coming up with nick names for them as their personalities develop.

Ginger quickly became called Love Bug.  And lately, we've combined that to Ginger Bug.  She's the most curious and affectionate of the girls.  She comes right up to me.  Doesn't object to being picked up or held and LOVES to stand on my shoulder and take in her world from a birds eye view.  I'd be tempted to get more Buff Orpington's like Ginger down the road.  No guarantee that they will all be so affectionate.  But one can hope.  She's also my master spider eater.

Coco quickly morphed into Coco Puff because she was this black fuzz ball with a white fuzzy rump and oh, so cute.  But she's grown up to be very independent.  Speaks her mind and never misses an opportunity to tell me exactly how she sees things.  So we've started calling her Coco Nogales, who is a character in a book Mike is currently reading called The Wave by Susan Casey.  Coco Nogales is this independently tough boy (even though Coco is a girl) who aspires to be a great surfer.  I think Coco too aspires to be more than a hen.  I'm just not sure what.

Pumpkin is sometimes referred to as Punkin, Pumpkin Pie (aka: Pumpkin Pie Spice) and lately, The Spaz.  We've established that she doesn't see well.  And lately, she's been looking like she wants to attack me.  She looks up at me and turns her head from side to side as she crouches down like she's ready to launch at me.  Still hates being picked up and is flighty.  Supposedly, this is a "teenager" thing and she should mellow out when she begins to lay.

I've already started to think about what hens I'd like to add to my flock to replace Poppy and possible names as Poppy is clearly retired at this point.  Mike likes Sprinkles and Twinkles.  Sprinkles would work as I do have sprinkles in my spice cabinet.  But Twinkles?  I like Ichimi, which are Japanese pepper flakes.  You find them on the tables at sushi restaurants.  Honey, Sesame and Nutmeg would be other good ones and also stay in our theme.

Any other suggestions?  If color matters, I'm thinking I'll get a Barred Rocks which is a black and white speckled hen and a Blue Orpington which is really more of a slate gray, with a tinge of lavender, than blue.  And I kind of want to stay inside the Spice Girls theme.  But as you can see from my names above, I use that loosely.

2 comments:

  1. Hm, I thought of Nutmeg, too! Howsabout Lavender if it's an Orpington? Pepper for a Barred Rocks. I'll think of more, just let me take a wander to my spice cabinet (not to be confused with The Spice Cabinet!).

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  2. Yea, I thought of Lavender. Especially, for a Blue Orpington which is kind of that deep Lavender color.

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