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Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Our hens would sell their souls for sunflower seeds.

yes, their very chicken souls

Labels: hens

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Give this photo a name and win this picture book, "Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken" - click over *here to see my review of it.

I have 1 copy of this book to give away to the best entry as judged by Sky
Runner-up will win a $10 Barnes & Nobles card.

entries will be judged by Sky. Contest ends Friday November 6th, 9 P.M. Pacific time.

Labels: book review, contests, hens

Two hawks are stalking our hens. I've learned to run outside and look to the trees when the girls start cackling in distress. I usually find a hawk, or sometimes two sitting in a tree. One is large, one is small. A male and his mate? More likely a parent and a young one.

Here is the small hawk sitting on the tree house above the hen's run.

a little too close for comfort there...

This morning I heard a rukus and hurried outside to see not one..not two..but surprise!
3 hawks!! A mom and dad, and a young one?
This pole is in the next backyard...

They are beautiful to watch.

Just leave the girls alone, okay?

Labels: hens

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Picture books about hens catch my eye, I have a soft-spot for that particular genre. This particular book, I took home with me. Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken is by Kate DiCamillo- the author of The tale of Despereux. It's a keeper, you have to take it home. To sum it up, Louise is a hen who longs for adventures and she has several in this book.
Chapter 1-Louise at sea...it says it all, really.

Here is an excerpt from the inside flap...

"She longed for adventure. So she left her home and ventured out into the wide world. The pleasures and perils she met proved plentiful:...Yet in the face of such daunting danger, our heroine...She was brave. She was fearless. She was feathered. She was a chicken. A not-so-chicken chicken. Her name? Louise."

Illustrations by Harry Bliss are a combination of comic and scenic..-wonderful.

Here are some of the quotable parts that just tickle me, and I quoth these often..as often as I can work them in...

"Louise stood alone on the deck of the ship and let the wind ruffle her feathers..."

and

"Her heart beat fast within her feathered breast." -that is my favorite quote, and it is repeated throughout the story, much to my delight...

..."And inside the henhouse, safe and warm, all the chickens slept the deep and dreamless and peaceful sleep of true adventurers."

sigh. Love it.

Labels: book review, hens, reading basket

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

A few of my readers can't see the whole "molt" thing. I thought I would post a few before and after photos of the girls... The above photo is of Annabelle in all her before- molt -glory. She is a very pretty hen, with shiny green highlights when the sun hits her just right. Kind of like one of those shiny green beetles. Her personality is for the bugs. she's the mean hen.
Here is Annabelle in all her molting glory. You just look at her and feel bad, KWIM? Sometimes we snicker...but mostly we feel bad, specially as the nights get colder.
Here is our Little Wing, who is a gentle soul. She's a lover, not a fighter- and she spends much of her time genuinely perplexed. If I throw a snack out for them, it takes her a minute to register that she might like to taste one..and by then the other hens have zoomed in and finished it off. She then walks around looking confused, complaining loudly about her lot.
Here is Little Wing in molt. She does have something to complain about, now.

"Girls, I feel a big draft, did I lose something?"

"Oh, it's my spots, I lost my spots..."

Labels: hens

Look what visited our yard the other day. It was actually a small hawk, no real threat for the hens- tho he made them very nervous. Their nervous behavior is what tipped me off to go outside and look. It was the size of a young crow...I could imagine it saying to itself,
"I'm a chicken hawk and I'm going to get me some chicken!" Just like this*
Do you see the beautiful stripes on his tail? I really like hawks, just not when they are bothering my hens.

Labels: hens

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Meg had an orchestra concert a few days ago, I snapped this photo of some of the young people getting ready to go on stage.

Meg is a little right of center.











Sky and the kids are preparing the garden for planting. The hens are trying to help. They have actually been officially banned from the garden for the rest of the season. Sky just put up new and improved bird netting. We are still waiting to see if it will truly be hen-proof.

The hens are waiting outside the net for stray worms to be thrown their way. The kids are happy to oblige.

I was happily puttering around inside, my philosophy is to be a "Jane Austin gardener".
I plan and order seeds and then let Sky know where I would like them. It's a mutually agreeable understanding.




But, ah-ha!! If you notice details, you will see this photo was taken a day later...after the official opening of our garden season. And yet, we have hens in the garden!

This was actually Sky's idea of a day spa for hens,
they were out in the front scratching around to their heart's content- and were chased by a big stray dog. Upset hens are, well, upset hens.
Sky has a soft side on occasion, the day spa for hens is proof. He wanted to cheer them up.

Labels: hens, Jen's world

Labels: hens, memes, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens

I've noticed several discussions in blogland lately about birds, and two specifically about chickens.

I thought a little cutting-edge, timely, topic- specific blogging was in order. I am all about the community, blogging friends. I do need to point out that the main ingredient in the bird bread is in fact, not bird, it is cornmeal. The bird bread is for the birds... so, ahem...here is my mother's famous bird bread-loved and raved over by the 5 or 6 parrots she kept, and cursed by my sister and I-because mom stopped cooking for us sometime in Jr. High and to come home to a house full of delicious baking smells and to have to pick out the crushed egg shells from it was just plain pathetic. But I digress, here is the recipe:

Labels: hens

Labels: hens