Happy Fall!

The girls are doing GREAT! Monday (or was it Tuesday?) I noticed Janie (speckled hen, 2nd from left) acting really strange when I let them out for their morning run. She just wasn't herself. That night I came home and there were only 3 eggs... so on a hunch I pulled the side and checked the other nest box. There were 3 in there - including one twice the size of any egg I've seen so far. It is GINORMOUS! That might explain why Janie wasn't moving so fast that morning!

As it turned out, it was a double-yolker! And, quite yummy, I might add!

         

Big News!

Maybe it was putting fresh pine shavings in the nest box before work, or the additional 30 sq ft of space they have during the day... It could be that Geneva & Helen heard me talking about chicken soup, or I  guess that the girls wanted to give me an early birthday present (tomorrow is my birthday).Well, today, Sept 3rd,  was the first SIX EGG DAY!! Finally, they met their production quota! Woot! Woot!! Thank you Geneva, Helen, Gladys, Janie, Percy, and Dixie Chick.

Today on the Organic Chickens Yahoo Group listserv I  saw that there is a person who has Ameracaunas for sale near Asheville. Hmmm. that would be cool. Ameracaunas lay blue-green eggs. Maybe I should give her a call. What's another hen or two?

The Daily Coyote

The other night in Barnes & Noble, Janice came across a book titled "The Daily Coyote"  by Shreve Stockton. The subtitle calls it "a story of love, survival, and trust in the wilds of Wyoming". It's a non-fictional recount of how Stockton came to mother a coyote pup named Charlie, who still lives with her and the "farmily" three years later.  It's a great book, an easy read that you won't want to put down. Maybe I'm partial because I too love the wilds of Wyoming.

Her website is http://www.dailycoyote.net/ . For $5/month, you can subscribe to her site and get a daily email from her with a photo of Charlie. I signed up -the photos in the book are wonderful. For free you can get on her blog: http://honeyrockdawn.com/ and you can of course follow her on Twitter...

Enjoy!

The new addition

The girls seem happy with the new addition. It's a simple affair, not well decorated, but they like it just the same.  Lack of a mesh floor means they can dig and dust which they love to do!  More to come later; here are two quick photos.