Guinea count

For the past 7 or 8 months we have had a small roving band of chickens which included our lone guinea male.  He tagged along with the Henny Penny and the two roosters for part of the day, but always ended up by himself calling inconsolably for his mate, who was dragged off early last [...]

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More Henny Penny

Our little brown chicken girl, Henny Penny, is still on the loose and still palling around with the two bad roo boys (I guess it’s the “good girl/bad boy attraction” here!).  They seem to have gotten through the winter pretty well, roosting in the milking greenhouse and just generally grazing the compost piles as well [...]

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Weather and wool

And the weekend is nearly over.  Big sigh!  We had a snow day on Friday and it became a most relaxing 3 days.  As far as the goats go, things seem ok.  Everyone is looking good, although the weather has been very uncooperative.  The rain we had on Friday got rid of most of the [...]

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Obit for a small friend

It sounds worse than it really is, although I have spent so much time thinking about this little friend of mine that I really do feel the need to mark her passing. Her name was Miss Marple.  She has kept me company since late last winter in the milking greenhouse.  Morning and evening, she came [...]

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When good chickens go bad

Henny Penny has really gone around the twist.  Since the bad weather came upon us this past Wednesday, she has decided that her preferred roosting spot is not outside, but inside our milking greenhouse (which isn’t as weatherproof as it once was).  And not just in the greenhouse, but on the upper castle portion of [...]

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In which a mystery is solved

One of the great mysteries of life is this:  where does Henny Penny lay her eggs when she is not in the coop?  Here. Outside one of the greenhouses, under the tall weeds.  (Our friend Bruce stumbled upon the nest when his dog ran after Henny Penny this morning). I guess I can’t blame her.  [...]

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2011 Roasters land

This morning our 50 roasting chickens arrived at the post office.  We have been madly trying to get their little spot ready for the big day, in the back of one of our greenhouses.  (Hot working in those greenhouses at this time of year is an understatement!).  At 7:30 exactly, our post mistress gave us [...]

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All chickened out

Day two of roaster chickens is over.  I took the second group of birds to the butcher yesterday.  John had a day of work, but he helped me get them crated so I didn’t have to kill myself before I even got out of the driveway!  It was a much more easy-going day than our [...]

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Chicken hut, 101

Roaster chickens are on the schedule to be moved down to the pasture any moment now :*)  The only thing that had put a kink in the works up until now was that we didn’t have a portable shelter put together for them yet.  Life being what it is, we had some of the materials, [...]

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Animal update

We have had a lot of inquiries about how some of the animals are coming along, especially Banjo the bottle goat.  He is now over a month old and doing very well.  He is down to two bottles/day, but he is eating up a storm at the hay feeder.  I kept offering him that late [...]

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