It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a ROCKET!

The summer was brutal on the flock. Sweet Janie, my Dominique, died from heat stroke in August. The other girls have pretty much stopped laying. Several are molting....

When Omelet (baby Americauna) died, I got a replacement pullet to keep Dora company. I named her Rocket. She was just too wild and fast! A Pearl White Leghorn that could put a roadrunner to shame (in fact, you could have made a cartoon out of me trying to catch her).

Rocket turning baby snake into chicken.

Last weekend I bent down over her, and instead of running she huddled to the ground! That's a sign that she's a hen, about to lay... and sure enough, I found a small white egg Thursday evening. Followed by another yesterday. No doubt Rocket is laying. Dora, well she's either Sweet Dora or Dumb Dora, depending on how you look at it. She still wants to roost in trees (Rocket - now a lady - follows the other girls in at night), but she follows Rocket around all day long. Quite a pair!

Summer Time - the heat is on!

Here in Chucktown it's been in the 90s every day for weeks with little to no rain. The Big Girls have cut egg production down to 2 eggs/day. It's just too hot. 

Dora and Rocket - the "babies" have been moved out to the coop, to an apartment adjacent to the big girls. Dora  - my surviving Ameracauna / Aracauna - is a sweetie, but very timid. She looks more like a small hawk than a hen. Rocket is, well, fast. She's wild. Doesn't like to be held, and is like white lightning. Fortunately she finds her way back to the coop. There have been a couple of times when the two groups have bumped into each other, and fortunately the big girls haven't decided to enforce the brutality of the pecking order that did in poor Omelet...

Last weekend Janice & I went to the mountains to relax and put Barkley's ashes into the Davidson River at his favorite spot... We paid a visit to Rich of EarthPerks in Rutherfordton to get organic feed for the girls. Rich has a neat place, with a big sunflower patch out front, and a unique moveable henhouse: a converted Winnebago camper he calls the "Hen-a-bago"! If you need organic supplies and are in the Columbus/Tryon/Rutherfordton area, please give Rich a visit.

The Hen-A-Bago at EarthPerks!

Sunflowers always brighten the day!

At the Upper Falls of the East Fork of the Little Tenn, Graveyard Fields

Easter Babies!

It was Easter Sunday afternoon. Janice & I were trying to nap away the effects of a Mimosa induced catatonic state (courtesy of the Fat Hen Restaurant) when the phone rang. It was Bob Richey. The chicks were in - all 90 of them. The Post Office works on Easter...

We received a phone call a few hours later. Bob needed help - please come get my share (54 babies). Because of the way they were packed and sorted, he couldn't feed and water them.

So... Janice & I made phone calls to prospective parents, and made the trip to Jedburg where we were greeted by the Richey family and 90 peeping day old baby chicks!

The chicks were sorted into 3 different bins. We arranged to meet one of our 4-H leaders, May Jones, on the way back. May has a farm in Manning and had ordered 25 little Rainbow Layers; one of the bins was her order. That was a huge load off.  With a plastic tote and large cardboard box, we were able to get the others situated, fed, watered, and heat lamps on...

The next day, all the kids came to get their babies. I forgot what that kind of excitement can be like! They were so cute. By the end of the day, I was down to 2 babies - mine. Two cute little Americauna chicks. Soon to be named.... Omelet and Dora.

The Girls First Birthday!

Yes, it's true. The girls are a year old! We celebrated with mealworms and organic yogurt, and blew bubbles, which they certainly didn't understand.

So.... for those of you who may have missed the blog, I've been busy organizing a new 4-H Club for my area. We have 9 kids so far and growing, and we've been invited to have a presence at Plantasia in late April. Speaking of which, our chick order will arrive about the same time, so we may have some babies as well as the girls.

And yes, we are adding to the flock! I ordered a few Ameracauna pullets, so starting in the fall we should have blue-green eggs to go with our nutritious, free range brown eggs!