Monday, October 24, 2011

Coming Home to Roost....

The missing hen, Bibs, has turned up, and she is in one piece, but still no back feathers.  This morning, I let the hens out, and there she was.  She must have turned up yesterday late afternoon and slipped in to the coop with the other B-list girls, so wherever she had gone to hide, was a good place, and she kept her beak shut.
 I was unable to find her after searching, making clucking noises, qwa,qwa noises and spreading treats around.
This means I'm still on chicken therapy duty, trying to keep her from getting destroyed by her place in the social order.  She does have a few tricks of her own up her sleeve, I guess.
The leaves are 1/2 down, and I notice that everyone is a little more nervous about their aerial visibility, jumpy at the sound of a blue jay and hanging out under cars or decks more than usual for a fair weather day.
I'm thinking of putting together a small hoop set up to give them a protected place to be in the winter.  This isn't entirely benevolence, I want them to be able to get fresh air  without my life being about shoveling out square footage for chickens.
I'm more convinced than ever that the pretty hens I've acquired are menopausal, not that I care about eggs so much, but it does mean that they won't reproduce  in the spring.
 It could just be that they're taking an incredibly long time to feel that the accommodations are up to snuff and that it's safe for them to drop eggs.  It hardly  matters since Buck takes a look at them and says "Nothing doing".
They're pretty, though, and they still eat ticks.

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Glad to hear from you, but criticisms will be ignored. It's the beauty of the web. I will answer all friendly remarks. Buck handles the rest.