Just like the roses, you can’t be at Moss Mountain without falling in love with another one of P. Allen Smith’s passions–chickens. It was particularly easy for me to do since I had a pet Batam hen as a child.

Allen too, started early with his love of poultry when at the age of he 10 years he proudly showed a white silkie hen in the county fair and took home the blue ribbon!

Meet Amos…

Whether official or not, Amos is on the welcoming committee at Moss Mountain. All the Garden 2 Blog team fell in love with him and chased him around with our cameras. He must have felt like the paparazzi had converged.

Amos is a Buff Orpington … a gentle English breed from the 19th Century. See how they live at Moss Mountain.  Video.

Meet the Silkies…

Allen told us that Silkies are sort of the lap dogs of the chicken world.  C U T E!  The White Silkies on Moss Mountain live in this adorable Greek Revival Coop.

 

Thinking about adding chickens to your world?

For a list of breeds to consider, read on.

And, you’ll need a coop … so check this out.

Heritage Poultry Conservancy

A group that Allen is very involved with is the The Heritage Poultry Conversancy … an excellent organization dedicated to the preservation and support of all threatened breeds and strains of poultry through the encouragement of education stewardship and good breeding practices. Read more.

This Picture Says it All…

My good friend, artist and writer, Steve Asbell of the Rain Forest Garden had his first experience of holding a chicken at Moss Mountain. Caesar looks very confident in Steve’s arms wouldn’t you say? Love at first hold!

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