Update on Chicken World
The male guinea, Fred, has come up lame. This is probably a good thing, because it makes him less of a target for Anthony, who attacked and beat up poor Floyd pretty badly earlier this week. Pretty Boy Floyd (see icon) is not looking so pretty these days, but he's still as bold as ever, announcing his arrival and departure every morning and evening with lots of crowing. In all probability, it was Anthony who injured Fred, too, but now he doesn't seem to perceive Fred as a threat, so Fred even gets to sleep in the hen house.
Everyone is sleeping in the hen house now, incidentally, except Auntie One who still prefers the cedar tree. She has been going into the house when we wrangle her into it on nights when we know the weather will be especially bad. She slept in the tree the night before last when a series of thunderstorms came through, and we heard her buck-wheating in the midst of the storm. It sounded like a rather pissed-off buck-wheat to me, and I could easily imagine her cussing at the weather. At least it wasn't cold, so we weren't too worried about her health.
Auntie One and Fred have bonded admirably. Apparently, guineas mate for life, and, while Auntie seemed pretty dubious about Fred when he first arrived, it's now quite heartwarming to see how she dotes over him as he tries to hobble around with his injured leg. Before the injury, she tried to teach him how to roost in the tree with her, and we spent an amusing few evenings watching him try to work up the nerve to fly into the tree. He did make into the lower branches a couple of times, but he never did figure out the trick of going any higher. After he got hurt, he moved into the hen house, where he's been roosting ever since.
We're getting eggs! Lots of eggs. More than we can eat, actually. Yesterday was a record four, but we've consistently been getting two or three a day. One of these days I'll post a picture of a store-bought egg yolk next to the egg yolk of one of our chicken eggs. I didn't think there would really be much of a difference, but the yolks of our eggs are a much deeper orange, and I swear they taste better, too.
One of our hens has been laying double yolks. We think it is Red, who I bought with Fred, because Red's former owner mentioned that one of her hens was laying double yolks, but she didn't know which one. I got Red because Kate wanted a Rhode Island Red, but she was the smallest of the hens, so I didn't think she would be the one laying the double yolks. Imagine my surprise when I cracked the first egg with the double yolk! Kate and I were high-fiving in the kitchen.
Okay, yes, we're dorks.
Dad has been painting chicken faces and working on some rough sketches based on the storyboards that Mat and I put together, so it looks like he really is going to do the illustrations for the book. Monday we're getting together to go over the storyline in detail.
I love my chickens. Some people have coffee in the morning. I get to feed my birds. Life is currently good in chicken world.
Everyone is sleeping in the hen house now, incidentally, except Auntie One who still prefers the cedar tree. She has been going into the house when we wrangle her into it on nights when we know the weather will be especially bad. She slept in the tree the night before last when a series of thunderstorms came through, and we heard her buck-wheating in the midst of the storm. It sounded like a rather pissed-off buck-wheat to me, and I could easily imagine her cussing at the weather. At least it wasn't cold, so we weren't too worried about her health.
Auntie One and Fred have bonded admirably. Apparently, guineas mate for life, and, while Auntie seemed pretty dubious about Fred when he first arrived, it's now quite heartwarming to see how she dotes over him as he tries to hobble around with his injured leg. Before the injury, she tried to teach him how to roost in the tree with her, and we spent an amusing few evenings watching him try to work up the nerve to fly into the tree. He did make into the lower branches a couple of times, but he never did figure out the trick of going any higher. After he got hurt, he moved into the hen house, where he's been roosting ever since.
We're getting eggs! Lots of eggs. More than we can eat, actually. Yesterday was a record four, but we've consistently been getting two or three a day. One of these days I'll post a picture of a store-bought egg yolk next to the egg yolk of one of our chicken eggs. I didn't think there would really be much of a difference, but the yolks of our eggs are a much deeper orange, and I swear they taste better, too.
One of our hens has been laying double yolks. We think it is Red, who I bought with Fred, because Red's former owner mentioned that one of her hens was laying double yolks, but she didn't know which one. I got Red because Kate wanted a Rhode Island Red, but she was the smallest of the hens, so I didn't think she would be the one laying the double yolks. Imagine my surprise when I cracked the first egg with the double yolk! Kate and I were high-fiving in the kitchen.
Okay, yes, we're dorks.
Dad has been painting chicken faces and working on some rough sketches based on the storyboards that Mat and I put together, so it looks like he really is going to do the illustrations for the book. Monday we're getting together to go over the storyline in detail.
I love my chickens. Some people have coffee in the morning. I get to feed my birds. Life is currently good in chicken world.