This is not a Chicken.

No, this isn't a chicken. It is a pheasant. We think.

When we hatched our eggs last spring we had Guinea eggs and Silkie chicken eggs. The Guineas take a week longer than the Silkies to hatch, but we had them all in the incubator at the same time. You could see which was which because the Guinea eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, and a darker tan color. So the day came for the chickens to hatch. One chicken pecked a tiny little hole in its shell and then waited. We could see its little beak poking out, but that was as far as it went. I kept vigil by the incubator for a very long time and still, no action. Finally I decided it was safe to leave for a little while, since it was dinner time and all. After dinner Mike went to check and reported that we'd had a hatch! I ran to the incubator (this was the most excitement I'd had in some time) and expected to see the already-peeped egg hatched. Nope. In fact, all the Silkie eggs looked rather intact, aside from that one little beak.

Then, way down in the corner, I saw it.

One of the Guinea eggs had hatched! A week early? That didn't make sense. "It must be a chicken," I thought. Once the little chick was all dry and fluffy I took it out and gave it a good look. This being my first experience with poultry (that didn't involve a kitchen utensil of any kind) I had no clue. But I could see that this little birdie's feet were not what the Silkie feet were supposed to look like. We just had to wait and see what it grew into.

It grew, but we still haven't figured out quite what it is--have never found a picture that matches so that we'd know for sure. And we'd like to know, so we could get more...because this is our favorite one. We named it Kramer.