A lovely friend of mine has a habit of ending up with chickens she can’t keep. Every so often I receive a call or email asking if we have a place for a few chickens.

Mostly her trouble is that she has an affinity for unique breeds, which have to be ordered from specific hatcheries. These places often have minimum orders that exceed what she can keep. This was the case with her most recent donation to our farm: three Polish Crested chickens.

She came for dinner a couple weeks ago carrying along a cage with these funny little creatures in it.

My husband saw them and laughed. First he asked how much hairspray I put in their feathers. When I told him they woke up like that, he suggested they would soon be requesting a mirror so they could check their hair.

Since we knew they came from a healthy source, I was more concerned with helping them integrate with the flock than I was worried about them spreading any sickness. I set up a large dog cage in the truck box where they could live for a week or so. That way they could get used to our birds and ours could get used to them without fear of any pecking.

I released them a few days ago and all seems well. The funny little ones haven’t quite gotten the hang of free ranging yet but they seem to be holding their own with the bigger birds in the coop.

When my niece and nephew were here Bailey even held one. It wasn’t terribly happy to be picked up but didn’t peck here either so that’s ok in my book.

I don’t know much about this breed. If you’ve had them, let me know your thoughts!