More Birds of Oregon

Here are the main birds I saw in Oregon, aside from the House Sparrows (thanks for the ID, Randy!).  These are a few of my sister's hens, happily pecking away in the chicken coop.  Among them are Black Sex-Links and Rhodesian Reds (I can't remember the name of the white one).  Sex-Links are so-named because they can be sexed upon hatching; usually by color, but sometimes by feather development.  They are a cross between two types of chickens and are hardier and more productive than their parents' respective breeds.

All of Jill's hens are thriving and lay lovely eggs of green, brown, and white...Jill knows which came from which.  The yolks are much yellower and plumper than those of store-bought, factory-farmed eggs.  There really is nothing like eating eggs straight from the chicken's butt!  To say nothing of avoiding participating in the misery that hens in factory farms endure (stuffed into battery cages in a dark building with their beaks cut off so that they don't peck each other out of extreme boredom and frustration)...by contrast, Jill's hens can choose to stay in the coop with the heat lamp, peck out in the yard, or venture into the scrub brush, looking for bugs and worms.

This is awful.

So my message to eaters of eggs of chickens...don't buy those little orbs of misery...find an egg supplier that treats the hens well.  We have to treat all of our fellow bird-creatures right!