Introducing Miss Betty~

This is another of my Barred Cornish Rocks,  Miss Betty Bam Ba Lam... but don't let this sweet face fool you!

She is a very vocal girl, with a high pitched voice.  In fact her voice is the easiest way to indentify her when she is hanging out with her Sister, Opal, as they are very similar looking.  My Girl's all know their names, and Betty always answers when I ask, "Is that you, Betty?" 

Betty has always been the smallest of my hens.  You can see in this shot how much smaller she is compared to Harriette.  She was also the first girl to develop her lovely red comb and wattles, and start laying beautiful brown eggs.  Betty is also extremely fiesty!  She takes crap from no one.  Chickens go through a stage when they are growing up, where they challenge each other to size contests.  I believe it's part of the process of arranging the all important pecking order.  Size is obviously important, because they will stand chest to chest, and stretch up as tall as they can, while fluffing their feathers out, trying to look as big as possible.  The "loser" will back down first... usually.  Not my Betty, though.  One day I was watching them, when Isabelle, my Rhode Island Red who eventually took the role of head hen, challenged little Betty.  They did the traditional chest to chest stretch and fluff, which Isabelle easily won.  But Betty didn't meekly stand down and walk away.  No, instead my scrappy little hen reached out and snatched a mouthful of feathers from Isabelle's puffed up breast and glared defiantly at the bigger bird, those plucked feathers still in her beak!  Isabelle looked at her in disbelief and stomped away in a huff.  Nobody messes with little Miss Betty!