The head of the henhouse

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  Howdy! Welcome to Gypsy Hen!  I am Jessica, and Gypsy Hen is my passion.  Although I have enjoyed many different aspects of the poultry hobby, my main focus is on Exhibition Poultry. I breed what I show, and show what I breed. I am always striving to learn and grow, while making each new generation of birds, better than their predecessors. 

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, in Washington State, as a little girl, one of my regular chores was to clean the chicken coop.  Although at the time I never thought the cleaning part was very fun, I did find great joy in spending time with our birds. For the past 10 years, I have raised various different breeds of chickens, and in the last several years, have narrowed my focus down to just a few breeds and their varieties.  I found that frizzles, and rare & patterned varieties are what I enjoy working with the most. 

Through my years, I have worked for several large-scale commercial poultry farms, worked in a veterinary clinic, owned a retail pet store, and raised cattle.  I am also a certified Pullorum Typhoid (PT) tester for the state of Kansas.  For the past 20+ years, I have made my career as an OTR Truck Driver, hauling Cattle and Feed-Ingredients all over the USA.

In the summer of 2023, I purchased Gypsy Hen and combined the GH birds, with the birds I was already working with previously, as Chicken Tippin Ranch. I learned that too much of a good thing could be a bad thing, so I went through and decided which breeds were most important to me, and narrowed my focus down to just those. They always say, “Less is more!”

Even though exhibition is my primary focus, I do feel that sharing is important. Whether it’s to help someone get started, to fix an issue someone is working through, to help someone rebuild after a loss or when life throws curveballs, or to simply give others the opportunity to enjoy some of the most striking and unusual varieties, sharing is meaningful to me. Please keep in mind though, I am not a hatchery, and my goal isn’t to churn out as many birds as I can day in and day out. I’m methodical, calculated, dedicated, and very selective in my breeding practices. Although I know rare and patterned varieties don’t place as well at shows as black or white varieties, I do feel they need to be out there and be seen, even if all I get for my hard work is to overhear someone say, “Wow, that’s pretty!” 

I am more of a behind the scenes type of person, but every egg is personal to me.  Whether it's in my incubator or yours, that little chick that hatches will always be dear to my heart, and so are all of the new friends I meet along the way.  I love helping new people start and grow in the poultry world, watching chicks blossom into beautiful birds, studying genetics, and of course, reading the coop cards at the shows after the judges have completed their evaluations.

Thanks for stopping by my website and thank you for taking a little bit of your time to enjoy some of my beautiful birds.