Meet the Staff
Get to know the feathery characters who rule the roost.
Welcome to Wattlesford – a small but very busy chicken village where something is always being built, moved, fixed, or rearranged, and morning chores almost always come with a surprise of some kind.
It’s noisy. The roosters tolerate exactly no one outside of their own flocks and make sure everyone knows it. The geese are loud about everything. The dog barks at squirrels. The squirrels don’t care. It’s a lot, but it’s also exactly what I wanted.
Come meet the residents.
The Production Managers
Levy is head rooster and takes the job seriously. He keeps his own flock in order, somehow manages to break up hen fights happening outside of his fenced area, and puts himself between his girls and anything that looks like trouble. He hates drills. Every night he waits for me to pick him up and put him on the roost. He used to be a snuggle bug before he had hens to look after – you can probably tell he’s a favourite.
Lucky is my husband Gary’s rooster and makes no secret of the fact that he prefers him. He’s protective of his hens to a fault and would do anything for them – which is impressive for a chicken who trips over his own feet on a regular basis.
Noel is permanently on high alert. Every shadow, every sound, every slight change in the wind is a potential emergency. He’s not wrong often enough to ignore but he’s definitely not right as often as he thinks he is.
Ted is Junior’s dad and an absolute doofus. He has maybe three brain cells and two of them are confused. He doesn’t crow – he screams like a pterodactyl. He also has a warning sound we’ve started calling “Tedding” that he makes repeatedly any time anything is even slightly out of place. Sweet as pie, loves to sit on my lap, wouldn’t hurt a fly – unless that fly happens to be another rooster.
Junior is Ted’s son and has inherited his dad’s personality if not his pterodactyl scream – Junior, thankfully, has a completely normal crow. Sweet, excitable, full of energy, and absolutely loaded with dance moves. So many dance moves.
Eleven “Levy”
Lucky
Theodore “Ted”
Noelan “Noel”
Ted Jr “Junior”
The Egg Department
The hens of Wattlesford are exactly what you’d want in a backyard flock – steady, healthy, and reliably filling the egg basket with every color from dark speckled brown to greenish blue to the occasional purple-bloomed surprise from Hazel.
Individually they all have their own personalities, their own flockmates, and their own little corners of the village. You can get to know them properly on the Wattlesford Collector Cards page (some hens are missing but I will resume making cards for the rest of the flock this fall/winter when things slow down a bit).
Ginger (Ted’s Flock)
Hazel (Levy’s Flock)
Lola (Ted’s Flock)
Juniper (Levy’s Flock)
Kleio (Junior’s Flock)
Edith “Edie” (Junior’s Flock)
Marigold (Levy’s Flock)
Roxanne “Roxy” (Lucky’s Flock)
Lexxie (Ted’s Flock)
Lucy “CeCe” (Lucky’s Flock)
Bryonny “Bree” (Junior’s Flock)
Nyx (Noel’s Flock)
Artemis “Artie” (Noel’s Flock)
Billie-Jean “Billie” (Lucky’s Flock)
Chica (Ted’s Flock)
Willow (Junior’s Flock)
Violet (Ted’s Flock)
Poseidon “Posie” (Noel’s Flock)
Matilda “Tilly” (Junior’s Flock)
Tansy (Junior’s Flock)
Sandra “Sandy” (Lucky’s Flock)
The Independent Contractors
Every bird in this section ended up here for their own reason – too small to live safely with the main flocks, or removed after an injury and never quite reintegrated. What they have in common is that they’ve all figured out a better arrangement for themselves, and honestly it suits them.
Our Free Rangers
Poppy and Nem are inseparable and have been since they found each other after both being removed from their original flocks. They have very intentionally opted out of village society and formed a two-bird alliance that nobody – including Baxter – has successfully broken into.
Ruby and Pippa are an unlikely pair – Ruby is half Brahma and built like a tank, Pippa is tiny and acts like she owns everything. They do very well together in their quiet corner of Wattlesford.
Laurel is the newest addition to this group and is currently in the process of convincing Ruby and Pippa that she belongs with them. Progress is being made.
Ruby
Pippa
Laurel
Poppy
Nemesis “Nem”
Beef, Nori & Pepper
Beef is the founding member of this little group – the bantam flock came together around her over time, one bird at a time, for reasons that are a bit of a long story. The short version is that bantams need bantam-sized company, and now there are three of them.
Nori is the friendliest of the three and will be the first to come see what you’re doing. Beef is close behind. Pepper took a while to come around but she got there eventually – mostly because I kept hauling her out of the nest box during her broody spells until she decided I wasn’t a threat.
They are small, they are loud, and at least one of them is broody at any given time. Usually all three.
Beef
Nori
Pepper
Chief Mischief Officers
Baxter is a fluffy menace who is deeply convinced that I’m his mate and conducts himself accordingly. He challenges the roosters through the fence, torments anyone who comes near his territory, and somehow makes it all look charming. He’s my shadow and I love him despite everything.
Sam never stops talking. She has a crush on Gary and on Renji, neither of whom asked for that. Every morning she attempts to fly. She has not been successful yet.
Sam
Baxter
Head of Security
Renji is a Beagle who decided somewhere along the way that protecting chickens made more sense than hunting them. He takes this self-appointed role very seriously, despite having absolutely no qualifications for it.
He is loud, goofy, and genuinely devoted to this place and everyone in it.
The squirrels remain unbothered by him.
