Welcome to the Chicken Swap

Exotic
Patty Evans, left, a dentist, with her black-and-white Dominique rooster, stands with Gretchen Bare, right, an artist from Hollywood, Md., who specializes in breeding Polish and silkie roosters. A buff-laced frizzled bantam Polish rooster sits on Bare's shoulder. With its curly feathers, this type of bird is generally regarded as an ornamental breed — so ornamental, Bare says, that Rembrandt saw fit to include a few in his paintings.

• Postcard from New Tripoli